Galveston Island, or, A Few Months off the Coast of Texas: The Journal of Francis C. Sheridan, 1839–1840 9780292755864

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GBISBIOIISLSND

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THE ClTY OF GALVESTON

From Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, 1844

GSLVKTON ISLAND Or, A FEW MONTHS OFF THE COAST OF TEXAS

The Journal of FRANCIS C SHERIDAN 1839-1840 Edited by WILLIS W. PRATT

AUSTIN:

1954

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS

Copyright © 1954 by the University of Texas Press Copyright © renewed 1982 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:  Permissions   University of Texas Press   P.O. Box 7819   Austin, TX 78713-7819  http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/rp-form Library of Congress Catalog Number 53-11770 isbn 978-0-292-74170-6, paperback isbn 978-0-292-75586-4, library e-book isbn 978-0-292-75587-1, individual e-book

To THE TRUNK MAKERS & BUTTERMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN

Aware as I am that the light ephemeral works of the day arrive into yr hands at last—& feeling that this work is but a bubble on the stream of literature—I am anxious by a dedication to conciliate yr feelings so far in my favour, that when wrapping up your wares, you will select these papers for the fresh in preference to the salt Butter— [Francis C. Sheridan] GENT N

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Foreword of the year 1839, Francis G Sheridan, an elegant young Irishman in the British diplomatic service, set sail with his terrier "Nelly" from Barbados, bound for the Republic of Texas. Her Majesty's ship Pilot was sailing from the equable climate of Barbados to what he presumed would be the equally temperate climate of the seaport of Galveston. In his light tropical clothing he was, he felt, properly dressed for the journey. After a few days at sea, an observer who had seen this gentleman embark at Barbados might have found it difficult to recognize him. For a stiff "norther" had welcomed them into the Gulf of Mexico, and he had been obliged to borrow a pair of breeches from the Corporal of Marines, a jacket from the Captain, and gloves from the Master. He was now, he observed in his journal, "in a better condition to combat with the inclemency of the season." Adding a yellow neckcloth of his own to these rough seaman's clothes, Her Majesty's representative made his first appearance before the citizens of the Republic. Francis Cynric Sheridan, grandson of the famous playO N THE LAST SUNDAY

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wright and wit, Richard Brinsley Sheridan,1 was colonial secretary under Sir Evan John Murray MacGregor, governor of the Windward Islands, stationed in Barbados. His mission in Texas was to contribute the opinion of an eyewitness to larger deliberations going on in London. Lord Palmerston was carefully weighing the pros and cons of recognizing the new Republic—an action he had refused to take in 1838 in response to the application of J. Pinckney Henderson, Texas minister to England and France. On one side, England's commercial interests were urging immediate recognition; on the other, the government felt obliged to satisfy the loudly expressed objections of the English abolitionists. Palmerston wanted all the information about Texas that he could get. The British Foreign Office was in constant communication with Sir Richard Pakenham, British minister at Mexico; Captain Hamilton of the British Navy had visited the Republic and was requested to make a report; and now Sheridan was being sent to make further observations. After a stay of several months Sheridan dispatched his letter through the proper diplomatic channels to the British Foreign Office for the information of the Prime Minister. The letter, dated July 12,1840, remains in the government files and has been published by E. D. Adams, 1 Francis Cynric Sheridan was the third son of Thomas Sheridan, the eldest son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Elizabeth Anne Linley. His mother was Caroline Henrietta Callander, daughter of Colonel James Callander (Sir James Campbell) and Ladv Elizabeth Helena M'Donnell. See "Sheridan, late of Frampton Court," Burke's Landed Gentry, London, 1937, Vol. II.

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the American historian, in a volume of British diplomatic correspondence concerning the Republic of Texas. Professor Adams describes the letter as comprehensive, picturesque, and judicial. "If the government," Sheridan wrote, "have it in the remotest contemplation to grant the recognition'—and the whole tenor of his letter implied that it ought to grant it—"it is my humble opinion that a competent person should be at once sent there to examine the Country, make himself acquainted with the character and habits of the people and report thereon." By July of 1840, Palmerston had apparently made up his mind to recognize Texas, and the observations of Sheridan and others influenced him to arrange immediate treaties with the Republic, the first of which, a treaty of commerce and navigation, was signed November 13, 1840. Upon the official recognition in 1842, Captain (later Sir) Charles Elliott was sent to the Republic as British consul general and remained until the Annexation in 1846. The journal that we have here contains some of the material that Sheridan used for his official report and much colorful detail that he did not use. The report is the document of an astute and observant diplomat, short and to the point; this one, which was never published, is the travel diary of a sophisticated and discerning student of human nature. Although there are easily discoverable similarities to other contemporary accounts written by English visitors to the West and South, Sheridan's journal has qualities which make it quite different from most ix

of them. There is little of the obtuse condescension, for example, which made Mrs. Trollope's visit to Louisiana and the East so notorious when she published her Domestic Manners of the Americans in 1832. It has more humor and less verbosity than Hooten's St. Louis* Isle, or Texiana, the account of an Englishman who arrived at Galveston in 1840, just about the time that Sheridan left it; and it reveals more understanding than the observations of Mrs. Houstoun, who made only brief excursions from the comfortable quarters of her hundred-foot yacht moored in Galveston Harbor during the winter of 1842. In comparison with these observers, Sheridan wrote from a more literary point of view. He had a lively flair for the pictorial and something of the novelist's interest in characterization. His picture of the blanket-coated McKinney, for example, whom he encountered on the steamer bound for Galveston, and of the carelessly dressed set of fellows who met the boat as it dropped anchor off the coast at Velasco ("one gentleman having little more than a pair of earings & a Bowie knife") are notable for their clarity and economy. These qualities, combined with his romantic preoccupation with the character of Lafitte and his satiric bent, exemplified in his sketch of the ubiquitous land speculator, reveal an attractive and many-sided personality which enlivens the whole account and gives it continuity. Sheridan appears to have been rather widely read in literature, and his quotations from the older writers— x

Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope—and from such contemporaries as Mrs. Hemans, Theodore Hook, and Dickens are generally apposite and unforced. Judging from his social success at Velasco, he must have possessed some of the flamboyance of the Byronic type, though he seems not to have affected the aloofness of this popular contemporary attitude, which he describes with some acerbity in the journal. He is, of course, occasionally patronizing: he laughs at the ' Yankee'' language and finds amusing the hopeless endeavors of the Texans to breed horses equal to the English racers. At times his attempts at wit seem self-conscious, but the impression that the whole picture leaves is lively and pungent. His criticisms, leavened by a sense of humor, contain little that is exaggerated or distorted. Although it would be pretentious to call his account important as a historical document, it is faithful to the buoyant frontier life he had come to observe—its rawness and its vitality—and the journal retains the freshness of a recent impression. Sheridan kept his journal in a large ledger-like volume bound in half calf. The earliest entries, in diary form, record something for nearly every day, but shortly after his arrival in Texas, the daily entries are abandoned, and the journal becomes a continuous account of what in his experience he felt was worth recording. The latter half, in fact, seems to be a reconstruction taken from notes made at the time, and written perhaps on shipboard on the return voyage to Barbados. This part of the jourxi

nal, therefore, takes on a more formal character, as if the idea of making the account into a book were developing in his mind. Finally, on the last page, a title and whimsical dedication reveal that this had become his intention. There are several references (scattered mainly through the latter part of the journal) to anecdotes and to quotations from printed sources which do not, unfortunately, appear in the manuscript. It is regrettable that we do not have the set of notes to which these references allude, for Sheridan occasionally brings the reader up to the point and then leaves him dangling. In several instances I have been able to supply what I believe is the exact reference that Sheridan intended to make at these points and have included the material in the notes. In other places —his anecdote of the penchant for practical joking in the Texas Navy, for example—it has been impossible to do this. At these points, the account may seem fragmentary, but this occasional lack of continuity should not be too troublesome. Sheridan's "Notes on Texas'' that follow the body of the journal are largely the transcription of a letter of Samuel May Williams, who had been secretary to Stephen F. Austin and was the business partner of Thomas F. McKinney, the Robert Morris of the Texas Revolution. It was written to Captain Ramsay of the Pilot, obviously for Sheridan's use. It is an interesting letter, both as a firsthand account of the Revolution and as a piece of propaganda, for it is an obvious attempt to convince xti

Sheridan that immediate recognition of the Republic was important to Great Britain. The editorial notes indicate how heavily Sheridan drew upon this letter in writing his official report. In the appendices, there are several items from the manuscript not immediately connected with the main part of the journal: (1) Sheridan's list of "Barbarian Expressions" that he encountered in Texas; (2) a brief account of obeah superstitions, probably collected in Barbados or Jamaica; (3) a short diary written by Sheridan en route to the British colony of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. After several years' service in Barbados, Sheridan was appointed treasurer and paymaster general of this British possession and journeyed there via Cape Town, in 1842. Less than two years later, on September 13, 1843,2 he died at Port Louis, Mauritius. His promising diplomatic career had come to an end when he was only thirty. Sheridan's manuscript, which came into the hands of an English bookseller several years ago, was purchased by the University of Texas Library for the Archives Collection. Except for a few obvious slips of the pen which have been silently corrected, it is printed exactly as Sheridan wrote it. I wish to express my thanks to Miss Winnie Allen and to Mr. Malcolm D. McLean for their critical reading of 2 The Gentleman's Magazine (XXI [1844], 111) gives the date as November 11, 1843.

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my manuscript, and to acknowledge my gratitude to Mr. Herbert Gambrell, whose helpful suggestions I have incorporated in my notes. WILLIS W. PRATT

Austin, Texas August 1, 1953

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Contents The Journal of Francis C. Sheridan

1

Notes on Texas

126

Appendix I

149

Appendix II

151

Appendix III

154

Index

165

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Illustrations The City of Galveston

frontispiece

An English Impression of a Typical American

facing

28

Galveston from the Gulf Shore

45

Old Rosin the Bow

92

Settler's House on the Prairie

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109

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GSLESTira B U D

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The Journal of Francis C. Sheridan, 1839-1840 29 th December. 1839. Sailed in HMS. Pilot [with] Captain Ramsay for Texas via Jamaica—passed between the Islands of Sfc Lucia & Sl Vincent at night, & saw the former pretty clearly on Monday Mor s . I was with respect to S* Vincent very much in the predicament of ye gentleman in the cook shop in regard to his veal & stuffing. Even as he was enforced to put up with a slice where the stuffing had been, so I, was obliged, while gazing on the indistinct mass of cloud, for such to my eyes it seemed, to take for granted that it was no other than S1 Vincent. 31 s t The last day of—39—8 years ago I was travelling the same salt road with Eden in the Conway. Eheu: tempus fugit. "Tomorrow & Tomorrow, & Tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day"—&c. So says the immortal. The exception to the rule however has certainly been the last 8 years of my life. This is the most noble brig, I ever saw, & the "Captain & his crew" a most cheerful collection of mortals. SUNDAY

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1 Jany 1840—A happy new year to every body. Nothing worth noting in this important volume. 2nd Off Sl Domingo. Saw Alta Vela a rock so called from its presenting at times the appearance of a lofty sail & taken by erroneous mariners for "sich." It is quite barren & "kivered" all over with sea birds. 3rd Nothing worth noting. I have fished diligently all the week but caught nothing. 4th Sailing along Jamaica—Fish hook carried away by some monster of the deep. Anchored same Evg in Port Royal or rather got hold of a buoy. Went ashore, after having embraced Williams of the R[oyal] A[rtillery] who I knew slightly in Dublin, & who has now the pleasant situation of health officer. Every body is glad to claim an English nodding acquaintance as a dear friend out here & no wonder. Walmsley of the 56th who I recollect as being here with his Reg* when I was here last also came on board, but he was so altered that I knew him not at first—he has married, and his wife's no beauty. On landing I instantly sought out Jack Sfc John who I found of course fishing, but at the same time enjoying the conversation of Mrs Sl John & his son. Mrs S. is nothing to compare to Jack's late wife, & his son's afinebut hideous boy. Dined at the R. A. Mess & afterwards walked into the Town to meet H. Seymour. Got into a row with some blacks Johnny Canning—Seymour & Young Wasy received a few blows but nothing particular. Magistrate called out & disturbance soon quieted. Slept at Williams. 5th Went with J. S* John over to Port Henderson got 2

a gig & proceeded to Gov* Pen1 to see Stewart. When we had gotten within about two miles from the Pen, our horse wh on starting had shewn symptoms of a fractious disposition stopped, & on being urged by a violent beating to proceed he backed into a ditch, whereon Jack & I got out, & I with a thick stick & he with the whip commenced a furious assault, wh certainly had the effect of overcoming his indolence, but in so sudden a manner, that before we could run to his head he had made a vigorous bolt & run away with the gig. Jack pursued, while encumbered with the weapons of attack "first marked the road they took" & then proceeded to march in the hottest sun I ever was out in, & without a breath of air to fan me. Fortunately natural laziness on the part of the quadruped and the soothing tones of Jack's voice shortened my journey by a mile, for at the end of that space, I discovered the panting Jack seated in the gig into wh I got & we completed the rest of the journey without further calamity. I found Stewart in great force, as far as I could see, altho' they tell me he is much broken wh I hope is not the case. His wife was ill, but I saw Mr & Mrs Reynolds there & D r Turner2 of gallipot memory. Bor1 "A pen in Jamaica is a farm or plantation." Gentleman's Magazine, LXII (1792), 515. Cf. with Mrs. Houstoun, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico; or, Yachting in the New World (London, 1844), I, 92: "The pens, or villas of the rich inhabitants, who go there occasionally to enjoy health or coolness." 2 This may have been William Turner (1792-1867), diplomatist and author, who published Journals of a Tour in the Levant, 1820, and became British envoy to Colombia, 1829-38.

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rowing a gig from Stewart we proceeded to Spanish Town where I left a card on Little Nunes who I was given to understand was pedestrianizing for the sake of gout. I then left a card & a letter of introduction from Sir S. Whittingham on Sir C. Metcalfe3 who by all accounts is very popular, & afterwards went to the Ramsays where I had a very pleasant second breakfast. Ramsay not a bit altered further than "frost upon his Pow." 4 One of the Miss Lynchs there. Started again for Stewarts where we had 3 rd breakfast, after which we got into our original gig but to no purpose, for the Horse would not move, on being beaten took to backing, & finally fell breaking a shaft, on wh we threw ourselves on Stewarts bounty who lent us a vehicle & we reached Port Henderson in time for the litter boat. I forgot to say that Jack had made out 3 Devil Fish5 in the Harbour one of w h we saw on crossing from Port Royal being about a mile from Fort Augusta we are to hunt him to-morrow. Dined at R. A. Mess & slept at Sl Johns. 6 th Arose at Day break, & the harpoons &c being 3 Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham (1772-1841) was lieutenant general and commander of British forces in the Windward Islands, 1836-39. Charles, First Baron Metcalfe (1785-1846), was governor of Jamaica from 1839 to 1842. 4 A dialectal form of poll, meaning "head." The phrase is proverbial. 5 A gigantic species of eagle ray, having expanded sides gradually passing into flappers or pectoral fins, the expanse of which is sometimes twenty feet. Though given the names of sea devil and vampire, it is in no way formidable except for its enormous strength and bulk.

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ready, Jack & I first boarded the Magnificent in a small canoe. Here the quick Eye of S* John soon detected a monstrous Devil Fish lying about five miles from our ship. However as we had had no breakfast, & as it is necessary in these diversions to have assistant boats we paddled to the Pilot. Here having refreshed and obtained Ramsay's gig I remained until Sl John & his canoe had got within a mile of the Fish, when I put to sea & made diligent haste after him. When I was within about 200 yards of his canoe he was along side the Devil Fish, and in an instant "swish" went the harpoon, "burr" went the line, & off went the little canoe the foam washing over her bows, as if she had a steam engine aboard. As the fish came right down on my boat I had nothing to do, but to keep clear & get hooked on astern, wh I effected. The crews of the canoe & gig both backed their oars hard, but despite of all, the Fish towed us steadily at the rate of about 3 or 4 miles an hour & luckily straight for the Shipping. In a very short time Cap1 Milne of the Crocodile dispatched his gig, with offers of assistance, whereupon it was hooked on to the stern of my boat. Still on went the Devil Fish at the same steady rate, & the illustrious Jack dispatched the Crocodile's boat for more line. At this moment & Corrie of the Magnificent bore down in a heavy boat with three more harpoons, lines &c, & hooked on to the bows of the canoe. The Crocodile's boat soon after returned & took up her old position, but nothing seemed to tire the Devil Fish, wh by this time was within 20 yards of the Pilot's Bows, under wh if he had 5

dived we must have cut away, but fortunately he made a sharp turn to the right & we were soon clear of the shipping. And now with much caution did the wary Jack take a gentle pull upon his prey, till it being rather blown came sulkily to the surface giving an appearance of a little Island suddenly emerging from fathomless deep. Putting the helm a little to starboard we brought Corries boat nearly on the Fish, & he being prepared with an enormous harpoon let fly—but alas! joy is uncertain, the weapon simply grazed his fin—"Missed him by God" roared Jack. "Burr" went the line again, & again strove the Devil Fish to seek safety in the deeps. In about 15 minutes however the same line of policy pursued, & attended, to my intense delight with complete success, for no sooner had the victim presented his back to the company, than the vigorous Corrie drove a tremendous harpoon into him. This fresh excitement had a very visible effect. The boats being dragged through the water at an astonishing rate. However it did not last long, & the monster came up in a very short time evidently seriously indisposed. Bleeding being again recommended by D r S* John, Surgeon Corrie drove a smaller harpoon clean through his heart, wh afforded almost immediate relief. To make assurance doubly sure6 however, & as the patient still seemed restless two more lances were introduced and it was observable that the professional men « Macbeth, IV, 1: But yet I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate. . . .

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were utterly indifferent as to what part of the patient's body they were introduced. The corpse was now firmly attached to the boat & towed by six boats to Port Royal Point, where about 100 Artillerymen were anxiously awaiting its arrival. The Men of Wars boats being cast off, & an inch and half rope being attached to ours & conveyed to the soldiers ashore, we proceeded with shouts of triumph, & after some difficulty got along side the wharf & into shallow water—and lucky for us we did, for just at that moment the harpoons gave way & the fish was loose. In rushed every body with ropes &c after much labour he was landed high & dry on the beach. The admeasurement & dissection now took place. As to the first. He was 14 feet 9 inches from fin to fin across the back, 8 f< 71/2 from the mouth to the root of the tail, & 3 f' y2 from thence to the tip of the tail. The mouth when moderately open was 16 inches & y2 from the upper to the lower lip & 36y2 broad. "The Brash" was bestowed on me, & having seen him cut up, wh was a very beastly operation, I returned on board. Having dressed I proceeded accompanied by H. Seymour to Kingston in a canoe, & walked to Hartys Tavern where we had second breakfast. Met Archdeacon Pope who joined us. Afterwards walked to the Generals & saw Vyse of the Life Guards, but only for a moment as he was going out with the General. Returned to town & saw some old friends J. Wilson, the same as ever, Chamberlain, Hyslop,— that Demon J. Suman [?] just out of prison & much changed. Promised to meet every one next day but un7

fortunately was unable to return to Kingstown before sailing. Returned to Port Royal, dined with R. A. & slept at J. S* Johns. 7 th Breakfasted with the Commodore Douglas spent the day with S1 John, dined with D r Evans & his wife at the Hospital, & slept on board, on which occasion I made myself an ass. 8 th Sailed for Texas. Hardly any wind. 9 th Ten Knot breeze— 10 th Shoals of Flying Fish, but although I am an indefatigable Piscator, I can catch nothing. 11 t h A Brig ahead of us, strong hopes that she was a slaver, but on coming up with her, she proved to be a Yankee called the Siroc, & bound to East-Port wh according to Brooks's Gazeteer7 is the most eastern Point of the U. States of N . America. The town is beautifully located on Moose Island in Passamaquody Bay. Delicious names. 12 th Two schooners made out, but are pronounced to be honest boats & no slavers. 13 th Entering the Gulf of Mexico—saw Cape Antonio 8 but very indistinctly. Threw a bottle over board in w h was a printed form filled up by Ramsay, giving the name of the ship, our latitude & longitude, date, &c, and 7

Richard Brookes's General Gazetteer ran through many editions after its publication in England, 1762. The issue that Sheridan used may have been Darby's American edition called Brookes's Universal Gazetteer, Philadelphia, 1823. Darby issued several others under his own name at this period. 8 On sailing through the channel waters between Cuba and Yucatan, they sighted Cape San Antonio at the western tip of Cuba.

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finishing with a request that if it should fall into the hands of any charitable Christian, he would transmit it to the Admiralty. The weather is "cruel could'" to us W. Indians, & I've nothing but gauze tights & cobweb coats —God help me. 14 th The ' 'could'' not so intense—very little wind. 15 th Quite calm in the morning, but we were suddenly taken a back by a squall from N . E. & we fear it is the commencement of a "Norther"—if so, instead of reaching our destination in a few days, we shall be weeks & be d d to it. Cold and damp. 16 th It blew like blazes all yesterday & looked shockingly dirty & accordingly every preparation made to battle with the elements. Towards night however the wind began to drop, & to-day there is hardly any. What there is however is against us. A sea eagle payed us a visit in the midst of the gale, & enacted a very picturesque part among the tumbling seas. It is cold but dry & pleasant, & having provided myself with a pair of cloth breeches from the Corporal of Marines—a jacket from Ramsay— drawers from Seymour, & gloves from the master, I am in a better condition to combat with the inclemency of the season, than I could have anticipated. 17 th Wind still against us. The men harpooned two porpoises last night of large dimensions, the livers & kidneys of which were greedily pounced upon & converted into food to-day. There were two or three shoals of these monsters visible in the course of the day, & the Harpooners struck another, but he broke away. The head 9

of one is in process of dissection by D r Foraker [?] and I have attended a lecture on his eye, wh looks very much like that of an ox. Having thoroughly investigated the 3 humours—viz: Aqueous, Chrystalline & vitreous, we are about to ascertain if there is a lachrymal nerve, in other words, if porpoises cry—now a weeping porpoise, wd be "a strange serpent"9 & if he does, I will immortalise this one in an ode. It's colder than ever, & my fingers are so frozen that I cannot feel whether my nose is left or not. Nelly, my terrier, has this day disgraced herself by a debauch, having overeaten herself on porpoise; —the result has been singularly unpleasant to me as well as to herself, for I gave her a severe "bating." I forgot to immortalize the name of Naulty in this log—(a fellow passenger in the "skylark"—) I saw him at Port Royal & went over the "Dee" steamer of wh ship he is surgeon. She is a fine vessel & he is a good fellow. He gave me a box of cigars. May he be rewarded, & confusion to those who give me nothing. 18th A favourable wind, but very nasty looking sky. The sun arose with his night cap on, & indeed looked as if he had sat up all night. We are about 300 miles from our destination. We eat some porpoise's liver at dinner yesterday, wh is a most capital dish, & I should not have known it from Pi jo Fry,10 it being cooked in the same way & decorated with that noble fruit the "inion." Talk0

Lepidus so describes the crocodile in Antony and Cleopatra, II, 7. 10 This is probably fried pijote, i.e., fried young cod. IO

ing about Porpoises, the Doctor has discovered that they can weep, so I must think about the ode, in wh however I shall make favorable mention of the liver of yesterday. 19th Towards night we found ourselves in the vicinity of land only by a light on the horizon occasioned by some enormous fire on shore. We imagine it to be a Prairie burning, if so there must be twenty or 30 miles in flames. There were two other smaller ones also to the right & left of the "Whopper." Saw two Schooners & fired the same number of guns, & by way of further courtesy treated one of them to a blue light. But with no effect, or rather with only the effect of making the vessel so honored instantly sheer off on another tack. 20th This morning arose under very unpromising appearances for us—For I forgot to mention that we very nearly bumped aground yesterday Evg as we suddenly found ourselves from 7 into 3!/2 fathoms. On this we stood out again & at 3 this morning stood in. The consequence of all this was, that as the charts were discovered to be wholly incorrect, we did not know where we were —added to this the sun declined making his appearance, & we were doubtful of getting a longitude. However he did come at last. We are now in sight of land—houses are to be seen & a schooner at anchor, at wh by the way, we have first sent a shot, & secondly Seymour in the jolly boat. His sea stock consists of two cigars so that he is amply provided for. There is also a boat coming off from the shore, so that what the day may bring forth no man can say. The boat arrived in due course of time & 11

proved to contain no less personages than the Harbour Master & Pilot Mr Thompson & his friend a Mr Metcalfe. The former was an Englishman Americanized, the latter a genuine Yankee. They informed us that we had at first been taken for a French vessel wh is daily expected with a French Minister on board, the Gauls having lately acknowledged Texas as an independent nation;11 they also acquainted us with a very curious fact i.e. that we were not at Galveston—the place of our destination, & where we supposed we were, but off a small town called Velasco,12 having a population of about 300 souls, so what the Devil a French Minister is to be sent here for I know not, especially as it is only 45 miles from Galveston. The Presidents name is Le Mayer13 & he resideth at Austin, the Capital that is to be, it having only been commenced three months. It is called Austin after the Founder of the Province, or rather the first man that mooted the question of independence, & is about 160 miles up the country. "The Hardy Pilot*' took the ship to about three miles from shore, nearer than wh we could not approach, 11 France had recognized the sovereignty of Texas in 1839, only a few months before Sheridan's arrival, and a commercial treaty with France was made on February 14, 1840. 12 Old Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos River, was about four miles nearer the coast than the present town of the same name. The old city has now entirely disappeared. See Velasco in Texas History, a pamphlet issued by the Brazoria County Centennial Club, Angleton, Texas, 1936. 18 Mirabeau B. Lamar, president of the Republic, 1838-41.

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and the anchor being dropped & sails furled amid the usual & general discharge of "damns" & "Blasts," in wh all distinguished themselves, & Ramsay excelled, we were at length quiet. I attached myself to Mr Metcalfe who was the pink of politeness, who of course was a "Colonel,"14 while Mr Thomson boasted only of a Captains commission. Mr M. expressed himself delighted at at the visit of the Britishers, & hinted a hope that England wd shortly follow the example of France. Mr Thomson attributed this error on the part of Great Britain to Messrs O Connell & Sturgess.15 Mr M. observed that he wd much sooner see an Englishman in Texas than any one from the U. States, & Mr Thomson concurred in the flattering distinction. Mr M. pictured the inhabitants of Velasco as free from all prejudice & of boundless hospitality, & Mr T. taking the same view of the case, offered 14 Both Mrs. Trollope and Dickens comment upon the American penchant for giving everyone a title. Dickens (Martin Chuzzlewit, London, 1843, ch. xvi) describes Mrs. Pawkins' table around which were seated four majors, two colonels, one general, and a captain. "Those who had not attained military honors were either doctors, professors, or reverends. There seemed to be no man there without a title." For the custom in Texas, see W. R. Hogan, The Texas Republic (Norman, Oklahoma, 1946), 45, 49, 169. 15 Both these men were opposed to the recognition of Texas because of the slavery issue. Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), the Irish statesman, is attacked in the Morning Star (Houston), January 22, 1840, as the arch enemy of Texas: "O'Connell whose name is a byword of infamy, by his control of a party in parliament can give a majority to the ministers or the opposition." Joseph Sturge (not Sturgess) (1793-1859) was a Quaker philanthropist and an ardent worker in the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.

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his house & "wittals" to us all. Mr M. not to be outdone in generosity, stated that he had two rifles & a double barrel "shot gun" wh together with two horses were at my disposal wh I instantly accepted. It appears there is great quantity of game here—Deer, Ducks, snipes, geese, turkeys &c all of wh please God 111 have a slap at. Ducks I have already seen. Our guests being now on the point of departure, with a promise to breakfast on board to-morrow & bring General Green,16 who I suppose is Velasco's presiding genius, I suggested to Mr M. the propriety of sending off some fresh meat & milk, as their repast on the following day wd otherwise consist of a first course of salt Pork & hard buscuit, & junk17 & hard buscuit to follow. This latter circumstance however I did not mention, but as I preside over Ramsay's larder I felt the honor of our house was at stake & therefore urgently pressed for supplies. Mr M. promised meat, but confessed that the temporary absence of the cows of Velasco, who at this season of the year are driven into the woods to recruit their energies with the young grass, rendered it impossible to send milk. Regretting this circumstance he departed with his friend Mr Thomson & the crew of his boat, who were a stout looking set of fellows, apparently careless of personal appearance—one gentleman having 16 General Thomas Jefferson Green (1801-63) moved to Texas in 1836 and served in the Texas Army. He was a land speculator and for many years a prominent citizen of Velasco. He was a racing enthusiast and ran horses at the famous New Market course in Velasco. 17 Salted meat used as food on long voyages.

