VOLUME XII. APRIL, 1909. NUMBER 4.
THE QUARTERLY OF THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE:
A. W. TERRELL,
GEORGE P. GARRISON, BRIDE NEILL TAYLOR,
Z. T. FULMORE, W. J. BATTLE.
EDITOR:
GEORGE P. GARRISON.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS:
HERBERT EUGENE BOLTON. EUGENE C. BARKER.
- THE NAVY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS, II Alex. Dienst
- THE CASE OF THE BRIG POCKET C. T. Neu
- REMINISCENCES OF JNO. DUFF BROWN.
- BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES.
- NOTES AND FRAGMENTS.
- AFFAIRS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
CONTENTS.
The Texas State Historical Association.
PRESIDENT:
A. W. TERRELL.
VICE-PRESIDENTS:
BEAUREGARD BRYAN,MILTON J. BLIEM,
R. L. BATTS,LUTHER W. CLARK.
RECORDING SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN:
GEORGE P. GARRISON.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY AND TREASURER:
CHARLES W. RAMSDELL,
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL:
PRESIDENT A. W. TERRELL,
EX-PRESIDENT DUDLEY G. WOOTEN,
EX-PRESIDENT DAVID F. HOUSTON,
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT BEAUREGARD BRYAN,
SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT R. L. BATTS,
THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT MILTON J. BLIEM,
FOURTH VICE-PRESIDENT LUTHER W. CLARK,
RECORDING SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN GEORGE P. GARRISON,
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY AND TREASURER CHARLES W. RAMSDELL,
STATE LIBRARIAN E. W. WINKLER.
Z. T. FULMORE FOR TERM ENDING 1909.
FELLOWSHERBERT E. BOLTON FOR TERM ENDING 1910.
JOHN C. TOWNES FOR TERM ENDING 1911.
BRIDE NEILL TAYLOR FOR TERM ENDING 1911.
S. P. BROOKS FOR TERM ENDING 1910.
MEMBERSS. H. MOORE FOR TERM ENDING 1909.
DORA FOWLER ARTHUR FOR TERM ENDING 1912.
W. J. BATTLE FOR TERM ENDING 1913.
The Association was organized March 2, 1897. The annual dues are two dollars. THE QUARTERLY is sent free to all members.
Contributions to THE QUARTERLY and correspondence relative to historical material should be addressed to GEORGE P. GARRISON, Recording Secretary and Librarian, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
All other correspondence concerning the Association should be addressed until further notice, to CHARLES W. RAMSDELL, Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
FELLOWS AND LIFE MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
The constitution of the Association provides that "Members who show, by published work, special aptitude for historical investigation may become Fellows. Thirteen Fellows shall be elected by the Association when first organized, and the body thus created may thereafter elect additional Fellows on the nomination of the Executive Council. The number of Fellows shall never exceed fifty."
The present list of Fellows is as follows:
BARKER, DR. EUGENE C. LOOSCAN, MRS. ADELE B.
BATTS, JUDGE R. L. MCCALEB, DR. W. F.
BOLTON, PROF. HERBERT EUGENE MILLER, DR. E. T.
CASIS, PROF. LILIA M. PENNYBACKER, MRS. PERCY V.
CLARK, PROF. ROBERT CARLTON RAMSDELL, MR. CHAS. W.
COOPER, PRESIDENT O. H. RATHER, DR. ETHEL ZIVLEY
COX, DR. I. J. SHEPARD, JUDGE SETH
ESTILL, PROF. H. F. SMITH, PROF. W. ROY
FULMORE, JUDGE Z. T. TERRELL, JUDGE A. W.
GAINES, JUDGE R. R. TOWNES, PROF. JOHN C.
GARRISON, PROF. GEORGE P. WILLIAMS, JUDGE O. W.
GRAY, MR. A. C. WINKLER, MR. ERNEST WM.
HATCHER, MRS. MATTIE AUSTIN WOOTEN, HON. DUDLEY G.
HOUSTON, PRESIDENT D. F. WORLEY, MR. J. L.
KLEBERG, JUDGE RUDOLPH, JR.
The constitution provides also that "Such benefactors of the Association as shall pay into its treasury at any one time the sum of thirty dollars, or shall present to the Association an equivalent in books, MSS. or other acceptable matter, shall be classed as Life Members."
The Life Members at present are:
AUTRY, MR. JAMES L. KIRBY, MR. JNO. H.
AYER, MR. EDWARD EVERETT MCFADDEN, MR. W. P. H.
BAKER, MR. R. H. MINOR, MR. F. D.
BRACKENRIDGE, HON. GEO. W. MOODY, MR. W. L.
BUNDY, MR. Z. T. MOREHEAD, MR. C. R.
COCHRANE, MR. SAM P. NEALE, MR. WM. J.
COURCHESNE, MR. A. RICE, HON. W. M.
CRANE, MR. R. C. SCHMIDT, MR. JOHN
DAVIDSON, MR. W. S. SEVIER, MRS. CLARA D.
DEALEY, MR. GEORGE B. SUMPTER, MR. JESSE
DILWORTH, MR. THOS. G. WALKER, MR. J. A.
DONALDSON, MRS. NANA SMITHWICK WASHER, MR. NAT M.
WEBB, MR. MACK
GILBERT, MR. JOHN N. WILLACY, HON. JOHN G.
HANRICK, MR. R. A. WILLIAMS, JUDGE O. W.
KENEDY, MR. JNO. G.
Vol. XII. APRIL, 1909. No. 4.
The publication committee and the editors disclaim responsibility for views expressed by contributors to THE QUARTERLY.
V. THE LIBERTY.
While, as noted in the last chapter, instructions were being carried to Captain George Wheelwright, the newly appointed commander of the Liberty, Captain William S. Brown, intent upon a capture, was cruising on the high seas with the Liberty, seeking Mexican vessels. On March 3, 1836, he fell in with the Pelícano, a trading schooner, commanded by Captain Pérez. 1 The Pelícano was cleared from the port of New Orleans on February 25, 1836, by James W. Zachari, with a cargo purporting to consist of 550 barrels of flour; but in each barrel after the capture it was found that there were concealed three kegs of gunpowder intended for the Mexican army. The Pelícano was a Baltimore built vessel of the first class, carrying three large brass pieces, and having on board, besides her crew, twenty soldiers, double armed with muskets. 2 As the Liberty carried but four small guns, she was really venturesome to attempt the capture, especially as the fight took place within point blank range of the guns of the port of Sísal. Three of the Liberty's men, led by James O'Connor, 3 boarded the Pelícano. Before others could go to their assistance they killed seven marines, and caused several others to jump overboard, and the remainder to seek refuge beneath the hatches. The prize was manned with a crew and carried to Matagorda Bay, where she was wrecked in attempting to cross the bar. 4 The cargo, however, was saved. In landing, some of the barrels were stove in, and it was then that they were, upon examination, found to contain powder. 5
It seems that Zachari and Company denied that the powder was on board the Pelícano. When this denial came to the knowledge of Captain Brown, he addressed the following letter to John Gibson, editor of the True American, a paper friendly to Texas:
GALVESTON BAY, May 8, 1836. To the Editor of the True American.
SIR—By Capt. Appleton, I am informed that J. W. Zacherie denied that there was any Powder on board schooner Pelicano. I do assure you that there was 280 kegs—whether he knew it or not, I am not able to say. In addition to the above quantity, there were a number stowed in barrels of apples, potatoes, etc. I have found a number of letters on the Prize which proved the above fact. I feel it to be my duty to state these facts in regard to the Powder. There was no mention made of it on the manifest.
My situation requires that I should keep a constant lookout, and when I see the Mexican flag flying, I shall either take it or be taken. I can not fly from a Mexican, and will not.
Respectfully yours, W. S. BROWN, Commander Schooner Liberty. (Texian.)
In a proclamation of March 31, 1836, General Houston refers to the capture of the Pelícano as follows: "Captain Brown, with one of our vessels, has taken a Mexican vessel with 420 barrels of flour, 300 kegs of powder and other supplies for the army." 6
From the date of Captain Brown's letter above, it is evident that he was in Galveston Bay May 8, 1836. Whether he relinquished the command of the Liberty at this time to George Wheelwright, who had been commissioned on March 12, there is no evidence to show; but from a short sketch of Brown, which afterwards appeared in the Telegraph and Texas Register, 7 he seems at about this time to have committed some act which caused Commodore Hawkins to order his confinement in irons, and for this he resigned. In the summer of 1836 President Burnet gave him another commission, with the express understanding that he was not again to be subject to the order of Commodore Hawkins. He went to New Orleans to get a boat and there died. 8
It is very probable that in May or June, 1836, Captain Wheelright took command of the Liberty, but her next cruise to New Orleans was her last. She accompanied as a convoy the schooner Flora with the wounded General Sam Houston on board, and arrived at New Orleans May 22, 1836. 9 She was here detained on account of repairs, and in July was sold to pay the cost of them. 10 In the legislative halls of Texas we hear an echo of the Liberty in after years in the form of a petition from the captors of the schooner Pelícano for their share of the prize. The petition was favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee, whose report recites, among other things, that the district court of Brazoria county, which by law was invested with admiralty jurisdiction, had duly condemned the Pelícano and her cargo as lawful prize; that the value of the cargo of flour was $7584.05; and that half of that amount was due the captors. 11 The committee, therefore, recommended a joint resolution for the payment of their just share to the officers, crew, and marines of the Liberty. James O'Connor, the first man to board the Pelícano, was to receive an extra share. 12
This closes the history of the Liberty, whose career, while brief, was not unworthy of her name, save in her ending, which, if a reflection at all, is rather on her government than on herself.
VI. THE INVINCIBLE.
In Chapter IV the Invincible was left at the point where, on March 12, 1836, Captain Jeremiah Brown was appointed by the General Consultation to her command. 13 With his commission he also received orders to cruise along the coast and engage or drive off the Mexican war vessel, Montezuma. This vessel had so far done no great harm to the Texan interests, but since she was first reported off the Texan coast in November, 1835, shippers had lived in constant dread of her. After patroling the coast for some time, Captain Brown received a hint to search for the Montezuma near the mouth of the Rio Grande. He arrived there opportunely. An embargo had been laid by the Mexican government on all vessels in the port of Matamoras in order to prevent information reaching the Texans of an expedition which was being prepared to land two thousand men at Cópano Bay. The Montezuma, now rechristened the Bravo, 14 had just crossed the bar at the mouth of the Rio Grande, which is some thirty-five miles from Matamoras, and had lost her rudder. On the third of April, at ten o'clock a. m., while she was waiting to refit inside, the Invincible came in sight from the north. At 12 o'clock she came opposite, and Lieutenant William H. Leving, in a small boat, went on board the Bravo. The Bravo, becoming suspicious, slipped her cable and endeavored to retreat with Lieutenant Leving on board. A sharp engagement then took place. The Bravo could not be steered, and ran aground near the north beach, where she was almost completely wrecked by a broadside from the Invincible. The crew reached the shore in safety, carrying with them Lieutenant Leving. The Invincible sustained no damage, but Lieutenant Leving was shot as a pirate on April 14, 1836.
While the action was going on between the Invincible and the Bravo, at two p. m. the Pocket came in sight. This vessel was from Boston, commanded by Elijah Howes, who sailed from New Orleans on the 28th day of March, laden with a cargo, shipped by Lizardi and Company of that city, generally understood to be Mexican agents. Captain Brown captured the Pocket and sailed into Galveston, where it was detained. Captain Howes and some of his crew proceeded to New Orleans, where he filed with the United States district attorney a protest against the capture. This reads as follows: 15
. . . at half past two o'clock P. M. saw two sails off the Brassos, St. Jago, which fired several guns each; . . . in a short time the schooner which carried the Mexican flag bore away and stood for the shore, and the other vessel tacked ship and stood for his brig, she being about three or four miles distant; . . . they kept this course and said vessel run a short distance to the windward and spoke them . . . The captain answered he was from New Orleans, and bound for Matamoras. The schooner that made these inquiries, proved to be the Texian armed vessel Invincible, Brown, commander, who ran a short distance past them, and then tacked ship and ran close to the windward of them. That said schooner then sent her boat on board the brig, with orders to Captain Howes, to proceed on board the Invincible with his papers, which was accordingly obeyed; . . . Abbott, sailing master of said vessel,—with one officer and several armed men took charge of the brig, . . . [and] the Texian flag of 1824 was hoisted in its place at the main peak of the Invincible. . . .
The protest then recites that, after remaining at this point for two days, the two vessels sailed together, reaching the mouth of the Brazos after a voyage of forty-eight hours. On arriving at Galveston the next day, they were detained there until April 24, 1836, when Captain Howes and his crew received permission to sail for New Orleans. They were informed by the Texan authorities that the Pocket would be retained as a guard ship. Upon this Captain Howes told them that he would abandon her. This he did, losing cargo, freight, and passage money. He arrived at New Orleans on the tenth day of May, and noted this protest:
And thereupon these said officers, and especially the said master, did protest, and with them I, notary, at their request, do most solemnly and publicly protest:
First, against the winds and the waves and the danger of the sea generally.
Second, against the illegal capture and detention of the aforesaid vessel and cargo.
The Invincible was denounced as a pirate to Commodore Dallas, who was commanding a United States squadron at Pensacola, and he ordered the sloop Warren to capture her, which was done on May 1. 16 The Invincible was carried into New Orleans, and forty-six of the crew were imprisoned. Captain Brown was not on the vessel when it was captured. On May 4, the prisoners were called for trial; but witnesses for the prosecution did not appear, and the case was postponed until the 6th, 17 when it was taken up before Judge Rawle of the United States district court. 18 The lawyers for the defense were Messrs. Seth Barton, Randall Hunt, and O. P. Jackson. But four witnesses were examined. Three officers of the Warren testified that they had taken the Invincible on charges preferred against her by an insurance company of New Orleans that she had detained an American vessel. The court here adjourned until the following day, when the case came up again. No affidavits appearing, and no evidence being introduced to warrant a commitment for trial, the prisoners were discharged. The Commercial Bulletin 19 reviewed the case as follows:
. . . We have never seen a finer collection of robust, and honest faced tars, than the prisoners, and in a good cause, we should ever hope, that they might prove invincible. . . .
The defense of the Texans was that the vessel was captured in Mexican waters for contravening the laws of the Republic, i. e. Texas, by having on board contraband goods, powder, etc., and for contravening the laws of Nations by having on board material of war for the use and advantage of Santa Anna, who was impatiently awaiting the same. . . . They also said the vessel was detained for examination, by reason of her having two of Santa Anna's spies on board, with plans and charts to aid in the downfall of Texas, which was proven. The captain not being able to read Spanish in which the invoices and correspondence were written carried her before the admiralty court of Texas, where the truth came out. The court finding the Pocket laden with contraband goods, purchased with Santa Anna's money by his agent Lizardi, condemned them as a lawful prize, paid the captain his freight, nine hundred dollars, and later dismissed the vessel as neutral.
Captain Brown now came forward and was arrested, but was immediately released and thus escaped the preliminary jail term which the crew suffered. The episode closed with a letter of thanks from the Texans in New Orleans to the attorneys for the defense for their efficient service, part of which is as follows: 20
NEW ORLEANS, May 7, 1836. To Seth Barton, Randal Hunt and O. P. Jackson, Esqrs.
Gentlemen: We the undersigned citizens of Texas, embrace this opportunity of expressing to you our most heartfelt gratitude, in behalf of the officers and crew of the Texian man of war schooner Invincible, that of our country and ourselves, for the very able, lucid and eloquent manner, in which you defended the noble and grateful crew, from the false imputation of piracy, brought against them by the secret Mexican influence of this city. . . .
If in some future day you should visit our beautiful land, which is destined to be one of the most prosperous and happy on earth, your reflection must be pleasing indeed, to know you were among the number who voluntarily contributed to our righteous cause.
THOS. J. GREEN, Brig'r Gen. of the Army of Texas. A C ALLEN SAMUEL M. WILLIAMS S RHOADS FISHER JAMES POWER EDWARD CONRAD HENRY AUSTIN EDWARD HALL SAMUEL ELLIS Ro. WILSON T. G. WESTREN D. C. BARRITT WM. BRYAN, Texas Agent.
All claims against Texas on account of the Pocket were finally settled by a convention between the Texan government and that of the United States, the ratifications of which were exchanged July 6, 1838. The amount agreed upon was $11,750, which was paid, together with accrued interest, July 6, 1849. The whole amount was $12,455. 21
After her release the Invincible was used for coast defense. In June, 1836, she figured in another exciting incident. In accordance with the treaty of Velasco, concluded May 14, 1836, the Texan government determined to transport President Santa Anna to Vera Cruz, and for that purpose he had already embarked on the Invincible, when, on the 5th of June, General Thomas Jefferson Green arrived with volunteers from New Orleans in the Ocean, and forbade the Invincible to sail. 22 Whether or not it was for the good of Texas that Santa Anna was detained and whether or not the government could have prevented the detention, will always remain debatable questions; but it is in any case a fact that Texas violated a treaty in permitting it.
The Mexican navy at this time was ascertained to be lying in port, wanting men, arms and other equipment; 23 so the Invincible remained riding at anchor off the bar of Velasco, until July 4, when, as already related, she went to the relief of the schooner Brutus, 24 which was blockaded at Matagorda by the Vencedor del Alamo. This vessel had been dispatched from Vera Cruz to protect the Mexican schooners, Comanche, Fanny Butler, and Watchman, which were laden with provisions for the Mexican troops. 25 Finding that the Texans had already intercepted these vessels, and appropriated their cargoes, the Vencedor del Alamo very wisely returned to Vera Cruz. 26 There the Invincible finally found and challenged her to battle, which was declined on the pretext that the crew of the vessel challenged were, for want of pay, not in a condition to fight. Later the Invincible fell in with a French vessel, and Captain Brown had to explain that he was not a pirate, but was sailing under the flag of Texas. The captain of the Frenchman was greatly surprised; for he had never heard of such a country, and did not know where it was; and he could not realize the fact of the creation of a new republic, not known to him. 27
The Invincible now went to New Orleans; and after taking on board as passengers Branch T. Archer and William H. Wharton, she left, on July 13, 1836, for Galveston. 28 From here she cruised to Velasco, and about August 4 29 was ordered by President D. G. Burnet to New York for much needed repairs. She reached there in September, 1836. Unable to leave for want of funds, she might have been sold to meet expenses, but Hon. Samuel Swartwout paid her liabilities and let her go. She escaped arrest for violation of the neutrality laws of the United States only by running away from the vessel sent in pursuit of her. On March 14, 1837, she reached Galveston once more.
