USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 3
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 3
USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 3
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 3
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 3
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
Mr. Richards says that he became alarmed at this and determined to desert, although he had a son and a nephew in the party. He finally escaped, with two others, and on his return to Natehez made the statements above recorded.
After the above events occurred, Lieuten- ant Muzquiz was ordered to start in pursuit of Nolan, and he left Nacogdoches with that object in view, March 4, 1801. The following is from Muzquiz' diary of the twenty-first of that month: "At sunrise I marched on Nolan's intrenehment. When about thirty paces from it, ten men sallied from the en- trenchment, unarmed. Among them was Nolan, who said, in a loud voice, 'Do not approach, because either the one or the other will be killed.' Noticing that the men who accompanied Nolan were foreigners, I or- dered William Barr, an Irishman who had
joined my command as interpreter, to speak to them in English, and say to them that I had come for the purpose of arresting them, and that I expected them to surrender in the name of the king. Nolon. had a brief conver- sation with Barr, and the latter informed me that Nolan and his men were determined to fight.
"Nolan immediately entered his entrench- ment, followed by his men, and I observed that two Mexicans escaped from the rear of said entrenchment. Soon afterward they joined us, stating that they had brought with them Nolan's earbine, which has handed to me. At daybreak Nolan and his men com- menced firing, and continned nntil nine o'clock, when Nolan was killed and his men surrendered. They were out of ammunition. His force was composed of fourteen Americans, one Creole of Louisiana, seven Spaniards or Mexicans, and two negro slaves. Nolan had three men wounded and several horses killed. His men had long beards. After the surrender I learned that they had left Natchez with sup- plies for two months, and had been in the woods and prairies of Texas for over seven months, living on horse-meat. Nolan's negroes asked permission to bury their master, which I granted, after causing his ears to be ent off, in order to send them to the governor of Texas."
Muzquiz started out on this expedition with 100 men, sixty-eight from the regular army and the rest volunteers.
The precise spot where this little battle took place has ever been a matter of contro- versy, as the data are too indefinite to enable one to be certain. Local tradition in various places is very positive that it was at this, that, or the other place. The preponderance of opinion is that it was in the vicinity of Spring- field or Waco.
20
HISTORY OF TEX.1.5.
to advance the royalist cause. Tlms the populace and many in the ranks of the revo- lutionists in San Antonio, and many inside the barracks, were unwittingly on his side.
During the night of March 1, with only five of those compromised to support him, Zambrano sallied forth from his house and raised the signal cry. Possession was im- mediately obtained of the barracks, and be- fore morning dawned Casas was a prisoner, and AAldama confined under guard in his lodging. Zambrano and his party now pro- ceeded with caution; nor did they prema- turely let their real design be known. A governing council of eleven voting members, with Zambrano as president, was elected by the principal inhabitants of San Antonio and vieinity, and measures adopted to secure the province without creating alarm. A force of 500 reliable men was placed in marching order, to be ready for any emer- gency, and commissioners were sent out to solicit aid. Success attended this intrigue, and in a short time the viceregal government was again firmly established in Texas. One writer, in a private letter, mentions that two commissioners were sent to the United States Government to offer Texas to the Union, but the commissioners failed to reach their desti- nation.
During the very next year (1812), how- ever, an expedition organized by a young officer in the United States Army, in con- junction with a Mexican refugee, almost succeeded in annihilating the royalist power in Texas. This Mexican refugee, by the way, was a great character. It was Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, a wealthy resident of Mexico, who had joined himself to the cause of the revolutionists, and was commissioned by them to visit Washington to obtain aid and sympathy, but his credentials were not I aroused by the news of the approach of an-
recognized by our Government. Being a fervent patriot, however, he went to New Orleans and began to organize an expedition for the invasion of Texas, which scheme was facilitated by his former commercial relations with that city. Augustns Magee, who had been stationed on the Natchitoches to break up gangs of outlaws on the neutral ground, enlisted some of these same ontlaws and pro- ceeded to New Orleans, where he effected an alliance with Gutierrez, giving him the nomi- nal command, so that the Mexicans would believe the invasion was headed by one of their own countrymen.