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little more than a pair of earings & a Bowie knife. On leaving, Mr Thomson announced the willingness of the Velasconians to return any salute which the Pilot might honor their town with—a modest & sensible request. 218t A most D ble day—rain, swell &c—Neither r M Metcalfe, Mr Thomson or the General appeared at breakfast & what is worse the first gentleman has not yet sent the "grub." But as I facetiously remarked somewhere else, who knows what the day may bring forth? There is no getting a shore to-day I fear—for there looks an infernal surf on the beach. 22d—Still obliged to stay on board & neither Thomson, Metcalfe or fresh meat appear likely to relieve us. There is no greater bore than seeing the shore & being unable to land—a remark singular alike for its truth & originality. 23rd This was a most beautiful day, & after Breakfast Seymour & I put to sea in the jolly boat. After an animated pull of 3 miles or so & having passed the wreck of a vessel that had bumped on the Bar we got into smooth water & the mouth of the river Brazos. On landing we were received by the whole male population of Velasco headed by the cheerful Thomson with his coat off & a cigar in his mouth. By him we were introduced to General Green a man of very respectable appearance and intelligent phiz—something between George Anson & Henry Montague18—The General shook us warmly by 18 Possibly a reference to George Anson (1697-1762), first lord of the Admiralty, and Sir Henry Montagu (1563?-1642) who as

15

the hand, as also did Messrs Sharp (the Actg American Agent) Potter19 &c—gentlemen moving in the first circles of Velasco. At the suggestion of our gallant friend, we adjourned to his mansion, where to my intense delight we were speedily roasting before an immense wood fire, during which process we were informed that the active Metcalfe had himself enacted the part of courier & carried Ramsay's credentials to Austin, the new seat of gov*. This in some measure clears up the mystery of the fresh meat question, wh is satisfactory in so far as Metcalfe is concerned. The General informed us that he had chief justice of the King's Bench, condemned Sir Walter Raleigh in 1618. Sheridan's allusions are usually, however, more apposite than this. 19 John Sharp, who came to Texas in 1835 and served in the Revolution, was appointed notary public of the port of Velasco in November, 1838. At the time of his death on August 17, 1840, a few months after Sheridan's visit, he was United States consular agent at Velasco. (See The Writings of Sam Houston 1813-1863, ed. Amelia W . Williams and Eugene C. Barker, Austin, Texas, 1939, II, 297; see also The Handbook of Texas, ed. W . P. Webb, Austin, Texas, 1952.) Reuben Marmaduke Potter had arrived in Velasco from Matamoros by 1838. In June, 1840, he was tendered the appointment of commissioner of revenue by James H. Starr, secretary of the treasury of the Republic. In September, 1840, he was deputy collector of the Port of Velasco under the collector, William T. Austin. (See Lamar Papers, ed. C. A. Gulick et al., Austin, Texas, 1921-28, III, 447.) Potters' well-known "Hymn of the Alamo" was published in the Texas Times (Galveston), November 30, 1842. His composition "The Texian Hunter" appears in With the Makers of Texas, ed. Bolton and Barker (Austin, Texas, 1904), 176. 16

sent to "his Hunter" to get us a deer, but that the weather had been so unpropitious that he doubted whether that Nimrod would succeed. Neither was fresh meat to be procured though "two beeves" were expected on the morrow to be slaughtered, but they had not arrived from the country yet. Mr Sharpe was so urgent in his solicitations for our society at his house to dine, that the General who had killed a fatted calf for the like ceremony, waived his claim, & agreed with us to feast at Mr S's at half past one—such being the approved feeding hour of Velasco. Accordingly, after a stroll on the beach, we presented ourselves at Sharped dinner table. There were present Mrs Sharpe—a young lady, with beautiful eyes & an agreeable expression of countenance, but with a mouth of such dimensions, as entitles it to be compared only with the orifice thro' wh Harlequin jumps in the Pantomimes. With her was associated Miss Warner,—a moderately beautiful maid—with a good appetite & a red face—who we afterwards discovered to be the schoolmistress of the town—& a Black-muzzled gentleman of few words with ourselves completed the party. The dinner, wh Mrs Sharpe with her own fair hands, assisted the servants (two—a nigger & a Mexican who had been taken prisoner in the wars & finally settled peaceably with his Captors) to place on the table, consisted of some fat pork, a wild Turkey, fried liver, turnips, sweet potatoes, pickles, peach jam & other dainties. Everything was very good particularly the wild Turkey. The prac17

tise here—& a very dangerous one—is to feed oneself chiefly with the knife.20 The size of Mrs Sharpe's mouth made me easy enough about her but I trembled for the rest of the company. However practise had made perfect & the repast concluded without an accident. Our drink was water & a wine wh they called Sherry, but wh tasted something like Chilli vinegar & Bilge water—however it is not fortunately for us the custom to imbibe after dinner—coffee being instantly brought & the table cleared. After about an hour's conversation and another walk on the beach we bid a temporary adieu to our entertainers, and returned on board. Velasco is by no means a gigantic town, as it numbers no more than between 20 & 30 irregularly built huts & houses. Nor does it afford much gratification to a lover 20 Cf. Mrs. Trollope's account of dining on a Mississippi steamboat in 1828 (Domestic Manners of the Americans, 4th ed., London, New York, 1832, p. 37): "The voracious rapidity with which the viands were seized and devoured; the strange, uncouth phrases and pronunciation; the loathsome spitting . . . the frightful manner of feeding with their knives, till the whole blade seemed to enter the mouth; and the still more frightful manner of cleaning the teeth afterward with a pocketknife, soon forced us to feel that we were not surrounded by the generals, colonels, and majors of the old world." Dickens also treats with amusement the American custom of eating at top speed in his description of Mrs. Pawkins' boardinghouse in New York City (Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvi): "All the knives and forks were working away at a rate that was quite alarming; very few words were spoken; and everybody seemed to eat his utmost in self-defence, as if a famine were expected to set in before breakfast time tomorrow morning, and it had become high time to assert the first law of nature."

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of the Picturesque situated as it is on a low sandy beach wh soon merges into aflatshrubless, prairie extending as far as the eye can reach. There are a few houses on the left side of the river, one of wh is tenanted by no less a person than my friend Thomson, but the greater part locate on the right. Green's dwelling being by far the best. No church as yet "with silent finger points to heaven/' 21 & the good Christians of the place are content to offer up occasional devotions in each others houses. As some sort of recompence there is a Court House, on the top of wh floated the Yankee Colors as well as those of Texas. In front of this is "the Battery" as they think fit to term it, consisting of an old brass 18 pounder with a touch-hole equivalent in circumference to the mouth of Mrs Sharpe—& 3 other small ones whose united ages amount to a greater number, than my arithmetic (wh it is fair to say was neglected in my youth) will permit me to calculate—some notion may be formed of the daring spirit wh animates the Texian settler, when I inform the reader that one of these was actually discharged as a salute—whether by a train22 or not, I have not clearly ascertained. In the midst of, & adding dignity to this armament, a pole rears high its stately head, crowned 21

Cf. S. T. Coleridge, The Friend, No. 14 (1809): "An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars." The figure also appears in Wordsworth's poem The Excursion, Book VI, 1. 19: "Spires whose 'silent finger points to heaven.' " 22 I.e., set off by a train of fuses. J

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with a small beer barrel intended to represent the Cap of liberty, wh I must take the liberty to represent, it hardly succeeds in doing. The shore which is thus so admirably protected, particularly as no vessel of any size can approach within 3 miles, is covered for miles— even almost unto Galveston as nearly as I am informed —with the trunks of trees, some of enormous size & principally of the Silk Cotton tribe—This circumstance although it is of the greatest service to the inhabitants— supplying them with fuel & timber, gives the whole coast a singularly wild & cheerless aspect. These trees are provided in a very simple manner—once or twice a year a party journey up the river & cut down a large quantity wh are thrown into the stream they have adorned. Nature, in addition contributes her share of labour, by breaking down the banks in the heavy rains & with them the timber wh crowned them. Being thus launched, they (the trees) float in process of time to the sea & wd in all probability extend their voyage into the Gulf, had not Providence ordained that there should be a strong current from the East wh meeting the flowing waters of the Brazos, hurls up the wooden freight upon the Beach. This "accounts for the milk in the Cocoa nuts." It is a very great pity that the embouchure of the Brazos is not deeper, as it is navigable for 500 miles and the land on its banks is supposed to be the richest & the best adapted for the cultivation of cotton in Texas. Two smallflatbottomed steamers already furrow its waves & ply with produce to Galveston (where again wefindno Harbour) 20

& the cargo is discharged from the vessel into the merchantman destined to receive it. Between this & Galveston (a distance of 45 miles) is a place called Port Louis where they say there is water of a respectable depth, but as yet we have not ascertained this to be the case. I certainly was never fully aware of the merits of the "go ahead" principle until I came here. 3 years ago—the population of Texas was 20,000 souls—Black & White, men women & Children—They now amount to 200,000,23 increasing at the rate of 1,000 per week. Galveston was then no bigger than Velasco, it has now 5,000 inhabitants. Austin the new seat of gov* the site of which was only surveyed last October, is now aflourishinglittle town with 7 or 800 inhabitants. 24th Friday being a propitious day, Ramsay & I went on shore—and having introduced him to the Velasconians & accepted the Generals invitation to dinner, (as also did Hamilton & Walcot) we fell to at the fashionable hour. The feast, at wh were also my friend Sharpe & a D r Smith24 (with a most horrible twang) was precisely similar to that of wh we had partaken at Sharpes—viz.— 23 E. D. Adams (British Diplomatic Correspondence Concerning the Republic of Texas—1838-1846, Austin, Texas, n.d., 20, n. 1) says that Sheridan's estimate was excessive, for as late as 1847, the white population of Texas was not much more than 100,000. In his "Notes on Texas," Sheridan estimates the population at 150,000. See n. 127. 24 This may have been Dr. Ashbel Smith, who was practicing in Galveston at the time of the yellow fever epidemic in 1839. See n. 124.

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Pork & Turkey—the drinkables being no better than at that gentlemans house. There were oysters also—not the melting Milton of England or the thundering Powldoody of Ireland, but a huge, long, ill-shaped shell-fish—a gigantic species of the Mangrove oysters of the W. 'Indies, & "bearded like the Pard"—They were by no means delicious but probably would not be bad if eaten immediately after being opened—as it was these had been exposed to the weather till their cheeks were sunburnt. There were some oyster fritters however wh were commendable. After dinner Ramsay & I took a six mile walk on the Beach & beyond encountering the Piscator of Velasco (a long thin Dutchman, enveloped in a great coat made out of a green blanket) who had just captured a cat fish & some small Mullet in an inland salt creek, nothing of moment occurred. The Evening however was destined to be productive of intense diversion to me, for lo! & behold the hospitable Green had invited all the elite of Velasco to his house. Before 9 o'clock there were about a dozen women, many of them very pretty & all well-dressed, vulgar & awkward; and about the same quantity of men, with better manners & conversation than I could have anticipated. To every one of the ladies separately were we introduced, after wh everybody sat in a circle round the room, the women on one side & the gents on the other:25 25 Cf. Mrs. Trollope (Domestic Manners, 65-66): "The women invariably herd together at one part of the room, and the men at

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However after a few light pleasantries (in wh I need hardly say I was eminently successful) The chill was thrown off, & all parties got on very well. And now, after a little pressing, the fair Miss Warner was led to the Piano by the gallant General, & amidst a profound silence performed, & not very badly, the overture to Tancredi.20 Merited applause followed wh stimulated Miss W. to further exertion & a duet on the instrument between herself & a dear little German woman named Seffield—(the dancing mistress of Velasco) ensued. Vocal Music then took the lead & the indefatigable Miss Warner executed a song in every sense of the word. I never heard it before, but from the few words wh Miss W. rendered intelligible, I should pronounce it to be of the "They bid me bind my glossy hair"27 school. If they'd bid her comb it, it wd be more to the purpose. Admired & respected as this excellent young lady most justly is, truth compells me to record here my fixed the other. . . . Sometimes a small attempt at music produces a partial reunion. The women console themselves with eating: tea, coffee, hot cake and custard, hoe cake, johnny cake, waffle cake and dodger cake, pickled peaches and preserved cucumbers, ham, turkey, hung beef, apple sauce, and pickled oysters." 26 Rossini seems to have been popular with the early Texans. On December 28, 1839, the Star (Houston) advertised that the overture to // Tancred would be played at the New Theatre by the "orchestra, who have now arrived."—E. G. Fletcher, The Beginnings of the Professional Theatre in Texas (University of Texas Bulletin, 1936), 27, n. 47. 27 A reference to Haydn's "A Pastoral Song," better known by its opening line: "My mother bids me bind my hair."

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opinion that she wd not receive a large salary at the Opera. The Beloved Seffield afterwards sat down & sung two or three songs remarkably well, besides wh she rejoices in the possession of a very good voice. I was then asked to contribute a melody. I blushed & declined. On this, Miss W. & a young man of no very prepossessing appearance advanced to the Piano & were shortly immersed in that difficult duet "The Last links are broken."28 I wish to God they really were, for I have been told the same thing at every piano I ever listened to. To return however to the duet. I have heard what was termed a duet, where the second being nescient of his part, boldly sung his partners—the two voices producing no other ill-effect than a stentorian solo. I have also heard a second, ignorant here & there, of occasional bass in a difficult song, seek for temporary refuge in an unison with the first—nay (celebrated as I am myself for extraordinary skill in Music & for the number of instruments of wh I am the Master) I have found it convenient to adopt this measure myself—I have also heard, singers, who, considering the score of the music assigned to them, as too high for their quality of voice, sing a round bass in a duet, instead of second—but never till now, did I hear of a human being, professedly able to distinguish by ear one sound from another, pursue the 28 By Wilhelm Clifton. According to John Tasker Howard (Our American Music, 3rd ed., New York, 1946), the song was published about 1840; he calls it "one of the most complete examples of noble resignation" (p. 171).

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course wh the young man I have spoken of, thought proper to do. For he neither sung, 1st, 2nd, or Bass, nor indeed produce[d] any one note wh could be mistaken as being part of the song. He contented himself with two sounds. The one a hollow groan, as if he was suffering the intense tortures wh his hearers were, and the other (wh was intended to display the quality of his higher notes) a sort of admixture in equal parts, of the cry of a Jackall & an audible yawn. I was so appalled that I couldn't laugh, and putting my trust in Allah, I listened patiently to the end, trusting that the excruciating noise n the happ'orth"—He wd then cease for the Evg. "D was at it again in two minutes & revelling in the aggravated tortures wh he now inflicted—in short he took part in a trio. Here I must pause to observe, that I ever have remarked, that those who sing the worst, are most anxious to sing the most. This strange Mania afflicted the young man in question or the Seffield wd have sung. As it was—"Shepherds Tell me" was got up—that lady singing the first & accompanying—Miss Warner taking the 2nd and the tuneless youth nominally, bass. He now outdid Discord—and Miss W. hearing such dismal howls in her ear, naturally floundered & slightly disconcerted the Pianist, so that such a medley of noises was probably never heard before or will be again. After this infliction, active exercise was recommended by the General, & various strange quadrilles, cotillions &c were performed. In a moment of temporary insanity I consented, on condition Mrs Seffield taught me, to be 25

instructed in the mysteries of a Kentuckee Reel—wh I at length accomplished amid the roar of laughter of the whole company. I forgot to say that after some whispering Podder returned & brought a piece of music—no less than the N. Anthem29 wh Miss W. instantly performed. What the precise figures of the dance were, I have not the most distant idea—all I know is, that I was pushed, pulled, & set to; jumped round one person & was jumped round in return, seized upon every ones hand & turned them round who again sent me spinning, & in short "played such fantastic tricks before high heaven"30 as I did not conceive to be in my power. At the conclusion however I was highly complimented on my efforts, and received the courtesies of all with that dignity & ease for wh I am so highly distinguished—These were the more apparent in consequence of the richness of my dress, wh consisted of the Corporal of Marines breeches, Ramsay's jacket, & a yellow neck-cloth, and a pair of shooting boots. At half-past one this agreeable party dispersed, & I discovered that Beds were among the scarcities of Velasco, as I had to share mine with Walcott, who snored like an asthmatic Walruss. 25th Went on board after breakfast (at wh was the 29

Probably "God Save the Queen." Texas had no officially designated national anthem. "Podder" is, of course, a pun. 30 Measure for Measure, II, 2: But man, proud man, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep. 26

catfish cut infids31& fried) to prepare the banquet to wh Ramsay had provoked the first families of the place. At iy2 they came, & among the fashionables present we observed Mrs Sharpe, the Misses Warner & Work & two young ladies one with a red nose & the other with a black gown in wh she mourned the loss of a brother who had been diddled32 by the Indians. The males comprised our distinguished friend the General together with the euphonius firm of Smith, Green, Podder & Sharpe, & the illustrious Thompson. The General received the homage of a file of jollys & a roll on the drum & the ladies that of the officers among whom McClure shone as a radiant star. He certainly made one little mistake but after all, first Luffs are but mortal, & who can at all times properly keep command over his tongue? In about five minutes the ladies began to look Blue & giggle hysterically, a certain sign that the motion of the vessel was anything but a sedative. The[y] fought bravely against the foe, but he was too strong & they were vanquished. I sing in Homeric style the order of the Battle. Sing O! Muse who first fell? The fair haired Warner! She, thy lyre Velasco, tunes to melody. The foe advanced, but with White handkerchief she poked him back—Then sent some "bitters'' (they whom the fragrant Shaddock & pregnant grape produce) to complete 31

A British provincialism for small, thick pieces of anything. A fashionable word in the early nineteenth century meaning "ruined, done for, cheated." See n. 70. 32

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the rout—Alas! who can controul fate. The brave bitters met an increased & increasing force, & were driven back, retreat disastrous followed & the fair haired maiden yielded. And now the hero of many meals (McClure) (rejoicing in secret that one is taken from the dinner party) leads the gulping sufferer to the starboard gangway, & the waves are increased iro\v\oifioio 6aXkaa(rq^ of the far sounding sea. Her followed, the maiden of the ruby prow, or red snout, but as I should be all day doing justice to the subject in the Homeric style, I shall content myself with the simple statement that they were all very sick & stowed away in the different berths. Messrs Work & Smith were also taken "wuss" & refused to be comforted with dinner. To this the survivors did ample justice & after it many cordial toasts were drank. Such as, "May England soon be able to recognise our independence' '—"The President of Texas" &c The General then gave "the Queen of England" with some complimentary remarks wh we suitably acknowledged. Then Ramsay, "The Ladies who had honored the Brig on the occasion" in doing wh he made the most affecting allusions to their then prostrate condition. This produced some commiserating remarks from Podder who was getting sentimentally drunk, & some heartless pleasantries from Sharpe. 33

("of the billowing sea"), Iliad, I, 1, 34.

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A N ENGLISH IMPRESSION OF A TYPICAL AMERICAN From Domestic Manners of the Americans, 1832

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Feby 34 3 rd We lay patiently off Velasco till this day, when the enterprising Ramsay & myself armed with Carpet bags essayed to land. On approaching the Bar however we found breakers wh were anything but inviting & in consequence returned crest fallen to the vessel but succeeded on a second attempt in the afternoon. We found the valorous Green also bound to our destination— Viz: Galveston and crossing the river we embarked on board the Constitution Steamer35—Cap1 Boylan. At the time we arrived they were shipping horses, as they were termed, but wh looked the produce of a cross between a goat & a Jack Ass. the Method adopted for getting the animals on board is simple & imposing. Two planks extend from the deck of the Steamer to the shore—the animal has his legs tied,—a cord is passed under his shoulders & having been thrown down he is dragged on board across the planks. After some delay we got under way, & as Boylan is supposed to know more of the Coast than any one else, we bumped on the Bar. On getting off, the Steam failed us owing to the wood not burning properly, & if there had been any sea we must have gone on shore. However we at last got on & I had an opportunity of looking at my fellow passengers. 84

Dated entries in this journal cease with February 3, 1840. For an account of steamboats in early Texas, see Hogan {The Texas Republic, 68-80), especially p. 71 for reference to the Constitution, which carried a cargo of three hundred bales of cotton down the Brazos to Galveston in 1840. 35

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The first that struck me was a gentleman apparently of about 40 years, attired in a frock coat made out of a scarlet blanket with a black edging, & picking his teeth with a Bowie Knife. In this unpretending employment was engaged no less a personage than Mr McKinnie of the firm of McKinnie & Williams, the Barings of Texas.36 On further acquaintance I found him to be far superior to the general run of Texians & acknowledged by all to be a very honest, charitable & worthy man. He has been the making of Galveston. Among other eccentricities of this remarkable man was one which I much admired. He never had any fixed hours for grubbing—always eating when he was hungry & drinking when dry. His Partner followed him strictly in the latter—but then he was always dry. The only other person of note on board was a red-headed gentleman in a tanned deerskin doublet, & —liquor. This garment however he doffed on the fol36 For a biographical sketch of Thomas F. McKinney (1801-73), see Williams and Barker, Writings of Sam Houston, IV, 34. For Samuel May Williams (1795-1858), see Dictionary of American Biography. McKinney and Williams, primarily land speculators, entered into partnership at Quintana, 1834, and in 1837 transferred their business to Galveston, where they remained for many years. Before his partnership with McKinney, Williams was secretary to Stephen F. Austin, with whom he remained until just before the Revolution. For an account of Williams' early life, see the unpublished master's thesis by Siddie R. Armstrong (University of Texas, 1929). "Barings of Texas" refers to the London firm of international bankers Baring Brothers & Co. who, like McKinney & Williams, were financiers for governments.

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lowing day & appeared in a green blanket frock & black border, jealous I suppose of the gawdy McKinnie. I had a good deal of talk with this man afterwards, for I found him a fellow passenger on board the Columbia when I went to New Orleans. He had lived for a long time on the borders of Texas in perpetual war with the Indians, having had a small grant of land for his services at San Jacinto. Not having seen his father for 14 years & having run away from him in early life, he was now on his return to his native state "Virginny" there to ask his Papa's blessing & forgiveness. His Method of introducing himself to his parent I much approved of—"Sir," said he, "I shall say to my father, if he's alive, do you recollect having a son called William?"—I applauded this precaution much. We parted with sorrow on the fence at N. Orleans. To return however to the Constitution. She was an old, battered broken Rig[?]-pressure boat, which having been wrecked on the coast near Galveston had been left a prey to the Elements. The Enterprising McKinnie however had redeemed her, patched her up, placed her under the skilful hand of Boylan (who by the way got her ashore again just as we were in sight of Galveston) & sent her to plough the river Brazos, bringing the cotton therefrom to Galveston. We brought the largest cargo ever got over the Bar at Velasco, as they told us—viz. about 300 bales. The appearance of Galveston from the Harbour is 3*

singularly dreary. It is a low flat sandy Island about 30 miles in length & ranging in breadth from 1 to 2. There is hardly a shrub visible, & in short it looks like a piece of praiarie that had quarrelled with the main land & dissolved partnership. There is also another small Island in the Bay of a similar hideousness and called Pelican I. by reason of its being colonised by nobody but the Pelicans. No ship drawing more than 12 feet water can get over the Bar at the mouth of the Bay & in short one of the greatest drawbacks to the prosperity of Texas is the want of anything like a harbour. Nothing of any moment occurred in our passage to the wharf—(the property of McKinnie—the Galveston Carrabas)37 if I except a trifling dispute between two gentlemen as to whether a certain Turkey wh was musing in a hen-coop on deck was a wild one or not. A closer inspection being considered necessary to the solution of this, combined with some awkwardness proved the Turkey to be decidedly uncivilised, for contriving by some strategem or other known only to wild Turkeys to get loose, he winged his way overboard, and after a few gyrations sought in the pelucid waters of Galveston Bay that peace wh a hen-coop can but ill-afford. Soon after this interesting occurrence wh called to my mind those lines of the Twin Wags in Rejected Addresses,38 respecting the Arab Host & the Phoenix, we 37 The rich Marquis of Carabas appears in the popular tale "Puss in Boots." 88 By Horace and James Smith, 1812. The opening lines of "Loyal

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found ourselves moored to the wharf, and alongside a river Boat destined for Houston. It put me very much in mind of Noahs ark only it was built of live oak instead of gopher wood & appeared to possess more internal comforts than probably fell to the lot of that early navigator. However there were as great beasts aboard as ever were shipped by Mr N. & as Shakspeare says "taken at the flood" to Mount Arrow-root—according to the novel pronunciation of that word. On landing, we confided to a disengaged Nigger the task of carrying of our limited wardrobes, & escorting us to the Hotel, which he did faithfully—The Immortal Green soon after joined us & volunteered to introduce to the Landlord, & excite feelings of Hospitality in his breast. In consequence of this, the latter received us very graciously & promised to see that we had beds, after wh the General put the following question in a determined man[ner], ' 'shall we have a drink?'' & we finding it impossible to frame an excuse on so short a notice, consented, a weakness wh is lucky for Effusion" compare the building of the new Drury Lane Theatre to the resurrection of the phoenix: In fair Arabia (happy once, now stony, Since ruined by that arch apostate Boney), A phoenix late was caught: the Arab host Long pondered—part would boil it, part would roast, But while they ponder, up the pot-lid flies, Fledged, beaked, and clawed, alive they see him rise To heaven, and caw defiance in the skies.

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the reader, as it leads him at once to "the Bar." This is like any other Bar in any Inn in England—(putting aside the Inns of Court & their Bar) as far as the counter —glasses, liquors cigars in tumblers, allumettes39 made out of old newspapers, & the ready-money system goes —but the room in wh it is, "contrives a double debt to pay" "a Club by night a counting house by day,"40 as I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing the other line of that immortal man who I have ever looked up to with gratitude for having written the shortest history of England extant, & consequently the least boring. What the Devil do I care for the Williams the Conqueror & Rufus —What about—but to continue, as the novellists say. Here, during the day may be seen crafty tradesmen bent upon doing each other—Merchants transacting business —another word for the same thing—Captains of Steam vessels, & merchantmen descanting on the singular merits of themselves & their vessels. Together with the never failing "Loafer." I must here break off to inform the reader lest he should be ignorant of the meaning of the term "Loafer." He is one of those unfortunate young men who feel it beneath them to dig & are ashamed to Beg,—altho' not to borrow. To make the matter 89

Spills for lighting lamps, pipes, etc. Cf. description of the inn in Goldsmith's The Deserted Village: The chest contriv'd a double debt to pay, A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day. Sheridan refers also to Goldsmith's History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, London, 1764. 40

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as short as possible, he is a degree below Bog's inimitible "Smangles"41 in Pickwick. The mode adopted by this interesting person to secure a comfortable livelihood is simple—he loiters about the Bars of Hotels, w[h]ere he either makes or meets acquaintances. If the first, an invitation to "take a drink" on the part of his new friend is certain, for two reasons—first because it is the established & approved custom, for one of the parties to "stand Sarvent" on such occasion wh the Loafer is seldom in a condition to do & secondly because it is held indispensable to wet every commission of friendship as soon as it can be conveniently done. Such windfalls or rather brandy & water falls aided by the occasional benevolence of any thirsty acquaintance who may drop in for a drink prove sufficient as far as the potatory propensities of the Loafer go. By an ingenious arrangement as to time, he may also obtain a substantial repast, for at noon dishes of cold meat, pickles, bread & butter &c in great profusion are ranged along the Bar to the enjoyment of wh every one who takes a drink at that time is entitled. I was informed at New Orleans, where Loafers "most do congregate/' that this noon meal supports 41 Mr. Pickwick shared his cell in the Fleet with Smangles, "an admirable specimen of a class of gentry which never can be seen in full perfection but in such places;—they may be met with, in an imperfect state, occasionally about stable-yards and public-nouses; but they never attain their full bloom except in these hot-beds, which would almost seem to be considerately provided by the Legislature for the sole purpose of rearing them." Pickwick Papers (London, 1836), ch. xli.

35

an immense number of those gentlemen. No place however is ever honored by a lengthened residence on the part of a Loafer. For when his circle of acquaintance begin to remark that there is no reciprocity in the invitations to drink, Bar-keepers to note his unpleasant punctuality at 12, and a general suspicion arise that his principles & purse are at a low ebb, he "absquotulates" When pleasure begins to grow dull in the East He orders his wings &fliesoff to the West. Before I close this interesting digression I may as well mention another class ycleped "Rowdies"—This is a class if possible lower than the "Loafers''—On the authority of a man of the name of Milton who wrote a poem called Paradise Lost, you may find "In the lowest depths a deeper still"42—an assertion wh if it had been made by an Irish Poet wd have been quoted only as a subject of ridicule, instead of intense admiration. The "Rowdie" combines the qualities of a Loafer of the lowest caste with pugnacious propensities—as may be gleaned from the first syllable of his name—These gentlemen are generally cut off in early life either by the legal rope or Bowie Knife of an acquaintance. To return to the Bar however—at the close of the day the room is generally crammed, & the time is spent talking & spitting. This is a nasty subject, but yet I must treat 42

Paradise Lost, Book IV, 11. 76-77: And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide.