In the preceding October General Sam Houston had succeeded to the Presidency of Texas under the permanent government; and, in making his nominations to the Senate for commissions in the navy, he raised the list of officers to a number commensurate with the size of the navy. In April, by orders from the Navy Department, Commander H. L. Thompson assumed the command of the Invincible. Accompanied by the Brutus, he first sailed in June to the mouth of the Mississippi; but, failing to find any of the enemy there, after a cruise of seven or eight days he turned to the coast of Mexico. On board with him was the Secretary of the Navy, S. Rhoads Fisher. The peculiar conduct of Fisher in abandoning his official duties at Houston to join in this cruise, he sought to justify in a letter to Dr. Bartlett, editor of the New York Albion, dated June 17, 1837, of which the essential part is in the following excerpt: 30
It is ten days since I left Houston and immediately joined our little squadron, then lying in Galveston Bay, and after convoying the schooner Texas, ladened with Government stores to Matagorda Bay, up helm and bare away for Galveston, to receive orders from the President; we shall be there tomorrow, and shall stretch to the southward with the hope of falling in with the enemy. I am a volunteer. I can not precisely say amateur, but I have thought for some time upon the expediency of personally taking a part with the Navy, and have decided it was right. I know, you gentlemen of systematized governments will smile at the idea of the "Secretary of the Navy" turning sailor, and may be inclined to consider it better adapted to the adventure seeking disposition of the knight of the rueful countenance; but my opinion is that it will inspire great confidence in the men, and stimulate our Congress to do something for us; for it appears that this branch of national defense has never been popular in its infancy in any country; it ever has been compelled to fight itself into notice and government patronage; such at least I am satisfied is our case, and I think that, my present step is precisely such as will suit the meridian of the views of our Texas population. We must be governed and actuated by such course as may best suit us; we are acting and legislating for ourselves and not for the world, and however at variance our system of policy may be with the preconceived ideas of right or wrong amongst the world at large, I humbly conceive that as we have to lie in the bed, we have the right to make it. Therefore, it is that however quixotic my present step may appear, and indeed for the United States or Great Britain would be, I am satisfied it is right.
In the course of this cruise several pirogues were captured at Mujeres Island. From them sails and provisions were obtained. In one was found a cargo of log wood, which the captain of the pirogue redeemed for $660 when they arrived at Sisal. This place was cannonaded by the Texans for three hours, but the attempt to take it was finally abandoned. The sailors and marines made repeated landings on this cruise and burned to the ground eight or nine towns. On one occasion Secretary of the Navy Fisher and Captain Boylan, then commanding the Brutus, landing with a few men and leaving their guns with their boat, strolled two or three hundred yards from the shore, when they were nearly captured by a small body of Mexican cavalry. Secretary Fisher used a pistol which he chanced to have with him and shot one of the Mexicans from his horse. 31 The Mexican fleet was meanwhile lying at Vera Cruz unmanned. Close to the Alacranes Island, the Eliza Russell, a British schooner in the Mexican trade, and the Abispa, 32 a Mexican vessel having on board a cargo transferred from the British schooner Little Pen 33 that had been wrecked on the island, were added to the list of prizes; but the Eliza Russell was soon released. The British government put in claims against that of Texas for damages on behalf of the master of the Eliza Russell and the owners of the cargo of the Little Pen amounting in the aggregate to about thirteen thousand dollars. The Eliza Russell claim—about four thousand dollars—was finally paid, but that of the Little Pen was not. 34
Concerning the capture of the Eliza Russell, President Houston, in his message of November 21, 1837, expressed himself as follows: 35
A circumstance [that] occurred during the last cruise which was directed by the executive, demands of me in this communication to notice the same to the honorable congress. Orders were issued from the navy department by direction of the executive, to the commander of the navy that all neutral flags should be respected, unless the vessel was bound to an enemy's port, and had on board articles contraband of war. In violation of these orders, the Eliza Russell, an English brig was seized and sent into port, with a valuable cargo of fine goods, but containing nothing contraband of war! Upon information of the circumstances, the executive directed her immediate release, and the payment of damages, so far as he deemed it within his competency. The subject will be presented to Congress by the owner of the vessel, with a minute statement of all the facts. The circumstances of the case were immediately communicated to our commissioner near the court of St. James, and the executive has been assured that the despatch would reach England by the time of his arrival. Other acts connected with the cruise of a character not calculated to elevate us in the scale of nations, were done either without orders, or in direct violation of those which had been issued by the department.
By "other acts," President Houston probably meant S. Rhoads Fisher's absence from the seat of government, and the fact that the Invincivle overstayed the term of her sailing orders nearly two months. For this, and the illegal detention of the Eliza Russell, Fisher and Captain Thompson of the Invincible were suspended by the President from their duties until they could be tried. Fisher's trial took place before the Senate, and resulted in a resolution sustaining the president in his suspension of the secretary, and asking the latter, for the sake of harmony, to resign, while declaring at the same time that he was not found guilty of any crime or dishonorable conduct. 36 The department of the navy investigated the charges against Captain Thompson; 37 but it seems he was spared an earthly trial, for on November 1, 1837, he died. There was one solitary acknowledgment of his brave and splendid services for Texas, the record of which is as follows: "As a mark of respect to the memory of Captain H. L. Thompson, of the Texian Navy, who died this morning, on motion of Mr. Wharton, the Senate adjourned until 3 o'clock P. M." 38 Captain Thompson's experiences could hardly have failed to convince him of the truth in the old adage that republics are ungrateful.
On August 26, 1837, the Invincible and the Brutus, with the Abispa in tow, entered Galveston harbor. The Brutus entered the harbor with the Abispa; but, because of unfavorable conditions, the Invincible remained outside till morning, when she was attacked by two Mexican armed brigs, the Vencedor del Alamo and the Libertador. In coming to her assistance the Brutus ran aground and the Invincible continued the fight alone against both the Mexican vessels. Though both of these could outsail her, they would not risk an attempt to board, and were several times forced to draw away from close quarters. Finally, toward evening, the Invincible abandoned the struggle and undertook to enter the harbor; but in the attempt she also ran aground. The crew were saved, but during the night the vessel went to pieces. 39
On May 23, 1838, President Houston approved a joint resolution authorizing the secretary of the treasury to pay to the officers and crew of the Invincible one-half of the proceeds of the prizes made by said vessel in her last cruise, which had been legally condemned. 40 This is the last official notice relative to the Invincible. Some of the officers and crew we shall find aboard other Texan vessels as we pursue our history. The Invincible did a great service for Texas, and her name should never be forgotten by those who love to give honor where honor is due.
VII. THE BRUTUS.
In the chapter devoted to the purchase of naval vessels a sketch was given of the Brutus—her armament, cost, and the officers appointed on March 12, 1836, to command her. 41 It was also there mentioned that she was intended for the Texan service as early as December, 1835. She was in the port of Galveston, when the Invincible arrived, on April 8, 1836, with her prize, the Pocket. She soon left Galveston, and after a short cruise stopped at New Orleans, during the trial of the crew of the Invincible. When the trial was over, Captains Brown and Hurd boasted that, from that time on, they would warn all United States vessels which they encountered beyond the jurisdiction of the United States against continuing their voyages; and that, if afterwards these vessels should be found doing so, they would be seized and condemned. As the Texas navy was unable to blockade the various Mexican ports and no distinction was made by Brown and Hurd between vessels with and without contraband of war, this was an idle and useless threat. A. J. Dallas, commanding the United States naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, was appealed to to convoy and protect American shipping, 42 and he assured the shippers that he would do so. This was eminently proper at the time, as no blockade of Mexican ports was then in force; but on the 21st of July, 1836, President Burnet issued a proclamation 43 from Velasco, declaring a blockade of the port of Matamoras, and ordering a sufficient number of war vessels to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and the Brazos Santiago to enforce the blockade strictly. Notwithstanding this effective blockade, which it was important for Texas to maintain in order to prevent transports laden with provisions reaching Matamoras from New Orleans, and transports loaded with troops at Matamoras from reaching Texas, Commodore Dallas, on August 9, 1836, wrote a letter from Pensacola, 44 stating that he would despatch a war vessel to the mouth of the Mississippi to convoy any vessels bound to Matamoras, and that he would raise the blockade. This, however, was an actual and legal, not a paper, blockade; and hence, in this case at least, Commodore Dallas was in the wrong and merited to the fullest extent the criticism directed against him by the Texans and the New Orleans press for his arbitrary interference with the struggling Republic of Texas.
On May 20, 1836, the Brutus left New Orleans to convoy vessels to Galveston. From Galveston she sailed for the Mexican coast and soon afterwards was, as has already been related, blockaded in the mouth of the Rio Grande by the Mexican brig of war, Vencedor del Alamo. 45 From this situation she was relieved in July, and soon thereafter was very effectually assisting, in her turn, in the blockade of Matamoras, as ordered by the proclamation of President Burnet.
The following item relative to the Brutus appears in a New Orleans paper the following month: 46
Extract from the log-book of brig St John, arrived yesterday August 3d, in lat. 26 36, long. 87 25, was boarded by the first officer of the Texian armed schr. Brutus, Captain Hurd. The B. has been on a cruise for nearly three months, was in want of provisions—could not supply her with any article except sugar, being short. The officer told Captain Parmly, of the St. John, that the Brutus had a few days before taken a prize and sent her into Galveston—that she had on board $40,000 in specie, and a valuable cargo [?] 47
But a short time later, when the president wished to order a descent on Matamoras for the purpose of capturing military stores known to be there, he learned that Captain Hurd had, without orders, sailed for New York. Hurd's reason for this has never been ascertained. 48 While in the port of New York, between September, 1836, and February, 1837, the Brutus was in danger of being sold to defray her expenses; but, through the agency of Samuel Swartwout, she was freed from debt at the same time that he liberated the Invincible. 49 In March she sailed for Texas; and on the 15th of April, 1837, she again came to anchor in a Texas port, but without provisions and with the larger part of her crew missing. 50
The Independence having been recently captured by the Mexicans, and the officers imprisoned, the Senate and House of Representatives, on April 29, 1837, passed a resolution instructing the president to send the Brutus and the Invincible to Brazos Santiago to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. On May 31, President Houston vetoed the resolution and in a lengthy message pointed out that there was nothing to gain and much to lose by sending the only two remaining war vessels on such an errand; that the prisoners would, on the approach of such vessels, very likely be carried to the interior, and treated more harshly; that any kind of a neutral or unarmed vessel would be better employed to carry such commissioners; and that, finally, he would veto the resolution, if for no other reason, because he considered it an unwarranted interference on the part of the legislative department with his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief of the navy. 51
In June the Brutus cruised with the Invincible along the Mexican coast, with the secretary of the navy on board, as has been told already. 52
In a letter describing this cruise to the secretary of the navy, 53 Captain Boylan says that on July 22 the two vessels captured the Mexican schooner Union, and a few days later the Adventure and the Telegraph—the former of which was burned, though the latter was sent into port for adjudication. On August 12 they captured the Correo, on the 17th the Rafaelita, which, as the Correo Mexicano, had been commanded in 1835 by Lieutenant T. M. Thompson, and soon afterwards the Abispa.
In a letter reviewing the cruise of the Brutus and Invincible, the secretary of the navy declared that their brilliant exploits were attributable to the skill, courage, and determination of the officers and crews; and that, if Congress would only extend its fostering protection and support to the navy, the names of Geo. W. Wheelright, Henry L. Thompson, and Jas. D. Boylan would "stand brightly conspicuous in the pages of our national history." 54
What followed this hopeful prediction is an illustration of the irony of history; Captain Boylan was ordered by the acting secretary of the navy to superintend the collection of evidence concerning the charges preferred against Captain Thompson and the other officers of the Invincible, 55 while the president himself took in charge the head of the navy and secured his removal, as has been shown. In studying the records concerning the trial of these officers, one finds it difficult to believe that they were treated with justice. The one, without being found guilty, was dismissed from service; and what might have been the fortune of the other, but for the fact that death prevented his trial, must remain uncertain. The Brutus did much to help the Republic of Texas in its infancy, and they who served aboard her should ever be remembered by Texans with that degree of respect and admiration to which the heroic pioneers, be their services on sea or land, are entitled.
VIII. THE INDEPENDENCE.
In the study of the beginnings of the Texas navy the incidents connected with the purchase of the Independence have already been recounted. 56 On January 10, 1836, commanded by Captain Charles E. Hawkins, 57 she began her first cruise. From New Orleans she went to Galveston, and then proceeded along the Mexican coast, capturing and destroying a considerable number of small craft, with all material on board that could be used to the injury of Texas. Captain Hawkins, however, always respected the private property of the Mexicans. The Independence returned to New Orleans to refit, and soon after, March 12, 1836, Hawkins received his commission from the General Convention as captain of the Independence. He was senior captain of the Texas navy, and President Burnet, with the consent of his cabinet, appointed him commodore. 58 The Independence thus became the flagship of the fleet. Captain Hawkins was present at the seat of government when he was commissioned, and at once started for Matagorda to join his vessel for a cruise. On the 21st of March, in company with Captain William A. Hurd, he passed through San Felipe, and the editor of the Telegraph and Texas Register 59 said of them:
. . . The chivalry and determined character of these gentlemen is so well known that we are impatient to have them meet the force of the tyrant. Liberty and laurels will then waive over tyranny and defeat.
Arrived at Matagorda, Commodore Hawkins reorganized his corps of officers, 60 and March 20th the Independence started on her second cruise.
After destroying a number of small Mexican vessels during the earlier part of April, the Independence became engaged with two brigs of war, the Urrea and the Bravo, and an unknown schooner, of which the two brigs carried together twenty guns, while the Independence carried only eight. Before beginning the engagement, Commodore Hawkins asked his men if he should do so and was answered with cheers. He then made the attack, but the Mexican vessels soon drew off. The Independence then waited, expecting them to renew the fight; but they did not, and she sailed to Galveston, hoping to return with the Invincible and the Brutus and to capture the Mexican vessels. 61 The plan, however, was not carried out. The Texan government, believing that a descent upon Galveston Island by the Mexicans was to be expected, detained the Independence; to assist in the fortification of the island. 62
While the officers and crew of the Independence were anxiously on the lookout from day to day, to be ready for the reputed invasion by sea, the battle of San Jacinto was fought and won by Texas on the 21st day of April, 1836. The news was brought to Galveston by Robert J. Calder, who had commanded a company in the battle, and Benjamin C. Franklin, who was judge of the admiralty court of the district of Brazos, but had fought as a private at San Jacinto. They made the trip to Galveston in a row-boat, and arrived on the 28th. Captain William S. Brown, of the Invincible, was the first to hail them with the question, "What news?" The account of what followed is taken from the historian Thrall, who had it from Calder himself: 63
"When I told him, his men," says Calder, "literally lifted us on board, and in the midst of the wildest excitement Brown took off his hat and gave us three cheers, and threw it as far as he could into the bay. He then shouted to his men, 'Turn loose Long Tom.' After three discharges, he suddenly stopped and said: 'Hold on, boys, or old Hawkins (the senior commodore) will put me in irons again."' Declining to wait for anything to eat, they were treated to the best liquor on the ship. They entered the captain's gig, and with four stalwart seamen started for the harbor. The Independence, the flagship of Commodore Hawkins, was anchored between them and the landing. As they approached the ship, Commodore Hawkins, with his glass, recognized Franklin and Calder, and began eagerly hailing for the news. When they were sufficiently near to be understood, a scene of excitement ensued beggaring description; and now it spread from vessel to vessel, reached groups on the land, and the welkin rang with shout after shout, until the people were hoarse. Hawkins fired thirteen guns. We suppose this was for the old thirteen colonies, as Hawkins had been in the U. S. navy. When the Commodore learned that they had been fasting for twenty-four hours, he had a sumptuous dinner prepared, and the party did not need much urging to stay and partake of the hospitalities of the old salt. They were staying a little too long, and finally Hawkins hinted that they had better go ashore and report to the President.
President Burnet, who was a great stickler for official prerogative, was a little miffed that everybody on the island should have heard the glorious news before he was notified of the battle and its result; and when the party reached the President's marquee they were received, as Calder says, "with stately courtesy which at first we did not understand, thinking a little more cordiality and less formality would have suited the case and the messengers. This, however (continues our narrative) gradually subsided, and the president, before the interview closed, treated us with that grace and genial courtesy for which, throughout life, he was ever distinguished.
The president hastened to the battlefield; but having arrived there, he thought best to return to the coast. Accordingly, on the 5th of May he and his Cabinet and General Houston, with Santa Anna, Cos, and other Mexican prisoners, took passage on the Yellowstone back to Galveston Island. No accommodations being found there, Santa Anna was transferred to the Independence; and, when President Burnet and the Cabinet came on board, sail was made on the 8th for Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos. Velasco was the great seaport of the Republic at that time. Arrived at Velasco, President Santa Anna entered into negotiations with his captors, which resulted in a treaty; and one of the stipulations was that he was to be sent to Vera Cruz to carry it into effect. We have already noted how he was taken from the Invincible, 64 which was to carry him and the commissioners to Vera Cruz.
Before this occurred, however, the Independence left Velasco for New Orleans. It reached that city in seven days, on June 13, and, below the Point, announced its arrival by Hawkins' favorite salute of thirteen guns. 65 Peter W. Grayson and James Collinsworth were on board as passengers. They were clothed with full power to negotiate with the United States Government for recognition of the independence of Texas, and left the next day for Washington for that purpose. The Independence cruised thence as far as the mouth of the Rio Grande, and for some reason, possibly for supplies, returned to New Orleans on August 3, 1836. 66 It reported the blockade of Matamoras an effective one, three Texan vessels being on guard.
