USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 4
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Nolan's men were tried at Chihuahua by the Spanish authorities, as invaders. Don Juan Jose Ruiz de Bustamente was the prosecuting attorney for the government, and Don Pedro Ramos de Verea, counsel for the defendants. The judge, Don Pedro Galindo de Navarro, on the 23d day of January, 1804, ordered the release of the prisoners; but as General Nemesis Salcedo, commanding the provinces, objected, they were detained. The proceedings were sent to the King of Spain, and he, by a royal decree, dated at El Pardo, Feb- ruary 23, 1807, ordered the authorities to hang one out of five of the prisoners and condemn the others to ten years' hard labor.
Simon McCoy, Stephen Richards and Thomas House, who were not within the intrenchment and offered no resistance at the time of the attack, were not to draw lots. Those who
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were to draw lots were: Luciano Garcia, Jonah Walters, Solomon Cooley, Ellis P. Bean, Joseph Reed, William Danlin, Chas. King, Joseph Pierce, Ephraim Blackburn and David Fero.
Judge Galindo's removal from office was decreed but death anticipated the royal mandate and he slept peacefully with his fathers.
When the King issued his decree to have one out of every five of Nolan's men executed, he was under the impression that the ten prisoners, above enumerated, were alive; but as one of them (Joseph Pierce) had died, the new judge decided that only one of the nine remaining should suffer the penalty of death, and this legal opinion was approved by General Salcedo.
CHAPTER V. (TRANSLATION. )
The fate of Nolan's comrades - An outline of the remarkable career of Ellis P. Bean.
" In the town of Chihuahua, on the 9th day of the month of November, 1807, in compliance with the decree of his majesty the King of Spain, transmitted to the commanding General of these provinces with a royal order of the 23d of February of said year and, Don Antonio Garcia de Tejado, Adjutant In- spector of the Internal Provinces of New Spain, proceeding to the barracks of said town, together with Don Pedro Ramos de Verea, counsel for the foreigners who invaded the country nnder Philip Nolan, and Don Juan Jose Diaz de Bustamente, prosecuting attorney, and having caused the nine prisoners confined in said barracks to assemble in a room in order to draw lots, so that one of them might be executed, after they knelt, I read the decree of his majesty the king.
" The prisoners, having heard the same, agreed to throw dice and that the oldest of them should throw first, and that the one who threw the smallest number should be hanged.
This agreement being made, a drum, a crystal tumbler and two dice were brought, and I ordered the prisoners to kneel before the drum and be blindfolded.
Ephraim Blackburn, being the oldest among the prisoners, first took the glass. The throwing was as follows :-
Ephriam Blackburn, 3 and 1, making 4; Luciano Garcia, 3 and 4, making 7; Joseph Reed, 6 and 5, making 11; David Fero, 5 and 3, making 8; Solomon Cooley, 6 and 5, making 11; Jonah Walters, 6 and 1 making 7; Charles King, 4 and 3, making 7; Ellis P. Bean, 4 and 1, making 5; William Dan- lin, 5 and 2, making 7."
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Blackburn, after baptism by a priest, was hanged on the Plaza de los Urangos, November the 11th, 1807."
Of what befell the eight remaining prisoners we have no record save in the autobiography of Ellis P. Bean, a collec- tion of imperfect notes jotted down by him while temporarily sojourning on Red River, near Natchitoches, in 1817, and left among his kindred. The author of this work, in 1846, had possession for some time of this manuscript, the same from which Yoakum afterward wrote his sketch of Bean. Bean's illiteracy, as regards the English language, rendered the nar- rative, as prepared by him, difficult to understand. In Span- ish he was far more proficient, and subsequent association with Americans, both in Mexico and Texas, greatly improved his knowledge of English.
Early in 1807, prior to this episode in Chihuahua, Capt. Zebulon M. Pike, of the United States army (while held in duress during his exploring expedition ), met in Santa Fe Solomon Cooley (written by him Colly), one of the nine prisoners before named; and, in Chihuahua, David Fero, another of the number, who had been an ensign under Pike's father. He also found at Chihuahua Nolan's negro man Cæsar (not held as a prisoner ) who was very useful to him.
