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[Adventurer, buccaneer and anti-Spanish filibuster Louis Michel Aury was thought to have flown this flag with white field bordered by red with a green wreath above a blue sword and olive branch from his heavily armed privateer vessels in the Gulf which were based in Galveston. Aury is said to have also flown the Venezuelan tri-color with permission of the government to prey on Spanish shipping. (Image from C. E. Gilbert Jr. A Concise History of Early Texas: As told by its 30 historic flags, 1964)]
Royal Forces Secure the Sabine River--Coastal Independence Movements. For three years after the Battle of Medina and at the expense of the population and property of Texas, Commandant of the Provincias Internas Joaquin Arredonda under Viceroy Calleja were able to protect Spanish Texas against significant attempts at penetration and filibustering, particularly by land from the east. The extensive Texas coastline with its bays and Galveston Island was not as easy to control. The area became a safe haven for adventurers and pirates preying on shipping in the Gulf. In fall 1816, José Manuel Herrerra proclaimed a government on Galveston Island as part of the Mexican Republic and appointed Louis Michel Aury, a one-time associate of Simón Bolívar, as governor and naval chief. According to some historians, Aury is described as a buccaneer, who was commissioned by the Mexican revolutionists in the Hidalgo movement to secure Galveston Island. After the deposition of the Hidalgo movement, Aury again turned to pirating and preyed on vessels in the Gulf independent of flag. In 1816, Henry Perry, an officer with Gutierrez and Toledo in the now scattered Republican Army of the North, joined him on Galveston Island.
In November 1816, the two adventurers were joined by Francisco Xavier Mina (left) and his three ships from Spain where they targeted Spanish shipping in the Gulf. Mina was an experienced Spanish patriot and revolutionary having fought against France in the Spanish Peninsular War in 1810. He turned against restored King Ferdinand in 1815 and made his way to America to continue his revolutionary activities against the crown, intent upon invasion of Spanish Mexico. In April 1817, Mina and Aury landed at Nuevo Santander and moved inland to Soto la Marina with a force of about 250, a large part of whom were Anglo adventurers from east of the Sabine River. He hoped to eventually link up with southern Mexican revolutionaries led by Guadalupe Victoria and others. He was met by Commandant Joaquin Arredondo and routed. Mina escaped to join the Mexican rebels further south, but in fall 1817 was captured and executed by firing squad. Capt. Perry and 50 men moved to La Bahia along the coast from Galveston where he demanded surrender of the Spanish garrison with intent to eventually link with Mina and Aury from the south. Texas last Spanish governor, Antonio María Martínez from Bexar, met Perrys force near current Goliad on the plains of La Encinal del Perdido in what some refer to as the Battle of the Perdido and routed them. Seriously wounded Capt. Perry took his own life to avoid capture. Don Luis de Aury returned to other adventures further south on the Central and South American coasts. He at one time returned to Galveston Island to find it in possession of Jean Lafitte who had set up a mini-kingdom with a fort and palace called Maison Rouge in a village named Campeche. Lafitte at one time commanded over 20 vessels some of which were full warships. [The portrait of Gen. Mina is from the frontispiece of William Robinson's Memors of the Mexican Revolution, 1821. The caption of the illustration: General Xavier Mina. From the Original Picture. Painted a few weeks before he left England. In the possession of Tho. Broadwood, Esq.]
JEAN LAFITTE maintained control of Galveston Island in the years 1818-1821. Lafitte was one of the most daring and colorful filibusters of his time. He flew a solid, blood red flag from his masts and from time to time flew the Venezuelan yellow, blue and red tri-color shown above. It is thought that he displayed, as did Aury, the Venezuelan colors with permission of the government whose aim was to disrupt Spanish shipping in the Gulf and Caribbean.