On the 12th of August, the Independence spoke the schooner of war Terrible at the northeast pass of the Mississippi, and informed that vessel that she was on her way to Matamoras to assist the Invincible in the blockade; when she arrived, however, the latter had left for New York. With the Invincible and the Brutus in New York, and the Liberty detained in New Orleans, Texas now found herself in momentary expectation of an invasion with only the Independence and four small privateers available for the defense of her coast. 67
Toward the end of the year Commodore Hawkins again sailed for New Orleans to refit; and in January, 1837, he died of smallpox at Madam Hale's residence on Canal Street. 68 While he was only thirty-six years old at the time, he had had a varied experience, and had made a favorable impression upon every one with whom he came into contact. When a mere youth he entered the United States navy as a midshipman and was soon promoted to a lieutenancy; but, being of a restless disposition, on the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution he resigned his commission and entered the Mexican service with Commodore Porter with the rank of post-captain. Off Cuba he did excellent service and became a terror to the Spanish shipping. He resigned his position at the end of the revolution and in 1834 was a popular captain on the Chattahoochee River. In the fall of 1835 he joined Mexía's ill-fated expedition as aide-de-camp and after its failure came to Texas. 69 He presented himself to Governor Smith, and received from him the following letter: 70
Executive Department of Texas. To Stephen P. Austin, B. T Archer and Wm H Wharton, Esgrs— Agents of the People of Texas to the United States of America. Gentlemen
This will probably he handed you by Majr Charles E. Hawkins, a gentleman whose experience and ability in naval affairs would render his services acceptable in any govt—and more particularly in ours, which is just emerging from chaos. The zeal and patriotism with which Majr Hawkins has espoused our cause entitles him to the highest commendation. He has identified himself with us by taking the oath and performing the necessary requisites to become a citizen. I confidently hope that you will properly appreciate the worth and abilities of Majr Hawkins and assign him such duties in fitting out our Navy as his experience and abilities will warrant and also, such a command in it as his zeal patriotism and your better judgments may direct. I am Gentlemen,
Your obt servant HENRY SMITH Governor. San Filipe de Austin, Dec 20, 1835
The commission appointed him to the command of the Independence. Soon afterward he was appointed commodore by President Burnet; and, holding that distinguished title at the head of a small but successful navy, he died in the discharge of his duty and in favor with his countrymen.
Owing to Commodore Hawkins's death, there were some changes in the official staff of the Independence; and, when she left New Orleans on what was destined to be her last cruise, April 10, 1837, George Wheelwright was captain, and John W. Taylor, J. T. K.. Lothrop, Robert Cassin, and W. P. Bradburn were lieutenants. 71 A number of passengers were on board, among whom were Col. Wm. H. Wharton, minister to the United States, then on his return to Texas; Captain Darocher, Dr. Richard Cochran, and George Estis, a lieutenant in the Texas navy. They had smooth sailing until the morning of April 17, when the Independence was attacked by two Mexican war vessels; and after a running fight of four hours she was forced to surrender.
Texans who saw only the close of the fight, and were not acquainted with the details, conceived at first that the Independence had struck without a blow; and it was not until an official report of it was sent from Brazos Santiago by the officer in command, and corroborated from other sources, that the Texans would speak of the affair. The following sentiments 72 expressed the voice of the people before and after the official account arrived:
We rejoice that we are at length enabled to furnish the official account of the capture of the Independence. We have hitherto forborne offering any comment upon the former vague accounts of this transaction, as we felt confident that many important facts had been overlooked which would completely exculpate our gallant tars from any disparaging imputation. We confess that when the first news of this combat arrived, containing the intellegence that the Independence had surrendered to two Mexican brigs without having received any injury, and her crew unhurt, a flash of shame and indignation mantled on our cheeks and the exclamation, "30 or 40 cowards and an old hulk are no loss," almost involuntarily fell from our lips; better we thought it would have been if this crew dauntlessly nailing this unsullied flag to the masthead, hurling their mortal defiance to the groveling foe—had fought on, and on, shouting the stern war cry of "victory or death," until the star of Texas, like the "star of day," went down in glory beneath the blood red billows, where foaming crests were singing to the last exulting cry of an unconquered band of freemen.
But the following statements have fully convinced us that we did injustice to these gallant tars, in harboring even for a moment a thought so unworthy of them and of the Texian name.
Far from blaming them for this surrender, we rejoice that they may yet be preserved to ride through the battle storm which shall rend the tyrant banner from the mast it disgraces. This desperate and protracted conflict will long hold a prominent place in the annals of Texas, and like the fall of the Alamo, it shall inspire our children with ennobling sentiments. No flush of shame shall redden their youthful cheeks as they read the page which declares that thirty-one Texians six only of these seamen, in a slow sailing armed schooner, mounting only six sixes and one long nine fought four hours and a half, two Mexican armed brigs, one mounting "16 medium eighteens" with a crew of 140 men; the other mounting "8 brass 12 pounders" and one long eighteen midship, with a crew of 120 men! One is astonished in reflecting that this little vessel was not annihilated by the first broadside from her powerful opponents, her dauntless little crew appear to have been preserved almost by a miracle, and it is cheering to reflect that their heroic conduct has furnished new proofs that our national escutcheon yet remains bright and untarnished. True, the flag of our country has once been struck on the stormy billows of the Gulf, but like the Roman eagle stooping before the sword of Epirus, it has wrung from the abashed conquerer the bitter confession, "Such men are invincible."
The official report 73 of the battle, written by Lieutenant J. W. Taylor, who succeeded Captain Wheelwright in command after the latter was wounded, is as follows:
Brazos de St Iago April 21st 1837 To the Honorable S Rhoads Fisher, Secretary of the Navy
Sir—I have the honor hereby to transmit you an account of the late engagement between our government vessel Independence and two of the enemy's brigs of war, one the Libertador of sixteen eighteen pounders, 140 men; the other, the Vincedor del Alamo, mounting six twelve-pounders, and a long eighteen amidships, with one hundred men. Captain Wheelright having during the action received a very dangerous wound, the duty of sending this melancholy communication has devolved upon me, towit:
On the morning of the 17th, in latitude 29 deg. N., longitude 95 deg. 20 min. W., at 5 h. 30 in A. M. discovered two sail about 6 miles to windward; immediately beat to quarters; upon making us out they bore down for us with all sail set, signalized, and then spoke each other. At 9 h. 30 m., the Vincedor del Alamo bore away, getting in our wake to rake us, the Libertador keeping well on our weather quarter, we immediately hoisted our colors at the peak. The enemy in a few minutes hoisting theirs, the Libertador on our weather quarter edging down for us all the time, till within about one mile, gave us a broadside, without wounding any of our men or doing other damage; the fire was at the same time returned from our weather battery, consisting of three sixes and the pivot, a long nine, the wind blowing fresh, and from our extreme lowness our lee guns were continually under water, and even the weather ones occasionally dipped their muzzles quite under. The firing on both sides was thus briskly kept up for nearly two hours, the raking shots from the Vincedor in our wake nearly all passing over our heads, as yet sustaining but trifling injury; at 9 h. 30 m. the Libertador on our weather quarter, bore away and run down till within two cables length of us, luffed and gave us a broadside of round shot, grape and canister, while all this time the brig Vincedor in our wake continued her raking fire. Notwithstanding this we still continued on our course for Velasco, maintaining a hot action for full 15 minutes, with some effect upon her sails and rigging. The Libertador now hauled her wind, widening her distance, apparently wishing to be further from us, when she again opened her fire, which was on our part kept up without cessation. At 11 A. M. she again bore away, run down close to our quarter and gave us another broadside of round shot, grape and canister, which told plainly on our sails and rigging; as before she again hauled her wind to her former position, and played us briskly with round shot, one of which struck our hull, going through our copper and buried itself in her side. At 11 h. 30 m. A. M. a round shot passed through our quarter gallery, against which Captain Wheelright was leaning, inflicted a severe wound on his right side, knocked the speaking trumpet out of his hand, terribly lacerating three of his fingers; he was conveyed below to the surgeon, leaving orders with me to continue the action. We still held on our course in our respective positions, keeping up an incessant fire, for full half hour, when the enemy signalized; then the Vincedor in our wake luffed up and gained well on our weather quarter; at that time the Libertador, on our weather beam bore away and ran down under our stern within pistol shot, our decks being completely exposed to her whole broadside, and at the same time open to the raking fire of the Vincedor on our weather quarter. In this situation, further resistance being utterly fruitless, and our attempts to beach the vessel ineffectual, I received orders, from Captain Wheelright to surrender, which was done.
The only damage done to our vessel, was that of parting some of our rigging, splitting the sails, a round shot in her hull, and the quarter gallery, which was shot away. Captain Wheelright was the only person wounded on board. We shot away the Libertador's main top-gallant mast, unshipped one of her gun carriages, took a chip off the after part of the foremast, killed two men, and cut her sails and rigging severely. We were immediately boarded by capt Davis of the Libertador, who pledged his honor, and that of Commodore Lopez, who was then on board, that we should receive honorable treatment as prisoners of war, as officers and gentlemen, and as soon as an exchange could be effected, we should be sent home. The kind attention and courtesy we have received from Commodore Lopez, Captain Davis and officers has been truly great for which we tender them our sincere thanks, likewise Captain Thompson of the schooner of war Bravo has extended every civility and kindness. We leave this place tomorrow for Matamoras: what disposition will be made of us I know not.
Besides the officers and crew of our vessel, we had on board as passengers, the honorable Wm. H. Wharton, Mr. Levy, Surgeon T. N., captain Darocher, T. A., 74 Mr. Thayer, of Boston, Mr. Wooster, English subject, George Mess, acting lieutenant T. N. and Mr. Henry Childs.
I remain very respectfully, your obedient servent,
J. W. Taylor, Lieut. [P. S.] Our crew consisted of 31 men and boys, besides the officers; out of this number there were six seamen, the balance not knowing one part of the ship from the other, and it was with great difficulty that we obtained this crew while in New Orleans.
Tennison's Journal mentions one incident connected with the surrender, not referred to in the official account. He says that upon Davis's demand to surrender Taylor said to him: "Sir, I am your prisoner, but my sword you shall never receive," so he threw it overboard. 75
The surrender took place within plain view of Velasco, and the whole town, including the secretary of the navy, S. Rhoads Fisher, turned out to see the struggle. Their criticism of the government, for not keeping its vessels well manned and provisioned to guard the Texas coast, instead of leaving them in New Orleans for months trying to get outfitted, was the spur which impelled Fisher to give the matter his entire attention, and to take passage on the Invincible a few weeks after this, in order to give the Mexicans battle. His efforts, and their results have been noticed in the history of these two vessels.
The Independence and the prisoners were carried to Brazos Santiago by the victorious vessels. 76 The Mexican papers state that the Independence was bravely defended before she was taken. Their notices of the capture include also the information that one of her guns was an eight pounder, lost by the Mexicans some time since at San Jacinto. It was considered by the Texans one of their chief trophies, and bore the initials of many of the principal ladies of Texas. The principal officers of the Independence received the kindest of treatment through the special orders of President Bustamente. For the first three months of their imprisonment the crew were treated rather harshly, but after that they had no complaints to make. For many favors the officers and crew felt especially grateful to the president, to Commodore López, and to Captains Martínez, Davis, and Thomas Thompson. Through the instrumentality of Captain Thompson, Captain Wheelwright and Dr. Levy, with the consent of all the officers of the Independence, made their escape early in July, 77 Captain Thompson accompanying them, and leaving the Mexican service to join the Texas navy. 78 After arriving in Texas, Thompson was appointed post-captain at Galveston, where Alex. Thompson, the chief hydrographer for Texas, had selected a suitable site for a navy yard 79 for the Republic. The interest that the Texan Congress took in the release of the prisoners, and President Houston's attitude toward the effort have already been noticed. 80 In his message of November 21, 1837, 81 Houston recites the unsuccessful attempt of the government, through the agency of John A. Wharton, to secure an exchange; but consoles himself with the fact that some of the prisoners escaped and that President Bustamente set the others free in October. Before learning of their release, Congress, spurred on by Houston, passed a joint resolution authorizing reprisals upon Mexico; but this was withdrawn upon their arrival at Galveston, November 4.
On December 14, 1837, Congress appropriated $250,000 for back pay of officers, soldiers, and sailors, and a joint resolution of December 18 authorized the auditor to settle with Thomas Brennan, purser of the Independence, the claims of the officers and crew of that vessel. 82
There was one other vessel connected with the Texan naval establishment. Her mission seems to have been a peaceful one. This was the receiving vessel Potomac. She was purchased from Captain L. M. Hitchcock, 83 formerly a lieutenant on the Invincible, for $8000. Later, by recommendation of the secretary of the navy, she became a pilot boat at Galveston.
Here ends the history of the first navy of Texas. As early as 1836, however, the Republic of Texas was anxious to have a stronger navy, and Congress passed favorably on measures for procuring a new and stronger fleet, composed principally of steam vessels. The account of this movement, the acquisition of the vessels, and their history, is distinctly separate from that of the first navy of the Republic, and it will be given next.
In March, 1836, when Texas was engaged in a life and death struggle with Mexico, and when the Texans were particularly anxious to gain the good will of the government and the people of the United States, an event occurred which might have resulted in alienating the sympathy of that nation had the Texan authorities not taken immediate steps to correct matters. This was the capture of the brig Pocket, a vessel sailing under American colors.
An account of the capture was given by Alcee La Branche, the United States chargé d'affaires to Texas, in a letter which he wrote to R. A. Trion, the Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas, on November 29, 1837. He says:
On March 20th. of 1836, the brig Pocket, sailing under american colors and belonging to citizens of the United States, left New Orleans for Matamoras. On the voyage she was captured by the Texan armed schooner Invincible, commanded by Jeremiah Brown, and carried to Galveston, and her cargo appropriated without trial or condemnation by persons acting under the authority of the Texan government. The captain and the crew, with the exception of the second mate, who was still more severely delt with, were detained nineteen days at that place, after which they were released and suffered to embark for New Orleans. Permission was given them to take such articles of private property as belonged to them, but after a general search they were unable to find anything. Their clothing, hats, books, quadrants, charts were all missing, having been already secured by the captors. Previous to this the passengers were transferred on board a Texan armed schooner called Brutus, where they were stripped and searched by a person named Damon, who acted as lieutenant, and four of them, viz., Hill, Hogan, Murje, and Campo were immediately put in double irons by him. One of the passengers, Taylor, had his trunk broken open by this Damon and four hundred and ninety-seven dollars ($497) together with other property taken therefrom, amounting in value in all to eight hundred dollars ($800). When he desired to obtain a simple receipt for the money alone he was put in double irons.
Hogan and Campo received one hundred lashes with a cat-o-nine tails, stretched on an eighteen-pound cannon and were threatened by Hurd, acting as captain of the Brutus, and Damon, that they should be hanged; the foreyard was accordingly loosed and braced for that purpose, and the inoffending victims were actually brought on deck with ropes around their necks and tortured with their impending fate. Somers and Taylor were kept in irons, the former for the space of twenty-five days, and the latter for seven weeks. At the expiration of these periods, instead of being released, they were forcibly detained, without any legal pretext or excuse for upwards of four months and seven months separately, when they were permitted to depart for the United States. Somers during all this period was compelled to perform various work, such as unloading vessels, etc., and had all his clothing and instruments of navigation taken from him. 84
In the same letter, La Branche also gives an account of the seizure of another American vessel, the Durango, which at about the same time as the capture of the Pocket, was seized at Matagorda and pressed into the service of Texas by the orders of John A. Wharton, adjutant general of the Texas army, and William S. Brown, commander of the Texan armed schooner Liberty. The claims for both vessels were usually urged together, and when matters were finally settled, provision was made for the payment of an indemnity for both together.
La Branche's account gives only one side of the affair; it is also somewhat prejudiced. The treatment of the crew and passengers was not at all as brutal as he made it appear; in fact, Captain Howes of the Pocket, the first officer, and several of the crew made an affidavit in New Orleans to the effect that while they were under the control of Captain Brown they were treated with kindness and respect. Alexander Humphrey, a passenger on the Pocket, made a statement to the same effect to William Bryan, the Texan agent at New Orleans. He also stated that no part of the cargo went to the crew of the Invincible. 85
The true facts in the case seem to have been somewhat as follows: Captain Brown, in the exercise of the belligerent rights of Texas, was cruising against her enemies and attempting to enforce the blockade of the Mexican ports. The Pocket was bound for Matamoras, a Mexican port, and when she fell in with the Invincible her captain refused to show his papers. Captain Brown then boarded the brig, compelled the officers to deliver up the papers 86 and examined the cargo. The examination disclosed the fact that the Pocket was sailing under false papers and that the cargo did not correspond with the manifest and papers showing her clearance from the custom house at New Orleans. There seems to be no doubt that the cargo consisted of contraband of war, this fact being clearly brought out on the trial of the crew of the Invincible. There is some conflict of statement as to the articles composing the cargo. It is certain that the Pocket was carrying provisions that were intended for the Mexican army, 87 and Captain Brown stated that powder, ammunition, and other military stores were found on the brig. 88
But this was not all; a further examination of the papers revealed dispatches to Santa Anna, containing information that would aid him in his operations against Texas. He was informed of the force on each of the Texan vessels, and instructed as to the best mode of attacking the Texans on land. 89 There was also included "a chart of the whole coast, minutely and beautifully laid down—all surroundings, etc." 90 On board the Pocket were also several persons who were in the Mexican service, among them the notorious Thompson, who had only a short time before been imprisoned at New Orleans on the charge of piracy. 91 This was the same Thompson who, while endeavoring to enforce the Mexican revenue laws, had been so insolent to the Texans at Anahuac. In September, 1835, he attacked the schooner San Felipe, a vessel owned by citizens of the United States, but was himself captured by the San Felipe and carried to New Orleans to answer to the charge of piracy. With him at the time of the capture was a lieutenant of the Mexican army, Don Carlos Ocampo. 92 They were released on January 15, 1836, but Thompson was immediately rearrested by his creditors. 93 But their affairs were apparently soon straightened out; and both were returning to Mexico on the Pocket when it was captured. With them were Hogan and Taylor, officers of the Mexican navy. 94 This probably explains how the papers describing the coast of Texas came to be found on the Pocket—Thompson may have collected the information contained in them while he was stationed at Anahuac.