In connection with the translations made by Mr. Quintero, he says :-
" The diary kept by Nolan and many of his letters, which are in my possession, show conclusively that he was not only a gallant and intelligent gentleman, but an accomplished scholar. He was thoroughly acquainted with astronomy and geography. He made the first map of Texas, which he presented to the Baron de Carondelet, on returning from his first trip to Texas, in 1797."
In here closing the history of Nolan's enterprise, a brief outline of the career of Bean, although somewhat a digres- sion, will be interesting to the reader. Bean died in 1846, forty-six years after Nolan set forth from Natchez on his last
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expedition. Portions of Bean's narrative savor of the improb- able, not to say the marvelous. More particularly is this true when we scrutinize the very full and unquestioned recital of the military operations of the patriot General Morelos, under whom Bean served until his departure for the United States, in 1814, made by William D. Robinson, in his history of the Mexican revolution, from 1810 to 1816-17, and in which the name of Bean does not appear. This history in nowise, however, contradicts Bean's statements as to his hav- ing rendered important services, but does indicate that he had not won the distinction claimed.
That an unlettered back-woods boy of twenty-two, with no means of perfecting his education from the time of his capture to the commencement of his career as a Mexican soldier, should understand how to make hats, and be able to teach the Mexicans how to manufacture gunpowder, blast rocks, drill soldiers, etc., seems to be an overdraft on credulity. There is enough in Bean's narrative, which may be accepted as true history, to render it deeply interesting to those who would be familiar with the events that marked the overthrow of des- potism in Mexico and the achievement of liberty for Mexico and Spanish America. With these precautionary suggestions, a summary of Bean's narrative is here submitted.
The command surrendered on the 22nd of March, 1801, un- der an agreement that it should be escorted to the frontier and allowed to return to the United States. On their part, the prisoners promised to never enter Texas again. They were taken to Nacogdoches. After remaining about a month in that place, they were manacled and marched to San Antonio and there imprisoned for three months. They were then con- ducted to San Luis Potosi, where they spent sixteen months in prison. During that period Bean and Charles King made shoes and earned enough money to buy clothing. The prison- ers were taken to Chihuahua and either imprisoned or kept under surveillance for about five years; in fact, until the order
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came under which the dice were thrown and Blackburn executed, viz., the 11th of November, 1807, six years, seven months and twenty days after their capture.
The survivors were next marched to the city of Mexico, where, for some reason, they hoped to be released ; but in- stead, they were marched to Acapulco, on the Pacific, and im- prisoned. Here Bean was separated from his companions and of their fate we know little more.
The unfortunate Americans, in all probabilty, arrived at , Acapulco in the spring of 1808. Bean, condemned to solitary confinement, and subsisting on a scanty allowance of beef, bread and water, amused himself with the companionship of a white lizard, that he tamed and fed with flies.
He feigned sickness to get into the hospital, hoping for an agreeable change of fare. There, however, in addition to his irons, his legs were put into the stocks, and his quantum of meat reduced to a chicken's head. An angry answer being returned to his complaints by the friar who brought him this scanty allowance, Bean at once aimed a blow at the head of the reverend father and inflicted a painful wound. For this assault upon the holy man, Bean's head was placed in the stocks and he was kept with head and limbs thus pinioned for fifteen days. Recovering from a real fever, he was glad to learn that he was to return to his cell. On the way to his old place of confinement he escaped from the guards and made his way to the woods, where he filed off his irons with a piece of steel used by him in striking fire.
At night he returned to Acapulco to procure provisions, and met an English sailor. It was agreed between them that Bean should go on board a vessel and lie concealed in a water cask. He succeeded in getting aboard the ship, but before it set sail was betrayed by the Portuguese cook and taken back to his cell, where he spent further eighteen months in solitary confinement.