Illegal Immigration Resumes from the East--French Exiles at Champ D'Asile. Concurrent with the Mina-Perry expeditions from Galveston Island were increasing numbers of settlers moving illegally across the Sabine River who clustered near Pecan Point south of the Red River. Aided by Jean Lafitte in 1818, a group of about 400 French ex-patriates, Tombigbee refugees, French nationals fleeing slave uprisings in the French West Indies, some Spaniards, Mexicans, Poles and Anglo-Americans under a General Charles François Antoine Lallemand arrived on Galveston Island with mixed, but apparently primary motives of establishing a colony and new home. Joseph Bonaparte, an exile in America, backed the group with his vision of liberation of New Spain French style which would then help free his brother Napoleon from prison in St. Helena. The Tombigbee episode was an attempt by a group of French exiles from Philadelphia, PA called the French Agricultural and Manufacturing Society or Society of the Cultivation of the Vine and Olive to establish a colony on the Tombigbee River in the Mississippi River Territory (now Alabama). Upon suggestion by Spanish envoy to the USA, Luis de Onís, Lallemand attempted to obtain permission to establish a colony in New Spanish Texas from the Viceroy, but he was refused permission to land anywhere in New Spain. Under Gen. Antoine Rigaud, the group moved illegally up the Trinity River to a place they named Champ dAsile (near current Liberty, LibertyCo, TX) where they built a fort and began to plant crops including olive trees and grape vines. Lallemand issued a manifesto of their intent to remain and exercise their God-given right to establish homes in the area despite orders from royal forces to leave. Threatened by Spanish forces from San Antonio and Indian attacks, the idealists returned to Galveston Island where they experienced a major hurricane that further decimated their meager resources. Some of the idealists returned to New Orleans, some to Nacogdoches and others joined the "mini-kingdom" of Jean Lafitte.
Sabine River--Eastern Border of New Spain by Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. Amid momentous independence movements on the European continent, the despotic reign of King Ferdinand VII (1814-1833) and military-enforced constitutionalism (1820-1823), Spanish rule in America and Texas was coming rapidly to a close. In 1819 the outright seizure of both Florida and Texas by the USA was a serious concern. Spain had not undisputedly controlled the area northeast of the Rio Grande River to the Arroyo Hondo and Calcasieu Rivers by treaty since the Louisiana Territory was briefly returned to France in 1800. The border remained a point of dispute and negotiation linked to the question of Spanish Florida between Spanish minister to the USA, Don Luis de Onís de Gonzales, and American Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, during the administration of President James Monroe. The negotiations were aided in no small part by the international and internal problems of Spain, which extended to New Spain. Proposals from the US side in the extreme was that the border of the Louisiana Purchase was the Rio Grande River, then compromise proposals of the Colorado River and then the east fork of the Trinity River. In 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the USA for 5 million dollars and clear establishment of the border of New Spain and the USA as the Sabine River north to the Red River, west to the 100th meridian and north to the Arkansas River, following the Arkansas River and about midway between current state of Colorado to the 42 parallel then west to the Pacific Ocean.
[This flag was displayed by the Long Expedition and is considered by some to be the flag of the second Texas Republic (first was that set up by the Republican Army of the North in 1812). It was the first movement for Texas independence that used the red and white stripes of the newly founded Confederation of American States and was the first to display a single Lone Star Image from C. E. Gilbert Jr. A Concise History of Early Texas: As told by its 30 historic flags, 1964].
Dissatisfaction over the "concession" of Texas to Spain precipitated the last major filibustering expedition to attempt to establish a Republic within Spanish Texas. With financial backing from the uncle of his wife, Gen. James Wilkinson, Col. Dr. James Long of Natchez, a former U.S. Army surgeon in Carroll's Brigade in the War of 1812 under Gen. Andrew Jackson, raised arms and followers with the objective to establish a Republic of Texas by connecting with insurgents in Mexico which could be used as a base of solidifying independence in the whole of Mexico. Long, an idealist experienced with the futility of war and violence for greedy ends, was a man of some means and staked his entire fortune on the venture. Soon after the war he met and married Miss Jane Wilkinson with whom he retired to his plantation at Natchez. Through presumably Wilkinson associations he became very familiar with the earlier experience and fate of Phillip Nolan and directly with individuals having an active familiarity with Texas. The group is thought to have been encouraged by General Andrew Jackson and others in high echelons of the USA government, although official policy of the United States was neutrality in regard to Spain. A force of near 300 occupied Nacogdoches, then troops were spread with outposts from there to the coast and a government was established on 23 Jun 1819 with Long as President and Commander of the Army.