The conduct of the Texans after the capture was set forth by Samuel Ellis in a communication to the editor of the New Orleans Bee. He said: 95
You assert that the cargo was American property and actually belonged to Lizardi & Co. until delivered. 96 The evidence of one of the firm, given before the examining court, 97 was that the cargo on shipment was by the order of and charged to Rubio & Co.; that the premium was charged to them and that they considered the cargo at their risk. That such was the understanding is evident from the clause of the charter which expressly stipulates that the brig shall carry a signal generally known as that of the acknowledged agents of Santa Anna, which signal was to be furnished by Lizardi & Co. As further proof of the character of the vessel and the purpose for which she was engaged we have the evidence of three witnesses on the trial that Captain Howes acknowledged to them that he was engaged after his arrival at Matamoras to, transport Mexican troops to Texas. . . .
On the arrival of the Pocket at Galveston she was, by the evidence of the captain and crew, given over to the Texan authorities and the allegations in the protest, 98 which carry upon their face the appearance of oppression, were made under the direction of, and by the order of the Texian government, and being out of the jurisdiction of the United States, and perpetrated by a government de facto, that government is alone responsible. Almost every allegation made in the protest is proved to be false . . . by the proof given on the trial. Several witnesses deposed as to the extreme delicacy used in the examination of the baggage of the passengers, and that American property was in every instance respected. So far as regards the treatment of the crew while on Galveston Island, being put into a tent on the beach, and being short of provisions, the president of Texas was at the same time living with his family under the same shelter and equally destitute. The refusal to admit him on board his own vessel was caused by his own conduct, of which ample evidence can be given.
In regard to the money handed by Mr. Taylor to the Secretary of the Navy, and by him handed to the purser, the Secretary was not the person to receipt for it. Mr Taylor being impertinent and troublesome, was ordered forward in charge of a marine, but was not put in irons, the money was held subject to his order, and has been, or will be, restored to him when demanded.
The second mate Somers, was one of the passengers put on board at New Orleans; he held a commission as Lieutenant in the Mexican navy, and was furnished with funds by the Mexican Consul, as was proved by evidence on the trial, his name was not on the roll of the crew, and he was well known as an enemy and a spy. The other passengers, excepting those well known to be Mexican officers, were treated with attention and respect, and the amount of their passage in the Pocket, and in the Congress to New Orleans, together with all damage sustained by them has been paid by the government.
The capture of the Pocket, whatever the results thereof, was a very fortunate event for the Texan army. The cargo, consisting mainly of provisions, was "a most timely assistance to the victors of the field of San Jacinto, who, short of provisions for themselves, were thereby enabled to retain the prisoners taken at that decisive victory." 99
When the news of the capture reached the United States it caused much excitement, especially at New Orleans. Some looked upon the act as one of piracy. William H. Wharton, who was then in the United States as a member of the first commission sent out by Texas, was very much wrought up over the matter. On April 9, 1836, he wrote to the government of Texas, saying: "There is some talk of piracy having been committed by one of our vessels. In the name of God let the act be disclaimed and the offenders promptly punished if such be the fact. I called on the Secretary of State this morning. He had not heard it officially." 100 The charge of piracy, however, was soon discredited, 101 but the affair brought home to the Americans the insecurity of their commerce on the Gulf. The New Orleans Bee voiced the sentiments of those merchants who were not so much concerned over the struggle between Texas and Mexico as they were over the security of their commodities. A few quotations from the Bee will show how they viewed the matter:
It is high time that American commerce in the Gulf of Mexico should be protected from both Texas and Mexico, and unless the government interpose the evils will be very serious. . . . Our commerce should be protected from all. 102 . . .
The lesson . . . should not be lost on our Texas friends. It is neither the duty nor the interest of Texas to interfere with Mexican commerce. . . . As much as we love Texas, we love America more, and can not connive at any violation of American rights and commerce by Texas. 103 . . .
We have been shown a declaration signed by two captains of Texas vessels, Brown of the Invincible and Hurd of the Brutus, that they do not purpose hereafter to attack an American vessel or any ship belonging to American citizens. This was necessary to calm the apprehensions of the public, as the insurance companies and merchants of extensive trade with Mexico were at first firmly resolved to send to Europe for goods ordered from Mexico and have them shipped to Mexico in French and English bottoms as the American flag was no longer respected.
Whether the action of Texas is or is not piracy, they should forego it in order to secure the energies of their friends and prevent the efforts of their enemies. 104 . . .
We are in favor of Texas liberty but not in favor of Texas capturing American vessels. 105 . . .
Of what use is the Star Spangled Banner if it can not protect us from the depredations of a petty state creeping into existence? 106
William Bryan, the general agent of Texas at New Orleans, in a letter which he wrote to the president of Texas on May 14, 1836, shows the gravity of the situation. He says: "The result of the whole trouble will satisfy you as to the policy of invading the American flag. It would require but a few such instances as that of the Pocket to turn the government of the United States against you and stop every expedition in favor of Texas." 107
1. In Texas.—The first question that arose in Texas related to the disposition that should be made of the prize. The exigency required the action of a tribunal of admiralty jurisdiction. As Texas had declared her independence only a month before, the government was still in some confusion, and the machinery of justice had not yet been put in working order. Robert Triplett, in his letter to Burnet of April 9, had recommended a decree establishing an admiralty court. 108 But the government had ere then acted by establishing at Brazoria a district court with admiralty jurisdiction. On April 12 Burnet wrote to Collinsworth:
A prize has been brought to Galveston by Captain Brown. The government has passed a decree to establish the district court. . . . We want an able judge in the district where the trial must take place. Will you then accept the office of district judge for the district of Brazoria? 109
But it seems that Collinsworth did not accept the position, or on June 15 we find Burnet writing to Judge Franklin as follows:
The ordinance establishing the district court for the district of Brazoria and your appointment under that ordinance were measures produced by the present exigency of the country which requires the action of a tribunal of admiralty jurisdiction. The capture of the Pocket produced that exigency, and the principal object of the early organization of your court was that the questions arising from the capture might be promptly and equitably determined, for it was known that the capture would produce great excitement in the United States. Several weeks have elapsed and no proceedings have as yet been had on that important subject. The character of Texas and her interests are daily suffering and the evils admit of no relief but by a just adjudication at your bar. 110
Thus there was much delay in having the trial, this letter being written almost three months after the capture of the Pocket; but Judge Franklin was not responsible for this, for on June 4, Wm. H. Jack wrote to J. K. West:
Owing to unavoidable accidents, it has been impossible to have a trial as to the prize Pocket. It is likely to be determined soon. 111
Just when the adjudication took place is not known, but it was probably some time in the latter part of June or the early part of July. It is known, however, that, as a result of the trial, the Pocket was adjudged a lawful prize. On October 27, 1837, R. A. Irion, the secretary of state of Texas, wrote to William Bryan:
Shortly after my note to you relative to the prize brig Pocket, I saw Ex-president Burnet, who informed me that the adjudication took place before Judge Franklin, who had been appointed admiralty judge, and that the court condemned the brig as a lawful prize. . . . There is no doubt of the decree having been made. 112
On what grounds it was condemned is not known, but from the character of the cargo and the papers found on the Pocket, the step was amply justifiable.
2. In the United States.—In the meantime the United States authorities had taken up the matter, for, as we have seen, the capture was considered an act of piracy. After the Invincible had brought her prize to Galveston, she proceeded to New Orleans, but owing to the excitement over the capture of the Pocket she could not remain there with safety. On April 18, 1836, Bryan wrote to Burnet:
We have been compelled to order the Invincible back to Galveston; the capture of the brig Pocket is considered by the authorities as an act of piracy. The friends of Texas are among those in authority, and information was given me of the intention of the marshal to take the vessel and arrest the crew. We acted instantly and sent down a supply of provisions and ordered the vessel back to Galveston. We presume she has escaped. Captain Brown is out of the city and will probably not be able to join his vessel. Should she be detained, the cause of Texas will have received the severest blow she has yet met and the agency will be involved in trouble it will be hard to evade. Our situation with all the wealth and power of New Orleans arrayed against us is one of peril and danger. 113
But the Invincible did not get away. Commodore Dallas of the United States Navy, at the request of the insurers of the cargo of the Pocket, 114 sent out the sloop of war Warren to seize her. This was done on May 1, and the crew of the Invincible was lodged in jail by the United States marshal, and held to answer to the charge of piracy. 115 Bryan at once employed the ablest counsel he could secure 116 and had the Texans brought to an examining trial as soon as possible. 117 An examination was held on May 5, but for want of evidence the trial was postponed several days. 118
In the meantime the seamen were confined in a prison which a Texan sympathizer characterized as "a dungeon, the exact model of the 'Black Hole.'" 119
The trial lasted three days, 120 and on the night of the third day the crew was liberated. Justice Rawle, 121 who tried the case, did not think there was sufficient evidence to justify a trial by jury. It appeared that no criminal act had been committed by the prisoners, as it was shown that the Pocket contained contraband articles that were intended for the Mexican army in Texas under Santa Anna. No act of malignant hostility had been committed and, of course, no piracy. 122 After their release, the crew was cheered at every step and had a supper given them and free admission into the theater. 123 This kind treatment showed that the mass of the people in New Orleans was not turned against the Texans by reason of this unfortunate occurrence. There was an attempt on the part of the prosecutors to have the Invincible again seized and taken to Key West for a new trial, but nothing came of this. 124
The Texan sympathizers alleged that the imprisonment of the crew was brought about through the influence of Santa Anna's friends in New Orleans. They said that Lizardi and Co., who shipped the cargo, were the known sub-agents of Santa Anna; they were strengthened in this belief by the fact that the cargo was consigned to one Rubio, who was said to be Santa Anna's general agent and banker. 125 It was also alleged that the Louisiana State Marine and Fire Insurance Company, which had insured the cargo for Lizardi and Co., was attempting to aid the Mexican cause, for it was at their request that the crew of the Invincible was seized. It was pointed out that the insurers would not need to pay a cent of insurance if they could prove that the cargo was contraband of war. But the company did not attempt to establish that fact; instead they sent to Pensacola to get a United States warship to seize the Invincible, and this, too, when they knew that a civil officer could just as easily have taken charge of the vessel. The inference, therefore, was that they did not wish to have the fact established that the cargo was contraband, and were attempting to aid the Mexican cause. 126
But such was not the view taken by all. The New Orleans Bee for May 16 has the following to say relative to the matter:
The Mobile Chronicle says the Invincible was captured at the instance of Santa Anna's agent in this city. Santa Anna has no agent in this city; nor has the Mexican government any commercial agent here. Lizardi & Co. are not agents; they deal with merchants only. In the case of the Pocket, they received an order from a Mexican merchant; they were not bound to ascertain the purpose to which the goods were to be put. If there were any articles on board which did not appear in the manifest of the cargo shipped by them, to the captain, not them, belongs the responsibility. The goods belonged to Lizardi & Co. until delivered to the consignees. 127 Hence it can not be said that they were Mexican goods captured in a neutral bottom, but goods belonging to American citizens was captured in an American vessel. Why should Commodore Dallas be assailed for taking a vessel that captured an American vessel with American goods? Why should the insurance company be assailed for requesting that action on the part of Dallas in order to indemnify themselves and prevent future occurrences of a like nature? Why should Lizardi & Co. be assailed for sending goods on their own account to a Mexican merchant?
A few days after the liberation of the crew of the Invincible, the officers and crew of the Pocket arrived in New Orleans. Feeling was again stirred up and the Texans would have been arrested a second time and brought to trial but for the action of the Texan agents, William Bryan, and Thomas Toby & Brother, who bought the Pocket and paid the damages sustained by the officers and crew. On May 14, Bryan wrote to the president of Texas:
With the assistance of our friends, Thomas Toby and Brother, we purchased the brig and paid her charter and demurrage. We have also been obliged to pay all the damage sustained by the officers and crew, amounting to eight thousand dollars ($8000). This measure was absolutely necessary to save the vessel from the charge of piracy and maintain the public feeling toward the cause. . . . The Pocket now stands as the property of Thomas Toby and Brother. 128
The purchase of the Pocket took place on May 10; Elijah Howes, the master of the vessel, on that day, in consideration of the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars paid him by the Tobys, Bryan, and Hall, agents for Texas, executed a bill of sale of the Pocket to T. Toby and Brother. 129 He was also paid fifteen hundred dollars for damages on account of the detention of the Pocket, and gave a receipt for that amount on May 10. On the next day he also gave a receipt for one hundred dollars for various articles of personal property taken from him by the officers and men left in charge of the Pocket by the government of Texas. Alexander Humphrey, John W. Waterhouse, C. Anderson, and James Doherty were also paid for the damages sustained by them and the owners of the Congress were reimbursed for carrying the crew and passengers from Galveston to New Orleans. 130 Thus it seemed that through the exertions of the Texan agents matters were being smoothed out.
But trouble arose in another quarter. On May 19, the Louisiana State Marine and Fire Insurance Company instituted suit in the United States district court against Captain Brown of the Invincible, seeking to recover the amount of the premium they had been forced to pay Lizardi & Co. In the libel which they filed with the court they set forth that they had insured the cargo of the Pocket for eight thousand dollars; that the vessel was bound for a port in Mexico with which republic the United States was at peace, and that in consequence of the unlawful capture of the Pocket they had been forced by virtue of a policy issued to Lizardi & Co. to pay that firm eight thousand dollars. They then alleged that because of this payment all right of action against the persons who had unlawfully seized the cargo was transferred to them, wherefore they prayed that Captain Brown should be forced to pay them eight thousand dollars. 131 On the basis of this libel Judge Harper of the federal court ordered that Captain Brown be held to bail in the sum of nine thousand dollars. On May 20 the United States marshal took Brown into custody, from whence he was released on the same day, having given bail with Thomas Toby and William Bryan as sureties. 132 The case was to come up on the second Monday in December, 1836, but the record of the court does not show that anything was done on that day.
The issue in the trial depended mainly on the legal condemnation of the Pocket by the Texas court. As early as May 16, J. K. West, the president of the insurance company, had written President Burnet to forward him copies of the condemnation of the cargo of the Pocket. 133
Bryan also bestirred himself to secure the needed evidence in the case. On May 21, the day after he bailed Brown, he wrote to the president:
It will now become the duty of the government to have the cargo condemned by a regular court, to have sufficient evidence forwarded of the character of the cargo, the documents and papers found on board proved as having been taken from the vessel, and all information you may judge necessary to forward to prove the legality of the capture. 134
There was much delay in forwarding the needed evidence, and it is probable that for this reason the case was continued.
However, some time before February 25, 1837, a judgment by default was rendered against Captain Brown, for on that date the court
On motion of Randal Hunt, ordered that the judgment by default be set aside, and that he [Hunt] be allowed to file an answer on behalf of the defendant in the case. 135
The attorneys for Brown then filed a plea to jurisdiction, averring that all questions relative to the adjudication of prizes brought into ports of Texas belonged to the tribunals and legal establishments of that country and none other; that officers of Texas war vessels ought not to be arrested in ports of the United States to answer for any capture or seizure made on the high seas; that vessels of belligerent powers may seize neutral vessels, take them into the ports of their [the captor's] country to answer for any breach of the law of neutrals, and the vessels of war are not amenable for such acts before any tribunal of the neutral powers; that the insurance company had arrested Captain Brown, but had in no manner alleged that the capture of the Pocket was made within the territory of the United States; that at the time of the capture Texas was a free and independent state, and Captain Brown was commander of one of her public vessels. For these reasons they held that the United States court was without jurisdiction in the suit and, therefore, prayed that Captain Brown be dismissed with his costs. 136 Anticipating an overruling of this plea, the attorneys also filed an answer to the libel of the insurance company. They showed that at the time of the capture Texas had declared her independence and maintained a government, and was, therefore, entitled to exercise all belligerent rights of a free and independent nation; that, under the authority of that government, Captain Brown had the right to cruise against the enemies of Texas; that in his capacity as captain he made a legal prize of the Pocket, whose cargo was enemy's property and intended as supplies for the Mexican army; that the Pocket was conveying hostile dispatches to the enemy; that she was sailing under false colors; and that her actual cargo did not correspond with the papers showing her clearance from the New Orleans custom house—all of which was in violation of the belligerent rights of Texas. They, therefore, prayed that the libel of the insurance company be dismissed. 137
But evidently nothing was done at the spring session of the court; for on August 4, 1837, Bryan again wrote to the Secretary of State:
In my letters to the executive under date of February 22, April 12, and 21, I urged upon him the necessity of forwarding certain documents to save the loss of about nine thousand dollars for which I am bound in the United States court, being the value of the brig Pocket. Part of the documents were promptly forwarded by S. R. Fisher, Secretary of the Navy, those proving the condemnation of the brig as a lawful prize, the approval of the act by the government, and the record of the court condemning her under the great seal of state have never come to hand. The trial will come up early in December, and if such papers are not produced the amount is lost. . . . Will you do me the favor of forwarding such papers as are required or such as can be obtained in relation to this matter as early as possible, or advise me that they can not be obtained that I may have time to prepare to meet nine thousand dollars in cash by sacrifices made to meet claims incurred for Texas. 138
Irion, the secretary of state, at once exerted himself to procure the documents. He wrote to William S. Scott, the clerk of the district court of Brazoria county, requesting him to forward, with the least possible delay, a certified copy of the proceedings of the court in the case. Scott immediately transmitted the proceedings of the court, but unfortunately the decree of condemnation was not among the documents which he sent. 139 Irion at once forwarded to Bryan the documents he had received, but the attorneys in the case finding that they were not sufficient, obtained an adjournment of the case until the first Monday in January, 1838. The decree of condemnation of the Pocket could not be found among the records at Brazoria, so the only remedy was to enter the decree anew in open court at the next session of the district court. It seems that this matter was put into the hands of F. A. Sawyer, the attorney who had argued the case before Judge Franklin in 1836. On December 21, 1837, he wrote to the secretary of state from Brazoria: 140
As soon as I arrived here I made out a decree on the back of the original petition in the case of the brig Pocket and sent it by express together with a certified copy to Judge Robinson both of which he signed, as was required, and returned to me. The original decree I have filed in the office of the clerk of the district court; the certified copy, dated about the 10th of December and signed by Scott, who was at that time clerk of the district court, and certified to by Judge Robinson, I enclose to you and hope you have received it in time to go by the present trip of the Columbia.