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of it. No one who has not seen & suffered by this most disgusting custom of the Yankees can form the faintest idea how universal & incessant is the practice. Hig[h] & low, rich & poor, young & old chew, chew, chew & spit, spit, spit all the blessed day & most of the night43— and as the spitting-box is considered generally speaking a superfluous luxury thefloorsof the rooms &fireplaces bear ample testimony to the beastly habits of their occupants. Even before women no sort of consideration is made & they appear from custom to have become perfectly reconciled to this Hoggism. I have been often led to believe the art of spitting with frequency is considered desirable to be attained & "a feather in the cap of youth" in these parts, at all events I once saw a man in Galveston 43

Cf. Mrs. Trollope's outraged remarks on the "incessant, remorseless spitting of Americans" {Domestic Manners, 34). Mrs. Trollope's American editor in a preface to the edition of 1832 (p. //'/) attacks her for "making every man in the United States a chewer of tobacco and spitter of tobacco-juice in people's faces; she might," he says, "with almost equal truth have extended the practise to women and children, the latter of whom, from a feeling of friendly commiseration, she has neglected to tell her readers begin to use tobacco by the time they are a week old, and some of them still earlier." He points out, too, that she should have realized that picking the teeth is also a universal practice. Cf. Dickens' good-humored picture of Major Pawkins of New York, who sat with his hat on amusing himself by spitting alternately into two large spittoons placed at either side of the stove. (Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvi). Mrs. Houstoun (Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, 273) calls upon the ladies of this "land of free hearts and untrammelled actions" to put a stop to chewing and spitting: "American ladies! do this, and you may not only as now be proud of your countrymen as men, but vain of them as gentlemen."

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teaching his child, (who had not arrived at a chewing age being not quite 2 years of age) to spit & loudly applauding every successful effort of the precious prodigy. God knows what the progress of civilisation may do towards the extinction of this disgusting practise—I certainly read in an American paper a critique on a volume of Poetry bearing the charming title of "opening Buds," in wh Bard a Mr D. C. Colesworthy44—Portland Maine announces that he has discarded his quid in the following lines I've thrown aside my dirty quid That vile thing I will use no more Mr Colesworthy gives the following reasons among others for relinquishing his pig-tail The Tidyfloor&fireplace Shew streaked marks where I have been, And when I little think of it The juice runs down all o'er my chin. Now I call that something like an "opening Bud" & trust that the example of the cleanly Colesworthy will be followed by all who read his exquisite lines. The greatest objection I have to the custom is that 44 Written by Daniel C. Colesworthy (1810-93) and published in Portland, Maine, in 1839. The verse here described seems to have been somewhat more vivacious than the pietistic moralizing in the only volume by Colesworthy that I have been able to see, which is entitled, A Group of Children and Other Poems, Boston, 1865.

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there is no actual necessity for so great a salivical display—Our Tars are addicted to chewing, & springing therefrom sundry other dirty habits, such as an amicable & acceptable transfer of the quid of one Mariner to the cheek of another, particularly when relieving at the Wheel—but this is only an occasional & conventional solace-ism—Nevertheless you never see our Blue-jackets make themselves objects of disgust in consequence of their weakness for Tobacco, nor indeed wd you, unless for the protuberance in the cheek, in most cases detect the weakness itself, & in support of this I will only further add, that I know many instances of men of a much higher grade in life than the humble sailor, who do, & have long nursed in secret & in silence the "dear delights'' of a quiet quid. Upon what charm there is in chewing, or what effect it may have I am utterly unable to enlighten the reader as I only smoke—the effect of wh I have invariably found to be extremely disagreeable to persons sitting near me, who were no smokers. The regulations attending the feeding at Tremount House—such was the aristocratic name of the Galveston Hotel—are strictly American—At the 8th hour in the morning—Dingle, Dingle, Dingle, goes a bell of Twenty parlour-power45 at wh magic sound the doors of a large room wh runs the whole length of the building are thrown open, & the crowds of Boarders which have been gradually accumulating rush head-long in, & in 45

Sheridan's adaptation of the well-known phrase "twenty parson power."

39

less than ten-minutes rush head-long out again. To these succeeded the Host, Hostess & their interesting family together with the cook-waiter of the establishment, & these again gave place to the servants, dinner is conducted on precisely similar principles at 3 a.m. [p.m.?] thus reversing the British mode of feeding, 3 relays of guests being apportioned to one course, instead of 3 courses to one relay of guests. An ample supper concludes the day & having spit, chewed, drank & smoked until 10y2 or 11, Beds are sought & in brief space the Moon is gazing on no quieter place than Galveston. And I having just ''jotted down" these things in my note book, & finished my cigar will take a bed candle from Plato a very intelligent Nigger & go & see if my sleeping accomodations will afford any subject for remark. On entering a bed room wh I was told was mine, I found that it contained six beds, as many gentlemen, two small Basins with jugs to correspond, & a roaring stove fire in the center, around wh were grouped the proprietors of the beds taking a quiet spit, previous to turning in. When these circumstances are coupled with the fact, that the apartment was not more than 15 feet by 10, the reflecting Reader will not accuse me of looking on the gloomy side of things, when I tell him, that I did not, on looking at the state of things before me, anticipate a pleasant nights rest. The gallant General who was one of our fellow lodgers introduced us to the rest, & soon after each retired to his couch—Poor Ram40

say with a suicidal expression on his countenance. After sleeping for about a couple of hours, I awoke from a dream in wh I imagined myself in one of the valleys of that part of Barbados called Scotland suffering under a burning fever & tormented by the croaking of Bull frogs beneath my window. On gazing round I discovered the indefatigable stove roaring away, & the sleepers snoring—This duet together with the intense heat of the room nearly drove me distracted but getting up I gently opened a door which communicated with a balcony & fastened it by wh feat, the wind being fresh & the night cold I secured to myself some refreshing slumber & was rewarded in the morning by hearing the man who slept nearest the door complain most bitterly of "a raging tooth." The ceremony of the toilet appeared to be a matter of little importance, being generally conducted on the principle adopted by Mr Moss in Hook's Maxwell,46 or that wh is termed a Pirates wash—"a lick & a promise." The small glass at wh we "took turns" to shave had a crack through it, so that when I advanced razor in hand & commenced, I nearly cut my nose off by mistake. Alarmed by the perils environing those who attempted to shave at this treacherous mirror, I postponed the operation till after breakfast, when having found Ramsay, who had arisen at cock-crow & wandered miserably about 46 A character in Maxwell, a novel by Theodore Edward Hook, published in 1830 in London.

41

the muddy streets, we proceeded to search for a Barber, & like Captains Parry & Back47 to make discoveries about the pole. After a perseverance & energy worthy of those enterprising Heroes, we made one out, & soon rejoiced in well trimmed beards—While Ramsays nose was being tweaked I examined the ornaments of the Shop w h consisted of a wretched print of Napoleon "on the same White charger wot he wore at all the other battles" as the showmen have it, & taking a dangerous rear on the Alps, and a likeness of General Jackson.48 If it is a likeness the Generals no beauty, or it must have been taken when in a state of alarm—a complaint w h I never heard he laboured under—for as represented "each individual hair did stand on end like quills upon the fretful Porcupine." 49 Beneath the picture of the old Hero, was the following notice attached with four red wafers to the wall. G E N T L E M E N THAT WASHES I N THIS SHOP & DOES N O T GET BARBERED AT THE TIME MUST PAY 1 2 ^ CENTS TO THE SHOP. 47 Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855), rear admiral and Arctic explorer, who attained the highest point north that was reached until 1876; Sir George Back (1796-1878), also an Arctic navigator. They accompanied Sir John Franklin on his voyage of discovery to Spitzbergen in 1818. 48 Possibly one of the famous color prints made by Nathaniel Currier, which shows Jackson much as Sheridan describes him. ^Hamlet, I, 5.

42

"Galveston is on the Eastern Extremity of the island of that name and is at present the principal port of Entry in Texas. Two years ago this Town was not in existence, it now numbers 3,000 inhabitants/' So says "The Guide to Texas"50 a work compiled by Messrs Hunt & Randel of the good city of Houston, Texas, & published by J. H. Colton of 124 Broadway, New York and the assertion I believe to be perfectly correct, an epithet I can apply to very few other assertions in that work in connection with what has come under my own observation. And here I would pause to observe that the mischief & misery of wh the false & flaming accounts given of Texas, both there & in England, have been productive, is incalculable. Many an honest man led away by the specious & highly colored pictures given of the country, has embarked his 50 Guide to the Republic of Texas: consisting of a brief outline of the history of its settlement. By Richard S. Hunt and Jesse F. Randel, New York, 1839. According to S. C. Griffin (History of Galveston, Texas, Galveston, Texas, 1931, p. 21), a few customs officials were the only inhabitants of Galveston until 1836. During the events leading up to the Battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, refugees from Santa Anna's line of march were accommodated in the customs house. Refugees who stayed and built mud shelters might be said to be the first inhabitants. These huts were later swept away by the rain, and only after considerable suffering from exposure were more substantial buildings constructed. The city was, therefore, as Sheridan says, hardly in existence in 1837, two years before his visit. By 1845, Hunt and Randel (A New Guide, 54-55) describe Galveston as "the great commercial emporium of Texas." It is credited with a population of nearly five thousand inhabitants and called "the most thriving town upon the sea coast."

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little capital & been ruined, and many with more prudence who have taken the precaution to look before they lept have considered the look quite sufficient & returned. But of this enough for the present. "Galveston Bay (the "Columbian Navigator"51 loquitur) so named from the Vice-roy Don Bernardo de Galvez in 1783 is properly a Gulf, perfectly land-locked as shown by chart, & bordered by sand-banks, of 6 feet & less water—The exterior point of this harbour to the south is Culebras point the E. point of the island of San Luis52 & that to the North on the Main land is point Arcokisas.63 The channel is a mile in width & at its entrance has a bar of about 15 feet of water &c." Here "the Navigator" is in error. The Bar never has as much 51 This was probably one of the numerous editions of The Navigator: containing directions for navigating the Monongahela, Alleghany, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers; . . . to which is added an Appendix, containing an account of Louisiana, and of the Missouri and Columbia rivers. This title, the sixth edition, enlarged, was published by Z. Cramer, Pittsburgh, 1808. 52 Sheridan's note on this place reads: "The original name of Galveston Island." Local legend has it that the island was named "St. Louis'" by La Salle. Cf. Griffin, History of Galveston, 21: "The island has been referred to as San Louis, San Luis, Culebra and Campeche, but the name Galveztown did not come into general use until about 1820." 63 Sheridan's note on this place reads: "Now more generally known as Point Bolivar." Point Arkokisas was named for a tribe of Indians, the Arcoquiza, who occupied a considerable territory at the mouth of the Trinity River. See H. E. Bolton, "Spanish Activities on Lower Trinity River, 1746-1771," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVI (1913), 343-47; also M. A. Hatcher, "Texas in 1820," ibid., XXIII (1919), 51.

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GALVESTON FROM THE GULF SHORE

From St. Louis' Isle, 1847

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as 15 feet upon it—12y2 & 13 being the average & little more when the S. winds prevail, & the tides high— during the latter end of August & Septr there are heavy gales from S. E. & S. W. & then there is most water on the Bar, but never as much as 15 feet. The costume most in vogue at Galveston is the Blanket Frock Coat & trousers, with the simple & elegant alteration as to the general mode of wearing the latter of pulling the boots over them. The nature of the soil on wh Galveston is built however renders this apparent eccentricity a comfort—it being a mixture of mud & sand generally up to the ankles of the pedestrian. This circumstance is productive of various complaints such as Yellow Fever, Ague, Rheumatisms &c, for when either from a heavy fall of rain, or an irruption of the sea (a frequent occurrence during the prevalence of the "Northers") the ground gets thoroughly soaked the effect of the hot sun extracts such a horrible stench as no ordinary nose has smelt—In addition, there is nothing fragant in dead & decaying oysters wh plentifully bestrew the streets— to such an extent indeed that one of the principal medical men54 attributed much of the fever last summer to these Texian "Powldoodies," & suggested the suppression of the out of doors oyster trade during the sickly months of the year. The Town is very irregularly built & extends or rather straggles for about half a mile along the coast the Houses 54

Probably Dr. Ashbel Smith. See n. 108.

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being of wood entirely with a few exceptions of the better class & these only boast of a brick foundation of a few feet. These Bricks are brought all the way from "Bosting" as it is generally termed & fetch the moderate sum of 40 dollars a thousand. Several of the inhabitants informed that they rather looked forward to the probable destruction of this inflammable town by fire, as an event to be desired, as, they argued "those who could, would then build their houses entirely of Brick & with greater regularity as far as regards Streets." The rapidity with wh these houses are run up is inconceivable, & I will not trust my imagination to guess at the number built during my stay on the coast; I forgot to mention when speaking of the soil on wh the Town stands, that since I have been here extensive drains have been made wh will prove a great blessing. The population boasts members of every nation. English, American, German, Italian, Dutch &c. Of these the Germans are infinitely superior as Settlers, whether as agricultural laborers or tradesmen & mechanics. You never see a German idling, added to which he is sober, peaceable & persevering. The rest of the foreign powers are not very much distinguished for these qualities. There are also a few Mexicans who were prisoners of war, & now prefer earning their livelihood among their Captors instead of returning to their own Country. In the simplicity of my heart, I should have believed them to be Chinese by their looks. I am told that they are a 46

quiet set, & utterly reckless of all things, so long as their inordinate passion for cigars can be gratified, & that they wd willingly sacrifice their food to obtain them. There is a most curious peculiarity among friends & acquaintances here wh amounts to a bore. You may meet one of these 50 times in the course of the day, & on each occasion it is considered decorous to stop, shake hands, or make some complimentary remark. For instance I walked from the Hotel to the wharf & back, having taken the precaution to shake everybody's hand with whom I was acquainted previous to breakfast. During my peregrinations I met most of these gentlemen 2 or 3 times, & at each was generally obliged to pull up, when the conversation generally assumed the following interesting form —"Well Sir—& how do you do again." "Quite well, I thank you"—"Well Sir—Good day Sir"—I might meet my friend ten minutes after & he'd say—"Well Sir— and how are you by this time?" "Quite well I thank you" —"Well Sir—your most obdV The waiter of the Inn however was more incessant in his enquiries after the state of my health, than any one else, & on one occasion having exhausted his large stock of forms in address, he waved his hand gracefully and said—"Well Sir—Your most—" leaving us to supply the rest. There is also another peculiarity appertaining to those casual encounters, & this is, that a penknife seems generally speaking to be indispensable to the carrying on of conversation—I rarely stopped to talk to one of my Galvestonian ac47

quaintances without seeing him whip out a penknife & commence cutting his nails, or a piece of tobacco, or picking his teeth with it. While on the wharf I had an opportunity of seeing a Coroners inquest as performed at Galveston. In a large flat-bottomed boat lay the Body of a poor wretch who the night before had been knocked off the wharf in a drunken row & drowned. He was the clerk of the Navy Yard & attired in an old tarnished uniform, the combination of w h circumstances had attracted nearly 20 persons to that side of the Wharf. As for the rest of the busy crowd, they appeared to consider the loss of a man's life to be a matter of too common occurrence to permit of either surprise or curiosity. Seated round the gunwale of the boat, kicking their heels against the sides, sat the gentlemen of the Jury, each smoking a cigar & enjoying himself as much as he could under the circumstances, while a witness was under examination by the "Crowner." His Evidence appeared to be quite satisfactory, for it lasted only 3 or 4 minutes, after which the Jurors scrambled up the Wharf, an old duster was thrown over the face of the deceased officer, and he was soon left with "none so poor" 55 to honor him even with a glance. The Burial ground is a little away out of the Town, among some sandy hillocks through w h runs a public 55

Julius Caesar; III, 2: But yesterday the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world; now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. 4s

road. It is unenclosed on either side & is entirely deficient in "Storied Urns or animated busts"56 as may be supposed, the prevailing fashion being small pieces of Board whereon the initials of the departed are carved. This cemetery is far from being romantically situated, or indeed judiciously inasmuch as part of it merges into a swamp & some of the graves in consequence filled with & destroyed by water. Now although this circumstance is in all probability of little importance to their occupants, still to the surviving relatives of the deceased it must be an annoyance, especially as, (sitting upon a tomb the possessor of wh must have had his pocket handkerchiefs marked T. G.) I marked several large Turkey Buzzards in close consultation round a grave that had just fallen in. Besides this burying one's relations in a swamp is not only productive of inconvenience, but in great measure mars the solemnity of living grief over the loved dead; conceive a widower mounted on stilts sobbing over the resting place of the lost partner of his affections, or a grateful son in shrimpers boots, paying the last tribute of filial affection to the authors of his being! No—No—grief always is & ought to be, dry. About a mile to the right of the burying ground is the race course, and considering that the horses must put up with Sand instead of Turf, a very good race course it is. Being a circle of about a mile & a half, perfectly flat 56

Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard": Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?

•49

& railed all round. The racing stables wh are not exactly as good as those at New Market are a short distance from the Beach & between it & the race course. Here we saw some very fair specimens of the American racers, & an English Stallion, called * 'Stafford." Of course the most animated conversation took place as to the relative merits of English & American Horses and the knowing ones of Galveston were loud in their expressions of hope that England would accept a challenge to run a horse against the famous American horse ''Boston/' 4 miles & stakes unlimited. I joined in the hope, for great as the advance as to breeding may be among the Yankee horses, they are a long long way behind us, & in my humble opinion ever will be. Returning from the Race, I repaired to the only interesting spot in Galveston—The Wharf of Messrs McKinnie & Williams. Here I fell in with a settler who had just landed with a gang of Slaves, one or two assistants, a Driver, several long Kentuckee rifles, & some large dogs. The only person in the party who appeared to be at all anxious about the result of the step he had taken, was the proprietor himself—as for the Niggers they laughed & chattered as if utterly careless of anything except enjoying themselves as much as possible—While a cart was preparing for the transportation of the old women, little children & luggage, the Driver produced a large bag of buscuits of wh his charge partook with great merriment, heightened by sundry pleasantries on the part of their entertainer who evidently was in posses50

sion of a considerable fund of Native humour—I had not the pleasure from the distance at wh I stood, of hearing his verbal waggery, but I was witness to such a stroke of practical pleasantry, as few have the felicity to enjoy. This was no other than dextrously flanking with his whip an adjacent jackass who was mournfully chewing an exhausted cud—Disturbed in his meditations the Jackass lost his temper & throwing out his heels, he succeeded in planting them on the hinder part of a very fat man who was passing at the time & who on finding he was not much hurt, discharged such a volley of curses at the Donkey as would have done honor to the most depraved costermonger—At this incident the enchantment of the niggers knew no bounds, & one old lady who had her mouth full of buscuit at the time was well nigh suffocated, while the Driver smiled proudly yet kindly on his hilarious flock. The cart being by this time ready a move took place—Beds, old women, cooking utensils, children & calabashes were all bundled into the Cart, the young & able each cheerfully shouldered some article for wh there was no room in the cart. The White men grasped their rifles, The Driver coupled the Dogs having given each a preliminary beating to ensure respect on the road, & in a few minutes I was left alone gazing on the lessening train & listening to their laughter with melancholy forebodings—Go your ways, thought I, go your ways my happy thoughtless party—happy because thoughtless, the time may not be far distant (for I love to look on the bright side of things) when your quips 5i

& cranks will be turned into tears, wails & groans—when the child shall be taken from its mother, the wife from the husband & you you wooly head fool lagging behind there to assist that young Nigger girl who shows her white teeth with gratitude at every attention—do you enjoy her chasmatic grins & speculate on future happiness while you may—for she may be soon food for some * 'book-keeper*' & you far away among strangers. All of which circumstances are extremely probable, should that gentleman in the Nankeens & with the long rifle, find that he has been deceived in his expectations after he has laid out his money, & be forced to fall back on you as *'available capital''—At this moment, & just when I was going to make a beautiful speech about the blessings of freedom with a few faint allusions to the 20 millions I contributed to for the suppression of Slavery in the W. Indies,571 was startled by a deep sigh, & turning round, I beheld my old friend the Donkey who despairing of extracting further nutriment from his cud, had bolted it & so rashly destroyed the pleasant illusion that he was satisfying his hunger. Warned by the fate of the Jackass, I rushed home to the Inn & arrived just in time to be borne by the human tide into the supper room. This night was marked by the circumstance of our having only four sleepers in 57 A reference to a bill passed by the British Parliament in 1833 for the gradual emancipation of slaves. An attempt was made to placate the planters' objections by a grant of £20,000,000, but the scheme failed and was given up after four years of trial.

52

our room, one gentleman having absented himself—On his appearing in the morning, he was gently chid by one of the party for having "deserted us"! After breakfast we strolled to the Beach or rather waded—the road lying through a marshy swamp principally. Besides disturbing large quantities of Curlews & Penguin58 nothing occurred during our walk & in about an hour we were strolling along the whitest firmest, & most beautiful sand I ever saw—Being no conchologist I cannot say whether there were any shells worthy of being picked up—though I was pointed out one, of which there were immense numbers, wh I was told was peculiar to Texas—It was perfectly flat, & about 3 or 4 inches in circumference, having a distinct Star of five points very accurately traced in the centre. I picked up some of the best specimens, & finding them very brittle carefully wrapped them up in many folds of paper & stowed 'em away in my coat pocket. I am particular in being thus accurate because I wish to show that I had the very best intentions as to their preservation & that the circumstances of my having sat down upon & destroyed them wh I naturally did at dinner, may be considered, as it really was, purely accidental. My companion informed me that it was called "The Texian Star"59 but that it was not the origin of the single Star wh winks on the Banner of the Young Re58 Probably penguin clucks, so called from their similarity to the antarctic penguin in their erect posture when walking. 59 Apparently the sand dollar, a sea urchin common along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

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public, though I have since been informed that it is nothing more or less than part of the Cuttle fish—of this I have my doubts Because I recollect frequently falling in with the Cuttle fish (when gathering perriwinkles in boyhood to lay at the feet of my young love) & the like of the Texian Star saw I never—For the rest of the shells, there was the homely cockle & those w h are converted into pin cushions & adorn the windows of the Toy Shops—Some admirable specimens of w h may be seen in Richmond upon Thames—& any of a more interesting kind, with the exception of the shell of a turtle, I did not see. In the course of the walk, we came upon and examined two rather interesting memorials—namely the remains of the fortifications and the wreck of a vessel belonging to Lafitt,60 commonly known as the Gulf Pirate. Of the former little remains but a few hillocks of mud & sand owing chiefly to the industry of ' 'Treasure-hunters/ ' There being of course a tradition that he had various chests of Doubloons somewhere in his strongholds. The wreck has nothing to show but a few ribs & part of the keel. This was LaFitts Pet vessel, it was built, 60 For a contemporary account of Jean Lafitte, see A. L. Latour, Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-13 (Philadelphia, 1816), 12-25. See also J. O. Dyer, "Laffite's Name and Fame," an article in a scrapbook of clippings from the News (Galveston) of May 21, 1922, in the University of Texas Archives.

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with the exception of the spars, entirely of Mahogany & fitted up most luxuriously, & although it has been on the Beach between 20 & 30 years & constantly exposed to the Sea the wood, what there is left of it is as sound as ever. All traces of it will soon be gone, for it serves & has served for firewood for a little dirty fort there is hard by whenever they are hard up for wood. Two or 3 soldiers inhabit this place, but of what use it or they may be I could not discover, unless it is to destroy the pleasing memorials of the excellent La Fitte, for in addition I cannot hold them guiltless of rummaging among his mud Banks for the Doubloons—For which many Jackasses Browse on the graves of their fathers.61 La Fitt was the prince of Pirates & may fairly be called the Robin Hood of the Seas, for the good qualities wh gilded the felonies of the Monarch of Sherwood, such as generosity, humanity & charity are said to have characterised La Fitte. He also, did things comparatively on as 61 In some miscellaneous notes following the conclusion of the diary, Sheridan has written the following note for the benefit of treasure seekers: "By the way as I am on the subject of pirates & in case there should be any British Treasure seekers anxious for a field for their labors I give the following piece of information. There is a desert little Sand Bank near the Narrows called Coney Island & here have lately been discovered some thousand of the dollars buried by Gibbs the Pirate, part of a plunder of $54,000 w h he took out of a vessel called the Vineyard. My information must be correct, for I got it from a New York Paper. Now look at the difference between the uncommon & common Pirate's names. Lafitte (what associations spring up with the name—(Rich Bankers & ripe claret)—Gibbs— Such a sound could only be heralded by Bill—Bill Gibbs—Bah! a vulgar beast I warrant me."

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grand a scale as Robin having at one time no less than 12 vessels scouring the Gulf, Besides which the Island of Galveston owned his sway, & was honored by being his constant place of abode. Here he lived respected & beloved. His sailors adored him, for though a strict disciplinarian & one who made no bones of hanging & shooting his subjects when they deserved, yet was he generous withal & as a divider of "swag" distinguished for impartiality & a contempt for the Lions share. La Fitte who was a Frenchman had National antipathies & the reverse. He was fond of the Yankees & I believe seldom or never molested their vessels, but with Spain he declared war. In vain the vessels of that nation tried to take him. If they were of equal force with himself he fought & beat them, & if superior, away he was into some little quiet nook, where none but elderly mermaids who had retired from the vanities of the Sea thought of abiding. Sometimes he would lead them long & dangerous dances among shoals, & reefs & if he could get them hard & fast jammed, he would lean over his vessel & applying his thumb to his nose & "taking a lunar"62 laugh at their beards. Then having molested them & devided, he would fly away in his Mahogany Water-witch through reefs shoals & all & soon in the arms of Mrs Lafitte chuckle over the mortifications of the "diddled" Spaniards. The Governor of Havana or Vera Cruz I forget wh 62

I.e., taking a lunar observation.

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once had the audacity to offer a reward in dollars tantamount to about £5,000 British for the apprehension of La-Fitte, But La Fitte not to be out done in liberality instantly offered double the amount for the capture of the impertinent governor & had it printed & posted up under his Excellency's nose—In that enjoyment & content w h are the best & surest rewards of the truly virtuous, this excellent man continued to attend to the shipping on the Gulf of Mexico until Boston Harbour was turned into a tea-pot & we went to loggerheads with the Yankees. About this time Lafitte removed from some cause w h I am unable to explain from the island of Galveston to the island of Barrataria near the mouth of the Mississipi of w h he quietly took possession in his own name & there resided until the year of our Lord 1814. But in that year the fates decreed that Lafitte should throw aside the pomp & circumstance together with cares w h are the unfailing attendants on the regal state, and sink into the repose of a quiet life, although, such was his energy & ambition very much against his inclination. The humiliating details attendant on the fall or rather resignation of this irregularly great man are as follows. Notwithstanding the unceasing kindness & clemency with w h he had invariably treated the shipping of the adjacent kingdom of the United States, the gov1 of the latter had the black ingratitude to fit out an expedition against him! Accordingly a Commodore Patterson with Tars, & a Colonel Ross with Troops, proceeded to Barrataria & announced to its Sovereign & his peaceful sub57

jects the startling resolution adopted by the United States. What would have been the course adopted by any common Pirate on such an occasion—undoubtedly to have cleared the Mahogany vessel for action, fight her till she was within ten-minutes of sinking, & then having gone through the usual form of getting roaring drunk with the survivors of his crew he would have stove in the head of a powder barrel, taken his seat upon it, & after two or three yells drop his cigar between his legs & so be translated to Abraham's bosom or elsewhere as the case might be. But Lafitte was no common Pirate & so he determined to live & devote his energies to the advancement of Mankind. "With mine own hands I give away my crown/' said the touching old Twaddler to the "aspiring Bolingbroke,"63 & so said the dignified Lafitte to Commodore Patterson. But the grasping gov1 wh had thus misused the Pirate of the Gulf were not satisfied with that but must needs despoil him of his hard earned gains. In a memoir of that redoubted Hero General Andrew Jackson we find the following cold-blooded recital of this inhuman proceeding. "The expedition against the Barratarians took possession of all their piratical vessels, their prizes and a considerable quantity of arms and property without opposition on the 16th Septer 1814. The vessels thus taken consisted of six schooners, & one felucca, cruisers & 63

Richard II, IV, 1.