One day, overhearing a conversation between a party of
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officers about blasting rock, and professing to be an expert in this work, he offered his services, which were accepted, and an opportunity offering soon after, again made his escape. Wending his way north along the coast, he was retaken, brought back and chained to a gigantic mulatto criminal, who was instructed to chastise him whenever he needed it. The mulatto exhibiting a belligerent spirit, Bean knocked him down and gave him a sound beating. The mulatto pleaded to be released from his dangerous companion, although by obtaining such release he would forfeit the remission of one year of his sentence. They were accordingly separated, much to the mulatto's delight and Bean's secret satisfaction. Bean was sent back to his cell and the companionship of his lizard. During his imprisonment in Acapulco the Mexican revolution against Spain broke out in all its fury, and the prisons were emptied to recruit the Spanish army. He alone was left in his dungeon. He assured an officer that he would gladly fight for the King if afforded an opportunity. He was thereupon released and a gun and sabre given him. He was loyal for about two weeks, when an opportunity offering, as he had intended it should, he joined the repub- lican forces under Morelos, taking a large number of the royalist soldiers and munitions of war with him. In fact, according to his account, he planned the affair with Morelos and marched with his men into a preconcerted trap. Such was the confidence in him which his valuable ser- vices in due time inspired, that Morelos, on leaving Acapulco with the main body of the army, placed him in command of the forces besieging that place. About the close of that year (1812), Bean had the satisfaction of taking the town and its garrison by force of arms and making a prisoner of the Gov- ernor of the castle who had been his master in captivity. We find this singular career continued until the latter part of 1814, when he was dispatched by General Morelos on a mis- sion to the United States, to procure aid for the patriot cause
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in Mexico. At the port of Nautla, on the gulf coast above Vera Cruz, he found one of Lafitte's vessels, Captain Dom- inic, master. He informed Dominic of his mission and was taken aboard and landed on the island of Barrataria, below New Orleans, where he met Lafitte, who conducted him, by a short route, to New Orleans. There he found General Jackson, who, being an old friend of his family, invited him to share in the glories of the 8th of January. He embraced the offer and fought by. the side of Lafitte with his accus- tomed gallantry. After the battle of New Orleans Lafitte furnished him transportation to Nautla for himself and the munitions of war procured for the patriot army.
We cannot follow Bean in his subsequent career to the close of the Mexican revolution, in 1821; but it may be said that during that time he made two other trips to the United States, in one of which he brought to this country to be educated, the illegitimate son of the patriot priest and martyr, General Morelos, Juan N. Almonte. Bean was retained as an officer in the Mexican army, under the Republic, and, as will be seen elsewhere, was for a time after the Americans settled in Texas in command at Nacogdoches, with an agency among the Indians. He married Senorita Anna Gorthas, owner of the rich hacienda of Banderillas, near Jalapa, and lived happily with her until his death, October 3, 1846.
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CHAPTER VI.
Explorations of Capt. Zebulon M. Pike - Wilkinson and Cordero -The country between the Sabine and the Arroyo Honda declared neutrae ground pending the settlement of the question of Boundary - Charges against Wilkinson - Fears excited by Aaron Burr's Expedition.
The adventures of Captain Zebulon M. Pike helped to favor- ably direct the attention of the people of the United States to Texas, prior to that time virtually a terra incognita. Be- tween April and August, 1805, he was employed by President Jefferson to explore the sources of the Mississippi. After executing this commission, he, in July, 1806, acting under orders from General Wilkinson, proceeded to explore the Arkansas and Red rivers and established what friendly rela- tions he could with the Comanche Indians. The appointment of Pike for this purpose aroused the suspicions of Spanish residents in St. Louis, and they at once corresponded with the commander at Nacogdoches. He forwarded their com- munications to Governor Cordero at San Antonio. Cordero promptly notified the government at Coahuila, and a formid- able expedition under command of Fecundo Malagres, con- sisting of 100 dragoons of the regular army and 500 mounted militia, supplied with pack animals and rations for six months, was immediately fitted out to intercept Pike. The only result was a march of 600 miles along Red River, the establishment of friendly relations with the Indians along their route, and the return of the troops in October, without finding the object of their search. Captain Pike, separated from his company, with twenty-three men, missed his route and was found by Mexican troops near the Rio Grande, was captured and conducted to Santa Fe. Here he was deprived of his
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papers and sent to General Salcedo at Chihuahua, from whence after a short detention, he was escorted back to Natchitoches. He afterwards published a journal of his adventures with copious descriptive notes. In view of the difficul- ties of his situation it is remarkable that he should have observed and faithfully recorded so much concerning the Mexican people of all stations, the various phases of Mexican politics and the gayeties of social life in San Antonio and Nacogdoches - where, he said, the families of the govern- ment officials, civil and military, successfully imitated fashion- able life in Mexico. In Nacogdoches (population about 700), in addition to the military, he found Americans of wealth and polish, who, braving proscription, had established ranches on the Angelina and Trinity rivers. In San Antonio, from the Governor's levee down to gatherings of the half-breed Indians, the pleasures of the dance and social life occupied, he said, a large part of the time of the people.