During the summer the invasion actually took place, with great success and little loss of blood. By antumn there were 800 men, with Magee as colonel, though actually the commander-in-chief. Governor Salcedo of course resisted them, and laid them siege at one place for four months; but they suc- ceeded in gaining other victories, and cap- turing even San Antonio, the capital, on April 1, 1813. A provisional government was formed, consisting of a council of thir- teen members elected by a popular vote, Gutierrez being appointed generalissimo and governor. Two of these members were Americans. The prisoners, seventeen in number, were all condemned to death; and, as their public condemnation and execution - of sentence might be too exasperating to the Americans, they were secretly butchered at night, in the bed of a stream, April 5! The matter. however, soon leaked out, and truly enough the Americans on the neutral ground lost their enthusiasm for the new govern- ment, and Gutierrez was arraigned before a tribunal and deposed. The Americans, be- ing greatly reduced in numbers, abandoned themselves to indolence, but were soon
21
HISTORY OF TEX.IS.
other army, under the command of Colonel Ignacio Elizondo, the renegade who had be- trayed Hidalgo. Gutierrez was reinstated in command for the emergency, and the inva- sion repulsed. Gutierrez was again deposed, mainly by the influence of the American element. Factions, attempts at revolution and counter-revolution, and accompanying skirmishes, etc., continned to be the order of the day, Spaniard-like, or rather Mexican- like, umtil by the spring of 1814 victory was established by the royalists with some degree of permanency, and another " Inll " or period of peace followed; but the condition of Texas was deplorable, on account of the devastations of the many little armies, and desperadoes, who took nnusual advantage of the unsettled state of affairs in sneh times, and the general un- certainty that always attends such a barbar- ous state of public affairs. Many of the inhabitants had fled and taken refuge in other parts of the world, their erops were destroyed, cattle carried off and their houses burned. The spirit of insurrection was sup- pressed, or perhaps more strictly expressed, had " eaten up its own substance," so that for years the public had the opportunity to settle itself to more peaceable and profitable pur- suits. But little, however, was done, or would have been done, until a new " race " began again to take the field.
In addition to those already named, the men who most prominently figured in the public affairs of Texas during the above period were Toledo, Arredondo, Perry, Tay- lor, Bullard, Cayetano Quintero, ete.
Sympathy for the oppressed in this region spread meanwhile throughout the United States, and attempts at further revolutionary measures were made in various places within our domain. Vigilance was exercised by our
government to prevent the organization of armies against Mexico, and to maintain neutral ground.
Conspicuous among these sympathizers with the patriots in Mexico was Colonci Perry, who proclaimed in the New Orleans papers in 1815 that an expedition was in preparation to invade Texas; that 1,000 men were ready to engage in the enterprise; and that the 'undertaking was a worthy one, in respect to both honor and profit. President Madison prohibited Perry's movement, or anything like it; and during the same year several men were indicted in the United States District Court for violating the neu- trality laws. Perry, however, eluded the vigilance of our Government, and succeeded in making his way beyond the Sabine with a small body of men. Jose Manuel de Herrera, who had been appointed minister to the United States by Morelos, and was at the time residing in New Orleans, conceived the idea of establishing, in connection with Perry's movements, a system of privateering from Galveston harbor. IIe established a complete system of State government, with headquarters at Matagorda, in 1816, and was supported with such a large force of revolu- tionists as to again intimidate the Mexican government. Prospect for a successful rev- olution seemed brighter than ever; Aury, who was commodore of the fleet, at length began to differ from the policy of Perry, of the land forces, and amid other jealousies the cause of the revolutionists was again much weakened, and Perry was soon com- pelled to flee back toward the United States with only about forty men, and, after several repulses of the more numerous band of Mex- icans, were finally compelled either to sur. render or be put to death-which latter
25
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
alternative they indeed chose, Perry blowing out his own brains with a pistol!
Commodore Aury continued to prey upon the Spanish trade, with some success, making his headquarters for about two months in Matagorda bay, and then he went to Florida.
THE " PIRATE OF THE GULE."