Among his "Supreme Council" of advisors were Stephen Barker, Horatio Bigelow, John G. Burnet, Hamlin Cook, J. Child, Peter Samuel Davenport (photo left), Pedro Procello, John Sibley (photo below from Lindenwood College), W.W. Walker, and Bernardo Gutiérrez, former commander of the Republican Army of the North. In addition to Long, Vicente Tarin, former Commandant of the Second Flying Company of Alamo de Parras and anti-Spanish resistance leader in Texas, was a signatory to Dr. Long's Declaration of Independence where he is identified as "Secretary."
Liberal land laws, trading houses, customs rules and a newspaper edited by Bigelow was established. After capture of Nacogdoches, Long sent emissaries Johnson and Smith to attempt to enlist the support of Jean and Pierre Lafitte and establish Galveston Island as a port of entry for the new Republic of Texas. Lafitte responded and Long then outlined his invasion plan to Lafitte with a message carried by associate Capt. James Gaines. The immediate response by Lafitte was not encouraging. While preparing to meet Lafitte personally, Long learned that Royal forces under Col. Ignacio Perez from San Antonio were marching toward Nacogdoches. Long sent his family east across the Sabine and tried to avoid confrontation with the Spanish forces. The camp under Capt. Johnson on the Brazos River was surprised and 22 of Long's men captured by Perez. David Long, Col. James Long's brother, was killed during the attack. Perez proceeded to Nacogdoches and in stepwise fashion destroyed outposts established by the Long group on the Brazos and Trinity Rivers with surviviors from each outpost fleeing to the next. At Capt. Smith's camp at the Coushatta Indian village on the Trinity River, the remnants dispersed east across the Sabine River and some down the Trinity to Bolivar Point where Col. Long and others met the few survivors. Perez proceeded to destroy all traces of settlement that he could find whether Long related or not and according to his report "I burned 30 habitations....They left large crops of corn, potatoes, pumpkins, and various other vegetables, gangs of hogs, and flocks of fowls....I left nothing which might possibly serve in [the] future."
Undaunted, Long returned to New Orleans to enlist more help and support. He enlisted resigned American army General Eleazar W. Ripley of New Orleans to help guide a renewed movement. Ripley was invited by Long's Supreme Council of the Republic of Texas to become President and ex-officio Commander in Chief of the armies and navies. Ripley outlined a detailed policy which included plans for stimulating trade, culture, religion, education and manufacturing and agriculture. Slavery would be forbidden in the new Republic. Ripley drew up plans for roads, bridges, canals and clearing land for farms. There or in the meantime, Long was introduced to José Félix Trespalacios, Ben Milam, John Austin and William H. Christy, who were preparing an expedition to aid Republicans further south in Mexico. Apparently, Ripley never came to Texas, although a son died in the Goliad Massacre in 1836.
The group along with Mrs. Long and a servant sailed with four vessels for Bolivar Point on the Bolivar Peninsula opposite Galveston Island. The group is said to have actually seen Lafitte ships sailing out of the harbor for the last time as they evacuated the coastal islands. The plan was for Trespalacios, Milam and Christy to sail to Tampico and join Republicans there, then move up the coast to link with Long's forces at La Bahia. According to author Stuart Foote in Texas and Texans, Long in 1820 declared José Félix Trespalacios (then exiled in Cuba) President and Bernardo Gutierrez (once commander and President of the Republic of the North) as Vice-President. Leaving Mrs. Long and a small party on Bolivar, Long and a force of 52 sailed to Matagorda Bay, landed at the mouth of the Colorado River 15 miles above the mouth at Mesquite Landing in the fall of 1821 and captured La Bahia and during that time learned that Mexico had declared independence from Spain under Emperor Iturbide. At La Bahia, superior royal forces under Col. Perez from San Antonio used deception that they or a part of their force were sympathizers with the Republican forces of Mexico and captured him and his men. After being marched to San Antonio as prisoners, they were transferred to Laredo and then Monterrey and then escorted to Mexico City after signing of the Treaty of Cordova and as Iturbide assumed control of the government of Mexico.