Irion transmitted these documents to Bryan on January 3, 1838, saying:
With regard to the brig Pocket I have at last succeeded in procuring all documents required by the memorandum of Mr. Hunt 141 which are herein enclosed to you. It was impossible to obtain them earlier. The matter was brought up before Judge Robinson, having alike with all other judges admiralty jurisdiction and under the laws the privilege of sitting on admiralty cases whenever occasion requires. 142
The evidence must have arrived too late, for the case seems to have been again postponed; at any rate it was still pending on February 28, 1839. On that date Bryan wrote to the Secretary of State:
On May 30, 1836 I advised the executive that I had bailed Captain Brown of the Invincible on the suit of the Louisiana State Marine and Fire. Insurance Company for nine thousand dollars. The suit is now pending in the United States District Court. Has any diplomatic arrangement been made with the United States in regard to the settlement of the claims of the insurers of the cargo of the Pocket, or has any claim been made upon the government of Texas for the value of her cargo? 143
Webb, the Secretary of State, replied on March 15, saying:
There is no evidence in this department that any arrangement was made by the governments of the United States and Texas to settle claims of insurers or pay for the cargo. In private conversation with Mr. La Branche I have found out that the claims of the insurers of the cargo (and for which suit has been instituted in New Orleans) was not included in the treaty. 144
The case was evidently settled outside of the court, or simply died on the docket, for there is no record in the minutes of the court of a decision ever having been made. The last reference to it in the minutes is dated May 18, 1840, and states that the case having been called was continued. 145
While the insurers' claims were pending in the courts of the United States, some of the officers and passengers of the Pocket were also clamoring for redress. On September 1, 1836, T. Toby and Brother wrote to the president of Texas:
We have just been waited on by the United States district attorney relative to a Mr. Taylor, who was a passenger on the Pocket and had four hundred and ninety-six dollars ($496) in money taken from him. 146
By January, 1837, the matter had also come up before the United States government. Wharton, the Texan minister at Washington, on January 6, wrote to Austin that Forsyth had exhibited to him a complaint of the mate and other officers of the Pocket which should be attended to at once. 147 Henderson, the secretary of state, in reply, informed him that he could assure the government at Washington that the government of Texas would at any time cheerfully hear all complaints and give all such as were entitled to it speedy justice as soon as their complaints could be properly laid before it. 148 On November 29, 1837; in the same letter in which he gave an account of the capture of the brigs Pocket and Durango, Mr. La Branche demanded payment, not only for the vessels, but also an indemnity for the property taken from individuals on board these vessels, and for other injuries they had sustained. 149 Irion, in answering this, informed La Branche that the president had been considering the cases, and that as regarded the Durango he (the president) would recommend to Congress the passage of an appropriation for the amount demanded for it; but as regarded the Pocket, the circumstances of her capture and subsequent purchase by Thomas Toby and Brother rendered it improper for him to recommend a second payment; he would, however, recommend that a payment be made to Taylor. 150 It will be remembered that the Texas agents paid Captain Howes thirty-five thousand dollars for the Pocket, which was insured by a New York firm, Barclay and Livingston. When the brig was captured, its owners called upon that firm for payment. Now, it was a question whether the insurance company was obliged to pay the premium. Should they pay and then call upon the Texas government to reimburse them, the latter, should it comply, would have paid for the vessel twice. The attorney general of Texas maintained that the payment made to Captain Howes was conclusive of the rights of the owners. 151 He argued that the acts of the master of a vessel were binding on the owners, and that third parties, arranging with him as the accredited agent of the owners, should not be held responsible for losses resulting through his bad faith or inattention. Whether or not the insurers paid the premium does not appear.
However, the president soon changed front completely, and before March 19, 1838, he had waived all objections to the payment of the claims and had decided to recommend to Congress the payment of them all. It is probable that a desire to avoid any unpleasant relations with the United States induced him to give up his position. The United States chargé, La Branche, and the secretary of state of Texas, Trion, then met at Houston, and on April 11, 1838, concluded a convention whereby Texas agreed to pay to the United States government eleven thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, which was to be distributed among the claimants. This sum, with interest accrued thereon at the rate of six per cent, was to be paid to the properly authorized person one year after the exchange of the ratifications of the convention. 152 On May 3, the Congress of Texas, in secret session, consented to and advised the ratification of the convention; 153 and on June 14 the Senate of the United States did likewise. 154 There was some slight difficulty in effecting the exchange of the ratifications as is shown by Catlett, who was in charge of the Texas legation at Washington, in his letter to Irion of June 22, 1838. He says:
I have received the convention of indemnity to American citizens for losses sustained by the capture of the brigs Pocket and Durango. The Secretary of State from the first showed a disposition to accept the treaty and have it ratified on the part of the United States. But he seemed much in doubt whether it could be received on account of its not having been ratified by the president under the great seal of Texas, which was indispensable to a formal exchange. Another difficulty was that I had no specific powers for such purposes. But owing to the smallness of the amount and the unimportance of the matter he yesterday waived these objections and accepted the treaty as it stood. 155
Texas was young in diplomatic affairs, and Catlett was no doubt somewhat embarrassed by the difficulties with which he had to contend. The exchange took place on July 6, 1838. The following day Catlett wrote to Irion:
In exchange for the copy of the convention which he placed in my hands, being the same as was transmitted by you, Mr. Forsyth gave me a formally ratified copy on the part of the United States. It was handsomely bound and had the United States seal attached. A similar ceremonial was expected to have been observed on the part of Texas, but that being impracticable, under the circumstances, he had agreed to waive any difficulties on this score as I mentioned in my last dispatch. 156
In this connection it is interesting to note that this was one of the only two conventions that Texas ever concluded with the United States.
On May 10, 1839, President Van Buren authorized La Branche to receive the indemnity and to give the necessary acquittal. 157 On July 6, 1839, one year after the exchange of the ratifications, James Webb, the Secretary of State of Texas, turned over to La Branche a draft on the Merchants Bank of New Orleans for twelve thousand four hundred and fifty-five dollars, that being the amount stipulated in the convention with the accrued interest. La Branche on the same day executed a receipt for that amount, giving
full acquittances to the government of Texas for all claims against said government of the United States for the capture, seizure and detention of the brigs Pocket and Durango and for injuries suffered by American citizens on board the Pocket.
The acquittances were to take effect as soon as the draft should be paid. On July 18, Robert Coupland of the Merchants Bank wrote to Webb acknowledging the receipt of the draft and stating that it had duly honored. 158
My father's name was John Brown. He was descended from old English stock, who settled in Baltimore, Maryland, in colonial days. Two of his ancestors, one on the paternal side and one on the maternal, were colonels in the celebrated Maryland line of the Continental army. One who was a captain fell at the River Raisin. My people have ever been among the defenders of our country.
My father was born in Madison County, Kentucky, September 9, 1796. About 1820, while he was living in Missouri, he married Nancy Ann Howell. Two or three years later he returned to Kentucky, but in 1824 he went again to Missouri. It was perhaps in December of that year that in order to obtain relief from a bronchial trouble that he had he started to Cuba. In New Orleans, however, he met his older brother, Captain Henry Stevenson Brown, who induced him to try the wilds of Texas. About the last of December they reached that country, which was then a part of Mexico and was inhabited chiefly by various tribes of Indians and abounded in wild animals of almost every kind.
Captain Henry S. Brown was a noted Indian fighter, and he also traded with the Mexicans. He furnished my father with such goods as suited the Indians and advised him to go towards the upper waters of the Brazos and barter his goods for horses, mules, and peltries. With the expedition went James Musick, Thomas Jamison, and Andrew Scott. They secured eleven hundred horses and mules and many peltries and started for the settlements. On the third night of their homeward journey, their camp was attacked by the Indians with yelling and shooting. The main purpose of the attack was probably not murder but robbery. No one was killed, but all were cleverly stampeded, and so was the cavallada—which, of course, was the prime object of the Indians. My father was lame, but he escaped alone through a thicket beside which they were encamped. Not knowing the fate of his companions—they escaped together and reached home safely—he wandered three days without food. Finally he discovered a camp of Wacoes; and, knowing that otherwise he must face death from starvation, he entered it, though with many fears. They forced him to run the gauntlet, beating and slashing him as he ran. Providentially he was not felled, but made the goal; when God moved a woman whose son had fallen in battle to claim and adopt my father in his place. This under their laws she had the right to do. From this time he was kindly treated, but watched. In some eighteen months he won their confidence and was permitted, in the autumn of 1826, to accompany a raiding party to the confines of the settlements. On the way he escaped, and shortly after he succeeded in reaching San Felipe. It so happened that Captain Henry S. Brown had the same day arrived from Mexico with a number of well tried and trained Mexicans. With these and a party of the citizens he made a rapid night march, and at daylight surprised and annihilated the marauders, only one escaping to tell the tale to his people.
Returning now to Howell's Prairie, Missouri, my father rejoined his family, who had long mourned him as one dead. His devoted wife, however, had never given up hope of his ultimate homecoming.
In 1827 or 1828 Father again reached Texas, this time with his family. I was then a four year old boy. On the way we encountered fearful tempests on Lake Pontchartrain and the gulf of Mexico. We landed at Cópano. Nearly eighty years have elapsed since then, but I yet retain in memory a most vivid picture of the Indians on the shore. One stood with his bow strung and arrow on the string, ready to shoot. I was familiar with the story of my father's thrilling experiences on the upper Brazos, and my little heart was filled with fear, not only for myself, but for my parents also. I begged them earnestly to go below, out of danger; but vainly, of course, for there was none. They bade me go down; but they themselves were too much interested in the shores of Texas to gratify a terrified little boy.
We were taken to Goliad in Mexican carts drawn by oxen, which were lashed to the pole by their horns and driven with a blunt pointed goad, often with loud cries on the part of the driver. This, in early times, was the Mexican method of transportation, the cart wheels being in most cases wholly of wood and sometimes solid.
From Goliad, then commonly called. La Bahía—or by the Americans most frequently Labberdee—we went to Major James Kerr's on the Lavaca. Major Kerr was the first settler on this stream by several years. This I know to be true. Captain Henry S. Brown married his sister, Miss Margaret Kerr, in Missouri. She was then a widow with a son and daughter, who were known in Lavaca County in later years as Judge Maryland Jones and Mrs. Jordan. Her children by Captain Brown were Major John Henry Brown, distinguished as a defender of Texas in various wars, as a legislator, and as a writer of history; and Rufus E. Brown, one of the sweetest natured men I ever knew, who was accidentally killed in Arizona by the fall of a tree—as I remember—which he was cutting down.
In 1832 I was going with Captain Brown from Gonzales to Major Kerr's, when we met a messenger in search of him, bringing intelligence of the intended attack on the Mexican garrison at Velasco. My uncle sent me on to Major Kerr's with a young inexperienced youth, giving him most careful direction as to courses, guiding points, and guarding against Indians. This proved the most trying experience of my long life. My pony was a short hard trotter, and my left arm was badly strained. The young man was afraid of Indians and was unwilling to dally. My back began to ache, ache, and I was forced at last to cry out—gently as possible, but nevertheless to cry audibly. The memory of that night's suffering makes my back ache still. But all things have an end, and at last we reached Uncle Jim's and were safe.
Captain Brown commanded a company in the assault on Velasco and gallantly aided in capturing the garrison. He lost several men, but killed a large number of Mexicans, and wounded many more.
Major Kerr's was a general rendezvous for persons examining, or settling in, his section. All were welcomed and entertained in true pioneer style. I have seen large numbers of men there on business that it was beyond my years to understand.
During our stay at Major Kerr's, my mother gave birth to the first white child born on the Lavaca River, Isham Kerr Brown, named for Uncle Jim's brother, to whom my father was warmly attached. I never knew Mr. Isham Kerr.
As soon as my mother was able to travel, the family moved to Carancahua Bayou. Here my father chose to locate his league of land, 159 believing that in time, since the bayou was navigable from Matagorda Bay to his projected home, the land would become valuable. The Mexican law required a crop to be on the allotment before the title could be perfected. So we built a cabin and planted a small crop—very small, I suppose, since I helped to plant some of it myself. My father made holes in the black sandy soil with a pointed handspike, and I dropped the seed and covered it with my heel. Primitive farming this, but probably he and a Mr. Aldridge (if I recall the name correctly) did more work in our little patch at a later time.
After a while the land was surveyed, our small crop was made, and we were ready for new enterprises. During our sojourn on Carancahua, my father was always uneasy; for the Carancahua Indians, though they professed to be at peace with the settlers, were known to be a brave and treacherous tribe. One of their old camps was not far from our cabin door. 160 So, having met legal requirements, we moved to San Antonio, where we lived three years very close to Captain Philip Dimitt—indeed, I think, in one of his houses. Here were born to my mother Marie Nazia, the first American child born in this Mexican town, and—perhaps two years later—Carmelita, a real little angel in appearance. Captain Dimitt and John W. Smith had Mexican wives, good ladies, and children of mixed blood; but my sisters were pure Anglo-Saxon and of true pioneer stock.
Various tribes of Indians visited San Antonio to barter dressed buffalo skins and other peltries, as well as jerked buffalo meat, which they frequently offered in broad, thin sheets, and which was very toothsome indeed. They came to the town in gala dress. I remember seeing a young squaw in a dress covered with hundreds of beads and little bells, which she would flirt about, causing them to jingle most merrily, to her own intense satisfaction and the great amusement of the onlookers. These Indian gatherings were very novel and interesting to the American visitors who often filled our home.
Mexicans, though a dark race, delight much in white covers for couches and beds. An Indian visitor would sit down contentedly on the whitest and daintiest, leaving his "brand"—in cow boy parlance—unmistakably defined. Requests and orders to move were alike unheeded by him till it suited his pleasure. Once a chief, a dirty fellow, of course, took a seat on my mother's white bed. She asked him to get up; but he only gazed at her with his characteristic stolid Indian look. Mother feared no man; and, seizing a stick, she ordered him to rise. His answer was the same aggravating gleam of the eye. But when the stick came down on his scalp lock with its most inspiring emphasis he jumped up with a thoroughly Indian "wugh! wugh!" exclaiming "White woman muy brava"; and so it ended.
Once some of my father's Indian relatives 161 came to see him, and there was among them one young man whom he seemed much delighted to meet, and whom he loaded with presents.
On another occasion, while breakfasting, I ran out to a call and found before our door a boy with a rifle on a barebacked horse and a man also riding bareback, but without a rifle. Both were hatless. Their camp had been sacked in the night, the whole party it contained except themselves had been murdered, and they had barely escaped with life.
Three years we resided in San Antonio. During this time, my father had his children christened by the Catholic priest resident in the town. My mother's brother was also christened. We were therefore Catholics, and as a child I accepted the faith most cheerfully. Some years later dear Grandma Howell of Missouri took me in hand and taught me to love the scriptures and study them—a practise I have observed till the present. She was an Old School Presbyterian, and an accomplished Virginia lady. But we were then in San Antonio. As soon as I was old enough I was sent to a Spanish school; and every Sabbath I marched with the pupils in double file to the cathedral singing full-voiced some Catholic hymn. On entering we severally approached the font of holy water, dipped the tips of the fingers, and made the sign of the cross on the forehead and each shoulder and the breast; then in double file we knelt on the flag stones worshipping till the close of the service. One can well imagine how tired and painful my little knees used to grow.
We had a case of smallpox in our family. It was contracted by a negro girl of Major Kerr's, who was loaned or hired to my father. David Mills of the well known firm of R. & D. G. Mills & Co., leading financiers of Texas, was then a young man and boarding with us. I was vaccinated from his arm and rendered immune. Mother's brother, Geo. Washington Howell, died here, then my brother Isham Kerr, then my father, who was known to the Mexicans and old Texans as Waco Brown. 162 All were buried in the grounds of the Alamo. The graves were afterwards shown to my son, Dr. J. Duff Brown, Jr., in a little grass plot near the old ruin.
I was just recovering from a most terrible fever when my father died, and some one took me to view his corpse. His pale face and body lie dimly before me now.
Captain Henry S. Brown moved our family to Gonzales. The first night we camped on the Salado, and a guard was kept all night. My mother sat in the wagon surrounded by her little ones, with a babe in her lap and a loaded gun at hand, resolved to die if need be in our defense. Indians were around us throughout the night and caused our horses to show constant signs of uneasiness, and next morning their signs were plainly visible. It was a miserable night for grownups, but I and the other children slept through it in happy unconsciousness. Next day we passed the bloody camp of which I have before spoken. 163 We reached Gonzales without further incident, save passing a freshly killed deer. From its torn neck we judged it to have been killed by a panther, which was frightened away by our approach.
We remained in Gonzales for a time, and mother meanwhile kept boarders to support herself and family. During that time, there came a big rise in the Guadalupe, or Warloup, 164 as it was then frequently called, threatening serious damage. Mother desired a gentleman to go to the river and move her pot above high water; but he said "No, madam, I would not risk my life this black night with a light for all the pots in Texas." Thereupon she took a torch and a servant and moved the pot to a place of safety herself. Pots, iron pots, were pots in those days.
After a time we moved to Brazoria on the Brazos, where mother conducted one of the hotels, known as the lower. Mrs. General Long 165 kept the upper hotel. David Mills again boarded with us. The strain on my mother was at times extremely trying. When a ship came up the river from New Orleans loaded with passengers, both hotels would often be filled to overflowing, and the labor of taking care of them most harassing. Now and then there was much sickness in the hotel, and sometimes it resulted in death. Once we had some cases of yellow fever. I remember the death of one man who turned as yellow as an orange. A Captain Brown died in our house from some disease. I can recall, too, that the cholera visited us once or twice. 166
There were many ills, anxieties, labors, and dangers encountered by hotel keepers in those pioneer periods. This may be illustrated by an incident from my mother's experience. One spring, while she was rushing through the ever unpleasant "cleaning up" so common among good housekeepers, she ordered a burly peon who belonged to us to hurry along with some task which had been committed to him. He showed himself contrary and impudent; and she ran into the room where I was taking down mosquito bars and seized one of the side sticks and proceeded to belabor him with several whacks over the head and shoulders. Full of rage, he slipped into the dining rom, snatched up a large carving knife and thrust it in his girdle, and came back to his work with swollen lips and furious looks. There is no doubt that, if she had shown fear or hesitation, he would have stabbed her. But the moment she saw his act she ran into her own room, took down a large holster pistol with a muzzle like a small cannon, pressed it against his breast, and pulled the trigger. Providentially it failed to fire, but it turned a black Mexican nearly white. She ordered him to put up the knife, and he obeyed instantly.