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prizes of the Pirates, one Brig, a Prize & two armed schooners both in line of battle with the armed vessels of the Pirates. The establishment on shore wh was also taken into possession, consisted of about 40 houses. The Pirates had mounted on their vessels 20 pieces of cannon of different calibres, & their number consisted of between 800 & 1000 men of all nations & colors."64 Soon after this disgraceful act, that is to say in Jany—15 [1815]—The British troops met with those unpleasant reverses on the Mississipi in their attempt to obtain possession of New Orleans wh are far from consolatory to reflect upon, seeing, that if we may believe the American account, we jeopardised something more than men & money.65 Prior to the deposition of Lafitte, it is said 64 From "Memoirs of Andrew Jackson" in The Glory of America: comprising memoirs of the lives and glorious exploits of some of the most distinguished officers, engaged in the revolutionary and late wars with Great Britain: among which are Andrew Jackson, Richard M. Johnson, Stephen Decatur et a!., by R. Thomas, Philadelphia, n.d., 31. This work was several times revised and republished after 1828; an edition containing the memoir of Jackson appeared in 1836. Lafitte and his followers are described unromantically as "desperate characters," "Citizens of the United States, as well as foreigners," who were associated into a "band of pirates" on the island of Barrataria. "The government of the United States caused this unlawful establishment to be broken up" (p. 31). 65 Sheridan's note on this phrase reads as follows: " 'Defeat has humbled the arrogance of the enemy, who had promised his soldiers 48 hours pillage & rapine of the city of N. Orleans.' The watchword & countersign of th6 enemy on the Morns of the 8 t h was Beauty & Booty. 'Glory of America' a work singular for Braggadocio & Bombast." See Glory of America, 29.

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that an alliance between Barrataria & England was as eagerly courted by the latter power,66 as it was firmly 66 In a group of miscellaneous notes at the conclusion of his diary, Sheridan has transcribed the following letter, headed "British expedition in the Gulf of Mexico—Letter to the Commandant of Barrataria."

HEADQUARTERS. PENSACOLA

Aug* 3 1 s t 1814. SIR. I have arrived in the Floridas for the purpose of annoying the only enemy G* Britain has in the world as France & England are now friends. I call on you with y r brave followers to enter the service of Gl Britain in w h you shall have the rank of Captain—Lands will be given to you in proportion to y r respective ranks on a peace taking place, & I invite you on the following terms, your property shall be guaranteed to you & your person protected. In return for which I ask you to cease all hostilities against Spain or the allies of G* Britain. Your ships & vessels to be placed under the orders of the commanding officer on this station, until the commander in chiefs pleasure is known, but I guarantee their value to you at all events. I herewith enclose you a copy of my proclamation to the inhabitants of Louisiana w h will I trust point out to you the honorable intentions of my Gov1. You will be a useful assistant to me in forwarding them; therefore if you determine, lose no time. The Bearer of this Cap 1 Williams will satisfy you on any other points you may be anxious to learn, as well as Cap* Lockyer of the Sophie who carries him to you. W e have a powerful reinforcement on its way here, & I hope to cut out some other work for the Americans than oppressing the inhabitants of Louisiana. Be expeditious in your resolve & rely upon the veracity of Y r humble S v r

E D D NICHOLLS—U COMM D R H B M's FORCES I N THE FLORIDAS

Col:

To M . La Fete, or the commandant of Barrataria. "This letter I have copied from [Thomas] Southey's Chronological history of the W . Indies [London, 1827], the Compiler adds—'This letter more like a soldier's than a diplomatists'—Be that as it may it had no effect on the ingenuous Lantt." The letter is also printed in Latour's Historical Memoir, App. Ill, ix.

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rejected by the former wh accounts for the active part Lafitte & his warriors took in the defence of N. Orleans. And on the left bank of the Mississipi & near the mouth, I was pointed sundry sly creeks communicating with the Parent stream, the navigation of wh was known to few but the Pirate, wh enabled him to annoy the gallant but unfortunate Packenham & the British Troops. In the same Memoirs of Jackson we find that "the Barratarian Pirates took part in the defence of N. Orleans & were both active & serviceable. It was also satisfactorily ascertained that they had previous to their dispersion refused an alliance with the British rejecting the most seducing terms of invitation (!) Induced by these considerations & at the recommendation of the General Assembly of the state of Louisiana the President of the United States granted to such of them as aided in defence of N. Orleans a full pardon for all offenses against the laws of the United States committed previous to the 8th of Jany 1815."67 After this I regret to say little is known as to the proceedings of the illustrious subject of this hasty sketch, as also that his ultimate fate if consummated is wrapt in a more impenetrable mystery than that of Byron's Corsair68 who it will be recollected very clumsily broke a 67

Glory of America, 31—32. It is possible that Byron was referring to Lafitte in this passage from The Corsair (XXIV) described by Sheridan: Mount, grotto, cavern, valley search'd in vain, They find on shore a seaboat's broken chain: Their hope revives, they follow o'er the main 68

6x

chain & an oar in pushing off his jolly boat & so put his pals up to trap. Some say that, disgusted with the even tenor of his new mode of life, he quitted the country & did a little pirating somewhere else, but not alas! on the same magnificent scale w h marked his earlier exploits, & that in a running fight with a Spanish Cruiser he was shot through the head. Others that he had changed his name to Walker, adopted the Church as a profession & written some clever tracts about "The New Jerusalem," and that many of the Yankees have applied for shares under the impression that its a building speculation, while some again agreeing to this adoption of a new name by Lafitte, affirm it to be Gorddes [ ? ] under which they add he still carries on a retail Business in the Coal & Potato line in Philadelphia. The first strikes me as the most probable seeing that a noble mind stung by ingratitude & warped from its usual unbending purity & strength would be ill-attuned to the exercise of all those humble labours required at the hands of a Shepherd of the Fold, & the imagination recoils from the bare idea of seeing one who once swayed the destinies of a kingdom measuring Potatoes by the pound & coals by the scuttle. If he had been described as a wholesale dealer it wd have been a different matter tho' still the story w d have been improbable. There is a novel extant written by a Young Lady (I 'Tis idle all; moons roll on moons away. And Conrad comes not, came not since that day.

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believe) of N. York, bearing the name of Lafitte,69 & founded on his exploits, though the web of the story is of course woven by the luxuriant imagination of the fair authoress. In this the end of her Hero is most tragical for in some sea fight where the Mahogany vessel is boarded he meets his death by the hand of a gentleman, who on overhauling the prostrate prodigy, discovers certain marks wh prove the Pirate to have been no other than his own brother, who he had so often remembered with regret! Additional interest is thrown on the scene by the appearance of an Elderly gentleman at this juncture who toddles up from the Barroom & having earnestly gazed on the dead Pirate & then on his Conqueror, sobbs out "my Son, my Son" & throws himself into the arms of his surviving & astonished child. How all these miracles are brought about I forget but I know its very interesting,, and there's a good deal of Love and a Lafittina, besides. Still further to interest the fairer portion of my readers, I have to state, that Lafitte was a remarkably handsome man of the most approved dark style, & was singular for the smallness of his hands & the brilliancy of his teeth, wh coupled with other circumstances impresses me with a belief that he wd have made an ornamental addition to 69 Judging from the plot as Sheridan gives it here, the novel he describes is Lafitte: The Pirate of the Gulf (New York, 1836), written not by a young lady of New York but by Joseph H. Ingraham (1809-60), who wrote several popular novels at this period. Lafitte was still being reprinted at the end of the century as indicated by a copy dated New York, 1889, in the University of Texas Library.

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that interesting class [of] British gentlemen infesting what is called "the best Society'' who having written poems scowl despairingly in the corners of all well regulated Balls & Assemblys. One of the greatest drawbacks to the advancement of Texian prosperity is that most of the land is in the possession of persons who do not possess a shilling & who consequently are unable to cultivate it. This is one of the causes of the destructive system of jobbing at present going on. The other day I was seated on a cotton bail & musing upon the rise & fall of Stocks & kingdoms, when the impersonation of Jeremy Diddler70 accosted me. He was admirably dressed for the part, having on his back, an old thread bare black coat buttoned very tight up to the throat where it was met by Brownish black silk handkerchief disposed in so careful a way, as to suggest to the thinking mind, that the washerwoman had not yet sent home the gentleman's clean linen. His nether person was clothed in sombre unwhisperables71 with a mellowed autumnal tint upon them, these reached half way down a pair of Boots the footing of wh having been neglected, & permitt casual glimpses of flesh, announced the absence of stockings. On the head a covering was lightly 70

Chief character in James Kenney's farce "Raising the Wind," 1803. Jeremy's characteristic methods of "raising the wind" by continually borrowing small sums which he does not pay back gave rise to the term diddle. See n. 32. 71 Popular slang of the day for trousers; the word was used in both England and America.

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thrown having the appearance of a "Soufflet" after the first dig of a spoon, being of a Brownish hue, sunk in at the top, & turned up all round. In keeping with his attire was his face wh was excessively dirty, the chin being adorned with a stubby black beard of about 3 weeks old. This interesting Person having eyed me attentively & relieved himself by spitting 10 or 12 times, condescended to address me as follows—"Do you want to buy any land?" To wh, with a caution praiseworthy in travellers I replied with another question—"Have you got any to sell"—I am afraid I laid too great a stress on "you," for he replied with some indignation "of course I have." Though I didn't see why it should be a matter of course, I asked him where it was—"Whar it is—Why in Texas of course" answered he. "Is it in [a] good part of the country?" "Of course it is" "What makes you think I want to buy land"—"Why, seeing you sittin thar on that bale—I,—I thought you might want to spec'late a bit." "Naturally—Is your land in cultivation" "Of course not its not cleared yet,f "Why don't you clear it?" At this question he gazed abstractedly over my shoulder & spit unconsciously several times, after wh awaking from his reverie he said "Well—you don't want to buy any?" "Of course I don't" said I, & away sauntered the landed proprietor. There are hundreds & hundreds in the same predicament, & what with land-scrips,72 allotments, grants 72

The Texas Republic, by an act of December 10, 1836, authorized the issuance of land scrip for sale in the United States at not less than fifty cents an acre, and there followed much speculation in un-

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for military services, jobbing in all, occasionally diversified with a few forgeries, the state of Texas is far from inviting to the settler, when he comes there. During my first visit to Galveston, a Brig (the Norham Castle, from Berwick) arrived with settlers who on making enquiries as to their location &c found themselves in the following agreeable situation. They had it appeared purchased certain grants of land in Texas, at some shop or office in the Strand and bargained also that a vessel should be provided to convey them to that Paradise. Whereupon the above brig was chartered & in due course performed its share of the business. Not so, the office in London, for behold the grants were defective & the settlers left with no land to settle on. The Supercargo of the Brig an old gentleman of 80 who had brought out a cargo of chalk—(for what reason I could not discover, unless to score up his expenses there & back) & a good stock of common sense, had intended to settle with his family, but craftily determined to inspect before he invested, & in the last conversation I had with him, he told me that he intended to get back to his country as fast as possible. The Texians hold the Mexicans in as great contempt located land paper. This paper, basically an unwieldy currency redeemable in land, consisted of scrip, unlocated bounty and donation warrants for military service, unlocated headright certificates, etc. See "Land Speculation" and "Land Grants," The Handbook of Texas. Since these papers changed hands many times before the land was actually staked off, there was considerable opportunity for forgery and fraud.

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as they do the Indians & certainly the result of the Battle of San Jacinto has given them every reason so to do, of wh battle I believe the following account given in the dispatch of General Houston to the President, to be a perfectly correct one. (No. 1. B. of San J.)73 The General was himself severely wounded & behaved with great gallantry in this action wh appears to have perfectly paralysed the Mexicans. But the fact is that not only was the declaration of Texian independence the result of intrigue & division in the Counsel of Mexico, but the safety & rising strength of the republic attributable in great measure if not wholly to the internal combats going on in that country at the time. In a Mexican Journal the "Independiente"74 (No. 1.) is the following statement—"We cannot but recollect with pain that seven thousand men with a park of Artillery were concentrated at Matamoros after the battle of San Jacinto, and that this army instead of being put 73

See Williams and Barker, "Official Report of the Battle of San Jacinto," The Writings of Sam Houston, I, 416-20. This report gives the strength of the Texans as 783, though the official muster roll, published soon after, lists 845. Dixon and Kemp (Heroes of San Jacinto, Houston, 1932, p. 31) found record of 918 participants. This is the first of several references which Sheridan makes to another set of notes—presumably a commonplace book—now unfortunately lost. 74 This quotation and the two following it appear in a newspaper article entitled "Spirit of the Mexican Journals in Relation to this Republic," in the Morning Star (Houston), April 7, 1840. El Independiente, El Cosmopolita, and the Diario del Gobierno de los Estados-Unidos Mexicanos were published in Mexico City.

6?

in movement to recover our laurels lost on that day, were employed in our internal contests. The Colonists of Texas meanwhile acquired strength by repose & contracted relations with foreign powers, which would have been impossible had the campaign 1837 been opened." Now all this I steadfastly believe—chiefly because it goes to prove the profound reflection I made above. The same journal further suggests that "the gov1 should at once raise an army of ten thousand men for the reconquest of Texas. The President of the Republic should take the command." Another "the Cosmopolita" is in most doleful dumps not only about Texas but Mexico—listen to what he says. "It would certainly be well to recover our honor lost at San Jacinto, but there is also something else to be looked to." Whereupon Having told the "Diario del Gobierno" that itfibbedwhen it said that tranquillity reigned in all the departments save Monterey, The "Cosmopolita" wails over the departments of Chihuahua (I don't know how its pronounced) & Durango as invaded by the Indians & unprotected by the Central Gov*—New Mexico as blotted apparently out from the catalogue of their territories the inhabitants craving assistance, but the Gov* preferring to tell them what events are occurring on the Bosphorus—& Yucatan as the theatre of a Bloody civil war. "Yet" says this gloomy journal, "The Gov1 think the question of Texas paramount." Then comes the following ominous prognostications. "The result of this project of [reconquest] will be, that when our soldiers 68

shall have perished by hunger, nakedness, & North American rifles the Gov1 will plead its inability to carry on the war for the want of means. Then we shall bid a last adieu to Texas & await the declaration of independence by other departments when the opportunity shall be deemed by them favourable/' Thus you see my good woman,75 that if the Mexicans had not quarrelled among themselves, Texas would not have been probably a republic now, much more blood wd have been spilt, and the papers have been filled with good substantial battles, cruelties, & slaughter. Besides wh our mutual friend Louis Phillipe (one of the sagest monarchs that ever sat on a throne—for wh compliment being really a sincere one, & the most beautifully turned one I ever made, he ought to send me a little present— a snuff box, or anything of that sort wd do—& I understand he's very well off—). Louis Phillipe I say would have been a little less disposed to recognise the Young Republic than he showed himself. Altho' I dreamt the other night that he told me he was devilish glad to get an opportunity of recovering the influence in America, wh France had lost by a tardy recognition of the New Republic. And My Lord Palmerston as was (for I heard at the Havannah76 the other day that he was going to be 75

Apparently a facetious reference to Queen Victoria. Havana, Cuba. Sheridan may have stopped there on his way to Texas and heard the rumor that Palmerston was to receive the "strawberry leaves & ermine/' insignia of a duke. Palmerston was never so honored. 76

69

made a present of strawberry leaves & ermine) would not have been under the necessity of declaring it to be inexpedient to recognise the independence of Texas because a majority of the Parliament is opposed to the extension of Slavery. Now with the greatest possible respect, I do not recognise the usual wisdom of the Parlmt in giving this as an objection to the recognition of a foreign power—Come & sit down by me Lord John & Sir Robert, not forgetting Sir James77 for I want to say something to you about Slaves & Slavery. But no—111 defer this until I have said something about the Indians who trouble our Texian friends. This I can best do by taking an extract from Mr President Mirabeau Lamar's message to the two houses of Congress at their annual Session commencing on the 2nd Monday of Novbr 1839. (No. 2.) 78 I perfectly coincide with the "Lord John Russell (1792-1878), and Sir Robert Peel (17881850), Whig and Tory opponents in the British Parliament. Sir James is probably Sir James Stephen (1789-1859), author of the antislavery measure passed in 1833. It was not only fear of the abolitionist reaction in Parliament that made Palmerston hesitate to recognize the Republic. He was also fearful of jeopardizing British relations with Mexico. France, on the other hand, readily signed a treaty, September 29, 1839, recognizing Texas independence, admitting her commerce on a most favored-nation basis, and appointing as charge d'affaires Count Alphonse de Saligny. See Joseph W. Schmitz, Texan Statecraft, San Antonio, Texas, 1941; and Herbert Gambrell, Anson Jones, Garden City, New York, 1948. 78 See Gulick, "Second Annual Message to Congress," Lamar Papers, III, 164: "With the wild Comanches, the skulking Kickapoos, and various other marauding tribes, the war has been active

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President, for it is very certain that as long as "the wild Comanches or skulking Kickapoos" are in a position or have the faintest hope of taking the scalp of a white man they certainly will.79 The President's Pate was in danger the other day, for some Indians came down upon Austin the new seat of Gov* and bagged two scalps.80 This custom is not confined to the Savages, for the Texians sometimes carry off as trophys the hair of the vanquished Kickapoos & Comanches; & while inspecting some Indian curiosities at Galveston the property of a gentleman from Maryland, I was shown with a considerable triumph the Scalp of an Indian who had fallen in single combat with the cousin of my informant. I was considerably amused with the auctions at Galveston partly from the singular variety of goods offered up for public competition, & partly from the eloquence of the Auctioneer. Fancy a tall man with a red nose dressed in the deepest mourning mounted on a flour and incessant, and the success with which it has been carried on against them in their own haunts, has been the means of preserving the distant settlements from being either destroyed or abandoned." 79 " 'Probable cost of removing the Shawnee Indians a part of w h has been paid but not charged to any appropriation—15,000 dollars' Special report of Secy of Treasury." See ibid., 166, n. 76. The amount expended was $8,000. 80 The Morning Star (Houston), March 21, 1840, gives an account of "Indian Murders" in Austin on the thirteenth. Two men, William Ward, a butcher, and James Headley were scalped and murdered.

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cask in the middle of the principal street of the Town, & surrounded by a heterogeneous collection [of] Coats, Coffee Pots, Hams, Hammers, Sugar, Saws, Spurs, Trowsers, Butter, Cartwheels, Pocket handkerchiefs—Bowie Knives—Plough Shares, Eggs, Gin &c &c &c & God knows what besides. The Value of each & all appeared to be as accurately known to the Auctioneer as if the price had been labled on every article—No confusion among the crowd of purchasers appeared in the least to disturb the clearness of his perceptions, no one of the thousand irrelevant questions wh were constantly addressed to him with reference to other articles than those he was descanting upon, remained unanswered, & the startling rapidity wh which he knocked down an article the moment a bid commensurate with his notions of its value & his fair profits,81 would have thrown George Robins82 into a Syncope. The rapidity of his elocution unfettered as it was by the gew-gaws of trope & metaphor was only equalled by the dramatic powers he ever and anon exhibited. For in81

Among the miscellaneous notes at the conclusion of Sheridan's diary is the following: "With respect to the Auctions I have noticed —It was a matter of great surprise to me to see the extraordinary cheapness with w h some of the articles particularly clothing went, but I was afterwards informed that a brisk trade is carried on by speculators who get goods on credit in the states sell them far below cost price in Texas, & are oblivious of the original debt." 82 George Henry Robins (1778-1847), a famous British auctioneer.

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stance, having soothed the feelings of a German pastrycook who had out-bid, (evidently from motives of pique or ambition) the Barber for a doubtful Ham, the Auctioneers assistant,—a bandy-legged, brandy-stunted youth with a putty face & vacant eye—presented to the gaze of an admiring crowd a pair of bright bottle green Trowsers, wh no sooner caught the eye of the Auctioneer [than] his whole countenance, over which a slight cloud had passed during the ham episode, instantly beamed with admiration and he executed as effective a Melodramatic start as the flour cask would permit of. Then taking the trowsers very carefully & slowly from the hands of his assistant, he shook them proudly aloft, & with a triumphant smile wh plainly said "No—I am not deceived'' he shouted "a pair of Breeches, Brand new & Bo sting built." To this succeeded a solemn silence wh occupied some moments, during wh the auctioneer gazed on the crowd with a kind smile as if he delighted in doing good. On resuming he slowly lowered the trowsers & gazing fondly on them, he said emphatically "What can I say for them"—At this point an expression of serious embarassment turned out the kind smile, & his eye as it ranged round the wrapt crowd seemed to say—"Gentlemen I throw myself upon you—assist me with your counsel I conjure you in this emergency," after wh he again raised the trowsers, again lowered them & again put the question with an earnestness wh went to the marrow of the Assembly—"What can I say for them—"Two Bits" 73

roared out an irreverent wretch at w h of course the crowd laughed because it was so witty—"A pair of breeches brand new & Bosting built," thundered the auctioneer & sending a severe glance of stern reproof round the throng to shew them that a pair of Bottle-green Boston breeches were not subjects for thoughtless levity. "One dollar" said a cautious gentleman after reflectively picking his teeth with a Bowie Knife—On w h the Auctioneer commenced in the following way increasing in volubility as he proceeded until it was marvellous how he contrived to speak at all. "One dollar is bid for the pair of breeches brand new & Bosting built, one dollar is bid—one dollar is bid—for the Boston breeches a dollar is bid—is bid, is bid—a dollar is bid" &c "Two dollars"— "Two dollars is bid for a pair of Brand new Breeches & Bosting Built—Two dollars is bid Two dollars is bid —for the Bosting Breeches Two dollars is bid—Two dollars, Two dollars, Twodlers, Toodlers—and a half— Two dollars & a half—Two dollars & a half—Toodlers & half—Toodlers—narf"—& so on till his harrangue got inconceivably complicated & I weary of listening. During our stay at Galveston a Ball was given in honor of the British at Tremont House—& a very good ball it was. The room was most tastefully decorated, & a good number of well-dressed & pretty women were present— The banners of England, Texas, America & France float74

ed from the walls, & music from thefiddlers,Bright eyes beamed kindly83 & the generous pigtail84 protruded from the manly cheek. On the appearance of the representatives of Great Britain the National Anthem of Texas was struck up. This solemn strain was no other than "Dilly, Dilly duckling come & be killed/' or better known probably as "Will you come to the bower I have shaded for you" that exquisite production of Mr Thomas Moore. I have heard that there are other words to the air in praise, as I was informed, of a lady of the name of Bond. The Texians selected this melody for the national anthem, not, as might be supposed from its having been "wedded to immortal verse"85 by the immortal Mr Thomas Moore, but because the devoted army of the young republic went into action at San Jacinto to that tune. But to return— "Will you come to the Bower" having been performed, "God save the Queen" followed in honor of her happy 83 Perhaps an echo of Byron's famous description of the Duchess of Richmond's ball on the eve of Waterloo: . . . and bright The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men; A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spoke again, And all went merry as a marriage bell;— Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III, St. 21. 84 Tobacco came in small twisted ropes or rolls called pigtails. 85 Cf. Milton's Lap me in soft Lydian airs, Married to immortal verse; "L'Allegro," 11. 135-6.

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subjects, during which all eyes were fixed with great eagerness on us to see if there were not some loyal forms it was customary for us to pursue on such occasions. One young Lady indeed gazed at me so earnestly, that I got quite confused, & was necessitated to wink with deadly deliberation before she would leave off looking at me— a naughty thing. There's nothing so annoying to me as to be obliged to wink at the girls, but when they look & look & look—However hoping she won't do it again, I shall proceed with my story. "Hail Columbia" the Yankee anthem followed & then every body fell to a dancing. As I hate dancing, except Kentuckee reels & them only with the young woman I fell in love with at Velasco, I was as much bored as if I had been at Almacks86 where they not only dance but drink Cherry water, so I got introduced to an elderly man who was lame & having secured a nice wooden bench, seated myself with my back against the wall & set my companion going on the independence of Texas & her prospects, I enjoyed some short repose. In the course of the Evg I was introduced to General Houston the Hero of San Jacinto, & a very gentlemanlike fine looking old General he is—not that he is old—that is to say he is under 501 believe—but the Texians call him so—on the same principal & with the same meaning, that we call our friends though they may not be out of their teens—old Boys. Dancing was kept up 86 The celebrated Assembly Rooms in King Street, St. James's, London.

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with great spirit, "till the early village cock" &c, & the happy party dispersed, to my intense delight. These late or rather early hours prevented my going as early as I could have wished on the following morng to see the Texian Navy. This consists of 1 Corvette 20 guns 2 Man o' War Brig of 18 guns, 3 Armed Schooners & a Man of War Steamer.87 The Schooners are pretty vessels, but I can't say the same for the others neither can I for the officers of the Texian Navy generally speaking. These take a delight, after the efeminate fashion of the French, in allowing the hair to grow down the back, wh of all the damnable fooleries ever introduced is the most damnable. It is neither cleanly or becoming, & is infinitely more ridiculous than if they were to turn it up behind & stick a large tortoise shell comb with gold knobs into it, after the manner of the women. But if it's bad when there is either an artificial or natural curl, what is it when there is no curl at all & when their hair hangs down like the matted ends of a wet swab—and this is generally the case with these officers. But this is not the 87

The Texas Navy here described was the second commissioned by the Republic and was built by Frederick Dawson of Baltimore under a contract of November, 1838. The three armed schooners were probably the San Jacinto, the San Antonio, and the San Bernard, each 170 tons; the two brigs were the 400-ton Wharton and the 600ton Austin; and the steamer, the Zavala. See "Texas Navy," The Handbook of Texas; also Jim Dan Hill, The Texas Navy, Chicago, 19?6; and Alexander Dienst, "The Navy of the Republic of Texas," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, XII-XIII (190810).

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only eccentricity which marks some of 'em as the following circumstance will demonstrate, wh occurred during our stay on the coast. (No. 2) 88 All the vessels are showy & sport spars that reach the Seventh Heaven—point [?] & taper—indeed so very taper, that a Yankee (one of the most amusing men I ever met) once said to me, as we were looking at the Shipping—"Well now I guess Mr S. the sticks thar are cruel thin—they look like the little end of nothing whittled down" Certainly it was rather a strong practical joke. A great deal of discontent reigns among the officers & men of the Texian Navy & certainly not without cause. The principal grounds of discontent are first the intention of the Gov1 to lay up the ships with one or two excepted, instead of sending them to cruise off the coast of Mexico for fame & booty, and the second arises from the irregularity as to their pay. As most of the officers were originally in the American Navy and quitted that service, where at least they were certain of good pay, for the inducements held out by the Texians, it certainly does appear most unjust to turn them adrift in the cavalier way proposed, but when the wretched poverty of the republic is taken into consideration—a Treasury without a shilling & the country without credit—the keeping up a naval armament in active service even if in the power of 88 Sheridan's anecdote was apparently in the missing set of notes previously referred to. See n. 73.

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the Gov1 which I doubt, would be a farce. Some notion of the monetary affairs of the country may be formed from the fact that at the time I am writing, the Texian dollar note89 issued by the Gov1 at the full value of a "good" one, is now at 80 per cent discount so that one gets seven or eight of them for a hard dollar & there is furthermore a trifling inconvenience in possessing them especially to a traveller wh is that no one will take them anywhere else. The President makes the following gloomy allusion to this in his message. "The High prices wh every species of labour commands, together with the impossibility of making our currency available abroad have heretofore almost excluded the possibility of enlistments upon such terms as are offered to the soldier." Which extract naturally leads me to the War Office whither I shall trot for a short time on Mr Lamar's back (ext. from Prests Mess. No8 3 & 3.) .90 89 These were the famous "red backs" issued in January, 1839* during Mirabeau B. Lamar's administration, in various denominations from $5 to $500, with change notes of $1, $2, and $3. Overissue of the notes had gone so far by the time they were circulated that they were valued at only 37V2C in specie; later on (1841-42), they had sunk in value to only 2c on the dollar. See George Gouge, Fiscal History of Texas, Philadelphia, 1852, and E, T. Miller, Financial History of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1916, 90 Sheridan's quotation on the difficulties of obtaining enlistments is taken from Lamar's "Second Annual Message to Congress," November 12, 1839. (Lamar Papers, III, 168.) "One of the best safe guards to the frontier," he told the Congress, "is a well organized Militia." He said that Texas military strength was weakening because^ of a general repugnance to the performance of militia duty

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The sooner this is done the better, for the continual massacres and murders that are going on on the frontiers are unpleasant—A few days ago a band of Warriors of the Comanche tribe entered a town called San Antonio de Bexar91—an old Spanish Town on the river San Antonio & the scene of many bloody transactions—to arrange an exchange of prisoners, but getting alarmed at some preparations wh the people made of a warlike character, they drew their Tomahawks & instantly commenced operations—these ended in the destruction of 36 of their own party & seven or eight of the Texians, besides in a great number being wounded on either side. This of course will but be the prelude to increased outrage & bloodshed. A short time prior to this a Texian woman & her child who had been made prisoners by the Indians escaped from their wigwams & after much danger & labor, arrived safe at San Jacinto. She carried her child the whole way & supported herself on the fruit the Prickly pear. San Antonio is very unfortunately situated, and because service was optional. He expected, however, to complete the establishment of a line of military posts upon the frontier early in 1840 (ibid., 167-68). 91 This was the well-known council house fight. Sheridan's description is apparently based on an account in the Morning Star (Houston), March 30, 1840, entitled "Bloody End to the Comanche Treaty." The paper says that the affray took place on March 15, 1840. Indians killed included thirty-two men, three women, and two children; twenty-seven women and children and two old men were made prisoners. Seven Americans were killed, and eight wounded. See W. P. Webb, The Texas Rangers (Boston, 1935), 55-57. 80

for it is just on the border of the Comanche Range, as a large tract of country infested by these savages is termed. In its vicinity are the ruins of the Alamo the scene of much carnage in 1836. I cant resist giving an annecdote in connection with these indians of the adventures of a gentleman of the name of Karnes92 when he fell into their hands. Of the monetary affairs of the country be it now my task to touch on. In the Secretary of the Treasury's special report, he says—"The estimated receipts for the ensuing year, as derived from the internal resources of the country are $1,300,000." 500,000 of wh are derived from direct taxes & land dues 400,000 from customs— & the remainder from sales of lands. Now this would be cheering enough if it were not for what follows—Viz: "Under the present laws however owing to their great 92 The anecdote, presumably written up in Sheridan's other set of notes, may have been the following: "About a year before his death Karnes visited the camp of a band of Comanches some distance north of San Antonio, where his flaming red hair excited much attention. The squaws, supposing this hue had been artificially produced by the use of a pigment, led the submissive hero into a stream and by repeatedly immersing his head and scrubbing his hair, endeavored to rid it of its vermilion tint, but they only succeeded in convincing themselves that they could not expel a 'fast color.' Karnes declared that the gleeful nymphs were very near drowning him." (From the Henry Wax Karnes file, University of Texas Archives.) In 1839, Henry W. Karnes (1812-40) was appointed by the government to fight the Comanches. He was wounded in a fight August 10, 1939, and never fully recovered. See The Writings of Sam Houston, I, 405-406.