In October, 1806, from 1,000 to 1,500 Spanish troops ar- rived in Texas from the Provinces of Nuevo Leon and New Santander, under command of Colonel Don Simon de Herrera and the Governor of Coahuila, Manuel Salcedo. These were distributed between Nacogdoches, Adaes (the old fort aban- doned in 1763 to be rebuilt ), and the crossing of the Atasco- sita, Matagorda Bay and the Trinity, on which several ranches had been established. The last was made a depot of supplies for the army. Ensign Gonzales held the forces at Adaes, to which place Captain Turner, from Natchitoches, advanced and demanded Gonzales' immediate withdrawal to the other side of the Sabine. This was promised, but the next day, Captain Turner, finding the troops not withdrawn, required and ob- tained a written pledge from Gonzales for their withdrawal within six days. Spanish troops were arriving in the mean- time, and concentrating on the right bank of the Sabine. Early in the spring of 1806, the small garrison at Natchitoches had received reinforcements from Fort Adams, of three com-
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panies of infantry under Lieutenant Kingsbury, with four pieces of artillery.
In July, General Herrera and Cordero, Governor of Texas, with about 1,300 troops, arrived in the vicinity of the Sabine, which they crossed on the 1st of August, whereupon Governor Claiborne called out the Louisiana State militia, under Gen- eral Wilkinson, who, with troops from New Orleans, rendez- voused at Natchitoches. Colonel Cushing addressed an official letter to Cordero, announcing their arrival and demanding the return without delay of the whole Spanish force to the west bank of the Sabine. Commanders on both sides had been instructed to avoid a collision of arms, if an amicable adjustment of difficulties could be reached. Cordero re- crossed the Sabine, where Wilkinson soon afterwards con- fronted him. They held a consultation, the secrets of which have never been made public. It resulted, however, in a pledge to withdraw the Spanish troops to Nacogdoches; and, in pursuance of an order to that effect, the next morning, November 6, 1806, the United States troops evacuated their camp and returned to Natchitoches, under command of Colonel Cushing. The two armies thus separated, and the country between the Sabine and the Arroyo Honda was, by mutual agreement, declared neutral ground, to so continue while negotiations between Spain and the United States for the settlement of the question of boundary were pending.
Remote as the supposed reason for this sudden peace appears, no other was given than that it was brought about by fears awakened by the threatened conspiracy of Aaron Burr, in which the fate of Texas was supposed to be involved. It was charged that Wilkinson so far succeeded in alarming Herrera that he not only promised to remove his troops, so that Wilkinson could hasten with his forces to put New Orleans in a state of defense against this so-called conspiracy, but that a private errand of Wilkinson's aid-de-camp, Walter Burling, to the city of Mexico, was undertaken for the pur-
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pose of procuring a large sum of money promised Wilkinson for the defense of Texas, in case of an invasion by Burr. It was also charged that Herrera was himself to share in these pecuniary benefits. The immediate ground of alarm was the fact, that Aaron Burr and his associates were on their way down the Mississippi River in flat boats loaded with agricult- ural implements and laborers for the cultivation of the Ouachita lands which they had purchased from the Baron de Bastrop. New Orleans was much agitated, suspected persons were arrested and extensive military arrangements were made for defense.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE MAGEE-GUTIERREZ INVASION OF 1812-13.
Texas in 1812-1813 - The Magee invasion - Capture of Goliad - Siege of the royalists - Their final retreat - Battle of Salado- Defeat of the royalists - The brutal murder of Spanish officers - Battle of Alazan and defeat of the royalist General Elisondo - Advance of Gen. Arredondo - Battle of Medina and the utter defeat of the patriots and close of this expedition.