When Uncle Henry came home, he picked a little powder into the touch hole of the pistol and discharged it at a post. Though it had lain undisturbed on top of Mother's bed for six months, it fired as clearly as if just loaded. This was before the invention of percussion caps. Then Uncle Henry tied the man securely and gave him a good flogging; but, taking the advice of friends conversant with the treacherous and vindictive nature of such Mexicans, he soon sold him.
During our stay in Brazoria, our dear little Marie died and was buried in the forest. I can yet hear the hollow sound of the clods falling on her coffin. Mother was too ill to attend the funeral, so I was chief mourner. I think Uncle Henry was absent also. Carmelita, the idol of the family, died and was buried in Gonzales cemetery. The graves of our family are scattered from San Antonio to Memphis; but, without doubt, when the roll is called at judgment we'll be there. Our God cares for our dust, praised be his name forever!
Mother finally closed her business in Brazoria and went to Missouri to see her father, Mr. John Howell. He lived at Howell's Prairie, a few miles from Mechanicsville, now Howell. She entered me at a seminary of which Lewis Howell was principal. He was a classical scholar, and the best instructor I ever knew. He laid the foundation for what education I am possessed of.
After a few terms at Collier College, I was sent by my step-father to Richmond, Kentucky, and placed in the house of Fields & Holloway, dealers in general merchandise, who kept everything that the people of the country consumed. This firm had been long in business and ranked high. The Irvines, Fieldses, Holloways, and McLanahans were leading families in the rich little city of Richmond.
I spent one year with this firm, then fifteen months as a pedagogue, and then some years under the tuition of Drs. Walker and Scott as a student of medicine. In process of time I entered the field of practise at Jackson, Breathitt County, in the mountains, and since that time the center of murderous feuds. Then, however, peace reigned supreme throughout this mining district. The Cockrells and Hargises were good friends. My practise, though limited, was eminently successful for a young physician.
But my heart was in Texas, and I had for years resolved to make my home amid its wilds. So in 1846, when General Taylor was concentrating his army near Corpus Christi to move upon the Rio Grande in defense of Texas at last annexed to the United States, I landed at that place. The day I left Corpus for the interior, his first division marched for Fort Brown, opposite Matamoros.
Reaching Gonzales, I was admitted to partnership with Dr. C. S. Brown, an uncle of mine, who had more patients than he could attend. Among them were a number of Germans who had been sent to Texas by certain noblemen. 167 It was a year of phenomenal humidity, and like all such in Texas very sickly. The flux, commonly so-called both then and now, proved epidemic among the emigrants. They fell before the disease like cattle with the murrain. Great demoralization existed among them, and there was much suffering. There were deaths beside the highways and deaths in the wagons. Death, death, death was everywhere, without nursing or any of the attentions that, as a rule, are shown the sick. Whole families perished. They could not speak English, and we could not speak German. Moreover, the native Americans were down with congestive and other fevers, as well as flux, all over the thinly settled country. I had myself a sharp turn of malarious fever, but prompt treatment relieved me.
About this time—in April, I think 168—Captain Ben McCulloch came in great haste from General Taylor with a requisition on the governor of Texas for two regiments 169 of mounted volunteers, and with authority also to raise a company of scouts to serve under his personal orders. I joined this company, which was ranked A in Colonel Jack Hays's Western regiment, and served six months, when I was honorably discharged at Camargo.
Our service was sometimes arduous. We always went light, with no baggage, and not a tent, save once when a man joined us sick and died. The flies were so intolerably bad that it required a detail of two men, one at his head and the other at his feet, to protect him. Even then, his blankets were flyblown. This was at "Camp Maggot," opposite Matamoros. We used the river water, and some days were forced to wade out fifty or sixty yards to get it clear of maggots. We were below the slaughter pens, where the beeves were prepared for the army. The refuse was thrown into the river, and often much of it, not clearing the banks, was blown by the immense swarms of flies. During the two or three weeks we remained at this camp, it rained twice or thrice every twenty-four hours. The rains were fortunately but brief, and the sun was so hot that it dried us between them. After a time, we were ordered to occupy some deserted houses above Fort Brown. Here we fared sumptuously on roasting ears, which, added to our rations, made our meals most enjoyable. At this encampment we were free from the dreadful annoyances incident to life at "Camp Maggot."
Our company was composed of quite a variety of characters and professions. There were two generals, Ham P. Bee, and another whose name I have forgotten; three to five doctors; and one newspaper man, W. Kendall of the New Orleans Picayune. He wrote up our scouting expeditions, etc. I do not recall any ministers of the gospel in our party. We had six or seven Mier prisoners. One of them was our first lieutenant, John McMullen. He was a boy when the expedition occurred, as was young Hill, who had been adopted by Santa Anna and educated at the College of Mines. James W. Allen, a Kentuckian, was our second lieutenant and commissary. He carried a bag of silver on all our scouts to pay for supplies, for we paid for all requisitions. One of our men who was from the eastern shore of Maryland was wounded and died at Monterey.
Captain McCulloch was ordered not to fight, but to survey various sections of the country and to report. He was well known as a reckless fighter; but he knew how to obey orders, and he certainly did so. We begged him to give us a brush with the enemy, but he simply answered "orders."
I returned to Texas with Jim Lytle, a lawyer named Cunningham from Victoria, Breckinridge of Kentucky, Mason Foley, the Pryor brothers, and others. We had much difficulty with Breckinridge and Lytle, who quarreled and passed blows, but were separated by Cunningham and myself. Three times they wished to fight, but eventually were induced to become friends.
Once more I tried Gonzales; but, again becoming sick, I yielded to the advice and urgent solicitation of Colonel Andrew Neill of Seguin and made my home at his house. He had married my cousin, Miss Agnes Brown, the daughter of Dr. Hugh Brown of Kentucky. There I stayed for six delightful months, probably the happiest of my long life. It was during this time that I became acquainted with Miss Mary Annah Mayes, a native of Alabama, and fell in love with her at sight. After a twelve months' wooing we were wed, and in a few weeks I again entered the United States service as acting 170 assistant surgeon for Captain H. E. McCulloch's company.
The company was camped at Hamilton's Valley, fifty-five miles above Austin, in what was then Travis County, but is now Burnet. It was Captain McCulloch's second year at this station. During the first, he had needed a surgeon greatly, and in the ten months I spent with the company there was much sickness among the men. The families were generally exempt; but one private died, and another was by accident desperately wounded by a comrade. I was at the time absent in Seguin, and the captain sent to Austin for a surgeon, who charged one hundred dollars for his services. I regret to chronicle the truth, but his treatment was of no value, and the patient was fast going to that bourne whence no traveler returns. The doctor remained one day, and I imagine his departure saved the man. Getting back at this juncture, I changed the treatment. The names of doctor and wounded man alike have been forgotten by me. I paid the bill, except twenty dollars which, in great kindness to me, was advanced by Captain McCulloch and Lieutenants Higgins and Magill.
Captain McCulloch's company was one of a number on the frontier under the command of Colonel P. H. Bell, later governor of the State. Our duties were simple and easy, but necessitated constant scouting and watchfulness. We had a detachment of thirty men on the Cowhouse, about twenty-five or thirty miles to the northeast of us. We had only one skirmish with the Indians. Lieutenant Higgins and Orderly Sergeant John H. King, together with another officer and an unarmed man, were out some ten or fifteen miles buffalo hunting. While at their dinner, they saw what they imagined to be buffaloes on the crest of the hill at whose base they were eating. Hastily rising, they looked again, when one of them exclaimed "My God! They are Indians, and they are charging down on us." It was frightfully true. Mounting instantly—for their horses were saddled—they made for a thicket two or three hundred yards distant. Some one cried "Stick together," and they fled at full speed. Higgins was mounted on a fiery, high-headed horse, on which he was compelled to use martingales. The ring on one side caught the bridle, causing his horse to run obliquely from the party. Detaching this ring detained him only a moment, when the race was resumed at the utmost speed. Higgins was going so fast, in fact, that his horse nearly buried himself in the thicket before it was possible to stop; and, when he did, it was so suddenly that the officer was tumbled over the horse's head. Grasping his rifle and righting himself like a flash, Higgins looked up just in time to see an Indian with a lance leaning to plunge it into him. As the gun went up, the Indian retreated in haste. The little party managed to reach the center of the thicket with their horses, and there they hitched and left them in charge of the unarmed man, while they stood ready at the two opposite sides of the thicket to defend it. Meanwhile the Indians were rushing round and round, whooping, yelling, and shooting, and protecting themselves with their shields, which they kept constantly in motion, making it very difficult to aim accurate shots at them. There were from twelve to twenty Indians—I do not recall exactly how many. They set the grass on fire on the windward side, hoping to drive out the men, or their horses at least. The man in charge of the horses, however, was courageous and of fine intelligence. He coolly raked away the leaves and combustibles from near the horses, thus protecting them from the fire, which crackled furiously and made a great smoke. Under cover of this the Indians approached the thicket closer, when a well directed shot dropped one of them from his saddle. In a little while, another, evidently a chief, slightly uncovered his person and was also shot and fell to the ground. In falling he gave a peculiar shout. His comrades rushed to him; and, carrying him out of reach of the rangers' rifles, mounted heir horses and left in a gallop, having seen enough. After waiting a short time, Lieutenant Riggins and his party returned to the station. Next morning Captain McCulloch ordered a scout to follow the trail of the Indians far enough to learn if they meditated further mischief. For many miles, the scout found, they had traveled in a gallop. Once they halted briefly; and there he found little wisps of bloody grass, which had been forced into the wounds of the chief to control the hemorrhage. Rough surgery this; but such was the report of the scout.
McCulloch was relieved about December 10 by United States dragoons, and his company was honorably discharged. With my young wife I left for Colorado County, to which Mr. C. Joiner, her stepfather, and her uncle, Colonel Tom Henderson, had moved. Here in Oakland and on Middle Creek, Fayette County, we lived most of the time till the Confederate War.
In this war, I left a sick bed to enlist. I was elected first lieutenant of Captain Ben Shropshire's company, in E. B. Nichols's regiment, Galveston, term six months. My service was voluntary; for under the law, at the time I enlisted, I was over age. I studied military tactics and drilled pretty hard most of the term. Captain Shropshire was an able lawyer, and passed the larger part of the time, or at least much of it, in Houston on courts martial, leaving me in command of the company. Unused to the ways of military discipline, so entirely different from the freedom of home, the men were impatient, at times a little irritable, and always extremely curious about everything. They made life a burden with innumerable questions, often puerile beyond belief. We had one or two intelligent, mischief-loving men who diverted themselves by slyly starting the most unreasonable rumors as to the doings and designs at headquarters, merely to watch the foolish excitement aroused, to hear the absurd discussions, and to enjoy the general uneasiness awakened. The annoyance from this source was for a time extreme. It was tiresome and troublesome to meet and quiet those disturbances. Finally I discovered the most active instigator of them. He was a good soldier, but as frolicsome and mischievous as a monkey. I gave him a quiet lecture, which in a measure stopped the trouble.
The men had many little attacks of colic and minor ailments, and they seemed to think that no one could relieve them so quickly as their own lieutenant. For a long time they worked me hard indeed, taking into consideration my other duties, which were imperious and could not be slighted. At last I had to object. We had a good medical officer, but he was somewhat stern and indisposed to be unnecessarily overworked. He had a private, a physician, but a man who loved his ease, detailed to attend to all minor ailments. I had unpleasant words with both of them about the men, who were dear to me; but we had no fight, for we had not entered the service to kill each other.
Just before the close of the six months for which I had enlisted, I was commissioned by General T. N. Waul to raise a company for his Texas legion, composed of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Through a mistake of Colonel Waul regarding military regulations, my company ranked D in the cavalry battalion, which was six hundred and forty strong. Company D mustered one hundred and twenty-seven—mostly picked men. Thirteen promotions were made from it. At Camp Waul, seven miles from Brenham, we organized and drilled for some time. Meanwhile there occurred an epidemic of measles, with six hundred cases reported, and a few deaths. Young Lockett, a member of my company, had contracted the disease and recovered; but he begged so earnestly to be allowed to visit his mother—a widow—that with much reluctance and many misgivings I gave him leave, receiving from him solemn promises to obey instructions for safeguarding his health. Unfortunately he disobeyed the instructions, and, much to my sorrow, relapsed and died.
After a time the command was ordered to march for north Mississippi. Obtaining leave, I visited my family, not feeling sure but that it might be the last time. Drs. King and White, two of the best surgeons in the legion, were my messmates; and, daily observing my state of health, they assured me that I would not be able to endure the rigors of campaigning in northern Mississippi during the winter. Though in very delicate health, I had no thought of resigning until compelled by an absolute breakdown. At Vicksburg, where we stopped to perfect our rolls and pay off the men, Dr. White came to me saying he was authorized by others, and that it was his wish as well, to solicit me to become a candidate for the lieutenant colonelcy of our battalion, as we should be ordered to fill that office. He insisted that there was not the slightest doubt of my election. I thought him correct, but declined from a purely patriotic sense of duty, thinking it best for my country. The battle between desire for the position and duty to my country was a strong one, and I have ever since regretted that I did not accept; because, for reasons that I do not think it wise to write, I believe it would really have inured to my country's good.
In a few days we resumed our march en route for Holly Springs; and soon the news of our defeat at Shiloh, which had been fought while we lay at Vicksburg, and the death of our loved Sidney Johnston came to us. For about two weeks we lay camped on an unsheltered hill some ten miles south of Holly Springs. General Price, with his Missouri troops, lay just south of us. Here we encountered real wintry weather. We were next ordered seven miles north of Holly Springs, where General Tighlman was quartered at a farm house. Here my health broke down completely, and I felt obliged to resign. It filled me with grief to do so; but I was assured by the best medical talent in the army—and subsequently by many other medical men—that I had tuberculosis in its initial stage. I had twice had hemorrhages from the lungs; so resolution gave way, and I tendered my resignation. It was accepted unconditionally. Colonel Waul assured me that, because of my feeble health, he had been expecting it for three months.
A few days after this, we were ordered to make a change of front, throwing us around Holly Springs, where we lay three days. During this time, I had resumed command of Company D by order of the colonel commanding. After three days more, General Tighlman ordered a retreat of twenty or thirty miles south. He had been captured at Fort Donelson and subsequently exchanged, and I suppose he was unwilling again to take the chances. I must have kept better posted than he, for I knew there was no danger of an advance of the enemy. They had about twenty skeleton regiments fifteen or twenty miles north of us, but this body of troops had been depleted till it was too weak to advance. But Tighlman's retreat invited the enemy to advance, which they did after a time, though not immediately. Well I had naught to detain me where I had felt constant dissatisfaction with the weak, vacillating management of our commanders. It may sound like boasting, but I do not so view it when I say that I saw clearly the trend of events, and it was most disheartening. The subsequent history of affairs proved fully that my views were correct.
I bought a light buggy and returned to my wife and children in Texas, only to find her in an advanced stage of consumption, which unfortunately we did not then know how to treat as well as we know now. She lingered on till two weeks after the war, when she passed to her reward.
The war left the country in apparent ruins. The negroes were freed, the fences rotted, our houses were leaking, our stock of all kinds scattered, and society was disorganized. I was owing nearly five thousand dollars of debts contracted before the war. I sold all my stock and one tract of land and was thus enabled to pay all but six hundred dollars of my indebtedness. Finally, by hard work and rigid economy, I paid every dollar, thus saving my good name, and adding greatly to my own happiness.
Looking back over my life, I feel that I have much to thank God for. Now in my eighty-fourth year (1907) I await almost impatiently at times the summons of the Master.
BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES.
Sixty Years in Texas. By George Jackson. Dallas: Wilkinson Printing Co., 1908. 12mo, 384 pp., 34 ports., 7 ills.Mr. Jackson frankly states in his preface that he had very little education. It would be gratuitous to parade the numerous minor faults that his book contains. Want of organization marks the entire book. The author has incorporated almost the whole of the "History of Dallas county, Texas: from 1837 to 1887, by John Henry Brown," but without any apparent reason for doing so he has broken up Brown's history and has scattered about the parts in such a manner that the reprinted portions will be difficult of identification by subsequent writers. He has brought the lists of county and city officials down to 1908. The author has also drawn upon the "Memorial and biographical history of Dallas county, Texas. . . . Chicago, 1892," without giving any credit to the same. The contents of the book that are original may be classified under verse, biographical sketches of pioneers of Dallas county and reminiscences of the author and his family, accompanied in many instances with photographs of the subjects. The biographical sketches in most instances are short—one or two pages. The reminiscences constitute the raison d'être of the book and include "The experiences of John and Mary Jackson, that emigrated from Devonshire, England, in . . . 1848, to Texas" (pp. 2-60), "When I took the gold fever" (1860), (pp. 177-204), and a "Diary of a trip to England" (1894), (pp. 287-322). About the first mentioned of these reminiscenses centers the chief interest of the book; it narrates not only the incidents of the journey to Texas, but recounts the hardships and privations experienced after settling in Dallas county. This part of the book will find sympathetic readers in most of the old settlers of this State.
E. W. WINKLER.
Sketch of History. The First Texas Regiment, Hood's Brigade, A. N. Va. By Geo. T. Todd, Captain Company A, First Texas, 1861-1865.This sketch has the merit of a terse, free, and familiar style, spiced with well chosen anecdotes, full of humor and illustrative of the every day life of the Confederate soldier. It has much good historical matter. Its great fault is its brevity, and a failure to deal more with the personalities of the men who composed this famous command. The memory of the war between the States,—a few of its great generals, its campaigns and its battles, will live forever, but the names of tens of thousands of the brave spirits that went down in that awful conflict have long since faded into utter oblivion. It seems to the writer that the main function of a sketch of this sort is to rescue such names and inscribe them upon a roll of fame that will be accessible to all the generations that are to follow. It would interest the average reader, who is familiar with the political record of Colonel Wigfall, to know the details of his military record during the brief period he commanded this regiment, and to know more of Lieutenant Colonel Black, its actual commander, who was killed at Ethan's landing. A complete roster of this regiment would be a valuable historical document of itself. As instances of how little is known, even of our most prominent Confederate officers, the writer had to consult an Alabama book to find a sketch of General John Gregg,—the official records at West Point for one of General Horace Randall, and personal inquiry among a large number of the survivors of the Terry Rangers failed to elicit any information about Colonel B. F. Terry's life previous to his brief military career. Such matter embraced in sketches on the order of Captain Todd's will greatly enhance their permanent historical value.