There Long and associates were honored by some as patriots and met Trespalacios, Milam and Christy. Long's counsel and advice was listened to until the appointment of Trespalacios as governor of Texas whereupon the interaction between Long and the new governor cooled considerably. Long died in Mexico City where he was shot and killed by a Mexican soldier under mysterious circumstances. He is said to have been shot by a soldier in a small squad while removing his passport from a pocket. Some accounts assume an accident. Author Stuart Henry Foote in his Texas and Texans, 1841, who claimed to have in hand Longs personal notebooks, say that Long was in Mexico City by invitation of the Iturbide regime as a champion of Mexican liberty. He came under the suspicion of the Iturbide people and was assassinated on secret orders. Other accounts theorize that his death was directed by associates of Trespalacios with whose political advancement Long was a competitor and threat. Rumors suggested that Long was also a candidate for the appointment by Emperor Iturbide for whom Gen. Wilkinson became a close associate and advisor. After the death of Long, Milam, Austin, Christy and other Long sympathizers left Mexico City for Monterrey and vowed to avenge his death. They plotted to intercept Trespalacios on his way to Texas to assume his office, but were betrayed by companions Wilson and Miller who alerted Trespalacios near Saltillo. All three were arrested and escorted back to Mexico City via Saltillo, San Luis Potisi and Queretaro. In Mexico, they were imprisoned for ten months along with some other members of the Long Expedition.
In May 1822, President Monroe of the USA recognized the independent Republic of Mexico. Monroe's ambassador to Chili, Poinsett of SC, passing through Mexico was able to secure the release of the imprisoned Anglos in Dec 1822 and they were transported on the US warship John Adams via Havana to Norfolk, VA. Poinsett was appointed American ambassador to the Republic of Mexico where he presented his credentials to first President Guadalupe Victoria in May 1825.
A document in Spanish from the Nacogdoches Archives lists the names, rank (or occupation), country of origin and religion of those captured at La Bahia. The transcription of names (Nombres), occupation or rank (Empleos), country (Patria) below are as transcribed without editing. The original document also listed the prisoner's religion (catholic or protestant).
Mrs. Jane Long is the subject of many stories in her own right of how she survived on Bolivar Peninsula alone with her loyal servant girl and a newborn daughter (married James S. Sullivan) while Dr. Long was in the field. In Apr 1822, Randall and James Jones arrived to inform her of her husband's death. She traveled to San Antonio and Natchez, visited Long's assassination site in Mexico and returned to reside in San Felipe, Brazoria and then to Richmond where she died 30 Dec 1880 at the age of 82. She is buried in Richmond and her gravesite is marked with a monument.
Legal and Controlled Immigration Through Contract--Moses and Stephen F. Austin 1820-1821. Among those who began to look toward Texas with the signing of the Adams-Onís Treaty as early as 1819 with some knowledge of the liberal reforms going on in Spain and the Republican independence movements within Mexico was former Spanish subject Moses Austin (photo) of Missouri and his son Stephen F. Austin. Motivated by depression, personal financial loss and increasingly difficult land policies in Virginia, Missouri and Arkansas, Moses Austin arrived from Little Rock, AR with his Spanish passport of 1797 in San Antonio de Bexar on 23 Dec 1820 with his black servant Richmond. Jacob Kirkham, who was searching for runaway slaves, and Jacob Forsythe of VA, also investigating opportunities in Texas accompanied him. Austin apparently had met both men in Natchitoches. Royal authorities extensively examined him and at first he was ordered to leave Bexar immediately by governor Martinez. However, he met Baron de Bastrop on the streets of Bexar who he had known in Louisiana. Bastrop intervened with Gov. Martinez, Austin was given a second interview and, after approval of the ayuntamiento, Martinez approved and sent the application to Commandante of the Provincias Joaquin Arredondo. Moses Austin declared he was a 55-year-old subject of the King of Spain as shown by his passport of 1797, a Catholic and that he carried no goods to be traded, only articles and supplies for his own use on the trip. He stated that he was moved by the reinstatement of the liberal constitution of Spain and desired to request permission, along with 300 other families, to settle in the empire in fulfillment of his Kings desire at the time of the Louisiana Purchase to allow his subjects freedom of movement between provinces.