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defects in prescribing the manner of assessing & collecting the direct tax, & the inability of this department to compel the receivers of public monies to pay them into the Treasury, it is believed that not one fourth of that sum would be realized to the GovV He then adds that by the sale of certain lands on Galveston Island an additional sum of 283,000 wd be obtained which gives 1,441,900 as "the estimated internal resources of the country for the year 1840, it being but 55,939 less than the current expenditures for the same period. Next come what are termed here the "Disbursing Bureaus/' The War department requires 784,351.27 cents, out of which 76,186 is required for the year —39, & 148,632 for the year —38. The Naval Department require 550,787. The Executive, i.e. the President, & Secretary, 12,800—out of w h the first gets 10,000. The State Department cant do without 80,400,—The Congress must have 35,000, out of which for their labors of a Session amounting to 120 days the Speaker gets 840, & the members 22,800 making as I have discovered after some anxiety 23,640. Of this national expense I cannot approve. Here I show symptoms of Humeism. I have heard an immense deal said in other places about the propriety & impropriety of paying Members of Parliament. I also recollect that Grattan, or Curran 93 1 forget w h said something singularly smart on the subject of paid patriot* 3 Henry Grattan (1746-1820), and John Philpot Curran (17501817), Irish statesmen, and both famous phrasemakers. 82

ism but what it was I dont exactly remember,—I only know that what I heard, as well as the smart thing, were applicable solely to countries whose laws, institutions, & customs were clearly developed &c &c &c &c. Now in the case of Texas, it appears to me, that one of the first acts of congress being to vote themselves payment for services wh ought to be considered by the founders of a Nation in no other light, than ready willing & spontaneous offerings to Patriotism smacks of an early development of the bump of acquisitiveness, the maturity of wh it is painful to contemplate.94 94 In Sheridan's miscellaneous notes at the conclusion of the journal appears the following: "Congress Not only do the members take care to reimburse themselves for their services but a Bill has actually passed the house of representatives, paying its members in specie or its equivalent in the promissory notes of the Gov*. Now I don't call that disinterested patriotism, particularly as Texian Money is at this moment 80 per cent discount in N. Orleans, & uncirculable, if there is such a word any where else. With respect to this Number-one-ism (another harmless invention of mine) on the part of the Legislature an anonymous writer in one of their papers says 'Let the constituents of all those members whose flagitious legislation & avaricious disposition led them to the support of the Bill alluded to, assemble & request them to vacate their seats,' a piece of advice w h I applaud to the echo & having ousted these greedy senators let them select such men in their stead, as are warranted to keep the National Machinery in order without the use of Palm-oil—at all events until the financial affairs of [the] Country are in a condition to afford that luxury. They'll never get a beautiful song written about them as the Pilgrim fathers did by M rs Hemans & if it is asked of them—'What sought they thus afar, Bright jewels of the Mine?' the answer w d be most

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With these few observations I shall quit this unpleasant item in the National expenditure, & proceed to the rest. D n it, here's more of it! Senate, 20,950.00 —of this the President & the Members, (being paid the same as the other House viz: 5 dollars per day a member & 7 the President, get 18,240. The expense of these two houses (41,880) together with the estimated expenses of the civil departments of the gov* amount to 276,520. Putting four shillings & 2 d. to the dollar, £8,725 sterling is the expense of the Two houses of Parliament alone, wh sum had much better be applied in decreasing the debt of the gov1 to the War Department for the years—38 &—39, or in allaying the dissatisfaction of the ill-paid Navy. I forgot to say that there is a further demand for 71,000 for civil Contingent expenses. The principal rivers of Texas are the Brazos, Sabine, unquestionably & anything else they could get. As for a 'faiths pure shrine,'—the less was sung about that the better." Sheridan here refers to "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers," by Felicia Hemans (Poems, Boston, 1827, II, 220): What sought they thus afar ? Bright jewels of the mine? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? —They sought a faith's pure shrine! Cf. also Sheridan's official report: "There is one Striking peculiarity in the Conduct of these Gentlemen [the president and members of Congress], which is, that although they deplore the condition of the ill paid Navy and regret that Government should be in arrears with the Army they take very good care to see that their exertions are strictly and regularly recompensed."—Adams, British Diplomatic Correspondence, 22.

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Trinity, & Colorado & on their banks is supposed to be the best land. The Brazos however is decidedly the most inviting to the Settler for not only is the land in its vicinity superior to any in Texas, but the navigation of the River itself is such as none of the others will permit of. It is navigable for 400 miles & will allow a boat drawing 6 feet—except at Richmond & Washington & there, there are "rapids." In the lowest state of the river at these places however there is two feet, & in April & May from 12 to 15. Besides the two Towns above named there are on the Brazos, Columbia Brazoria, Richmond & San Felipe de Austin, all nearly being the remains of old Spanish Towns.95 The land on the Brazos will contribute this year according to the calculation of a very talented gentleman—an English Merchant, who kindly gave me this and much more valuable information, about 8000 bales of Cotton. The Red River the same, & the Sabine four or five—, making from 20 to 21 bales wh is more than double the quantity as I understand made last crop. The new dodge of the Texian Gov1 to relieve the country of this debt of 2 millions is a fresh land tax96 wh 95 Sheridan is inaccurate in calling these towns "Spanish" unless he means that they were settled under the Mexican government before the Texas Revolution. Actually, they were all struggling young towns settled by Austin's colonists mainly from the United States. 96 By an act of May 24, 1838, the Texas Republic enumerated property subject to direct tax as land, slaves, horses over two in number, cattle over twenty-five in number, watches, clocks and pleasure carriages.—The Laws of Texas 1822-1897 . . . Coloniza-

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is to supersede every thing of the sort ever attempted before. This Tax wh is to come into operation on the first of July next, ranges from 50 cents upwards per 100 acres on all lands uncultivated or not—the minimum to be 50 cents, & the value of lands to be determined by Gover* Surveyors. By the collection of this impost they calculate that the National debt will be liquidated and a seemly overplus swell the Treasury Coffers, & I don't doubt it at all provided they could collect the tax, but if they get one dollar of it, I'll eat my head. There are men in Texas & many men who have more acres of land than halfpennies & what are the poor devils to do? It certainly is anything but fair to take land away, or deprive a man of a reward wh he has fairly earned, & this they must do if the unlucky holder cant pay this tax. You give a man a tract of land either for settling in the country or for military services to have & to hold or to sell or be-queath without any drawback upon the gift except certain fees appertaining to land Commissioners & Locations, & before he has either the power or time to profit by your tion Laws of Coahuila and Texas, comp. and arr. H. P. N. Gammel, Austin, Texas, 1898, I, 1514. The rate was Vi of 1 per cent. In 1839, land certificates were singled out for specific taxes, the amount varying with the quantity of land (act of January 26, 1839). In 1840, this method of taxation was very much extended and the ad valorum rate was increased to 1 per cent on land the owners of which were nonresidents and on land held by an agent or attorney for another (act of January 16, 1840). See Miller, A Financial History of Texas, 36-37.

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generosity, you render it impossible for him even to retain this land. This is very much on the principal of giving presents at the Indian Courts where you receive a diamond set snuff box from a gracious prince, & are obliged to hand it on retiring to his Lord Chamberlain. To give some idea of the abject poverty of the generality of the Texian Land Holders I have only to state that persons to whom lands have been granted, have been known to assign over half their land to the person appointed to locate it in lieu of his fees wh they were unable to pay!! The vilainy going on at this time with respect to land titles is as difficult to suppress, as it is alarming in extent. But before I can make you madam clearly understand in what this vilainy consists it will be necessary for us to go into the question of land Titles generally & particularly. Of these there are five different species viz. (No. 1 Guide to Texas Page 36.)97 The Emigrant therefore who wishes to purchase land, should purchase claims of the first class—by which I mean all those claims or titles originating before the date of the declaration of independence—wh event paralysed the globe on the 2nd day of March. A. D. 1836. Now one part of the vilainy I have alluded to arises from a law wh was passed under the head of a General land law on the 12th Decbr 1837. By this any person might appear before a board of Land Commissioners & 97 Hunt and Randel, Guide to Texas, have several pages on this subject. See pp. 36-40.

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take the following oath. (Guide to Texas No. 2. P. 27. ) 98 Now as the comparative ratio of honest men to rogues in Texas, is tantamount to the number given by Hamlet" for one in the world, It would not have required a wizard to forsee that this law at once opened the door to the admittance of false claims of the worst kind. Of course In rushed vagabonds from all parts who probably would never have entered the country but for this law & in rushed "credible witnesses"100 as they facetiously termed themselves to assist them. With respect to their frauds President Lamar speaks as follows. (Preste Message. X. P. 19.) 101 98 The oath appears as follows in the 1845 edition of Hunt and Randel: "I do solemnly swear, that I was a resident of Texas at the date of the declaration of independence, that I did not leave the country during the campaign of the spring of 1836, to avoid a participation in the struggle, that I did not refuse to participate in the war, and that I did not aid or assist the enemy, that I have not previously received a title to my quantum of land, and that I conceive myself justly entitled, under the constitution and laws, to the quantity of land for which I now apply" (pp. 54-55 ) . "Hamlet, II, 2: "To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand." 100 Hunt and Randel, A New Guide, 27: "He will be required, in addition to the oath, to prove, by two or more credible witnesses, that he was a citizen of Texas at the date of the declaration of independence, and has continued there since; and also whether he was married or single at that date, and what amount of land he is entitled to by law." 101 In his message to the Congress, Lamar says: "That extensive frauds were practised in obtaining certificates of Head rights from some of the Land Offices had become a matter of such notoriety, as almost to make it a part of the history of the land claims." He concludes that "the next object of consideration will be to devise some

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Although the Laws of Texas attach the penalty tor Piracy to the introduction of Slaves except by way of the U. States, still I cannot but think that very little pains are taken to prevent it. During the time we lay off Galveston two vessels with Slaves from Martinique land[ed] their cargos in security the one below Velasco & the other at the Sabine. There are now in Texas 20,000 Blacks and all slaves as the law does not permit of a free black man residing in the country. Of their treatment I can say nothing as far as the plantations are concerned, as I never saw one: but in the Towns I should say they were very kindly treated. Generally speaking they appeared much more intelligent than the Negroes of our W. Indian Colonies & happy & cheerful. I have been told that in the country the reverse is the case & I think it highly probable. The great demand for labor, the immense price it fetches, the poverty & covetousness of the proprietors, all militate against the poor nigger, and I fear his leisure moments are few & his lashes frequent. The French Islands will contain the human bank on wh Texas will draw, & the means by which the frauds complained of may be effectually detected and defeated." (See Lamar Papers, III, 173-76.) Sheridan also has the following note, taken from Hunt and Randel: "During the 1st Session of the 3 r d Congress the duties of the board of Land Commissioners were transferred to the charge of the officers comprising [composing] the county Court of each County. The new Courts were [Said court is] composed of the Chief Justice and any two magistrates of the county as associate Judges. Guide to Texas. P. 33." Words in brackets are Lamar's text as printed. See Lamar Papers, III, 168.

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wanderings of our cruisers in the suppression of the Slave trade will with advantage & profit be extended to this coast. The principal Towns are Galveston, Houston, & Austin—I beg their pardons cities I should have said for so they are called and considered by the Texians. Of Galveston I have already spoken. Houston is the largest as well as the oldest. It boasts of four or five thousand inhabitants & a tree of liberty wh by the way being in a precarious state was cut down the other day with much ceremony, the solemnities concluding with a dance to the tune of "old Rosin the Bow."102 Here I cannot resist 102 This seems to have been an old English song which underwent considerable change when it was sung in America. According to Sigmund Spaeth (Read 'Em and Weep, New York, 1945, pp. 37-39), the name of the hero was generally given as "Rosin, the Bow," but "the authentic spelling is unquestionably 'Beau,' and there is nothing to prove that Old Rosin was anything more than a popular ladies' man, with alcoholic tendencies." A "correct version of the original" is given by Spaeth, and it appears with the title "Old Rosin, the Beau" in the well-known collection Heart Songs (New York, 1909). The title to the four stanzas given here is "Rosin the Bow," from John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, (New York, 1936):

I live for the good of my nation And my sons are all growing low, But I hope that my next generation Will resemble Old Rosin the Bow. I have traveled this wide world all over, And now to another I'll go, For I know that good quarters are waiting To welcome Old Rosin the Bow.

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making an epistle in favor of this song—I don't know whether it is yet honored by our London street whistlers and I should think not, for it is not long ago that my friend P. brought it to England from New Orleans, polished it up, made much of it, & delighted us all with it at a Carousal in the Capital—The next time I heard it, The song flowed from my own lips for the gratification of an Uncle of mine, since wh until the time I came here, I never heard it. Not "Cherry Ripe" immortalised by the late Miss Paton & present Mrs Wood, Not "the Huntsman's Chorus" in Der Freiztchutz, Not "Buy a Broom" as sung by Madam Vestris at the Theatre Royal Olympic, "the Sea" by W. H. Phillips—Words by B. Cornwall— or "When we went a Gipsying a long time ago" as performed by the man who vends hot potatoes at the top of the Haymarket near the Cab stand,—ever won such universal popularity in Britain, as Rosin the Bow in the state of Louisiana America, & the adjacent republic of Texas. Every body knows the song, every body who can, sings it, —if they can't sing it, they whistle, & to provide against every contingency, should nature have denied the power The gay round of delights I have traveled, Nor will I behind leave a woe, For while my companions are jovial They'll drink to Old Rosin the Bow. Then let those same jovial fellows Surround my lone grave in a row, While they drink from my favorite bottle The health of Old Rosin the Bow.

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of what is termed in dear Ireland "turning the tune," they make dreadful attempts at it being of the Melancholy Jacques opinion—"No matter how it be in tune so it make noise enough.'' When I first heard it here, I was seated on my customary bale on the wharf building castles in the air about Texas with my eye fixed on the single star beaming on the Banner of the Commodore's ship. "Hail" said I— "Bright star of liberty—Hail Omen of" Old Rosin de Bow —ow —ow Health to old Rosin de Bow Did my ears deceive me? No, I forgot instantly all about Texas, & turning round beheld an Elderly Nigger at work & lighting his toils with a cheerful song, wh was no other than my long forgotten Rosin the Bow. I prevailed upon this interesting slave not only to accept of a quarter dollar piece, but to sing it through which he did with considerable vivacity accompanying himself with two steel instruments of Boot hook appearance with which he had been hauling cotton Bales about. I discovered when it was too late, that the quarter dollar was a rash investment & an useless, seeing that all Galveston adopted Rosin the Bow as its Morning Hymn & Evening Orison—besides singing it throughout the day. It really was marvellous to hear the number of persons whistling or singing this song at all times & in all places. Of its history I know nothing further than that it is the production of a young Collegian. There are 92

\0 * QJckl/.tfuJ^/

1

OLD ROSIN THE BOW

From the cover of the sheet music

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two explanations given as to the meaning of "Rosin the Bow"—My friend P.—who is generally correct in these matters asserts the phrase to be one in vogue among the toss-pots of America & significant of "taking a drink" or "liquoring"—On the other side, the Music sheet (for it is published in N. Orleans) hath on the outer leaf the representation of a stout middle-aged gentleman, in an Evening dress & a dancing attitude—he bears a fiddle in one hand—a bow in tother. These evidences together with the testimony of the shop-keeper—I beg his pardon store-keeper who sold it me, go hard to prove "Rosin the Bow" to be nothing more than a name of endearment given by his familiars to a certain fiddler of popularity. On a cross-examination of some of the other witnesses I found the individual in question attended at Balls & Assemblies in a "Zvieppart"103 capacity. Thus, the splendor of his attire is satisfactorily accounted for. As my readers may possibly wish [to] judge [for] themselves about this song, & as I can by thus printing it save myself writing two or 3 copies I have promised, I here present a copy of Rosin the Bow corrected & revised by the poet P. Of the music I cannot speak too highly—It is appropriate & plaintive, but as I might get prosecuted were I to publish it, I must be excused from inserting it here. If any one should be so enraptured with the song as to desire to hear it in perfection he must travel to N. Orleans & enquire for Signor Cornmeali. This worthy 103 xhi s almost indecipherable word seems to mean that he appeared in the two-part capacity of dancer and musician.

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is an old Nigger who derives his name from the article he sells—which is Corn-meal. He rides about N. Orleans in an old cart drawn by an older horse, & pulling up in front of the Exchanges—generally a little before dinner time when the rooms begin to fill, he commences his performances—The range of these is limited. Of the most approved—Rosin the Bow—My long tail Blue— the Nigger Jem Brown, I should say bore away the palm. These he sings in a manner as perfectly novel as it is inimitable—beginning in a deep bass & at every other 3 or 4 words of his song jumping into a falsetto of power & shrillness sufficient to put on edge the tooth of a Jackall. It has precisely the same effect as one of our "street duets" where the Man & Boy alternately sing a line, but Signor Cornmealis songs being of a livelier description than those generally heard in our streets, together with the singular merit, if it can be so termed, of executing a duet by himself, fill the professors pockets & amuse the loungers. Now well return to the Towns. Austin has only been commenced a few months—the site of it having been laid down last October. The city consists of about fourty &fiftyhouses & has a population of between 4 & 500 residents—during the sitting of Congress nearly double that number honor Austin with their presence, It being the new Seat of Gov1. It is situated in a most beautiful part of the country & on the banks [of the] Colorado. It is of course increasing in proportion to the 94

other towns & will in a few years (as well as the others) be of considerable size. The passion for erecting grog shops in Texas, supersedes the thirst of religious worship & Temples wherein to exercise it, for though we find every town plentifully supplied with Pot-Houses, we see neither a church or signs of building one. When the inhabitants feel penitently disposed they have prayers in the Court House, or wherever is most convenient. I must in Justice add however that to the best of my belief this subject has been brought under the consideration of the respectable part of the community by competent persons, & that arrangements have been made wh will soon put both Galveston & Houston in the possession of proper houses of prayer. There are several clergymen in the Country who from what H. Tells me appear to be respectable and intelligent men. I would not wish to convey to the reader the idea, that the population of Texas universally speaking are a set of ragamuffins—On the contrary, there are individual instances of talent, worth, & respectability, & on the exertions & character of these men depend the future prosperity of Texas—But for the mass, I do not believe such a quantity of rogues populates or ever did populate any corner of the globe.104 There are some residents in 104 Cf. Sheridan's official estimate, which is somewhat modified in its tone: "Although the Character and I believe it to be a correct one, which I have given of the Texian people is certainly not a very pleasing one, still I do not wish to convey the idea that they are

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Galveston who are good men & true, & who have been & will be of much service not only to the Town itself but the Republic at large. Of these there are several Mercantile Houses—headed by McK. & W. Nor can I omit the name of Mr Allen the Mayor,105 under whose auspices improvements and conveniences in the Town are springing up with laudable rapidity. To such men as these should new-comers look for advice & information —Both of wh I found them not only willing but anxious to impart. Their interests are bound up with those of the Country & it is to their interest that the character of Emigrants should be of some little more importance than has hitherto been the case. It really is laughable to see the ingenuity with which some of the Texian papers argue this point. So bent are they on having Emigrants— no matter of what kind—that I have repeatedly seen articles calling on debtors in the U. States hiding from their creditors, to take refuge in Texas, where they will find sympathy in their sufferings, and freedom from all Outcasts from Society on the contrary there are individual instances of talent, worth and respectability. On the example and exertions of these Men the future prosperity of Texas mainly depends and what is more to the purpose, the Mass tacitly acknowledge this, and do not seek to shackle their efforts by interference."— Adams, British Diplomatic Correspondence, 23. 105 John M. Allen had the unusual distinction of being an officer in the Texas Navy and of serving with the army as a major in the Battle of San Jacinto. He had a colorful career as a professional revolutionist, having fought in the Greek Revolution, and is said to have been with Lord Byron when he died in Greece in 1824. He was elected the first mayor of Galveston, where he died in 1847.

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molestation on the part of a tyrannical law.106 The paragraphs generally conclude in the following touching manner—"Come to us then ye poor bruised reeds—Collect the little tyranny has left you & Come—No proud bum-bailiff pollutes this hallowed soil—Texas, the free the happy the enlightened republic of Texas, will welcome you, Her Banner of the single Star, protect you— Industry & probity walk hand in hand—Here the poor debtor by judiciously farming his little means, will be enabled in a few years (such is the singular fertility of our soil—so genial is our clime) to double, aye, quadrupedle [sic] his small capital—(all that tyrants have left him) and oh! what joy it must be to the truly virtuous though unfortunate to know that that wh at one time he looked upon as the chimera of a heated imagination viz: the liquidation of his just claims, is not only feasable, but easy of performance! Come then ye bruised reeds— come sorrow stricken sufferers—Truly may it be said 106 Sheridan's official report of emigration into Texas, though more impersonal, is no less vehement: " . . . indeed so anxious are the Texians that it should be rapid and abundant and so utterly reckless as to the component parts that their Newspapers teem with invitations to the Debtors of America to seek for safety in the New Republic. "At present I believe the most notable Vagabonds who settle in Texas are importations from New Orleans, owing to the contiguity of the latter, the deranged state of the Money Market in Louisiana the hourly Bankruptcies and because greater facility is afforded for absconding from thence by the Steam Communication kept up between New Orleans and Galveston with which place alone, anything like a direct and constant trade is carried on."—Adams, British Diplomatic Correspondence, 20.

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of you, "The Lord loveth whom he chasteneth" &c &c &c &c. These "Bruised reeds'' &c being nothing more or less than the scum of all vagabonds of America, and when we consider that the lees of European crime dribble into America, the subsequent filtration through the country must leave an unpleasant deposit in Texas. And yet though this fact actually knocks one on the nose as one walks about Galveston you had better not mention that you have felt it, there, unless it be to some of those men I have spoken of— w h by the way is useless for they know it already—for Bowie Knives & Blasphemy w d be your portion. To hear a Texian talk of his country you would suppose that he lived in as civilized a place as there is on the face of the globe. He will show you the laws (nearly if not the same as those of the U. States) point to the printed speeches of the members of Congress, regret that the gov1 should have permitted France to do this, & America that, pity the ignorance of England in not recognizing their republic & enlarge on the advantages of contemplated rail-roads & imaginary canals—When he knows all the time, that the laws may be said to be received only on sufferance by the people, for the Gov* have not the power or means to enforce them & that the republic of Texas is in fact at this time nothing more than a self-adopted name on the part of a collection of squatters without character or credit.107 107

In Sheridan's miscellaneous notes at the conclusion of this journal appears the following: "What appears so very strange, is that 98

As to enforcing the laws under existing circumstances the thing's impossible—In the first place there are no prisons capable of holding in secure durance an offender, & in the second, the punishment of the culprit depends very much on the parties interested in him. A negro run away from his master the other day, & in order to expedite his flight he stole a horse by the way. He was captured by the owner of the horse, tried for the offense, & sentenced to be hanged. On these tidings being conveyed to his owner, he summons to his assistance a friend they mount their horses & lead another ready saddled between them, and arrive at the Town wherein the culprit lies.—At night, they very easily extricate him from his confinement mount him on the spare horse & gallop away. So that the trusty jailor has nothing to show for the Texian people should labour under the delusion that they have as yet become a distinct people & one of the nations of the earth, when after all they form but a little Nucleus & a very indifferent one from w h an independent power can be formed. For Texas to declare herself a Republic & be a Nation are two very different things. It was easy enough to adopt the American laws, to get a Navy on Tick, &c &c, but as the first are not enforced, the second unpaid for, Texas may call herself what she will—but she's not a Nation. She's even as a puppy who hath not passed his 9 t h day, & her eyes are closed." Cf. the remarks of Anson Jones to President Lamar and his Cabinet (December 10, 1839) that Texas was "thinking and acting as a great nation, when we were but a first rate county; and that there were counties in the United States ahead of us in wealth and population, and that we were about to realize the fable of the frog and the ox—and burst. I was hooted at by Judge Burnett for the opinion: 'Nous perrons.'"—Jones, Memoranda and Official Correspondence, New York, 1859, p. 36.