At this time JJean Lafitte, a noted character from France, was established at the little is- land of Barrataria, abont sixty miles west of the delta of the Mississippi, engaged as a sinnggler and probably as pirate. He was joined by a crowd of roughs, and the goods they seized found ready sale in New Orleans. Governor Claiborne, of Louisiana, seeing the demoralizing effect of this " trade " upon his favorite eity-for many large houses there were in collusion with the maranders- issned a proclamation ordering these free- booters to disperse; but as this had no effect, he placed a reward of $500 on the head of Lafitte, which the latter treated with such contempt as to offer thirty times the amount for the governor's head. Claiborne then tried foree, and again was unsuccessful. La- fitte surrounded the troops sent against him. and dismissed them loaded with presents.
This state of affairs being reported to Pres- ident Madison, Commodore Patterson, of the United States Navy, was ordered to destroy this hornet's nest, and in Jone, 1814, he ar- rived before Barrataria with gunboats and the schooner Caroline. The pirates, in seven fine armed cruisers and a felucca, manned by nearly a thousand men, at first made a show of resistance; but, finally abandoning their vessels, they made for the land and dis- persed among the swamps. Patterson then took the surrendered vessels and all the spoils of Barrataria to New Orleans.
Lafitte, the " Pirate of the Gulf," was still at large, however, and the gradually return- ing men again resumed their old nefarious traffic. About this time, war existing be- tween the United States and Great Britain, the latter government approached Lafitte with large offers of position and money if he would assist in their canse; but he asked time to consider, and in this time he entered into correspondence with Governor Clai- borne, by which it was finally agreed that the governor would not further molest him if he would espouse the cause of the United States; and, sure enough, at the battle of New Orleans, he rendered such signal service that President Madison pardoned-him of his former offences against our government.
During the next two years Lafitte's move- ments were not conspicuous; but his fol- lowers, to the number of about 1,000, joined a politico-piratical government at Galveston island, who, for security, swore allegiance to the Mexican government. In consequence Galveston became naturally the asylum of refugees from justice and desperadoes of every nationality. Their depredations on the gulf were carried on to such an extent that Spanish commerce was almost swept from the sea, and even the vessels of other nations suffered at their hands. The United States would have broken up this nest also had it not been for the opposition of the Spanish minister, Onis. The boundary question had not yet been settled, and it was feared that if our government dispersed the buccaneers from Galveston by armed force it would re- tain possession of the island. Thus for years the "Pirate of the Gulf" remained un- molested. On the site where the city of Galveston now stands he erected a fort and built himself a house, around which numer- ous other editices sprung up, forming a
26
HISTORY OF TEXAS
busy settlement, which be named Campeachy.
October 9, 1819, this point was declared a port of entry by the republic of Texas, which had lately been proclaimed as such by the leaders of another expedition into the con- try, and Lafitte was made governor of the place. This curious man soon afterward hanged a refugee from justice, in satisfaction of the United States authorities, and soon after that again indorsed another man -- one of his own party-for committing the crime of seizing property from a subject of our Government; and for the latter the Govern- ment sent an expedition against him, to break up the Galveston establishment, fear- less of war with the Mexican government. Aware of the determination of the Govern- ment at Washington, Lafitte destroyed his fortifications, paid off his inen, and sailed away forever from the shores of Texas. He ever maintained that he made war only on Spanish vessels. According to one account, he gave a sketch of himself in the following terms:
At eighteen years of age he was a merchant at Santo Domingo. Having become rich, he wound up his affairs, bought a ship and freighted her with a valuable cargo, including a large amount of specie. He set sail for Enrope, with his wife, was captured when a week out at sea, by a Spanish man-of-war, and robbed of everything he possessed. The Spanish captain had the inhumanity to set him and the crew ashore on a barren sand key, with provisions for a few days only. They were taken off by an American schooner and landed at New Orleans, where his wife died a few days afterward from fever, con- tracted from hardship and exposure. In des- peration, he joined some daring fellows, and they declared eternal vengeance against Spain. " For fifteen years," said he, "I have carried
on a war against Spain. So long as I live I am at war against Spain, but with no other nation. I am at peace with all the world ex- cept Spain. Although they call me a pirate, I am not guilty of attacking any vessel of the English or French."