Moses Austin in Spanish Bexar 23 Dec 1820
Experiencing extreme hardship and having to deal along the way with the treachery of companion Kirkham, whose interest was illegal trade in collaboration with local Spaniards, Austin returned to the USA and worked feverishly to put his affairs in order and prepare for fulfillment of his proposal even before it was approved. In mid-May 1821, he received word that Arredondo had approved his application on 17 Jan 1821. By the 10 of June, Moses Austin was stricken dead with pneumonia that many attribute to his return trip and feverish preparations for return to Texas. His dying request was that son Stephen F. Austin continue his vision and mission. On 18 Jun, son Stephen F. Austin arrived in Natchitoches with a party of about ten and met emissaries of Texas Gov. Martinez. Included in the group were Josef Erasmo Seguin, J.M. Verramendi and others who were probably on personal trading missions in Louisiana in addition to representing the governor. The Bexareños escorted Austin overland to San Antonio via McGuffins Station between Natchitoches and the Sabine River and Camp Ripley on the Sabine and Nacogdoches. In San Antonio, Austin was received cordially by former Gov. Martinez of Spanish Texas and now Gov. Martinez of Texas, Republic of Mexico, on 12 or 13 Aug 1821 where the details of establishment of his plan were worked out with Bastrop and Seguin.
Peaceful Transition into the Republic of Mexico under Governor Antonio María Martinez. On the morning of 19 Jul 1821, Gov. Martinez officially replaced the Spanish Cross of Burgundy banner with the Mexican tricolor on the civil plaza in San Antonio de Bexar, four months after Iturbide had proclaimed the independence of Mexico under the Plan of Iguala and one month before Gen. Juan ODonoju, representing Spain, ratified the Treaty of Cordova on 24 Aug in Mexico City. The transition was hardly noticed by residents of the area, but perceptive and visionary residents of San Antonio along with Gov. Martinez were prepared to move quickly to proceed with development and recovery of Texas from Spanish rule.
Despite renewed definition of the borders of Spanish Texas in 1819 and de novo transfer of Texas to Mexico in 1821 by the Treaty of Cordova, security and stability of the territory meant little without solid and productive land-owning citizens comprising an economy in an atmosphere of security. Texas was decimated during the death throes of the royal government and its successful attempts to repel illegal immigration, filibustering and independence movements. In no small measure, some of the destruction was also wrought by those attempting to separate Texas and Mexico from Spain which often compromised the idealism behind their efforts. Gov. Martinez stated in his own words "the kings soldiers had drained the resources of the country, and laid their hands on everything that could sustain human life ..the province advanced at an amazing rate toward ruin and destruction." According to Gov. Martinez, Texas had no more than 2516 souls in 1822 down from the 3103 recorded in the census of 1777. It had only two villages, San Antonio de Bexar and La Bahia. In 1821 Nacogdoches which had up to 1000 inhabitants in 1812 prior to revolution and filibustering, was essentially non-existent as a viable community. Jose Erasmos Seguin, during escort of Stephen F. Austin to San Antonio, gathered what few hardy stragglers and squatters were in the area in summer 1821 and, as Gov. Martinezs representative, charged them to organize as part of the imminent Republic of Mexico. Three of the four San Antonio missions were unoccupied and near a state of ruin. There was a meager garrison at La Bahia and a few families and the strongest in San Antonio that was pitifully equipped and thievery and corruption for survival was a problem. Ironically, it was probably Gov. Martinezs willingness to turn his back on illegal trade by the letter of the law that allowed the village to survive the period. Gov. Martinez and obviously both realistic conservatives and liberal visionaries in the new Republic of Mexico became convinced that legal and controlled immigration was the inevitable means to secure Texas as the continuing buffer zone against USA expansion and to develop Texas economically, culturally and politically.