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his prisoners but the track of 3 horses. The Prison at Galveston is the wreck of an old Brig thrown up on the beach & is exactly similar in appearance to that delightful toy for children—"a Noah's Ark"—The Prisons of Houston & Austin are comparatively absurd in appearance & insecure. The use of the Bowie Knife is in general practice among high & low, though I believe more at Houston than anywhere else—They are mostly worn either in the sleeve, or within the back part of the coat collar. As to going about unarmed either with pistols or Bowie knife or dagger stick, it is a piece of neglect unheard of. The pedlars who hawk their goods on the wharves have always a goodly show, of Bowie Knives Pistols & rifles, & one with whom I was bargaining for a Knife, told me I ought to let him have a dollar more than the price we agreed on, as he "could warrant it had tasted blood." These knives are a regular article of commerce, & are mostly made at Sheffield in England—I have one before me now, of about a foot long (a trifle compared to some of 'em) manufactured by "Bunting & Son" of that Town, on the blade of wh is beautifully worked the words—ffArkansas Genuine tooth-pick." This compliment to the murderers of Arkansas will doubtless be rewarded by a preference being shown to the wares of Mr Bunting, in the transaction of business. The members of Congress are sometimes in the habit [of] employing the Bowie Knife in debate, & I have the names of two ioo

of them (D rs Smith & Everett)108 which I suppress in the hopes that they will not again make themselves such egregious fools, who had a regular set to a short time ago in the house, but being turned out, continued operations until separated in the public street. Mr Bowie the gentleman who invented the knife & gave it his name, is I believe still alive.109 It was intended as I am informed for the quicker despatching of wounded Buffalos, but being used by Mr B. also in his affairs of honor, It became fashionable. To return to prisons & laws, I may as well give an extract from the Treasurer's report wh will show that there are other things to be amended, before the stream of justice will flow unobstructedly. (Extract from Treasurers report. P. 4. X) 110 108 p o r a n account of this quarrel between Ashbel Smith, the surgeon general, and Senator S. H. Everitt, see Lamar Papers, II, 407; also Hogan, The Texas Republic, 272. 109 Sheridan is probably referring to James Bowie's brother Rezin P. Bowie, to whom, according to The Handbook of Texas, the invention of the knife is now attributed. Colonel James Bowie was, of course, killed at the Alamo. 110 Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, November, 1839. Printed by order of Congress, Whiting's Print. (Austin, 1839). Reprinted as "Report of Treasury Department," November 3, 1839, by James H. Starr, secretary of the treasury, in Journals of the Fourth Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1839-40, ed. Harriet Smither, n.d., Ill, 37-44. This report on the "present embarrassed state of the national finances" (p. 42) outlines the difficulties of assessment and collection of taxes, especially since inventories are procured from the owners of the property themselves. Starr suggests changes in the IOI

Texas abounds with game such as Buffalo, Deer, &c and I have heard that the cheetar is to be found. Wild Turkey, Praiarie Hen, Goose, Duck, Snipe &c are in abundance. The Indians barter the deer skins for whatever they stand most in need of, powder, spirits, or Money, & it is extraordinary with what precision they shoot. I have seen a whole cargo of skins shipped, in each of wh the hole made by the bullet was within an inch of the proper place—viz. close behind the shoulder blade. The Rattle Snake is common enough, but is thought little of by the inhabitants in comparison with "the Copper headed snake/' the bite of wh unless instantly attended to, is certain death. They are in great abundance & average from 3 to 4 feet in length. H. tells me that when attacked with stones or otherwise they commit suicide by biting themselves in the tail after wh operation they go into convulsions & expire. He once pelted one with soft mud, wh could not have injured him sufficiently to cause death, but the snake was so insulted that he slew himself on the spot. There are other venemous dwellers on the praiarie, but none so awful as the above. To counteract his influence however, there is a reptile called the King Snake by reason of his regal appearance being clothed in armour shining like gold. To him nature has allotted the pleasing task of destroying all other assessment of land from fifty cents to a dollar an acre, suggests remedies for dealing with transients and smugglers, and recommends fixed salaries for customs officials rather than commissions and fees. 102

snakes of wh permission he takes every advantage. The Democracy of Texas were at first in the habit of destroying their Majesty's The King Snakes, but having witnessed the exercise of their virtues, the royal prerogative is admitted, & they reign in tranquil ease. But the most extraordinary creature I ever saw is what is here in great abundance termed "the Horned Frog"— Of wh I have two specimens now. It is tail & all about 6 inches long having the head of a frog, the back & belly of an alligator, & the tail of a turtle—at least these are the best comparisons wh at this moment strike me. They also possess the abstinence of the chamelion, & will remain a very long time without food. One gentleman assured me that he kept one without food of any sort for 90 days. However as I want to preserve mine if possible to a good old age I treat them to a light diet of flies of wh I find they are fond. Their rations in the cold season when flies are scarce, are 3 blue-bottles per diem & at one time I was necessitated to reduce this to one (on wh the judgment of Solomon was executed) equally divided between both. At this time however they are very well off, & very frequently I am enabled to afford the luxury of a musquito wh serves as a variety to their frugal meal, and when by a generous but judiciously regulated diet, I have strengthened the tone of their Stomachs, I intend to allow cock-roaches twice a week & every other Sunday. And of these God Knows they need not doubt but that they have the best & freshest in the Market. Their House is Spa103

cious, & the accomodations as they say of Hotels "in every way worthy of the building" wh is a cigar box capable of containing 250 "weeds." At the bottom of this I have strewn a bed of rushes, varied with little lumps of mud & on these I have ingeniously contrived to throw a mellow light, by the assistance of a covering of whity brown paper through wh In imitation of Gothic architecture I have pierced "arrow slits." So that by the slightest "nudge" from the elbow of imagination they may fancy themselves in the vicinity of some lost and lamented puddle. The heart of Frog can desire no more. There are great quantities of Cattle in the country, wh are actually of no earthly expense to the owner from the richness & exhaustless vegetation of the prairarie. Additions to a gentleman's stock are made in a simple & easy manner—for should he discover wild or strayed cattle among his herds, he is authorised & empowered by law, to seize them as his own, & keep them so long as his Brand is upon them. The horses are of a very inferior description, though capable of great endurance. They are a ragged, cow-hocked, rat-tailed set and the truly fastidious would hesitate e'er he attended a badger bait on the back of one. "The Mutton of Texas" (says a D r Adamson in his "account of Texas with instructions to Emigrants")111 is of a peculiarly delicious flavor, the 111 John Adamson, An Account of Texas; with Instructions for Emigrants (London, 1839), 3. For this reference to Adamson's rare pamphlet, I am indebted to Mr. Thomas W. Streeter, Morristown, New Jersey, whose library contains a copy. See Adamson's letter to

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wool abundant, but coarse, the increase like everything else, great. Fifty cents per head wd buy in the interior any quantity." Whether this is correct or not, I am unable to say, but as I have very good reasons for doubting D r A'8 impartiality & something more, I would advise any of my readers interested in the matter, to have as little to do with D r A—himself, as I have dependance on what he says. Of this person more hereafter. What I would impress upon any person intending a visit to Texas, is to believe as little of the accounts given of it, as his credulity will permit of—not that there is not a good deal of truth in these accounts, but that there is a great deal more falsehood. The great demand for Emigrants has instilled such a spirit of exaggeration into all the writings of those interested in the Country, that one wd suppose Texas was a perfect paradise. The number of runaway Bankrupts from the States, especially the Southern, who have found safety in Texas is not only very considerable but daily increasing. Indeed at N. Orleans the Sheriffs writs are now generally returned by his officers with the letters G. T. T. on the back wh signifieth—"Gone to Texas." And I have been informed by some of the Captains of vessels running between that city & Galveston that on Sunday the number President Lamar, London, June 28, 1840, asking for official recognition to treat with prospective emigrants for the sale of land in Texas. —Lamar Papers, III, 415.

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of passengers was considerably greater than on other days, as debtors could emerge from their hiding places with impunity & depart unmolested. Escapes also have been made on other days, & fortunate felons have managed to get away in the hurry & confusion inseparable from the getting under weigh of a steamer from N. Orleans, and I met with a gallant General who had effected his liberty, by being secreted with the connivance of the mate among the coal sacks of a Steamer by wh black stratagem he eluded a very vigorous search made for him by the Sheriffs officers. I was witness myself to an attempt of rather a vigorous nature on board the Neptune Steamer. I was standing near the wheel talking to S.—no one else being on the deck or rather on the roof of the saloon when a man rushed up pursued by another. After a short altercation the former whipped out a pistol and presented it at the other who thereupon attempted to seize it in doing wh he very fortunately grasped it such a manner that the hammer fell (on his antagonist drawing the trigger) upon his thumb & prevented any ill effects. He then wrested the pistol from his sanguinary foe & knocked him down, immediately after wh another party interested sprung on deck & bestowed upon the prostrate foe, 5 or 6 terrific digs on the head. These effectually disabled him and he was carried captive away. Shortly after this 6 after we had got clear of the Shipping, I noticed a little Boy leaning over the side & sobbing convulsively & on questioning as to the cause of his grief, he told me that 106

the debtor was his father, and on further enquiry I found that that luckless gentleman had shipped his wife, four children and about 20 negroes with the intention of setting up in Texas as a farmer. The Boy highly approved of his father's conduct in attempting to shoot the officer because "it was unjust debt." The laws of the state of Louisiana with respect to debtors might—I say it with great deference,—be amended & with great advantage to Texas, inasmuch as it wd protect her from the worst description of visitors —I submit them here & leave the reader to make what comment he pleases. ( A ) 1 1 2 1 cannot help thinking that the Indians have not received such fair play from the Texians, as the latter wish the world to suppose. By this I do not mean to deny the cruelty, treachery & deceit of the Indians all of w h I believe to be inherent qualities w h nothing but education & civilization will ever eradicate. But the Texians appear to have long forgotten they were 112 Sheridan's notes on debtors laws do not appear in the manuscript, but he may have reference here to the rather stringent Louisiana laws regarding the liability of heirs and successors to indebtedness on inherited property. See Civil Code of the State of Louisiana (New Orleans, 1838), 208-16. He may also have in mind an act of the Louisiana Legislature (Acts of the State of Louisiana, 1839, No. 46, p. 122) March 19, 1839, authorizing the State Treasurer "to issue execution against any defaulters for the payment of taxes by them collected, directed to any sheriff or coroner." This was to be carried into effect "by the seizure and sale of any goods, lands, slaves, chattels or effects belonging to any defaulter as aforesaid, which may be found in said sheriff's or coroner's parish." This act may have encouraged many "defaulters" to leave the state, carrying with them slaves and other property before it could be seized by the authorities.

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human beings as well as themselves, & what is more human beings under the impression that they were wronged—& the bitterness of hatred borne towards the ignorant savages is best shown in the bloody revenges taken when opportunity occurs. As to the idea of ever civilizing them, it never enters the brain of the settler, nor I believe has any attempt been made, except by one or two missionaries & what success attended the efforts of these men who "do good by stealth & blush to find it fame''11SI know not. By the way, a Lady told me the following annecdote and gave me the following song in connection with it. A young Indian belonging to some tribe, somewhere in America, was somehow put to a school or college somewhere where he continued some time—and was educated in some sort, but onefinemorning the Pedagogue missed his interesting pupil & on search being made, they found his window open & the bird flown. On the Table he had left the subjoined piece of poetry, stuck there-to for greater security with a pen-knife. (Note Book)11* The reflective reader will see that the poetry of Walter Scott 113

Let humble Allen, with an awkward Shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. Pope, "Epilogue to the Satires," Dialogue I, 11. 135-36. 114 Not in this manuscript. The lines from The Lady of the Lake in Sheridan's notebook were probably the following: My hawk is tired of perch and hood, My idle greyhound loathes his food, My horse is weary of his stall, 108

had formed a part of the Polite literature imbibed by the Indian, and that the lay of the imprisoned huntsman in the Lady of the Lake must have particularly struck him. He was never heard of more, & (if the story's true wh I dont believe) I hope poor fellow he is happily following the bent of his inclinations, & punting in company with his youthful squaw in a "dug-out" after otters. The Comanches are superb Horsemen & indeed are seldom off horse-back from whence they discharge the arrows with a force celerity & precision truly marvellous.115 Among other crafty modes of warfare in vogue And I am sick of captive thrall. I wish I were, as I have been, Hunting the hart in forest green With bended bow and bloodhound free, For that's the life is meet for me. 115 In the miscellaneous notes at the conclusion of Sheridan's journal there is the following note on this passage and the one immediately preceding it: "The Indians shoot their arrows with such force that it is reported that one of them sent an arrow clean through two buffalos & killed them both. When we consider that their bows are hardly 3 feet long & arrows proportionate, and that the cloth Yard shaft of Robin Hood w h pierced Milan is no longer in vogue, the reflecting reader will admit that while we pay the tribute of admiration to the Indian with his short Bow, we ought not to withhold the meed of praise due to the excellency of my informant with the long Bow. "I forgot to mention that the tune to w h the Indian's song is set, is singularly wild & strange & I dare say characteristic. It is something between Savourreen Dulish, the Robins petition, The Cruisteen Lawn—Blow Blow thou wintry wind—& the Light guitar." 109

among them is to slip half way under the belly of the horse when he is at full speed, & discharge their arrows from beneath his head, & when in this apparently inconvenient position for the toxophilite, their aim & quickness is just the same. As it may probably interest the reader I give the following description of a meeting between some Mexican soldiers & the Comanches wh I copy from a N. Orleans paper. (B) 116 Isowacany the principal chief of the Comanches was killed in battle by the Texians in December last, since which, Ebawatschouchtimatouchscha has been elected in his place— His name alone should strike terror into his foes. Talking about the monetary affairs of the Country, They are trying to form a bank and reestablish the currency by an issue to be met with specie in order that all discounts may be avoided & nothing done but legitimate business. The Capital proposed is 200,000 dollars wh is always to be kept in the Bank Coffers to meet the paper issue if required. This plan if it can be carried into execution would in the opinion of many intelligent men 116

Not in this manuscript. According to Muriel H. Wright (A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 1951, p. 121), the Comanches held a council with a dragoon expedition under the command of Colonel Henry Dodge in 1834: "Among the Indians present was the Comanche head chief, Ee-sha-ko-nee, or Ishacoly, 'Traveling Wolf.' " Professor T. N . Campbell, of the University of Texas, suggests that this is probably the same name as Sheridan's "Isowacany." I have been unable to locate any reference to the chief with the terrifying name. IIO

confer a greater benefit on the country, than the loan wh is in process of being raised. Though I cannot but think that if the latter can be obtained on any terms not too disadvantageous the recognition of Texian independence would be more speedily brought about both with England & Mexico. After all for such a country with such resources the national debt 2, millions of dollars is nothing. Much of it has been contracted in a marvellous manner for instance, A certain mercantile firm in Baltimore together with one at Galveston contracted for the Navy on the declaration of independence, for 240,000 drs to be paid on the 6th of last December—but with the Proviso, that if the Texian Gov1 were unable to meet their drafts, the amount should be doubled & issued in Bonds, the interest to be paid in specie, semi-annually at the rate of 8 per cent. The Bills were not met, consequently the Gov1 owe these gentlemen 480,000 drs— All this is certainly a very great pity, but the greater pity is in the difficulty found in raising the loan, & the abject poverty of the inhabitants. If the coach could be once set a going—i.e. a development of the resources of Texas be encouraged I am perfectly convinced that the Capitalist who assisted in the good work would at the least double his investment in 5 years—all the country wants to make it one of the richest in the world, is hard working men & real money; The price of labor as I have before observed is enormous, and I have testimony on wh the reader may rely, that English laborers or British Emigrants, have received as much as 40 dollars per week i n

paid in specie for making Bricks. This Brick making in Texas, by the way must be a profitable speculation, considering that the price of Bricks in Galveston wh mostly come from Boston is 40 dollars per 1000—at least so I was informed. The most uncivilised place in Texas is I believe Houston the former Capital—I heard & read of more outrage & blackguardism in that town during my stay on the coast committed there, than throughout the whole of Texas. It is reckoned unsafe to attend the races there, or indeed to reside in the Town a week after them, so desperate is the Bowie-knifing & pistoling on these merry making occasions. At the last meeting of these "gentlemen sportsmen" one man was shot dead, a lady in the stand narrowly escaped with her life, & a general stabbing concluded the day's diversion—besides wh the feelings of some gentlemen had been so hurt, that they were seen for days afterwards bobbing round the corners of the streets, to avoid the shot of or gain a favourable opportunity of shooting an acquaintance—To the conduct of such vagabonds as these whose sole occupation appears to be to lower the character of the Texian people in the eyes of the world, may be ascribed one very good reason for deferring respectable speculators from either embarking capital in the country, or encouraging Emigration, and the best thing in my humble judgement for the respectable portion of the Townspeople to do would be, (in the absence of all other law, or inability to enforce it) to establish Lynch Law & perhaps the de112

served fate of the wretched criminals at Vicksburg U. S. may be a sufficient warning to the scoundrels of Houston & the other Towns either to desist from their malpractices or seek some other scene for their perpetration. I say in the absence of all law or the inability to enforce it, the latter being equivalent to the former. By the way this law has been as generally villified as it has been generally successful—It is seldom that the judgement of the respectable part of a community errs, or that a punishment inflicted by it is disproportional to the crime, & at all events this much can be said of Lynch law, that it has reached Murderers, felons, & swindlers when no other law could, who would in all probability be even now prowling about the country in the exercise of their several avocations. One great fault of the Texians is that [they] try to do everything at once, & having done very little & that badly, they imagine they have succeeded—they contract a great debt for a navy, & having disgusted the officers they have seduced from other services by irregularity of pay, and inactivity as regards service they lay it up, together with the officers. They have their race-courses, their Theatres, their Balls, Debating societies, dinners &c & there is incessant talk of the single-starred banner—the glorious 2nd of March & banquets are given to distinguished citizens, who in return make distinguished speeches & every body is judge this or General that or Col. or Major & they've got moreover 13 newspapers to immortalize their names & deeds. And yet at this present 113

moment their Treasury has not a shilling—The Gov1 & laws comparatively powerless—The safety of the country itself far from established—Their frontier harrassed the respectable part of the Emigrant Population polluted by the worst drainings of American crime—& life itself insecure. To counterbalance all this you are told that allowance must be made for the difficulties under wh the infant republic necessarily labors until the sufficient funds are raised to enable it to support an army, navy, & something like a police—& that's all very true, but I dont like to see the rulers of the destinies of the infant republic taking such excellent care of their fees & emoluments. They can afford the pay themselves out of the exhausted treasury of the country, & the Congress & Senate can't talk patriotism without having £8725 sterling to whet their whistles withal, & they can also afford to remain indebted to the navy for arrears of pay & to reward the consequent grumbling by laying it up. These orators have also "Mileage" money as in the U. States. One of the members in a speech on "the Compensation Bill" says. "Sir by the passage of this act, members will thereby be enabled to pay their way otherwise they will have to beg"—& in another part he says —"M r Speaker, I have the crimicals117 about me to pay 117 Apparently a Texian version of "mimical" or "crumenical," a humorous adaptation of the Latin crumena, meaning purse or money bag; used by Coleridge and others in the early nineteenth century.

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my way though I doubt very much if several honorable members of this House have a single dollar in their pockets, & will be obliged to beg their way home" & he concludes with the following indignant remark "Sir, if the boasted republic of Texas cannot remunerate her members of Congress, 'away with her!' & all her boasted wealth!" It is but fair however to this gentleman that at nearly the commencement of his speech he says, "I have acted the patriot long enough, for I have spent my all in the service of the Country." So that he is certainly justified in trying some other profession, but when he talks of her "boasted wealth" he forgets that it as yet is in the Bowels of the land. I wonder whether the councils of the Early settlers in America were as lucrative to the component Pilgrims, as these of Texas to the members of Congress. The Texians are at present Americans but more in customs, manners, habits, than in feeling. They have not yet forgotten the apathy with wh their offer of an annexation with the U. States,118 was received & disre118 Cf. Sheridan's official report: "I need hardly remind you that about 2 years ago, an offer of annexation was made on the part of Texas to the United States. This, the latter thought fit to decline, a step which gave the greatest affront to the young Republic and engendered a feeling of hostility, which though rapidly dying away, has yet sufficient life to render the renewal of such a proposition, and [out?] of the question, particularly as the population of Texas is quadrupled since the offer was made and the successes of the Settlers at the Battles of San Jacinto etc have inflated them with such sentiments of admiration at their own prowess as are only excelled by

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garded, and I believe that when they say, "We would ten-times sooner have an English Emigrant among us than an American'' that they really mean it. I will also venture to hazard an opinion that if the recognition of this republic was ceded by Gt Britain & Emigration there encouraged & protected, Texas wd become comparatively speaking anglicised. The natural vanity inherent in Americans wd be greatly tickled by treating their bretheren of the States with indifference,—bragging of their intercourse with England & Englishmen—& alluding at their Banquet speeches & Congress orations to the amicable feelings existing between the two Countries. Besides the magnificent field for metaphor wh would be opened by the circumstance of the Single Star & the Union Jack "floating, proudly floating in peaceful brotherhood over the broad billows of the Mexican Gulf—" But there are in my humble opinion many serious reasons why it would be politic in G* Britain to recognise Texas. To begin with the objection to wh I have alluded before on the part of some gov1 in conection with Slavery. For far from a recognition of Texas conducing to the extension of Slavery, I most humbly subtheir profound contempt, for the Mexicans and Indians; in consequence of which they consider themselves to stand alone, I mention this because in a few years, They will become almost as indifferent towards Great Britain, as they certainly now are towards America, which contemplating the superior terms to be made with them, is another reason for yielding an early recognition."—Adams, British Diplomatic Correspondence, 25-26. 116

mit the following reasons to show that it wd have directly the opposite tendency. Indeed I will be bold enough to go so far as to say that the only way to check the trafficking of slaves either brought from the main or through the U. States into Texas, wd be to recognize her, & encourage emigration by every means in your power. In the first place the climate & soil do not require the constitution of a Negro—& one hard working white man in so healthy a climate is worth two blacks. In the 2nd with the introduction of free laborers the present exorbitant price of labor must fall & with that fall, the value of a Slave in the Market,119—so that at no very distant period it wd not be worth the while of the Slave Holder to send his living wares into the Country from the U. States, & most decidedly not that of the owners, Captains, or crews of Slave vessels to continue a trade with the coast the penalty for which even at this time is nominally death. I say nominally, for although it is so according to law, & a matter for Bragging on the score of humanity among the Texians no sort of steps are taken to discover & punish offenders, who consequently run their cargoes with reckless impunity. And in order that no doubt may exist as to their authorities winking at this law, there is actually a person (I dare say there are more) resident on one of their rivers who is known to be a Slave-Agent. 119 Cf. Sheridan's official report: "Slaves have been known to bring 1,500 to 2000 dollars a head there, while at the same time I saw them selling at 3 and 400 Dollars in the Havannah Market."— Ibid., 24.

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To return however to the effect a recognition would have on the Slavery question. Now, granting that the anxiety of Texas to obtain her recognition by England, wd enable the latter to make her own, or at least most advantageous terms on every point—Such restrictions, vigilance & severe penalties might be insisted on & if necessary superintended by a Home Agent with respect to the Slave Trader—receiver & purchaser—as to give "a heavy blow & great discouragement'' to the Schooners of Cuba, & above all I really believe that to secure this recognition The Texian Republic would consent to some plan for the ultimate extinction of Slavery altogether. Among other advantages wh wd arise from a recognition may be mentioned the following (See, Williams).120 The following is an article in a Texian paper wh I insert merely to show that there are other & may be more difficulties to encounter. (C) 121 Of the Eliza Russell, Little Pen,122 British citizens 120 ^ reference to the letter of Williams to Ramsey in "Notes on Texas," which follow the journal; see especially pp. 130-48 of this volume. 121 Not in this manuscript. 122 In 1837, the Eliza Russell and Little Penn, British merchant vessels, were involved in incidents with ships in the service of the Texans, and claims for these cases were a matter of dispute for several years between Great Britain and the Republic. The British claims were finally recognized and money was appropriated for payment by the Texas Congress in 1842. See Lamar, Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Austin, 1840; E. D. Adams, British Interests and Activities in Texas 1838-46 (Baltimore, 1910), 34.

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who had owned & occupied land in Texas, & the Irish who were formerly settled round San Patricio, & what the row may be about them, I am profoundly ignorant, but be they important or not I say all these things England may settle to her own advantage by a recognition. The republic will readily yield now what in a few years she will be very unwilling to do, & then we shall have the papers crammed with long articles about the rights of nations & of men together with a diamond edition of the Boundary question & long letters after the improved style of correspondence adopted by Messrs Fox & Forsyth, than wh I would infinitely prefer to spell over the accounts of ' 'Extraordinary circumstances" that never happened & "gigantic Turnips" that never grew. As to the question of whether the Province of Texas was stolen from Mexico, all I can say is, that if it was a theft it was a compulsory one, & that I for one highly approve of the felons engaged in it, and I conceive that not the amount of their criminality but the manner in wh they dispose of the Booty is the question now. I believe that in reality no nation is so disliked by America as England—& that the dislike arises chiefly from Envy, but what is strange An American is prouder of Immediate English descent than any one thing in the world. I dare say this remark has been made 50 times before and I only make it for the 51 st for the two reasons, that little as I have seen of Americans it was one of the first things that struck me & that by a large supply of English Emi119

grants into Texas, and intermarriage among the American settlers the latter wd in time be as comparatively anglicised as they would be proud of it. The climate of Texas from all I can learn123 is in the Interior one of the healthiest under the sun—The Coast in the Summer cannot be so, & the Island of Galveston at that time must be very unhealthy, & require the greatest attention & caution on the part of the Town & authorities to prevent a yearly visit of the Yellow fever as in N. Orleans, to the soil of wh city, that of Galveston is precisely similar. Indeed when the latter gets a large city as one day it will, it will be in every respect a little N. Orleans. In speaking of the yellow fever wh prevailed in Galveston in 1839 a Texian physician who has written a pamphlet124 thereupon, gives the following accurate description of the appearance of the Island & the soil of wh it is formed. "It is but little elevated above the surrounding water, quite level, destitute of trees, & presents 123 I take this as an indication that Sheridan did not get much farther inland than Houston. 124 An Account of the Yellow Fever which appeared in the City of Galveston, Republic of Texas, in the Autumn of 1839, with Cases and Dissections. By Ashbel Smith, M.D. A.M. Ex-Surgeon General of the Texian Army, Houston, Austin, 1839; reissued in Galveston, 1840. Sheridan quotes from pp. 5-6 of this pamphlet. For biographical sketches of Dr. Ashbel Smith (1805-86) see Williams and Barker, Writings of Sam Houston, II, 116; also Chauncey D. Leake, Introduction to his edition of Smith's Account (Austin, Texas, 1951).

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altogether the general appearance of a prairie. The soil is light, porous, of a darkish grey color, with a large admixture of sand as you approach the margin of the Island & every where covered with a luxuriant grass. Water of rather indifferent quality, but just admissable for culinary purposes may be obtained by digging a few feet in any part of the Island.'' The water for the use of the Tables in town & the shipping is brought down the Trinity river in Steamers. The Author proceeds as follows. "The Heaving of the Tide has formed a natural Levee along the shore of the Harbour of about Two feet in height & one hundred in breadth. Immediately in the rear of this Levee the land is low, being nearly on a level with the water at Middle tide & overflowedat high tides. Further in the rear the land is again elevated & consists of a firm, dry, porous soil." I cannot say that I was so fortunate to find any thing of the sort during my stay in Galveston, but however, the Doctor may have been so let him proceed. (D r Smith's Pamphlet P. 6) 125 Now all I have to remark on this extract is that, the Stench arising from the soil on wh Galveston, is built, after it has been soaked with rain or a visitation from ^ 1 2 5 Sheridan apparently intended to quote the following on the same page: "From the overflow of the tides and from occasional rains, there exists at all times, between the levee and the elevated land in the rear, either a quagmire or a sheet of shallow water, threefourths of a mile long, and varying from one hundred to three hundred feet in breadth, exposed to the rays of an ardent sun." He says that the shipping and the Strand, main business street of the city, are "immediately contiguous to the morass." 121

Neptune & "exposed to the rays of ardent sun" is apalling. I should say that on such occasions I have a more offended nose than ever I did before—with one exception i.e. when walking through that street of Funchal in Madeira, where the debtors & prisoners in the gaol, disturb the passengers with lamentations & supplications. Of all the smells I ever—however to continue, in addition to the water & earth & the sweats exhaled therefrom by the sun, there is nothing fragrant in dead & decaying oysters wh plentifully bestrew the streets, to such an extent indeed that one of the principal medical men attributed much of the fever last year to that circumstance. From this the transition to the fish on the coast is easy. Of these there is great abundance & variety— There are Turbot, Turtle, Mullet, Skate, Redfish, soles, crabs & prawns &c &c &c. The latter are in enormous quantities & of such a size that If Giaour were to see them, he would open the eye of astonishment & commend his wares to the special protection of Allah—the average length of those Brobdignab prawns being 6 or 7 inches. At the time I write they are in such quantities, that one haul of the Ships seine yesterday we took more than seventy pails full besides other fish—Besides wh the soldiers from the useless fort I have before mentioned as being near Lafitt's wreck, took as many [as] they pleased, & they were pleased to take a great many, & large quantities were thrown away—the Boat being 122

laden literally up to her thwarts. For days after we lived in a little world of prawns—Buckets of boiled ones were seen cooling on the forecastle—everybody walked about with a prawn either in his mouth or between his finger & thumb—everybody smelt of prawns, so did the ship, the atmosphere was prawny—every variety of cookery was had resort to—They were curried in the Capt8 cabin, pickled & devilled in the gun room, & God knows what process they underwent among the "Young gentlemen." I only know that I was heartily glad when they were all devoured or thrown overboard. Among other fish that we caught in one of our expeditions was an "alligator Gar." This is a fish with an alligators head, & a very formidable looking brute it is. I have preserved the skin & head of this specimen—wh is about two feet long—the former of wh is of extraordinary thickness & the jaws of the latter armed precisely like an alligator and in like proportion to the body. These creatures infest the rivers of Texas, & grow to 5 feet & upwards. They are held in great dread by the inhabitants who look upon the alligator with the greatest contempt in comparison & no wonder considering they are ten times as active in their movements, quite as voracious & not half so cowardly. As a proof of the latter the following annecdote was told me. A Fisherman was paddling in the Sabine in his small canoe & ever and anon as his arm moved it naturally approached the water. It wd appear that this law of nature had not escaped the notice of an alligator gar who was on a cruise for pro123

visions, for watching his opportunity, he made a spring at the unwary piscator w h luckily for the latter was productive of no further evil than a torn sleeve, for as the custom generally is among workmen of all sorts, he had rolled up his shirt sleeve over his elbow, & this garment instead of his flesh received the teeth of the daring fish. It is said that this man has become more cautious in his mode of paddling. I have been told that this fish is by no means rare & may be found in many parts of this bad world. However in the simplicity of my heart I considered it a great curiosity, for I had never seen it or heard of it, & indeed it was to my eyes what the crockodile was in the eyes of Lepidus—"a strange serpent." And who under the same circumstances would have thought otherwise. I pause for a reply. With respect to the annecdote I have given, I will adventure to assert, that an Alligator would just as soon have attempted to sing anthems as display such furious gallantry as this Gar. And this brings us at once to the question of Emigration. On this subject I am bound to be cautious, for if I have heard one story I have heard a thousand as to the annual amount of Emigrants into Texas. On the authority of a gentleman126 who has been in the country since the first attempt at colonization by M r Austin it is nearly 5000 per month, but no accurate estimate can be found 126

Samuel May Williams. See n. 36.

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either on this point or as to present amount of population. This last is put by the same gentleman at 150,000. m How far this may be correct I know not but we shall all soon be enlightened as a Bill to provide for the taking of the census hath passed the Congress. 127

This estimate was apparently high, for the partial census of Texas made in 1847 showed 135,000 population of whom 39,000 were slaves. See "Census and Census Records," The Handbook of Texas. See also n. 23.