The above sounds very much like a piece of fiction, which any pirate might conjure up to justify his nefarions career. Lafitte is de- scribed as a stout, rather gentlemanly person- age, abont five feet and ten inches in height, dressed very simply in a foraging cap and blue frock of a most villainous fit; his com- plexion, like that of most creoles, olive; his countenance full, mild and rather impressive; his eyes sinall and black, which flashed in animated conversation like those of an ugly customer. His demeanor was courteous. He was educated and gifted with considerable talent for conversation. He continued to cruise on the Spanish main for several years. Occasionally he visited Sisal and the island of Margarita, near the mouth of the Orinoco, and finally died at Dilam, in Yucatan, and was buried there.
POLITICAL CHANGES CONTINUED.
After the fall of Napoleon, two refugees from France, Generals Lallemand and Ri- ganlt, coneluded to try Texas as a place of residence, although they received no reply to their request for a permission to do so from the Spanish court. In March, 1818, Lalle- niand, with 120 settlers, sailed from New Orleans, landed at Galveston bay and selected a spot on the Trinity river about twelve miles above its mouth, and began to fortify the post. These colonists issued a proclamation that they had settled there to remain, earl- ing their livelihood by the peaceable pursuits of agriculture and the chase, and would de-
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
fend themselves by force, if necessary, against any invading party; but professional soldiers make poor agriculturists. The first season their crops were meager on account of the dronth, and they maintained themselves for a time by the products of the clase. While this weakened, a force was sent against them
Mexico, which they could not resist, and Lallemand returned to the United States, while the rest of the colonists scattered, a great part of them probably to Barrataria, at that time controlled by the notorions Lafitte.
Old international questions being now re- vived as to the ownership of the Floridas and the boundaries of the Lonisiana Territory, many propositions and counter propositions were made and refnscd, with the final result, February 22, 1819, in the forin of a treaty signed by the Spanish minister Onis, and tho American Secretary of State, by which the Floridas were ceded to the United States and Texas permitted to remain in the hands of Spain. The bonndary line between the United States and the Spanish possessions was defined as follows: Beginning at the inonth of the Sabine river, continue north along the western bank of that river to lati- tude 32°; tlience by a line dne north to the degree of latitude where it strikes Red river; then following the course of that river, west- ward to longitude 23° west from Washing- tou; crossing said river, run by a line duo north to the Arkansas, following the soutli- ern bank of that river to its source in latitude 42º north, and thence by that parallel to the l'acific.
The king of Spain, however, failed to ratify the treaty within the six monthis prescribed, and when he did ratify it, October 24, 1820, the controversy was renewed, the United States being strongly disinclined to recognize the late convention. From the first the treaty
had caused wide-spread dissatisfaction, and a strong party maintained that valuable terri- tory had been given away by the American government for a very inferior one, while a fundamental principle of the United States was violated in ceding away territory of any kind under any circumstances; but after a year or two of discussion the United States Congress advised the President to ratify the treaty, and accordingly, February 28, 1821, John Quincy. Adams informed the Spanish envoy that President Monroe liad accepted the ratification.
In natural connection with the foregoing, the angry feeling, aroused by the treaty, was exhibited in a practical manner at Natchez, Mississippi, by another attempt to organize an expedition for the purpose of revolution- izing Texas. James Long was appointed leader of the enterprise, and in June he started with great enthusiasm for Nacogdo- ches, accompanied by about seventy-five mnen, which number was rapidly increased. Soon. after arriving at that place he could muster over 300 men, among them Bernardo Gutier- rez and Samnel Davenport. He immedi- ately proceeded to establish a civil govern- ment, under the control of a supreme council, of which he was chosen president. June 23 this conncil declared the province of Texas a free and independent republic, and it pro- cecded to enact laws for the governinent of tlie same and providing for revenne by the sale of public lands. Various agencies were established, at different points, for mercan- tile and governmental business.