Z. T. FULMORE.
The Missions and Missionaries of California. By Fr. Zephyrin Engelhardt. (San Francisco, Cal.: The J. H. Barry Company, 1908. Vol. 1, pp. xxii, 654.)Father Engelhardt is the author of "Franciscans in California," 1897, but the present work is to be much more extended. The first volume contains an account of the origin of missions, and an account of Franciscan labors in North and South America. It deals briefly with the early voyages to the California coast, and at length (on the annalistic plan) with the Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican periods in Lower California.
The claim of the book is that it has been "compiled from original sources, for the purpose of furnishing full and accurate information in plain language and as concisely as clearness would permit." To substantiate this claim, an earnest and honest effort has been made by the author. His resources, however, though respectable, have not been ample. In the whole volume there is hardly an authority cited which has not long been known to the student of California history. There are no citations from manuscripts or books in the Bancroft collection (for two years accessible at Berkeley), nor from national or private collections in the East, nor from the Mexican or Spanish archives. The author has relied chiefly upon such classic standards in his field as Venegas (Noticia de la California), Baegert (Nachrichten von der Californischen Halbinsel), and Palou (Noticias de la Nueva California.)
But the volume is not without its justification. From its pages it is evident that Father Engelhardt has made some use of the archives of California, kept in the Surveyor General's office in San Francisco, and destroyed by the earthquake fire of 1906. He, moreover, by reason of his connection with Santa Barbara, has been able to avail himself of the valuable Santa Barbara Mission archives, repository, among other things, of the originals of letters by Jóse de Gálvez and Fermin Francisco Lasuen. Use has been made of the material (not known to Bancroft) relating to the voyage of Sebastian Vizcaino to the port of Monterey (A. D. 1602-1603) which was copied for the late Mr. Adolph Sutro from the archives at Seville,—material which, both in Spanish and English, may now be consulted in the Sutro volume of the publications of the Historical Society of Southern California. Use likewise has been made of the translations of important Spanish documents published by Mr. Charles F. Lummis in the "Land of Sunshine" and in "Out West," from 1897 to 1903.
Apropos of Venegas, Baegert, and Palou, Father Engelhardt's book derives value from the care with which the works of these historians have been re-explored. Details of mission life in the peninsula are elaborately set forth. Indeed, upon the subject of missionary toil among the Indians, the author has been able to shed light from his own personal experience. Naïf rather than critical though the book must be called, it contains, besides the narrative, matters of interest such as definitions of ecclesiastical and conventual terms; Consag's map of the California peninsula; a map of the Indian tribes of Mexico and Lower California; a map of Sonora and the peninsula (Venegas), dated 1757, and facsimiles of the signatures of Viceroy Bucarely, of Caballero de Croix, of Governors Barry, Fages, Borica and Arrillaga, of Guardian Verger, and of Francisco Palou. There is a series of appendices treating of The First Vicar Apostolic in the New World, The First Bishop of Florida, The Right of Missionaries to be supported, Apostolic Colleges, Indian Veracity, Power of Spanish Kings over the Church in America, etc. And last, but not least, there is a full index.
IRVING B. RICHMAN.
Jefferson Davis. (American Crisis Biographies.) By William E. Dodd, Ph. D. (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Company, Publishers. Pp. 396.)This is an interestingly told story of a life that has been of transcendant value to the student of human affairs in the importance and instructiveness of its experiences;—a life that the man of the North finds it easier to understand as the feelings engendered by the Civil War die away, and the man of the South more difficult as the national point of view becomes increasingly prevalent in his section. With the passage, however, of the present generation, and the disappearance of all personal memory of Davis and of the events culminating in the war, it is probable that his character and career will be as impossible of full appreciation, either in the North or South, as the dialect of "Uncle Remus" to the child that has never heard it spoken. It is well, therefore, that Mr. Dodd has undertaken this evaluation; and it will be well if the others to whom he refers in his preface as working on the same subject should also publish their conclusions.
Though Mr. Dodd's theme invited free rhetorical coloring, he has used it sparingly, which in this case at least is much to be commended. He writes of Mr. Davis sympathetically in the main, and with evident insight. This is especially marked in his dealing with the Civil War period of Davis's life. It may well be questioned whether Southerners in general have ever fully understood the difficulties which the President of the Confederacy had to face in carrying on the desperate struggle against the superior strength of the North, and particularly those due to the attitude of his powerful opposers in the South. These difficulties are forcibly described in the four chapters beginning with the "Rising Tide of Confederate Opposition," which are doubtless the most illuminating of the entire book.
Mr. Dodd evidently intends that what he says shall not be influenced by any prejudice due to his Southern antecedents. Indeed, he rather impairs the effect of his narrative by leaving the impression of a severe determination to avoid any such tendency by a safe margin; and even the judicial reader will probably be led to question whether, in his resolute impartiality, he does not sometimes, like the famous tree described by the Indian, stand so straight as to lean a little the other way. This, however, is better than partisan heat and unfounded assertion. Again, while it may be inadvisable to burden a popular biography with numerous footnotes, the student will wish for completer references at some points than are given. For example, the story that when Davis was taken he was dressed in his wife's clothing in order to avoid capture is related (p. 363) with a few words of explanation, but without any reference to show the evidence on which the author relies, or whether he has read all the varying testimony on the point of those who were present at the time. If he will examine Mr. Rhodes' cool and judicial analysis of it (History of the United States from 1850 to 1877, pp. 182-183), he will doubtless be led to revise his conclusions. In at least one case, he has apparently left himself open to misunderstanding. The reader must interpret what is said of R. J. Walker (pp. 55-56) as meaning that he was one of those who believed that slavery was "a necessity, . . . right and a blessing"; but this can hardly be what Mr. Dodd really meant, for he must know Walker's record too well to attribute any such opinions to him.
No life could be more fitly included in the "American Crisis Biographies" than that of Davis; and it is a matter of congratulation that one so capable and well equipped as Mr. Dodd has been found to prepare it.
G. P. G.
NOTES AND FRAGMENTS.
ARREST OF R. L. ROBERTSON IN 1865.—The Editor of THE QUARTERLY has received the following communication:
PARIS, TEXAS, July 23, 1909. To the Editor of THE QUARTERLY.
My attention has been called to an article entitled "Presidential Reconstruction in Texas," which appeared in THE QUARTERLY for April, 1908. The account, on page 297, of the indictment and arrest of R. L. Robertson for theft does not give all the facts, and is in some respects slightly incorrect. As Judge Gray, who was holding the district court at the time and place of the occurrence (Jefferson, December, 1865), has long since passed from earthly life, and I am the only living man who figured in that stormy episode, I feel it my duty to report the exact facts of the case.
I had been appointed attorney for the Eighth Judicial District at the same time when Mr. Gray was appointed judge of the district. We opened court at Paris; and, going from county to county, had reached Jefferson and were holding court there. The man Robertson, calling himself a treasury agent, was then at Jefferson looking up contraband cotton, i. e., cotton raised during the war and claimed by the United States government. He began to seize cotton raised by the farmers in 1865, after the close of the war. The facts were reported to me, and I had the witnesses brought before the grand jury; and the three indictments mentioned in the article above referred to were duly presented.
I had a capias issued on the indictment for theft, and told the sheriff to arrest Robertson. But Captain Jones, the commandant of the post, wrote across the face of the capias, "I forbid this arrest." The sheriff reported to me, and I at once called the attention of the court to the fact that some gentleman signing himself "Commandant of the Post" had defaced one of the State's writs of capias and had prevented the sheriff from arresting a man charged with theft. The judge turned white with rage and ordered the sheriff to summon the whole posse comitatus of Marion county, arrest Robertson, and bring him before the court. The sheriff called out about three hundred citizens of Jefferson, who, with double-barreled shotguns, overawed Captain Jones and the one hundred United States regulars under his command. Robertson was arrested, brought before the court, and taken in charge by the sheriff to wait the conclusion of the pending trial so that his recognizance could be taken.
But Captain Jones had wired to Marshall for reinforcements, and in less than two hours a regiment of cavalry thundered through the streets of Jefferson at full gallop and formed around the courthouse. Then Captain Jones, with his company of infantry, entered the court room and took the prisoner away from the court at the point of the bayonet. Whereupon the judge said that if he could not try the big criminals he would not try the little ones; and he adjourned court and went home, leaving the field to the military despots.
The claim that we were trying to exercise jurisdiction over the United States Treasury Department was a pitiful pretense. We only tried to punish a criminal who was robbing Texas farmers of their cotton.
Mr. Ramsdell seems to have made, in the main, a faithful report of President Johnson's efforts at reconstruction in Texas. Of all the public men, north or south, who figured in the events leading up to the Civil War and in the war itself, Andrew Johnson was the most consistent. He denied the right of secession, and proved his faith by remaining in his seat in the Senate, though Tennessee attached herself to the Confederate States. Again, as president he denied that the Southern States were out of the Union; and he maintained that they only had to reorganize their State governments and send Senators and Representatives to the United States Congress.
Meanwhile the Radical wing of the Republican party changed sides. Before the war, they denied the right of secession; but after the war they recognized it by treating with the Confederate States as conquered provinces, and by establishing over them a military despotism. In the case of Texas, this despotism lasted from the passage of the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867, to the meeting of the Twelfth Texas Legislature, April 30, 1870.
Had President Lincoln lived no doubt the policy which Johnson tried to carry out would have been inaugurated in spite of the efforts of the Radicals, and the South would have been saved from the horrors of congressional reconstruction. The assassination of Lincoln was the heaviest blow the South ever received.
E. L. DOHONEY.
AFFAIRS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
The thirteenth annual meeting of the Association took place in the hall of the House of Representatives in the Capitol, at 8 p. m., March 2, 1909. Arrangements had been made for the meeting according to custom in the evening at the University, and the program had been printed and mailed to the members. This program announced the following papers to be read: "Stephen F. Austin and the Independence of Texas," by Eugene C. Barker; "The Case of the Brig Pocket," by C. T. Neu; and "The Services of Athanacio de Mezieres in Texas, 1770-1779," by Herbert E. Bolton. On the morning of March 2, however, the House of Representatives sent a committee to invite the Association to take part in the exercises to, be held in the evening by the two houses of the Legislature jointly, asking that Judge Terrell, president of the Association, deliver an address. The invitation was accepted; and, in order to prevent the exercises from being unduly lengthy, the papers of Mr. Neu and Dr. Bolton were omitted, leaving only that of Dr. Barker, as especially appropriate to the occasion. The motive of this joint celebration of Independence Day was most commendable, and, though it was hastily organized, the results were highly gratifying. The audience was large; the address of Judge Terrell was in his usual happy vein; and Mr. Barker's paper, though read under difficulties, was well received. It is hoped, however, that if another meeting of the kind should be provided for, there will be earlier announcement of the arrangements and more deliberate preparations for it.
The public exercises were followed by the regular annual business meeting of the Association, at which the following officers were elected:
- Judge A. W. Terrell, president.
- Hon. Beauregard Bryan, first vice-president.
- Hon. R. L. Batts, second vice-president.
- Dr. M. J. Bliem, third vice-president.
- Mr. Luther W. Clark, fourth vice-president.
- Mr. C. W. Ramsdell, corresponding secretary and treasurer.
- Judge Z. T. Fulmore, member of the Council from the fellows for the term ending 1912.
- Prof. S. H. Moore, member of the Council from the members for the term ending 1914.
On the recommendation of the Council, thirty-three new members were elected; and, at a meeting of the Fellows held subsequent to the adjournment of the Association, Mr. J. L. Worley was added to the list of Fellows.
- AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Worcester, Mass.—Proceedings of the Society as issued.
- AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL RESEARCHES, Philadelphia, Pa., April, 1908.
- AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Philadelphia, Pa. Records of the Society, as issued.
- AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION, Princeton, N. J.—Quarterly of the Association, as issued.
- AMERICAN LUMBERMAN, Chicago, Ill.—Sept. 26, 1908.
- AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Washington, D. C.—Annual Report for 1906, and the Review of the Association, as issued.
- AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Norwood, Mass.—Vol. XIII, No. 1.
- AMERICANA SOCIETY, New York, N. Y.—Historical Magazine, as issued.
- ANTIKVARISK TIDSKRIFT FOR SVERIGE EMIL EKHOFF.
- ANUARIO ESTADISTICO DE LA REPUBLICA ORIENTAL DEL URUGUAY.— Vol. I.
- ARKANSAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Fayetteville, Ark.—Publications, Vol. I.
- BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS, Lamoni, Iowa.—Journal of History, as issued.
- BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, Boston, Mass.—Annual Report, 1907-1908.
- BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Buffalo, N. Y.—Publications, Vol. XII.
- BULLETIN OF BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MAGAZINE SUBJECT-INDEX, Boston, Mass.—This journal, as issued.
- BUNKER HILL MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, Boston, Mass. Proceedings at the Annual Meetings, June 17, 1907, and June 17, 1908.
- BUREAU OF SCIENCE, DIVISION OF ETHNOLOGY, Manila, P. I. Publications, Vol. V, Parts 1 and 2.
- BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, Washington, D. C.—25th and 26th Annual Reports; Bulletins 34 and 35.
- CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY, Sacramento, Cal.—News Notes of California Libraries.
- CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Cambridge, Mass.—Proceedings, Jan. 28 to Oct. 27, 1908.
- CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Chicago, Ill.—Collections, Vol. V; Annual Report, 1908; Publications, as issued.
- COLUMBIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Washington, D. C.—Records, Vols. XI and XII.
- DANIEL, J. C., Waco, Texas.—Proceedings of the Texas Peace Congress, 1907 and 1908.
- DANIEL, L. E., Austin, Texas.—Types of Successful Men in Texas.
- DEALEY, GEORGE B., Dallas, Texas.—Sketches of Travel in South America, Mexico, and California, by Z. N. Morrell; Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace, by John C. Duval.
- DOCUMENTOS PARA LA HISTORIA DE MEXICO, as issued.
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C.—Durability and Economy in Papers for Permanent Records; What Forestry Has Done.
- ESSEX INSTITUTE, Salem, Mass.—Historical Collections, as issued.
- EVANSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Evanston, Ill.—Antoine Ouilmette.
- FIFTIETH SESSION OF THE (PRESBYTERIAN) SYNOD OF TEXAS.
- FILSON CLUB, Louisville, Ky.—Publications of the Club, as issued.
- FLY, DAVID R., Amarillo, Texas.—Consumption the Vampire of the Human Race.
- FORNVANNEN MEDDELANDEN FRAN K. VITTERHETS HISTORIE OCH ANTIKVITETS AKADEMIEN 1907, under redaktion af Emil Ekhoff.
- GALLAWAY, IRENE DABNEY, Waxahachie, Texas.—Matthew Gallaway and His Descendants.
- HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA, New York, N. Y.—Catalogue of Publications.
- HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO, Cincinnati, Ohio.—Quarterly Publication, as issued.
- HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT OF IOWA, Des Moines, Iowa.—Annals of Iowa, as issued.
- HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia, Pa.—Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, as issued.
- HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND PIONEERS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Los Angeles, Cal.—Annual Publication.
- HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERY OF PARIS, TEXAS, 1879-1904.
- HULL, THOMAS, Carthage, Texas.—Texas State Register, 1868.
- ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS, Springfield, Ill.—Vols. III and IV.
- ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Springfield, Ill.—Journal of the Society, as issued; Transactions of the Society for 1907.
- INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, Washington, D. C.—Twentieth Annual Report; Special Bulletin No. 1.
- JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, Baltimore, Md.—University Studies in Political and Social Science, as issued.
- JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY, New Haven, Conn.—This Journal, as issued.
- KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Topeka, Kansas.—Report for 1907 and 1908.
- KENTUCKY STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Frankfort, Ky.—Register, as issued; Catalogue of Portraits.
- LAFOLLETTE'S WEEKLY MAGAZINE, Madison, Wis. Vol. I, No. 1.
- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Washington, D. C.—Some Papers Laid Before the Continental Congress, 1775 and 1776; Report for 1908; Lists of References, as issued.
- LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, Baton Rouge, La.—Fragments of Louisiana Jurisprudence; Bulletin, October, 1908.
- MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Baltimore, Md.—Archives of Maryland, Vols. XXVII and XXVIII; Magazine of the Society, as issued.
- MISSISSIPPI HISTORICAL, SOCIETY, University, Miss.—Proceedings of the Mississippi Association of History Teachers.
- MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY, St. Louis, Mo.—Collections of the Society, as issued.
- MUSEO NACIONAL DE ARQUEOLOGIA, MEXICO.—Annals, as issued.
- NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Lincoln, Neb.—Publications of the Society, as issued.
- NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Boston, Mass. Register and Historical Collections of the Society, as issued. NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, New York City.—Bulletin, as issued.
- NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Chapel Hill, N. C.—James Sprunt Historical Monograph No. 8.
- OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Columbus, Ohio.—Quarterly of the Society, as issued.
- OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Oklahoma City, Okla.—Custodian's Report, 1907 and 1908.
- "OLD NORTHWEST" HISTORICAL GENEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Columbus, Ohio.—Quarterly of the Society, as issued.
- OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Eugene, Oregon.—Quarterly of the Society, as issued.
- OUR DUMB ANIMALS, Boston, Mass.—This magazine, as issued.
- OUT WEST, LOS Angeles, Cal.—This magazine, as issued.
- PASSING SHOW, THE, San Antonio, Texas.—Six copies of this magazine.
- PEABODY MUSEUM, Cambridge, Mass.—Memoirs, Vol. IV, Nos. 1 and 2.