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Notes on Texas THE COTTON LANDS OF TEXAS will yield 3 times as much Cotton as the Carolinas or Georgia to the acre. Twice as much as Alabama & from 25 to 40 per c* more than the lands of Louisiana & Mississipi. The extent of National lands is about 100 million of acres of wh 20 is good Cotton lands, the rest is adapted to the growth of corn & grazing, their present estimated value is one dollar & a half per acre. The value of merchandise imported into Texas from the 30th of June—37 to the 30th of June 38 was estimated at 2 millions & a half dollars, but of this at least 1 & y2 million entered Texas through the state of Louisiana & Red River & for wh the Gov1 of Texas derived no imposts on account of the Belt of Territory called Neutral as the Boundary line between Texas & the U. Sts not having been defined, but as this is to be done at an early period Texas will then get credit for 20,000 bales of 128 Much of the information contained in this section was incorporated in Sheridan's official report of July 12, 1840, to Joseph Garraway, acting private secretary to Governor MacGregor in Barbados, often with little or no alteration. See Adams, British Diplomatic Correspondence, 18-26. 126

Cotton raised within her territory wh now goes to N. Orleans by the Red River, as Arkansas & Louisiana Cottons. Texas has four sea-ports that may be fairly called her best & principal ports viz1 The Sabine Galveston Matagorda Aransaso An acknowgt of the Independence of Texas by Great Britain would be productive of the most happy and fortunate results. She wd secure the interest & feelings of a people that wd in 20 years supply her manufactories with cotton superior in quality to that wh she now derives from the U. Sts & there is no doubt that the Gov* of Texas will as soon as it can be done cease to consume the manufactures of England in order to protect her own. If Great Britain wd take hold of the subject of recognition of the independence of Texas with a proper spirit, her recommendation to Texas to agree to pay Mexico from 3 to 5 millions of dollars for the recogtIon by Mexico of her independence wd be adopted. She would also agree to issue bonds, paying interest semiannually to pledge the national lands, or any portion of the Revenue derived from Customs, as security for the punctual payment of such bonds & interest thereon to satisfy the Mexican Gov1 & the British Creditor. 127

The Gov* of Texas are desirous of a loan to the am* of five million of dollars to be contracted for under the following terms: 1 wd be required in 6 or 9 months, the remaining four by instalments of 1 mln in every 6 months thereafter. Two Millions to be redeemed in less than 30 years but not less than 5 yrs with interest not to exceed 10 per cent per an: In applying this loan the first object of the gov* wd be to pay off its debts, some portion wd be required for fortifications and as could be spared, either to the establishment of a Bank or for the improvement of her harbors &c. The Sabine will admit vessels drawing 8 feet water. Galveston. 12 or 13 feet Matagorda J 9 o r l 0 f e e t Aransaso ) They are all safe and secure harbours and no doubt the entrances can all be much improved. The quantity of land in Texas is about 200 million of Acres of which at least 60 millions is below the 32° of N. Longitude [J/V] & particularly adapted to the Cultivation of the Cotton plant. The N. W. portion being hilly & much elevated is adapted to the raising of Sheep, but at present being unsettled no experiment has been made. The present population of Texas is estimated at 150,000 souls129 & is rapidly increasing but the male & female does not 120 This information appears in the letter of Williams to Ramsay. See also nn. 23, 127.

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bear a fair proportion the former very much exceeding the latter. The population is chiefly composed of North Americans from the W. & Southern states, some few from the N. & Eastern, a few Germans & some English & Irish.130 The Slave population is about 10,000. All the Towns of Texas are small & vary in population from 3,000, down to 200. All denominations of religion are free to establish Churches & promulgate their doctrines, at present there are only 3 or four churches in Texas, others however are being built, & all are supported by donations & subscriptions. The Methodists & Baptists are most numerous. There are a number of primary schools, but as yet no colleges. The laws of Texas guarantee to the citizen his right of property in & over his slave. No Slave can however under the existing laws be introduced into Texas, except those wh may be removed from the U. Sts. The greater portion of Slaves now in Texas have been drawn from Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, & Tennessee. iso Th e following additional sentence appears in Sheridan's letter to Garraway (Adams, British Diplomatic Correspondence, 2 0 ) : "These are principally Bankrupts, Swindlers and Felons from the United States occasionally diversified with an Oasis of respectability which only renders the Desert of Villainy around more conspicuous by contrast." 129

The force required by Texas to check Indian depredation does not exceed 5 hundred men, the only Indians wh create any apprehension are those wh have been removed West of the Mississipi by the U. Sts. WILLIAMS TO RAMSAY.131

As I promised you, I accompany this with a pamphlet originally published by the late S. F. Austin who was the Father of the colonization system in Texas.132 In wh Mr A. presents the laws and authority under wh the settlements of families was made by him in that country from 1821 to —29. On a perusal of that pamphlet you will discover that in the organization of the Colonial Gov11 was appointed by Mr A., Secretary. My duties in that situation required me to be familiar with the laws and decrees of the Gov1 of Mexico, & besides, the correspondence with the Gov1 was carried on by me under the direction of Mr Austin. Thus much I premise in advance & oflfer as a reason why I may be better acquainted with the 131 Transcript of a letter from Samuel May Williams to Captain Ramsay of the Pilot, for the use of Sheridan. For an authoritative account of the events Williams describes, see E. C. Barker, Life of Stephen P. Austin (Austin, 1949); also his Mexico and Texas 1821-33 (Dallas, 1928). 132 Translation of the Laws, Orders and Contracts, on Colonization, from January 1821, up to 1829; in Virtue of which, Col. Stephen P. Austin Introduced and Settled Foreign Emigrants in Texas. With an Explanatory Introduction (Columbia, Texas, 1837), reprinted by Borden & More from the original edition published at San Felipe de Austin, 1829.

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events of Mexico & Texas, than almost any citizen of this Country. Up to the period of Mr Austin's publication nothing very important occurred. The settlements in Texas had been carried solely by individual exertion, and although many contracts had been made with contractors for the introduction of families not much had been done to carry them into effect. And at that period the only Colonies in successful operation were those of M r Austin & Mr Dewitts. It is not an unimportant matter to form new settlements in a wilderness, and those who undertake them undergo privation & encounter difficulties unknown to the residents of cities. As Mr A's pamphlet is generally confined to an exposition of the laws, & his authority with remarks on the difficulties wh were encountered in the progress of the settlement—I will commence the statement at the first period marked by importance in the History of Texas & Mexico. On the 6th April 1830, The Congress of Mexico from motives of Jealousy towards the citizens of the U. States, & exercising the reservation made in the 7th article of the general colonization law of the 18th Aug* 1832183 issued a decree prohibiting the introduction of N. Americans into Texas as Colonists, & declared suspended those contracts wh had not been commenced, & only allowing those in operation to introduce a sufficient number to complete the contracts. This therefore confined the fur133 Sheridan apparently intended to write 1823. Actually, the National Colonization Law was passed by the federal Congress of Mexico on August 18, 1824.

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ther settlement of N. Americans to Messrs Austin & Dewitts colonies. In order to carry into effect this restriction the Gov1 of Mexico established garrisons in various parts of Texas during the year—31. Unfortunately the officers of the garrison were not discreet as they should have been in their intercourse with the Colonists & instead of endeavouring to cultivate friendly feelings, exercised their power & authority with marked injustice & nigh arbitrary power. In Jany—32 General Santa Anna raised in Vera Cruz the standard of rebellion against the then existing Gov1 of Mexico under the admintn of Vice President Bustamente. I will not attempt to enter into a detail of the grievances alleged by General Santa Anna against the Gov1 but merely remark that the Colonists, having suffered numerous outrages from the garrisons, connected with the revolutionary spirit which pervaded and disturbed all Mexico, took part in the revolution & proclaimed in favour of the cause of S. Anna. The garrisons were attacked by them & the Soldiers were compelled to leave the Settlements. The success of Santa Anna in overthrowing the Gov1 no doubt proved the security of the colonists for no doubt can exist that if the Gov1 had been able to put down Santa Anna, the Colonies wd either have been broken up, or the settlers subjected to such strong military rule, that from choice they wd have abandoned the Country, for they had already experienced the operation of an unrestrained & brutal soldiery. In the month of April—33 after General S. Anna had been elected President, the inhabitants of Texas under 132

an opinion that events were propitious, determined on making an application to the Congress of Mexico, to be admitted into a Union as a state Gov1 separate from Coahuila, for wh event the conventional Gov1 of Mexico had made a provision when the Province of Texas & Coahuila were united into one state. Many and very strong reasons existed for such a measure—The Capital of the state was 600 miles distant from the centre of Texas. The Courts of the state were there, & the laws rendered it necessary for the subordinate justices of Texas to consult the opinion of an assessor residing at the Capital before he could record a judgement in any case. In this way weeks & months elapsed before any thing could be done. In some cases years passed away, & in two cases that I know of they remained without an answer for five or six years, & up to the period of the revolution—one of wh was a case of murder. Such a state of things rendered the administration of Justice more absurd than a farce, it amounted to a total denial of it. A convention was accordingly held in Texas in the same month of April which was attended by the two representatives from the Two Mexican towns in Texas Bexar & Goliad who agreed to the necessity & propriety of an application for a state Gov1 separate from Coahuila. A plan of a constitution was framed & adopted by the convention & Mr Austin was appointed the Commissioner or Agent of Texas to present the subject to the Gov* of Mexico. General Santa Anna on account of ill health had been permitted temporarily to vacate his *33

office & retire to his estate in order to restore his health & the Gov1 was placed (ad Interim) into the hands of Vice President Valentine Gomez Fariaz. In urging his commission and his requests for Texas, some expressions of M r Austin's made in the ardor of his zeal, offended the Vice President & made him his enemy. M r Austin after remaining several months in Mexico, & being completely worn out and disgusted with the delays & pretexts for them, wrote a commtIon to the Municipal authority of Bexar, and after recounting the vexations he met with, said that nothing wd be done for Texas & she had better take care of herself. This commtion was unfortunately & imprudently exposed & reached the Vice President who being previously unfriendly to M r Austin had him arrested in Feby 1834 & thrown into prison where he was kept in solitary confinement without Books, pen, ink, or paper & no one not even his jailor allowed to speak to him, during all w h time a Mock trial was going on, & for six months he never knew the charges against him, gradually one restriction was removed & then another, until in June 1835 he was liberated. In the month of May 1834 President Santa Anna unexpectedly appeared in Mexico, & as much excitement existed on account of Congress wishing to curtail the powers of the Clergy, the President by a rule only known to the Military, closed the doors of Congress, & those members who were known to be republican & wished to destroy the ecclesiastical powers were declared by Santa *34

Anna as deprived of their seats. He then issued orders to those states who had thus lost their representatives to elect new members, & only those who were known as friendly to the Clergy. AH this was in open violation of the constitution & totally unprovided for by the General or State Constitution. However a new congress was formed wh convened in Mexico in Jany—3 5. Among the first acts of this Congress who professed to hold their power under the constitution, was a decree in wh they declared they had a right to reform, alter & amend the constitution of 1834, without following or attending to the provisions & requisitions of the said constitution for reform & amendments. About the same time a decree was also issued by them abolishing the Militia of the States, allowing only one Militia man for every 500 souls. The most ignorant could not doubt the object of this measure. A change of Gov1 was determined on; they meant to prevent any resistance on the part of the states. Here then the compact wh bound the nation together as a confederation was annihilated, & all saw that a consolidated Gov1 was to be reared upon the ruin. The state of Zacuticus [Zacatecas] with a well armed Militia of 12,000 men, protested against the decree, & refused to disband her Militia and surrender the arms. General Santa Anna marched with about 3,000 men from Mexico against the Capital of the state when it had assembled its forces, & with intrigue on his own part, & treachery on that of his opponents, he overpowered the forces of the State and reduced her to subjection. *35

Stimulated by the example of Zacuticus & likewise opposed to the invasion of her rights the State Coahuila & Texas protested against the decree. When the powerful state of Zacuticus had been overthrown what was to become of Coahuila & Texas. The Legislature of the State then in Session were compelled to dissolve & the members seek refuge by flight, several of them were pursued & hunted by the Military as if they had been felons. The Govr of the State Augustan Viscan [Agustin Viesca] called upon the Colonists through the regularly constituted authorities, to arm themselves & turn out in defence of the Gov1 of the states, but Texas being so remote before assistance could reach him he was arrested with several members of the Gov1 & thrown into prison by the Military. The whole Gov1 of the state was dissolved & a provisional Gov1 formed under the direction of Santa Anna. I am familiar with those events, for I was an actor in the scene & an eye witness to all, & besides was myself arrested but fortunately made my escape. You will here perceive that the whole system of Gov1 General as well as state was destroyed. Texas had been called upon by the legally constituted authorities to arm herself in defence of her Gov1, arms were in their hands & they were not accustomed to throw them down by the order of a dictator & tyrant. True to her purpose she demanded a restoration of the General & state constitution, & hoped to arouse the republican spirit in some of the Northern states of Mexico. In fact from plans formed & promises made, she had a right to expect it, but every 136

part of Mexico remained as silent as if entombed and General S. Anna marshalled his forces & prepared to drive the Colonists from the Country. Texas waited for nearly nine months, hoping that some one wd come to the rescue, but not a whisper was heard over the whole territory of the Country, the enemy was upon them, & they had no time to deliberate, nor could they hope to treat. The people at once decided to risk all, or gain all, & strike for independence, & on the 2nd March 1836 while General S. Anna was subduing the garrison at Bexar, Texas proclaimed itself separate and independent of Mexico. I have been thus particular in the relation of the events preceding the declaration of independence in order to show you that the separation of Texas from Mexico did not eventuate from any preconcerted plan with the U. States, nor did it result from any legal cause, but was purely the result of circumstances & events wh the inhabitants of the country had no agency in producing. By the constituted authorities of the state they were called upon to defend its Gov1 & when once they came forward armed for defence, they found that as foreigners there was no medium for them, it was victory or death, independence or annihilation. They had no right even to expect the sympathies of the people of these states at the commencement of their difficulties inasmuch as their first efforts were made for the restoration of the constitution, & General S. Anna had subdued Bexar & Goliad before he knew that Texas had declared itself independ137

ent. You may therefore rest assured that the declaration was not the result of plans framed, or designs previously digested; but solely from circumstances arising from events produced by the Mexican authorities. I am persuaded that no candid or impartial person who will take the trouble to investigate the facts can censure Texas for the course she was obliged to adopt. It hardly appears necessary after the preceding assertions to attempt a refutation of the charge made by the enemies of Texas, that the inhabitants created the revolution to Rob Mexico of the Country & perpetuate Slavery which had not previously existed. Slavery existed in Mexico previous to the commencement the colonization system—You will find that the 30th article of the colonization law of the 4th Jany—23 solely restricted the traffic, or sale & purchase of Slaves introduced, & provided that the children of Slaves born in the empire should be free at 14 years of age. The Conventional Gov* in May 1824 issued a decree prohibiting the African Slave Trade, with a provision allowing 6 months for their introduction into the Isthmus of Guasacualco.134 In the general constitution not a word is said pro, or con respecting Slavery. The Constitution of the State of Coahuila & Texas promulgated in 1827 six months were allowed for the introduction of Slaves, it also provided that no one should be born a slave within the limits of 134 This is Coatzacoalcos (formerly Puerto Mexico), a town on the northern coast of the Isthmus of Tehauntepec on the south side of the Gulf of Mexico.

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the State—I have not copies of these documents but believe they will be found in Mrs Holly8 work on Texas135 wh I will endeavour to procure for you. The 46th article of the colonization law of the state published 24th March 1825, Two years preceding the constitution subjected the colonies in the introduction of Slaves to the existing laws & to such subsequent as might be enacted. Slavery in Mexico was never abolished until the 16th Septr 1829. Then President Guerrero exercising extraordinary powers wh Congress had invested him with for the expulsion of Spanish Forces wh under the command of General Barradas invaded that Country in July & August of that year, & which powers had solely been given for that purpose, exercising executive & legislative powers issued a decree declaring all the Slaves in the republic free. The Governor of the state of C. & Texas, Jose Maria Viesca, feeling that much injustice would be done to the Colonists of Texas withheld the publication of the decree & respectfully remonstrated. The President then issued another decree exempting Texas from the provisions of the first, & added that no further introduction should be made. It was of course the desire of Mexico to get rid of Slavery. Nevertheless the question had no bearing in the events of the revolution. I could extend 135 Texas, by Mrs. Mary Austin Holley (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836). Mrs. Holley prints the colonization laws of 1823, 1824, 1827 and the constitutions of Mexico and Texas. See also Gammel's The Laws of Texas, I, 38-110.

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this subject & also offer many minor points connected with the revolution, but presume I have said enough on these points. With your permission I will now treat of subjects connected with Texas as she stands before the world. Texas contains a superficial of territory wh I estimate at 190, to 220,000,000 of acres136 lying between latitude 26°, 27° to 29Y2°, 34°, 35° & 37l/2° & longitude 93° 30, to 103° 30 West from Greenwich, & I think I may with much safety assure you that in this continent, you cannot find in the same extent sofriuchrich valuable & productive soil. The soil bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, though not more rich than that found in the interior is no doubt better adapted to the growth of the cane & Cotton Plant. As the experiments wh have been made of the growth of wheat & rye have not been extensive I can only give you my opinion of what may likely prove the result when attempted as a crop in what may be called the grain regions of Texas. The experiments made have been within 110 English miles of the Gulf, & altho' the product has been fair, still not sufficient to claim for that region the name of a first rate corn country, nevertheless It has produced conviction in the minds of all that when 136 Much of this account of the size, climate and crops of Texas (pp. 122-24, 128-29) appears almost verbatim in Sheridan's official report to Garraway. See Adams, British Diplomatic Correspondence, 18, 19, 26. Williams' estimate of the extent of Texas was fairly accurate. When Texas won independence, the Republic claimed approximately 251,579,800 acres of land, of which 225,299,800 acres were in the public domain. 14O

the population of Texas shall proceed further interior say from 150 to 200 miles beyond its present position, that the increased elevation & increase of latitude will be found to surround a region for the growth of corn to any part of this continent. Maize & Indian Corn grows well in all parts of Texas. From the little I know of the English farmers and those from the Continent, I am persuaded that the Northern & elevated parts of Texas wd in every way suit them. The climate is salubrious & healthy, innumerable flocks of Sheep might be reared, & I think the rearing of those wh produce the finest quality of wool wd be carried on without deteriorating in the texture of their fleece, & in my mind there does not exist a doubt, but that the crops of Corn wd be immensely productive & they never wd require the labor of the Negro, & always furnish the Southern regions with Bread Stuffs. They wd soon become the Yeomanry of the Texas Country while the lands on the Coast subject to intermitting fevers will I think always be a Cotton planting Country, connecting also the Sugar Cane. I will here remark that a residence of several years in the last region has convinced me that it is more healthy than Louisiana being entirely free from Swamps & Marshes. The lands very generally within the Coast region have been selected & located by the early settlers of Texas, & those who have emigrated to the country for the last 3 years, including the Bounty lands of soldiers wh are now being located. My estimate of the extent of the Territory 141

of Texas is not so large as is made by others, still I think it nearly correct, & will not be found exaggerated & I think that to allow 100,000,000 acres as the property of individuals, on closing up existing claims in Texas, there will be left 100,000,000 as a public demand. You will find in the works published correct accounts of the Rivers &c. The best entrance & harbour on the Coast of Texas is Galveston wh will admit vessels of 12 feet draft of water. The Harbour is safe & good with 20 to 30 f* water. I am of opinion that an expenditure of £25 to 30,000 wood [sic] so improve the entrance to that Harbour as to secure 17 to 18 f* water. This however is but my opinion. When the Gov* of Texas shall have the means of appropriations for public improvements it is fair to presume that their attention will be first given to the improvement of their Harbours. You are already apprized by me, that the Gov* of Texas have authorized the negociation & sale of Bonds to the amount of 3 million of Dollars. Mr Albert Burnley & myself appointed by the Gov* commissrs to carry into effect the law which was passed 16th May 1838. You will see by the law, that we were authorized under our commission to issue bonds for a period not to exceed 30 years, bearing an interest not to exceed 10 per cent per annum & that the commissrs are empowered to negociate in this country. With the exception of some minor operations our efforts in this country have been confined to a proposition made by Mr Biddle, President of the U. States Bank. He had the subject under consideration for 142

nearly 3 months, & for a time we were flattered into a belief that we should close a negociation with him: and as it may not prove entirely uninteresting to you to know the nature of the proposition, I will briefly present you with the heads of it. M r Biddle was to take one million certain at 16 per cent premium. The Bonds of £100 redeemable in 30 years & having 10 per cent per annum interest payable semiannually to be paid for £110 the first payment of $550,000 to be made 1 st Jany Proximo & the 2 nd 1 st July next also $550,000. M r Biddle to be allowed until the 1 st of April next, to decide whether on the same terms (10 per cent premium) he would take the remaining four million—One million to be paid every six months. M r B. was not allowed the privilege of surrendering the bonds & receiving in lieu of principal & interest public lands at the then premium price paid by the Gov1 for the sale of their lands. Although M r B. had made up his own mind to take the loan, he was over-ruled by the board, & the negociation was suspended. A minute examination of the law will I think convince our mind that a banking institution in this country capable of negociating the loan or by acting as the agent of some European Capitalists wd derive very important benefits on the privilege granted of furnishing its notes for the circulating medium receiveable by the Gov1 of Texas for all dues to it. If the Gov1 of G1 Britain had recognised the independence of Texas the Commissrs would have proceeded to that Country, and attempted the negotiation & sale of Bonds there, or on 143

the continent, but apprehensive that it wd be impracticable to create confidence in the minds of Capitalists in favor of the bonds so long as Texas was not identified with the Gov1 National character, & at a time when a large amount of American state stocks were freely offered in England, the Commrs feared that a failure of the negociation in Europe would have seriously prejudiced the character & sale of the bonds in this country after a return. It was therefore deemed more prudent to postpone for a time a visit to England until some change might take place there, or the Comm8srs obtain the guarantee of some permanent mercantile institution of this country or from wealthy & respectable houses. How soon any change may take place as yet appears sleeping in the womb of time. For my own part I am not certain but that it is better for Texas not to borrow the money, for I think she can get along very well without it. You will perceive by the law that the Commissrs can pledge the revenues and public domain for payment of interest & principle. It would afford me great pleasure to be able to spread before your mind, in as strong & argumentative a manner (as I am persuaded a more able hand might) as conviction passes on my own mind reasons wh I think exist why the Gov1 of G1 Britain should promptly recognise the independence of Texas. You are no doubt aware that the people of Texas more than to years since made a proposition to the U. States for the annexation of this country to the states. The Gov* waived & disregarded the proposition. The inhabitants of Texas & the delay, 144

have entirely changed their feelings & their opinions & the Gov1 of Texas has withdrawn the proposition. It was made just as they emerged from the Horrors & dangers of the Mexican invasion. The people wanted security for their territory wh the defeat of the Mexican forces had fairly won for them, and were willing the jurisdiction & right to public domain to obtain that security. If the U. States feared to endorse for Texas or in other words feared to war with Mexico or feared the jealousy & displeasure of other powers by accepting the proposition, It is certainly not now surprising that Texas having escaped all she then feared, having quadrupled her population and proved to the world that she possessed the elements of self Gov1, & able to defy the efforts of Mexico, should no longer consider necessary the proposed annexation; she therefore has withdrawn it & is determined to stand alone. The present time is therefore the most propitious for England, & throw around it a fostering arm, impressions could then be stamped in the mind & feelings of the Texians towards English institutions & English Interest that wd be as lasting & enduring as time. Her interest over Texas wd be without a rival. She might control political agricultural & commercial interests without difficulty, suppose there does exist some objection, & that there are some hazards. All very important subjects are more or less surrounded by them, & then wd not the result be worth more than all the Hazard? If the opportunity be permitted to pass, but a short time will elapse 145

and Texas will be as indifferent towards England as she is now towards the U. States & all chance of influence & control will pass away for ever, for as certain as is death, so certain will Texas progress, whether she is recognised by England or not. Her advance will not be marked by rapid strides but equally as certain. England wd derive in a few years from Texas a full supply of Cotton for her manufactories superior to that now obtained from Louisiana & Mississipi & if encouraged by some slight and marked preference in England—The very planter & laborer now employed in the states wd abandon their nearly worn out soil & be found working the virgin soil of Texas—Twenty years wd not pass away before England might exclude every bale of Cotton made in the states. It must I think be apparent to every one that the time must arrive when these States will manufacture cotton goods sufficient for all their wants, & it is clear I think that when that time arrives they will not take the manufactures of England. She therefore should be preparing for such an event & should elevate a country that could furnish the raw material & receive exclusively her manufactures. If England now steps forward she can by her policy forever prevent the annexation of Texas to the states. If she does not, the time must & will come when the clamor of the S. States will compell the annexation as a conservative measure. Texas will in my opinion be a manufacturing country & through her all the N. parts of Mexico will be supplied. Besides the advantage mentioned she wd open a vast & healthy territory to wh her 146

farmers might emigrated field unsurpassed for the operations of her merchants, for in a few years the Gulf of Mexico wd be whitened with the sails of English Ships carrying out her manufactured goods & bearing home Cottons in return, & further I believe at this time I believe it practicable for England to induce Texas to assume a portion of the debt due by Mexico to her citizens, & also agree to pay Mexico something for her recognition. For no one can for a moment doubt, but that it is manifestly to the interest of Texas to have peace restored to her people as speedily as possible, in order to enable them to pursue with security the agriculture of the country, & also to induce the emigration of wealthy & industrious farmers & Planters for they cannot be expected to remove to Texas until peace shall spread her benign influence over the land. Should Texas be compelled to seek countenance & assistance from other sources, it is not to be expected that when she becomes strong & all the clouds of doubt are removed and nothing but the sunshine of prosperity before her, she wd be willing to yield up anything beyond matters of right. Therefore to obtain an important influence measures should be promptly adopted. There is not at this time any correct data by wh the population of Texas can be fairly & closely estimated. It is however my opinion that it is not less than 150,000 souls. The male population much exceed that of the female for the reason that in the settlement of all New Colonies, there are many privations & hazards to be encountered, from wh *47

every man wishes to remove the gentler sex. Nevertheless Texas can boast of some superior women & a stranger visiting that country is always surprised to find in the wilderness so very creditable a supply of Beauty & accomplishment & the female Society of Texas altho' not large is upon a very creditable & respectable footing & will not lose by a comparison with many of the W. States of this country. Written out in a gale so excuse bad spelling.

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Appendix I Barbarian Expressions. Do you like your tea mixed? If you please. Dyonisius—put some rum in the gentlemans tea. Drinking wine. What wine will you have? Sherry—but don't let my bias incommode your inclinations. Meeting. How do you feel &findyourself You really look too nice. Thank you I am impruv'd for the betterment Maycock asked his hostess to drink wine with him to which she assented & raising her glass she glanced smilingly on him & with a gracious bow said—Your Mother Sir! Jupiter! Is warm! 149

Swizzle—I's Warm. Take it to the gentleman Jupiter, take it to the gentleman. He had on a Panorama Hat

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Appendix II OBeah137 B. Glarke told me that at Codrington [•?] College where he was educated, there was an old woman who believed in this foolery, & that whenever he found her sitting down, he placed a cross of two straws, or bits of Bamboo before her, & that nothing would induce her to move over it. She would sit & pour out oaths, & execrations at the offender, but until the cross was removed, he was safe from any more active weapons of vengeance. Parson Thorne with whom I am associated in the examination of Emigrants told me the following annecdotes. There was a negro family who believed in O Beah & refused to be baptised. One day the overseer of the property directed him to light some coals in a newly erected kiln, which he was unable to do. Nor was he more successful the next day. The irritated overseer swore that if he failed again stripes & gyres should be 137 A West African word denoting the sorcery or witchcraft practiced by the Negroes in Africa, and formerly in the West Indies and neighboring countries. See H. J. Bell, Obeah; Witchcraft in the West Indies, London, 1889.