For aid, Long left Cook in command at Nacogdoches while he hastened on to Gal- vestou to enlist the sympathy and assistance of Lafitte, who at that time was in the height of his glory there; but the wily Frenchman told him that it ever had been useless to re-
28
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
sist Mexico by land withont a much larger force than had ever been collected for the purpose. On the way to Galveston Long heard through Indian channels that a Mexi- can force, 700 strong, under Colonel Ignacio Perez, was rapidly on his track, at Coehattee, and at once sent orders to Cook immediately to concentrate his ontlying detachments at that place. Of all the expeditions to Texas, not one experienced a more speedy collapse or swifter ruin than that of Long's. The posts or " agencies " spoken of were suddenly destroyed and the ocenpants killed or dis- persed.
Long retired to New Orleans, where he made the acquaintance of the Mexican pa- triots, Milamn and Trespalacios. The next spring, 1821, still another "expedition " was formed against the Mexican government in Texas, with these men as leaders; but they, too, were soon squelched. The next year, 1822, Long was killed in a private en- counter.
Of course, at this time the condition was deplorable, as the ontlook for permanent peace was absolutely forbidding. After the expulsion of Long in 1819, every intruder who had settled in the country was driven off, his buildings destroyed and his cattle driven away. The populated districts alto- gether contained no more than 4,000 eivil- ized beings. Agriculture was almost entirely neglected, and provisions were so scarce, even in San Antonio, as to be a subject of fre- qnent report by Governor Martinez to the commandant general at Saltillo. The northi- eastern borders became the asyhim of crimi- nals and the abode of bands of armed despe- radoes engaged in smuggling. Lafitte's piratical establishment had its emissaries abont the country, who drove Africans through the land with impunity to New
Orleans, where they were sold; and savage Indians, like the Comanches, were hovering around almost every white settlement. This was the darkest hour that Texas ever saw.
A panoramic review of the two decades just treated is thus presented by II. II. Ban- croft, the great Pacific coast historian :
" If the reader will glance back at the his- tory of Texas, he will find that no advance in the colonization of that fertile country was made during the period of Spanish doin- ination. The reason of this, apart from the exclusion of foreigners, lay mainly in the aversion of the Spanish creoles to agrienlture, and the dangers to which settlers were ex- posed. Enterprise in ' New Spain ' was chiefly directed to the development of mines, while the cultivation of the soil was performed for the most part by the passive Indians. In Texas, an essentially agricultural province, the conditions were reversed. There were no mines to be developed, nor were there peaceable natives who could be made to till the ground. It therefore offered no indnce- ments to Spanish-Americans to migrate from safe and settled districts to a remote region, where a few ill-garrisoned presidios conld offer little or no protection to the cultivator against the stealthy attacks of hostile Indians. Thns the colonization of Texas was confined to the establishment of a few settlers in the immediate vicinity of these military posts. Only two of these, San Antonio de Bejar and La Bahia del Espirito Santo, developed into towns of any considerable importance. Later attempts of Spain to colonize the country at the beginning of the present century met with no success. The undertaking projected by the Spanish government and placed under the direction of General Grimarest failed of accomplishment on account of the breaking ont of hostilities between Spain and England;
20
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
nor did other settlers who were introduced into Texas about this time effect any expan- sion of the community. It remainedl for peaceable immigrants from the United States to accomplish a work of progress which Spain had proved herself incompetent to perform, and which had been beyond achievement by force of arms on the part of adventurers.
" I have already related how anxions Spain was to people Texas immediately after the purchase of Louisiana by the United States, and so protect herself against encroachments by occupancy of the country. Her inten- tions, however, were frustrated by the dread- ful wars, in which she soon became engaged, and the revolutions which broke ont in her colonies. In the emergeneies to which she was reduced she relaxed her exelusive policy, and official proclamations were published in- viting colonists of all classes and nationalities to settle in her American dominions. The treaty of amity of February 22, 1819, having confirmed her in the possession of Texas, Spain felt herself in a position to remove the exclusion of Anglo-Americans as colonists in her territory, which hitherto had been insisted on in all colonization sehemes. At the same time the royalist power seemed to be firmly 1 established in Mexico, the revolution hav- ing been well nigh suppressed and the pacif- ication of the country alinost consummated. It was reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the Spanish government would give satisfac- tory assurances to Anglo-Americans who might wish to obtain in a legal manner grants of land in Texas."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.