- PENDLETON, GEORGE C., Temple, Texas.—Pamphlet entitled "Some Facts of History."
- PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL CLUB, Philadelphia, Pa.—Publications, Vol. I.
- PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY, New York City.—Year Book for 1908; Souvenir of the Fifth Annual Dinner of the Society.
- POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, New York City.—This journal, as issued.
- QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, Cambridge, Mass.—This journal, as issued.
- READ, MISS LUCY W., Austin, Texas.—Flowers and Fruits in the Wilderness, by Z. N. Morrell.
- REAL ACADEMIA DE HISTORIA, Madrid.—Bulletin, as issued.
- REPORT OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF LOUISIANA FOR THE PROMOTION OF UNIFORM LEGISLATION, Baton Rouge, La.
- REPORT OF THE DELEGATES FROM LOUISIANA TO THE NATIONAL DIVORCE CONGRESS.
- REVIEW OF HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO CANADA, Toronto, Canada.—This Review, as issued.
- ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY, London.—Transactions, Third. Series, Vol. II.
- SANFORD, ALBERT HART, Madison, Wis.—The Polish People of Portage County.
- SCHAFFNER, MARGARET A., Madison, Wis.—Exemption of Wage; The Recall; The Initiative and Referendum.
- SEWANEE REVIEW, Sewanee, Tenn.—This Review, as issued. SKINNER & KENNEDY, St. Louis, Mo.—Waters-Pierce Case in Texas.
- SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, Washington, D. C.—Exhibits of the Institution at the Jamestown Exposition.
- SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY, Durham, N. C.—This journal, as issued.
- SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Charleston, S. C.—South Carolina Historical and Geneological Magazine, as issued.
- SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL REVIEW, Chattanooga, Tenn.—This journal, as issued.
- SOUTHERN WORKMAN, Hampton, Va.—This journal, as issued.
- STATE HISTORICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF COLORADO, BIENNIAL REPORT, 1907-1908.
- STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA, Iowa City, Iowa.—Iowa Journal of Politics, as issued; Augustus Caesar Dodge, by Louis Pelzer.
- STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, Columbia, Mo.—Missouri Historical Review, as issued.
- STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH DAKOTA, Bismarck, N. D.—Collections, Vol. II.
- STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN, Madison, Wis.—Proceedings of Annual Meeting, October 15, 1908; Collections as issued.
- STATSOKONOMISK TIDSSKRIFT, Christiania, Norway, as issued.
- TEXAS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS.—Bulletin, as issued.
- TEXAS SCHOOL JOURNAL, Dallas, Texas.—This Journal, as issued.
- TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, Houston, Texas.—Handbook of Texas Libraries, as issued.
- TEXAS STOCKMAN AND FARMER, San Antonio, Texas.—This journal, as issued.
- UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS, Wills Point, Texas.—Minutes of Reunion of Division of Texas, 1908.
- UNIVERSIDAD MAYOR DE SAN MARCOS, Lima, Peru.—La Antiguedad de la Sifilis en el Peru.
- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal.—Bulletin, Chronicle, and Publications of the University, as issued.
- UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill.—Magazine, as issued.
- UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, Boulder, Colo.—Studies, as issued.
- UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, Lawrence, Kansas.—Science Bulletin, September, 1908.
- UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI, Columbia, Mo.—Publications and Bulletin of the University, as issued.
- UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, Lincoln, Neb.—University Studies, as issued.
- UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia, Pa.—The George Lieb Harrison Foundation; Bulletins, as issued.
- UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, Knoxville, Tenn.—Dedication of New Morrill Hall, August, 1908; Register of the University, as issued.
- UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, Burlington, Vt.—Vermont Bulletin, Catalogue Number, 1908-1909.
- UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, Madison, Wis.—Economics and Political Science Series, as issued.
- VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Richmond, Va.—Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, as issued.
- VIRGINIA STATE LIBRARY, Richmond, Va.—Fifth Annual Report of the Library Board; Bulletin, as issued.
- WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C.—Annual Report, 1907.
- WASHINGTON STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Seattle, Wash.—Quarterly of the Society, as issued.
- WILKESBARRE RECORD, Wilkesbarre, Pa.—Historical publications, as issued.
- WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, Williamsburg, Va.—Quarterly Historical Magazine, as issued.
- WISCONSIN HISTORY COMMISSION, Madison, Wis.—Original Papers and Reprints, as issued.
- WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Wilkesbarre, Pa.—Proceedings and Collections, as issued.
- YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn.—General Catalogue, 1908-1909.
Gifts and Exchanges for the Year Ending March 2, 1909.
Receipts.
Balance on hand at last report$2,272 82
By membership dues 47 75
By current dues 997 25
By back dues 749 70
By life memberships 480 00
By sale of QUARTERLY 168 65
By interest on notes 144 42
By sale of reprints 4 40
By advertising 28 00
By sundries 5 93
Total $4,898 92
Expenditures.
Printing QUARTERLIES $1,082 68
Printing stationery 70 75
Clerical work 241 60
Postage 174 89
Special expenses 65 52
Binding 204 00
Stationery 59 95
Engravings 22 10
Exchange 30
Balance on hand 2,977 13
Total $4,898 92
C. W. RAMSDELL, Treasurer.This is to certify that I have examined the above and find same correct.
H. Y. BENEDICT, Auditor.INDEX TO VOLUME XII.
Address of the Texas Delegation 106-119
Affairs of the Association 82, 320
Aixaos 152
Allen, John M., Captain of the Terrible 190
American Diplomacy under Tyler and Polk, by Jesse S. Reeves (Review by G. P. G.) 161-163
American Lumberman 159
Arrest of R. L. Robertson, by E. L. Dohoney 315
Aspley, B. 36-37 171
Aspley, L. G. (or L. B.) 38-49, 55, 57, 58, 60
Barker, Eugene C. 247
Bell, Judge James H. 193-207
Bennett, Miles 44, 50-59
Bowen (or Boin), E. A. 2-12, 18-36
Bolton, Herbert E. 148
Branch, A. M. 105, 106, 119, 129, 132
Brooks, Thomas W. 27-48, 59
Brown, ——, Captain of the Pocket 276-295
Brown, Jeremiah, Captain of the Invincible 252
Brown, Jno. Duff 296
Brown, W. S., Captain of the Liberty 250, 277
Brutus, the 196, 200-203
Bryan, Wm. 282-292
Burleson, Gen. Ed 61
Burnet, David G. 194, 201, 209, 267, 282, 293
Case of the Brig Pocket, The, by C. T. Neu 276-295
Castro's Colony, A Brief History of, by H. E. Haass 80-81
Chilton, Geo. W. 87, 147, 211
Civil Government in the United States and in the State of Texas, by John C. Townes (Review by C. S. Potts) 244
Clark, Robert Carlton 148-152, 155-158
Clay, C. C., Jr. 91
Colfax, Speaker 95, 96
Convention of 1836, The (Note by Eugene C. Barker) 247
Correction, A, by Charles W. Ramsdell 87
Correo Mexican, the 165, 166, 168, 169, 173, 201
Dallas, A. J. 262, 284
Davis, Jefferson 94
De León 149
Dienst, Alex 165, 249
Dohoney, E. L. 317
Eleventh Legislature 209
Epperson, B. H. 87, 98, 99, 101, 104, 105, 119, 129, 130, 140, 145
Ethridge, Emerson 93
Evans, Judge L. D. 87, 147
Experiences of an Unrecognized Senator, by O. M. Roberts 87-147
Fannin, Col. J. W., Jr. 186
Fisher, Rhoads S. 185, 201, 258, 274
Freedmen's Bureau 228
Fulmore, Z. T. 312
Garrett, R. M. 48-51, 59
Gifts and Exchanges for the year ending March 2, 1908 82-86
Gifts and Exchanges for the year ending March 2, 1909 321-326
Grand Army of the Republic 100, 101
Green, Thos. J. 255
Griffin, General 220
Hamilton, Gov. A. J. 206
Hancock, John 209
Hanks, T. 3, 4, 10, 11, 15, 18, 19
Haass, H. E. 81
Hatcher, Mattie Austin 231
Howes, ———, Master of the Pocket 253, 277, 287, 293
Hawkins, Charles E., Captain of the Independence 265
Houston, General Sam 66-70, 72, 74, 257, 259-261, 264
Hunt, Randall 171, 284, 289, 291
Hurd, Wm. A., Captain of the Brutus 261, 262
Independence, the 196, 201-203, 265
Invincible, the 189, 196, 197, 199-203, 252
Irion, R. A., Secretary of State 276, 290, 295
Isleta 150, 151
Jefferson Davis, by W. E. Dodd (Review by G. P. G.) 315
Johnson, President Andrew 88, 91, 94, 95, 97, 99-104, 110, 113-115, 124-126, 129-137, 139-142, 144-146
Johnson, Reverdy 92, 94, 97, 100
Jordan, Levi 1, 2, 4-6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 20, 22
Justice of the Mexican War, The, by Charles W. Owen (Review by G. P. G.) 241-243
Joutel 149
Kiddoo, General 214
La Branche, Alcée 276, 293
La Salle 155
Liberty, the 189, 190, 196, 201-203
"Lone Star Pine" (Note on) 159
McCulloch, Captain Ben 304-306, 308
Massanet 155, 156
Memorias de Nueva España 158
Mendoza, Domingo de 151
Milam, Col. Ben 61
Missions and Missionaries of California, by Fr. Zephyrin Englehardt (Review by Irving B. Richman) 313-315
Navy of the Republic of Texas, The, by Alex. Dienst 155-203, 249-275
Neu, C. T. 276
Notes on Clark's "The Beginnings of Texas," by Herbert E. Bolton 148-158
Owen, Charles W. 241-243
Parker, Ben 43-60
Parker, John 2-13, 15-27
Parker, J. W. 1-5, 7-11, 14-17
Pease, E. M. 102, 204
Pelícano Mexicano, the 27, 249-251
Plan of Stephen F. Austin for an Institute of Modern Languages, etc., by Mattie Austin Hatcher 231-239
Plantae Lindheimerianae, by J. W. Blankinship (Review by Harlan H. York) 159
Potts, C. S. 246
Presidential Reconstruction in Texas, by Charles W. Ramsdell 204-228
Quivira 153
Quiviras 152, 154
Ramsdell, Charles W. 204
Reagan, John H. 213
Recollections of S. F. Sparks 61-79
Records of an Early Texas Baptist Church 1-60
Reeves, Jesse S. 161-163
Richman, Irving B. 315
Roberts, O. M. 87, 89, 102, 119
Robertson, R. L. 315
"Runaway Scrape" 62-63, 193
San Felipe, the 165, 168-171, 173, 184, 186, 195
San Francisco de los Tejas 149, 150
San Jacinto, Battle of 70
Santíssimo Nombre 149
Seward, Wm. H. 98
Sharkey, Ex-Governor 87, 147
Sheridan, Gen. P. H. 225
Sixty Years in Texas, by George Jackson (Review by E. W. Winkler) 312
Sketch of History; the First Texas Regiment, Hood's Texas Brigade, A. N. Va., by Geo. T. Todd (Review by Z. T. Fulmore) 312-313
Smith, Gov. Henry 173, 197, 269
Sparks, S. F. 61, 68, 69, 79
Starr, Jasper 4-8, 10-21
Stedman [William] 87
Tagago 153, 154
Tagagos 153, 154
Taylor, Lieut. J. W. 270-274
Thompson, Captain T. M. 166-172
Thompson, Commander H. L. 258
Throckmorton, J. W. 89-90, 204, 207, 208, 218, 221, 222, 225, 226, 230
Todd, Geo. T. 312, 313
Townes, John C. 244
Travis, Wm. B. 166
Treasurer's Report 321
Velasco 298
Waul, Gen. T. N. 309, 310
Wharton, John A. 17, 275
Wharton, W. H. 17, 257, 269, 270, 281
Wiley, Captain 66
Williams, R. H. 240, 241
Winkler, E. W. 312
With the Border Ruffians, etc., by H. R. Williams (Review by C. W. R.) 240
York, Harlan H. 159
Zavala, Lorenzo de 194, 201
E. P. Wilmot, Pres't Walter Tips, Vice-Pres't Henry Hirshfeld, Vice-Pres't
Wm. H. Folts, Vice-Pres't. J. W. Hoopes, Vice-Pres't M. Hirshfeld, Cashier
C. M. Bartholomew, Asst Cashier
PLEASE NOTE THE LAST OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE AUSTIN NATIONAL BANK AUSTIN, TEXAS AT THE CLOSE OF BUSINESS, APRIL 28, 1909. UNITED STATES DEPOSITARY. STATE OF TEXAS DEPOSITARY.
RECAPITULATION
RESOURCES
Loans and interest-bearing securities $1,918,852.45
Real estate, furniture and fixtures 7,989.31
U. S. bonds, premium and redemption fund 472,000.00
Available cash 1,257,773.56
Total $3,656,615,32
LIABILITIES
Capital $150,000.00
Capital Earned 150,000.00 $300,000.00
Surplus and Profits 267,788.71
Circulation 297,000.00
Dividends Unpaid 50.00
Individual Deposits $2,081,023.06
U.S. Deposits 154,076.49
Bank Deposits 556,677.06
Total Deposits $2,791,776.61
Total $3,656,615.32
Calling attention to the foregoing statement of the condition of this bank, we respectfully solicit your business. Our patrons, irrespective of the size of their accounts, will receive careful and considerate attention, and as liberal accommodations will be extended them as are warranted by the account and prudent banking.
THE QUARTERLY OF THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
The management wishes to announce that the back volumes of the QUARTERLY can be purchased and that a complete set will be available as soon as the reprints are made. The first four volumes will be reprinted some time this year and will be sold at the following prices, on the installment plan, or for cash on delivery:
- $4.25 per volume unbound;
- $5.00 per volume bound in vellum cloth;
- $5.50 per volume bound in leather.
Volumes V and VI are still to be had in the original copies for the following prices:
- $3.00 per volume unbound;
- $3.75 per volume bound in vellum cloth;
- $4.25 per volume bound in leather.
All the remaining volumes can be had for:
- $2.00 each unbound;
- $2.75 for a vellum cloth binding; and
- $3.25 for the leather binding.
Any member desiring to exchange loose numbers for bound volumes may do so by paying 75 cents for the cloth binding and $1.25 for the leather per volume.
ADDRESS THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, AUSTIN, TEXAS, BOOK DEPARTMENT.
2. 3.
4. 5.
6. 7.
8. Captain William Brown was a younger brother of Jeremiah Brown, who was appointed captain of the Invincible. 9.
10. 11.
12. 13. In the course of her career the following officers served for varying terms on the Invincible: Captains Jeremiah Brown and Henry L Thompson; Lieutenants F. Johnson, William H. Leving, P. W. Humphreys, ——— Newcomb, James Perry, Harrie Hornsby, Randolph Lee, ——— Logan, James Mellus, and James Sever; Surgeons O. P. Kelton and Dunn; Purser F. T. Wells; Sailing Masters Daniel Lloyd and Abbott; Midshipmen Alf. A. Wate and Robert Foster; Boatswain ——— Smith; Gunner Fred Franson; Captain of Marines F. M. Gibson; Lieutenants of Marines F. Ward and ——— Brooks. This list, which is compiled from Tennison's Journal, the New Orleans newspapers, and The Texas Almanac, 1860-65, is as complete as I can make it.
14. The Matamoras correspondents of the New Orleans papers call the vessel the Bravo, but explain that it was formerly the Montezuma. 15.
16. 17.
18. 19. Ibid.
20. 21.
22. 23.
24. 25.
26. 27.
28. 29.
30. 31. Telegraph and Texas Register, August 22, 1837, quoting the Matagorda Bulletin.
32. 33.
34. 35.
36. 37.
38. 39.
40. 41. See THE QUARTERLY, XII, 201-203. At various times the following officers served on the Brutus: Captains L. C. Harby, William A. Hurd, and James D. Boylan; Lieutenants L. M. Hitchcock, ——— Lacy, John Damon, ——— Hoyt, G. W. Estis, J. G. Hurd, Osky Davis, ——— Mossat, Libel Hastings, ——— Dearing and ——— Galligher; Surgeon A. M. Levy; Purser Norman Hurd; Boatswain ——— Brown. Henry Riley served as an officer in some capacity, but his rank is unknown. Officers of marines were: Captain Arthur Robertson and First Lieutenant William Francis.
42. 43.
44. 45.
46. 47.
48. 49.
50. 51.
52. 53.
54. 55.
56. 57.
58. 59.
60. 61.
62. 63.
64. 65. THE QUARTERLY, IV, 151, quoting from the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, June 14,
66. 67.
68. 69.
70. 71. Other officers were Surgeon Levy, Purser Brannon, Lieutenant of Marines Thomas Crosby, Midshipmen Wm. A.
72. 73.
74. 75.
76. Gazeta de Tampico, April 29, 1837; Mercurio de Matamoros, April 77.
78. 79.
80. 81.
82. 83.
84. 85.
86. 87.
88. 89.
90. 91.
92. 93.
94. 95.
96. He was referring to an editorial in the Bee for May 16, 1836. Lizardi & Co. was the firm that shipped the cargo of the Pocket. 97. Referring to the trial of the crew of the Invincible.
98. 99.
100. 101.
102. 103.
104. 105.
106. 107.
108. 109.
110. 111.
112. 113.
114. 115.
116. 117.
118. 119.
120. 121.
122. 123.
124. 125.
126. 127.
128. 129.
130. 131.
132. 133.
134. 135.
136. 137.
138. 139.
140. 141. Randal Hunt and Seth Barton were the attorneys for Capt. Brown, as they had been for the crew of the Invincible.
142. 143. Records Department of State, Texas, Book No. 36, p. 15. Bryan was led to make this inquiry from the fact that a convention of indemnity had been entered into by the United States and Texas relative to the capture of the Pocket.
144. 145.
146. 147.
148. 149.
150. 151.
152. 153.
154. 155.
156. 157.
158. 159.
160. 161.
162. 163.
164. 165.
166. 167.
168. 169.
170. 171.
How to cite:
"Issue View", Volume 012, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v012/n4/issue.html
[Accessed Tue Nov 24 1:50:20 CST 2009]