From the time of the treaty between Herrera and Wilkinson (November, 1806), making neutral ground of the country between the Sabine and the Arroyo Honda, until 1812, the neutral ground had been acquiring a population of a character that made it necessary to guard traders and especially mule trains passing to and from Louisiana. General Overton kept a force at Natchitoches for this purpose, and it found plenty to do. In the United States service at this Post, was First Lieutenant of Artillery Augustus W. Magee, a native of Massachusetts, and graduate of West Point (class of 1809), a man of undoubted courage, high-minded and honorable. Magee was sent at one time to aid the civil authorities in arresting a band of robbers rendezvousing in the neutral ground. He succeeded in effecting the arrest of about twenty- five members of the band. To compel the prisoners to reveal the whereabouts of their uncaptured comrades, he had a num- ber of them soundly flogged, but they stoutly refused to divulge the desired information.
This period was auspicious for revolutionary adventures. Leading spirits were not wanting and Texas offered an inviting field. Owing to reverses sustained by the republican
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armies in Mexico, fugitives often took refuge in Louisiana. Among these was Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara. With him as nominal commander (a position given him in order to win Mex- icans to the cause ) Magee conceived the project of revolution- izing Texas, wresting the Province from the Spaniards, and establishing an independent Republic. He resigned his office as Lieutenant in the United States army, collected what men he could from the neutral ground, Nacogdoches and Louisiana, and, having perfected his plans by July, 1812, took undis- puted possession of Nacogdoches, where he remained recruiting until the following September. Then, with about three hun- dred men, he took the La Bahia road and crossed the Trinity below Robbins' Ferry. Here he remained awaiting reinforce- ments until October, and then marched directly on La Bahia. Crossing the Colorado near the present town of Columbus, the advance guard learned from a Mexican (a resident of La Bahia ) who was arrested as a spy, that Governor Salcedo and General Herrera were at San Antonio in full force. The Mexican proved not to be a spy, and afterwards fought bravely in the American ranks. Arriving at La Bahia on the 1st or 2d of November, and finding the town vacated, the invaders immediately began fortifying and preparing the place for defense. They found in the town but one cannon, an old nine-pounder, which they managed to mount on one of the bastions. On the 7th of November they found themselves suddenly surrounded by Spanish troops, with Salcedo and Herrera commanding in person.
Supposing that Magee would take the old San Antonio road from Nacogdoches to the former place, the Spanish troops had left La Bahia intending to intercept the Americans at San Marcos, but discovering their calculation to be erroneous, returned, by a near cut, to La Bahia, where they arrived on the 7th. The royal troops were posted in three divisions around the fort ; one on the East, one on the West and one at the Mission on the North side of the San Antonio River. On
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the evening of the 7th, Magee attacked the division at the mission. A skirmish followed that lasted until nightfall.
Finding they could effect nothing against the strong walls of the Fort without heavier artillery, Salcedo and Herrera waited until about the 15th for the arrival of nine brass can- non. This artillery, capable of throwing shot a long distance, having been received and put effectively to work, the Spanish generals drew nearer and nearer and finally entered the town. Magee's force consisted of about three hundred and sixty- five men. There occurred within the limits of the town on the 20th of November a severe engagement that lasted from 8 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, when the Royal troops retreated from the town after suffering heavy loss in killed and wounded. The Americans had only seven men wounded and one man killed. The attacking force decided to starve the garrison into submission, closely invested the place and maintained a state of siege until the 16th of Feb- ruary. Magee found abundance of corn in the Fort, and, as beeves were plentiful in the surrounding country could, so far as concerned food, have held out for a long time. On the 24th of January was fought what was called the battle of the White Cow. Magee's men were attempting to capture a white cow. She ran toward the enemy. Skirmishing ensued, both sides re-inforced, the two armies encountered, and a battle that lasted two hours followed, resulting in the killing of two hundred Mexicans and a loss on the part of Magee of one man killed and six wounded.
On the 10th of February, a party from the Fort fired upon a picket of the enemy just before day. This brought on a fierce general engagement that continued until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Three times the enemy gained possession of the Fort and were as often repulsed, with severe loss. Fin- ally, being driven to the opposite side of the river, they made no further attempt, but raised the siege on the 15th and retreated to San Antonio.
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During the progress of these events, the health of Magee, who was a consumptive, rapidly declined, and he died on the 1st of February. Colonel Kemper, second in command, had, in fact, conducted most of the operations during the siege, and now the command devolved on him.
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