I51

his portion. In this dilemma he repaired to Thorne for advice who accompanied him to the kiln and there induced him to pray to God that his next efforts might be successful. After which Thorne knelt down & in an extemporaneous petition to heaven besought that the kiln might be lighted, & the wonders of God being thus made manifest to the benighted being who had just prayed for the first time, he & his family might be rescued from perdition. The negro then applied fire to the kiln which was instantly lighted & has continued Docile ever since. The negro who was convinced that it was a miracle expressly vouchsafed his salvation was afterwards baptised together with wife & family, & they have all proved patterns of Christianity ever since. In my conversation with Thorne on the subject I found that he was of the same opinion as the negro—and how do I know they were in error. One of the milder forms of O Beah is that of filling your adversary's stomach & veins with pieces of glass & nails. To effect this you must go to a professor of O Beah & giving him a retaining fee, instruct him as to the person to be so treated. The professor then goes thro' a number of buffooneries such as breaking an egg & jumping over it &c after which the applicant is informed that he is at a certain time to communicate to his adversary the pleasing intelligence that the said adversarys body is full of nails & glass, & that he is so stuffed on account of the injury or insult complained of. In an instant the wretched victim fancies the coping of an orchard 152

wall is in his stomach,138 and rushes to the professor of O Beah usually called in on such occassions—probably the same as his Persecutors—& gives a hurried sketch of his case, & a fee for advice. The O Beah man after making some preparations, & going through some mummeries tells his patient to shut his eyes, & then having provided himself with some actual stuffing of the nature fancied by his friend, mutters an incantation & rubs the stomach & legs of the sufferer, & at last telling him to open his eyes, shews him a handful of nails &c & congratulates him on his perfect recovery. The patient who firmly believes they have been taken out of his body, then feels much better, & retires with a profusion of Thanks, from the hut of his benefactor. 138 A reference to the practice of embedding jagged pieces of glass and nails in the plaster atop garden walls.

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Appendix III Diary of Journey to Mauritius, 1842-1843 March 23. Arrived at Symons Bay. My birthday. At the mature age of 29. 25th Went to Cape Town—Put up at George's Hotel. Subsequently at Col. Clute's quarters in the castleWrote to my Mother. Brin. Eden enclosing a letter to Mrs Mills—Georgy—Car—MarkWhyte. Ap1 6th Sailed from the Cape in the French Barque Sucriere of 2 50 tons Cap1 Carriol for the Mauritius. There are two other passengers Gen1 Badeley of the Indian Army and Mr Randell of the Ordnance department in the Mauritius. More of them anon. I liked the Cape although the life one leads there is monotonous enough, but the Town is pretty clean, and well laid out, the streets wide and well kept and the houses in all cases respectable and in many handsome. The governors is a very good one, although not so grand a mansion as the governor of the Cape should have. The ground floor has some very good rooms however, and the Ball room is one of the handsomest I ever saw. The Library & Commercial Room on the Parade ground also form a very handsome build154

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» ; -

(ftSETTLER'S HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

From 5/. Loff/V Isle, 1847

ing, but the remains of some of the buildings by the Old Dutch E. India company show that they build not only handsomer but stronger than we do at the Cape now. I lived at Col. Clute's quarters in the Castle who treated me most hospitably as indeed did every body. Among new acquaintances I picked up were the governor Sir G. Napier & his family, M r . Pattle The great man of Calcutta, where he is called Jem Blaze for having shot a man in a duel whose wife he had previously been acquainted with. At his house at Wynburg (the remains of that built by Lord Charles Somerset for a gov1 house) I first saw moustached native servants in their dresses attending at dinner, eat veal curry, and heard the languid "Qui H i " of the European answered by the soft "Sato" of the Indian. M rs Pattle told me that in Calcutta they breakfasted at 10 "ttff'd"1*9 at 2 & dined at 7 ^ . There was singing in the evening by M r s D'Urban Sir B' 8 daughter in law, & a gentleman of the name of Spittle who sang the tenor parts in Norma & made himself generally useful. Among other characters let me not forget Ernest Aristides De Mornay the fat old man at the Club who knew everything & had been everywhere, but of whom nothing was known whatever. There are some good things told of Harry Alexander whose memory is much cherished at the Cape, among others, when he was sitting next to some great French139

eon.

I.e., lunched; from tiffin (originally Indian), a midday lunch-

155

man on a visit to Lord Charles Somerset he wished to begin one of his stories by saying "when I was chairman of the ways & means," but not being a good french scholar he said "Lorsque J'etois le president de chemin Moyen." He it was also who introduced a bastard son of his who he chanced to meet in the street, to his wife, (a very demure & religious woman) in the following manner—"M r s Alexander, allow me to introduce you to one of my juvenile indiscretions." Talking about Lord C. Somerset, there is rather a good story of him & a Dutch Merchant who was a great florist and prided himself on the beauty of his flowers. Lord C. observed on looking over the Dutchman's collection one morning that they were very pretty but had no scent, to which the Merchant made answer in rather an offended tone, "Lord Charles, it is not de propriety of de Cape Flowers for to stink in de morning/' Ap 1 14 t h Getting on pretty well. I wish the voyage was over from the bottom of my heart. One's life at sea is so monotonous & so completely thrown away. I am too blind to read and my two companions Badeley & Randell too sick to talk so that I am completely on my beam ends for amusement of any kind. Both of these gentlemen improve much on acquaintance. The General has read much and is blessed with an amazing memory & a fund of anecdote besides which he is cheerful even when vomiting. He has been 36 years in India and his stories thereanent are sometimes very amusing. 156

It is very whimsical to hear the French terms for sails & ropes after being accustomed to the English for instance—Main sail, Main top sail & Main top gallant sail, are with them grand volaile, grand Hunier, & grand Cacatois & Mizen ditto La Meezen petit Hunier, & petit Cacatois. Then it is much more delightful to hear "Gustave, restez en haut mon brave" or "Julien observez le bonnet bas." than "Higgins d n your ugly eyes stop where you are Sir," or "Dobbs, blast your liver, you'd better keep your weather eye open Sir, look at that fore top mast stansail Sir, you butter-fingered blackguard." The French are certainly a very polite people. Every one is very civil and attentive to us on board and we live very fairly for a French cook at sea makes more and better things out of the stock at his command than ten Englishmen would. But then everything is very dirty. You ask for a biscuit, & a dirty Cabin by brings it in his beastly fingers—Table Cloths there are none & the napkin which is ceded to each of the passengers as an especial honor, is begrimed with filth & the gravy of weeks and adorned with geographical surveys of imiginary [sic] lands in egg & butter 'ere they think of changing it. By the way the Captains conversations with his Cabin boy whose name is "Rubant" is very delightful. It generally runs & rises in the following way: "Petit, des pome de terres Petit." Rubant (from without): "OuiMons1"." 157

Captain (after a pause): "Rubant, des pome de terres." Rubant: * 'Oui Monsr'' (another pause). Captn: "Sacre Cochon—Rubant!" Rub*: * 'Oui M r '' (another pause). Captn: "Grand Dieu—Sacre tonerre—Rubant, bete que vous etes—(Enter Rubant with potatoes) Ah! scelerat sacre &c (Chooses a good one & ends in a mild & gentle tone) le sel Petit, si vous plait." 17th Calms & contrary winds till last night when a light breeze sprang up & we are now progressing favourably at about 6 knots an hour. Some of Badeley's stories are diverting. The Nabob of Banda a sage & venerable mussleman with more than the characteristic "gravity & pomposity" of his class, gave a banquet one day to some English officers among whom was a young lieutenant perfectly unaware of the respect due and always paid by the English to a native of so high a rank, and looking upon the nabob in no other light than that of an interesting Heathen. Being rather elated with wine after dinner the Lieutenant was informed in the Morning by his brother officers that he had committed an error in thus addressing the Nabob, during a pause in the conversation at table—"Might I request as a favour that the Shumshah Bahadah will oblige the company with a National bawdy song." The face of his venerable host may be conceived on hearing the request. The Male & female Brahmini geese in India never 158

roost on the same side of the river or pond which they frequent, in consequence, as the fable goes, of two of them having been detected in criminal conversation in one of the Temples the presiding deity of which instantly directed that the males & females of their race should never for the future sleep together. They therefore content themselves with gazing fondly on each other from the opposing margins, & uttering the mournful cry which the Curious traveller may hear in the Evgs 'ere the Brahmini geese retire to their slumbers, the ganders saying "Chukwah Mensau" (Come here my dear) & the ladies replying "Nahi Chuckwee" (No, my dear.—) A good thing of Talleyrands. It appears that when Napoleon was in his zenith it was considered almost a disgrace for a young man not to have served in his armies, & such persons were designated as "Pekins." On one occasion when Napole[o]n & Talleyrand and a large party were present the word was used & Talleyrand asked a general officer what it meant, to which the latter replied "we call all men 'pekins' who are not military" —to which Talleyrand answered "Ah! Cest le meme comme nous appellons tous militaire, ce que n'est pas civile/' A conversation once took place in a company whereof Old Lady Huntley & her son formed a part in which the question was put as to what trade each person would select supposing Society was put on an equal footing and one man as good as another & obliged to earn his bread. 159

Lord Huntley observed that he should make garters for the ladies, to which his mother replied that he would not adhere to that long, for he would soon be above his profession. Lord Mansfield once asked a very eminent horse dealer why he Lord M never had his name (Erie) before him in court a very great probability considering his profession—Erie replied—"Why My Lord when I deal with a gentleman I am safe, & when I deal with a blackguard & get into a mess I am not such a fool as to go to another blackguard to get me out of it." Col. Kelly once found a soldier sleeping on his post, stretched on his back with his hands spread lazily out-— but this story is rather too "full-bodied'* to commit to writing. 20th Many people find it difficult to spell the names of others but few their own—An exception however to prove this rule however is on record—a gentleman whose name was Jacob had to sign a paper & contrived to spell the word without inserting one single letter of it—thus —* * Yekup.'' Good breeze & laying our course— 21 st Spanking breeze & in our favour. Orator Henley was in company with a person who in the course of conversation said that Ceylon was an Island belonging to England in the West Indies—"You are wrong Sir" said the orator "it is in the East." "Well Sir" replied the other annoyed at having displayed his ignorance, "Thank God I don't know much of these things, now what do you say 160

to that?" "Merely that you have a great deal to thank God for" replied Henley. Thus endeth my note book on Board the Sucriere. Mauritius. With odds & ends picked up no matter how & put together most irregularly. Feby 4th 1843. A curious case of absence of mind in me occurred a short time ago. I asked a Lady at whose house I was visiting if I could execute any commission in the Town (whither I was going) for her. To this she made answer that I could carry in some notes for her & placed them accordingly in my hands. Some remark as I was leaving caused our conversation to be renewed & at its conclusion I had totally forgotten her commission & all about the notes, but finding some letters in my hat (into wh it appears I had put them) they being the notes she had just before given me, I very coolly broke open the seals thinking they were letters I had forgotten to read, to the intense astonishment of the Lady, and presenting them to her with an "insinuating'' smile said "Will you be good enough Mrs Holmes, to read these to me for my eyes are so weak that I cannot make out the writing of my correspondents." 23rd March 1843. I have now attained my 30th Year, and intend to live a better life. Alack! how often have I said that & meant 161

what I said. Somehow or other I feel very old mentally as well as bodily. Now for a bit of Byron. "Ah! pleasure you are indeed a pleasant thing, Although one must be damned for you no doubt I make a resolution every Spring Of Reformation, 'ere the year run out, But somehow this my vestal vow takes wing Yet still I trust it may be kept throughout: I'm very sorry, very much ashamed And mean next winter to be quite reclaimed''140 There's no use sighing about it, but still it's unpleasant sentation to feel one's "Spring" of life is over & the summer waning fast as I beautifully expressed myself in an ode to September in a Magazine W h I edited in Barbados. Draft of a letter written by Sheridan apparently to the Foreign Office in London upon his arrival at Mauritius, 1842. I am under the necessity of calling your Lordships 140 Sheridan was apparently quoting from memory from Byron's Don Juan, Canto I, st. 119: Oh Pleasure! you're indeed a pleasant thing, Although one must be damn'd for you, no doubt: I make a resolution every spring Of reformation, ere the year run out, But somehow, this my vestal vow takes wing, Yet still, I trust, it may be kept throughout: I'm very sorry, very much ashamed, And mean, next winter, to be quite reclaim'd.

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attention to the following facts & to request that your Lordship will decide whether under the circumstances I am not entitled to the half pay since the date of my appointment to that office. Although it has been laid down that the salary of the officer entrusted with the Treasurership of the Mauritius should not commence until his arrival in the Island. At the time of my appointment to my present office, I was holding the situation of Island Secretary in Barbados, but on leave of absence from that Island and residing in Italy in consequence of ill health. The gentleman appointed to Barbados in my place was gazetted at or about the same time and consequently the half pay which I enjoyed from that office ceased so that although I have never been out of office I have received no salary whatever since the date of my appointment to that which I have the honor to hold at present. And when your Lordship takes into consideration the heavy expenses attendant on the passage hither, and the length of time consumed in making it your Lordship will not I trust consider me unreasonable in submitting my claim to be considered on leave of absence from this colony since the date of my appointment. And I have to add that four months of the leave of absence granted me by the Colonial office remained unexpired, of which I took no advantage in order that I might reach the Mauritius & enter upon my duties as Treasurer as soon as possible.

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Index Adams, Ephraim Douglass: viii, 21 n., 84 n., 95-96 n., 97 n., 115-16 n., 117 n., 126 n., 129 n., 140 n. Adamson, John: 104-105 and n. Agriculture, Texas: 140-41; see also cotton, Texas Alexander, Harry: 155-56 Alexander, Mrs. Harry: 156 Allen, John M.: 96 and n. Almack's Assembly Rooms (London): 76 and n. Alta Vela (San Domingo): 2 Annexation of Texas to United States: xi, 115 and n., 144-46 Anson, George: 15 and n. Aransas (''Aransaso'') * Port of: see seaports, Texas Ararat, Mount (' 'Arrow-root''): 33 Armstrong, SiddieR.: 30 n. Auction sale (Galveston): 7 1 74 Austin, Stephen F.: xii, 30 n., 124, 130 and n., 131, 132, 133, 134 Austin, William T.: 16 Austin (Texas): 12, 16, 21, 71 and n., 90, 94, 100 Back, Sir George: 42 and n. Badeley, General: 154, 156,158

Baltimore (Maryland ) : 111 Banda, Nabob of: 158 Bankrupts, Southern: 105 Barbados: vii, viii, xi, xiii, 41, 162-63 "Barbarian Expressions" (Texas): 149-50 Barber shop (Galveston) : 42 Baring Brothers & Co. (London): 30 and n. Barradas, General: 139 Barrataria, island of: 57-59 and n., 60 and n., 61 Berwick (England): 66 Bexar: see San Antonio de Bexar Biddle, Nicholas: 142-43 Birds: see curlews; ducks; geese; penguin duck; prairie hen; sea eagle; snipes; turkey buzzard; wild turkey Blaze, Jem: see Pattle, Mr. Bonaparte, Napoleon: 42, 159 Bond (woman, subject of a song): 75 Bosphorus (Turkey): 68 Boston Harbor (Massachusetts): 57 Bowie, James: 101 and n. Bowie, Rezin P.: 101 and n. Bowie knife: x, 36, 98, 100-101, 101 n., 112 Boylan, Captain: 29, 31 Brazoria (Texas): 85

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Brazos River: 15, 20, 29 n., 31, 84-85 British Foreign Office: 162-63 British recognition of Texas: viii-ix, 13, 70 n., I l l , 116, 118, 127, 143-46 Brookes, Richard (Brookes's Universal Gazatteer): 8 and n. Bunting & Son (England): 100 Burial ground (Galveston): 4 8 49 Burnet (Burnett), David G.: 99 n. Burnley, Albert Triplett: 142 Bustamante, Anastacio: 132 Byron, Lord: 96 n.; Childe Harold, 75 n.; The Corsair, 61 and n.; Don Juan, 162 and n. Calcutta (India): 155 Callander, Caroline Henrietta: viii n. Callander, Colonel James: viii n. Callander, Mrs. James: see M'Donnell, Lady Elizabeth Helena Campbell, Sir James: see Callander, Colonel James Campbell, Thomas N.: 110 n. Canning, Johnny: 2 Cape San Antonio (Cuba): 8 Cape Town (Union of South Africa): xiii, 154-55 Car (correspondent of Sheridan): 154 Carabas ( "Carrabas" ) , Marquis of: 32 and n. Carriol, Captain: 154, 157, 158 Cattle, Texas: 104-105 Ceylon: 160

Chamberlain (friend of Sheridan): 7 Character, Texian: 95 and n., 96, 98 Chihuahua (Mexico): 68 Churches: 19, 95 Clarke, B.: 151 Clifton, Wilhelm: 24 n. Climate, Texas: 120 and n., 141 Clute, Colonel: 154-55 Coahuila (Mexico): 133, 136, 138, 139 Coatzacoalcos ( Guasacualco ) , Isthmus of: 138 and n. Codrington College: 151 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: 19 n., 114 n. Colesworthy, Daniel C : 38 and n. Colonization law, Mexican: 131 and n. Colorado River: 85, 94 Colton,J.H.:43 Columbia (ship): 31 Columbia (Texas): 85 Columbian Navigator: 44 and n. Compensation for Texas legislators: 114-15 Coney Island (New York): 55 n. Congress, Texas: 83-84 and n. Constitution (steamer): 29, 31 Conway (ship): 1 Copperhead snake: see snakes Cornmeali, Signor: 93 Cornwall, Barry: 91 Coroner's inquest (Galveston): 48 Corrie, Lieutenant: 5, 6 Costume (Galveston): x, 45 Cotton, Texas: 20, 29 n., 31, 85, 126-28, 140-41, 146-47

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Emigrants: Dutch, 46; German, 46; Italian, 46\ American, 46, 119-20, 131-33; character of, 96, 97 and n., 98 and n.; British 111, 116, 119-20, 141; need for, 105; Irish, 119; number of, 124 Erie (horse dealer) : 160 Evans, Dr.: 8 Everitt, Senator Stephen Hendrickson: 101 and n. Fish: 122, 123; see also alligator gar, devil fish, porpoise Fletcher, Edward Garland: 23 n. Food, Texian: 17 Foraker, Dr.: 10 Foreign population (Galveston): 46 Forsyth: see Fox & Forsyth Fort Augusta (Jamaica): 4 Fox & Forsyth, Messrs.: 119 French Minister to Texas: 12 French recognition of Texas: 12, 70 n. Fuel supply, Texas: 20 Funchal (Madeira): 122

Crocodile (ship): 5 Cuba: 8, 118 Culebras Point (Galveston Bay): 44 Curlews: 53 Curran, John Philpot: 82 and n. Cuttlefish: 54 Dancing: 25-26, 76-77 Dawson, Frederick: 77 n. Debtors laws, Louisiana: 107 and n. Dee (ship): 10 Deer: 14 De Mornay, Ernest Aristides: 155 Devil fish: 4 and n., 5-7 Dewitt, Green C : 131 Diario del Gobierno: 61 n., 68 Dickens, Charles: xi; Martin Chuzzlewit, 13 n., 18 n., 37 n.; Pickwick Papers, 25 and n. Diddler, Jeremy: 64 and n. Disease (Galveston): 45 Dodge, Colonel Henry: 110 n. Douglas, Commodore: 8 Dublin (Ireland): 2 Ducks: 14 Durango (Mexico): 68 D'Urban, Mrs. (singer): 155 Dutch East India Company: 155 Eastport (Maine): 8 Eating habits, Texian: 39-40 Ebawatschouchtimatouchscha (Comanche chief ) : 110 Eden, "Brin": 1, 154 El Cosmopolita: 67 n., 68 El Independiente: 61 and n. Eliza Russell (ship): 118 Elliott, Captain (later Sir) Charles: ix

Galveston (Texas): x, 12, 2 0 21, 29-77 passim, 90, 92, 95, 98, 105, 111, 120; water supply of, 121 Galveston Bay: 32, 44 Galveston Island: 82, 120-21 Galveston, Port of: see seaports, Texas Galvez, Bernardo de: 44 Gar, alligator: 123-24 Garraway, Joseph: 126 n., 129, 140 Geese: 14 George's Hotel (Cape Town): 154

l67

Homer: xi, 28 and n. Hook, Theodore Edward: xi; Maxwell, 41 and n. Hooten, Charles: x Horned frog: 103-104 Horses: 50^ 104 Houses (Galveston): 45-46 Houston, General Sam: 67, 76 Houston (Texas): 33, 43, 90, 95, 100, 112-13, 120 n. Houstoun, Matilda Charlotte: x, 3 n., 37 n. Howard, John Tasker: 24 n. Hume, David: 82 Hunt, Richard S.: 43 and n., 87 n., 88 n. Huntley, Lord: 159-60 Huntley, Lady: 159-60 Hyslop (of Kingston): 7

Georgy (correspondent of Sheridan): 154 Gibbs the Pirate: 55 n. Glory of America: see Thomas; R. Goldsmith, Oliver: The Deserted Village, 34 and n.; History of England, 34 and n. Goliad (Texas): 133, 137 G6mez Farias, Valentin: 134 Gorddes (pseud.): see Lafitte, Jean Grattan, Henry: 82 and n. Gray, Thomas: Elegy, 49 and n. Green, General Thomas Jefferson: 14 and n., 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 33, 40 Greeting, Texian: 47 Griffin, C.S.: 43 n., 44 n. Grog shops, Texas: 95 Guerrero, Vicente Ram6n: 139 Guide to Texas: see Hunt, Richard S., and Randel, Jesse F. Gulf of Mexico: vii, 8, 57, 140 Hamilton, Captain: viii Hamilton (of the Pilot): 21 Hartys Tavern (Kingston, Jamaica) : 7 Havana, governor of: 56 Havana (Cuba) : 69 and n. Haydn, Joseph: 23 n. Headdress (men), Texian: 77 Headley, James: 71 n. Hemans, Mrs. Felicia: xi, 83 n. Henderson, James Pinckney: viii Henley, John ("Orator"): 160, 161 Hogan, William R.: 13 n., 29 n. Holley, Mary Austin: 139 and n. Holmes, Mrs. (hostess of Sheridan): 161

// Tancred ("Tancredi"): 23 and n. Imports, Texas: 126 Indians, Texas: 44 n., 67, 70 and n., 71 and n., 80 and n., 81 and n., 102, 107, 109 and n., 110 and n., 130 Ingraham, Joseph H.: 63 n. Isowacany (Comanche chief): 110 and n. Italy: 163 Jackson, General Andrew: 42 andn., 58, 59 n. Jamaica: xiii, 1, 2, 4 n. Jones, Anson: 99 n. Karnes, Henry Wax: 81 and n. Kelly, Colonel: 160 Kenney, James: 64 n. King snake: see snakes Kingston (Jamaica): 7, 8 Lafitte, Jean: x, 54 and n., 55

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and n., 56-59 and n., 60 n., 61 and n., 63-64, 122 Lafitte, Mrs. Jean: 56 Lamar ("Le Mayer"), Mirabeau B.: 12 and n., 70-71, 79 and n., 88 and n., 99 n., 104 n. Land area of Texas: 128, 140 andn., 141, 142 Land jobbers, Texian: 64-66 Land scrip: 65 and n. Land speculation: 64 Land tax: 85 and n., 86, 87 Land titles: 87, 88 and n. La Salle, Sieur de: 44 n. Latour, A. L.: 54 n., 60 n. Lawlessness, Texian: 99, 112-14 Le Mayer: see Lamar, Mirabeau B. Liberty pole (Velasco): 19-20 Linley, Elizabeth Anne: vtii n. Little Penn (ship) : 118 and n. Loafers, Texian: 34-36 Lockyer, Captain: 60 n. Louis, Philippe: 69 Lynch, Miss: 4 McClure (of the Pilot): 27, 28 M'Donnell, Lady Elizabeth Helena: w/V n. MacGregor, Sir Evan John Murray: viii, 126 n. McKinney, Thomas F.: x, xii, 30 and n., 31, 32, 50, 96 Magnificent (ship): 5 Mansfield, Lord: 160 Martinique (West Indies): 89 Matagorda, Port of (Texas): see seaports, Texas Matamoros (Mexico): 16 n. Mauritius: xiii, 154-63 passim Maycock (a guest): 149 Metcalfe, "Colonel": 12-16 passim

Metcalfe, Charles, First Baron: 4 and n. Mexicans: 46, 66, 69 Mexico: recognition of Texas by, 111; government of, 13040 Mills, Mrs.: 154 Milne, Captain: 5 Milton, John: xi; "L'Allegro," 75 and n.; Paradise Lost, 36 and n. Monetary affairs, Texas: 79 and n., 81-83 and n., 84, 110, 114, 128, 142-44 Montagu, Sir Henry: 15 and n. Monterrey (Mexico): 68 Moore, Thomas: 75 Moose Island (Maine): 8 Morning Star: 13 n., 23 n., 67 n., 71n.,80n. Morris, Robert: xii Music, Texas: 23-25: see also "Old Rosin the Bow" Napier, Sir George Thomas: 155 National anthems: of Great Britain, 26 and n.; of Texas, 26 n., 75; "Yankee" anthem, 76 National lands, Texas: 126 Naulty, Dr.: 10 Navy, Texas: xii, 11 and n., 78, 111, 113 Neptune (steamer): 106 New Market race course (Velasco): 14 n. New Mexico: 68 New Orleans (Louisiana): 35, 59, 61, 83 n., 91, 93, 94, 105, 106, 120, 127 Nicholls, Lieutenant Colonel Edward: 60 n.

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Nor bam Castle (ship): 66 "Norther," Texas: vii, 9 Nunes, Little: 4

Porpoises: 9-11 Port Henderson (Jamaica): 2, 4 Portland (Maine): 38 Port Louis (Mauritius): xiii Port Louis (Texas): 21 Port Royal (Jamaica): 2, 4, 7, 10 Potter, Reuben Marmaduke: 16 and n., 26, 27, 28 Prairie fires: 11 Prairie hen: 102

Obeah superstitions: 151-5 3 O'Connell, Daniel: 13 and n. "Old Rosin the Bow": 90 and n., 91-94 Old Velasco: see Velasco Oysters: 22,45, 122 Pakenham ("Packenham"), Sir Edward Michael: 61 Pakenham, Sir Richard: viil Palmerston, Henry John Temple, third viscount: viii-ix, 69 and n. Parry, Sir William Edward: 42 and n. Passamaquoddy Bay (Maine): 8 Paton, Miss: 91 Patterson, Commodore: 57 Pattle, Mr. (of Calcutta): 155 Pattle, Mrs.: 155 Peel, Sir Robert: 70 n. Pelican Island (Galveston Bay): 32 Penguin duck: 53 and n. Pensacola (Florida): 60 n. Philadelphia (Pennsylvania): 62 Phillips, W . H . : 91 Pijo fry: 10 and n. Pilot (ship) : vii, xii, 1, 5 "Podder": see Potter, Reuben Marmaduke Point Arkokisas (Arcokisas, Point Bolivar) : 44 and n. Pope, Archdeacon: 7 Pope, Alexander: xi; "Epilogue," 108 and n. Population of Texas: 21 and n., 125 and n., 128-29, 147

Quintana (Texas): 30 n. Race course (Galveston): 49-50 Ramsay, Captain: vii, xii, 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 16, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 40, 42, 123, 128 n., 130 Randel, Jesse F.: 43 and n., 87 n., 88 n. Randell, Mr. (of Mauritius): 154, 156 Rattlesnake: see snakes Red River: 85, 126, 127 Religion in Texas: 129 Reynolds, Mr.: 3 Reynolds, Mrs.: 3 Richmond (Texas): 85 Richmond upon Thames (England): 54 Rivers of Texas: 84-85; see also Brazos River; Colorado River; Red River; Sabine River; Trinity River Robins, George Henry: 72 and n. Ross, Colonel: 57 Rossini, Gioacchino: 23 n. "Rowdies," Texian: 36 Rubant (cabinboy): 157-58 Russell, Lord John: 70 and n.

i7o

Sabine, Port of: see seaports, Texas Sabine River: 84, 85, 89, 123, 128 St. John, Jack: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 St. John, Mrs. Jack: 2 St. Lucia (Windward Islands): 1 St. Vincent Island (British West Indies): 1 Saligny, Count Alphonse de: 70 n. San Antonio de Bexar (Texas): 80, 133, 137 San Domingo (West Indies): 2 San Felipe de Austin (Texas): 85 San Jacinto (Texas): 80 San Jacinto, battle of: 31, 43 n., 67-68,75, 115 n. San Luis Island (Galveston Bay): 44 and n. San Patricio (Texas): 119 Santa Anna, General Antonio L6pez de: 43 n., 132-37 passim Scotland (Barbados): 41 Scott, Sir Walter: 109; The Lady of the Lake, 108 n., 109 n. Sea eagle: 9 Seaports, Texas: vii, 127-28, 142; see also Aransas, Port of; Galveston, Port of; Matagorda, Port of; Sabine, Port of Sea shells: 53, 54; see "Texian Star" Seffield,Mrs.: 23,24,25 Seymour, H.: 2,7,9, 11, 15 Shakespeare, William: xi, 1, 6 and n., 10, 26 and n., 33, 42 and n., 48 and n., 58 and n., 88 and n., 92, 124 x

Sharp, John: 16 and n., 17, 21, 27, 28 Sharp, Mrs. John: 17, 19, 27 Sheep: 104, 128,141 Sheffield (England): 100 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley: v'tii and n. Sheridan, Mrs. Richard Brinsley: see Linley, Elizabeth Anne Siroc (ship): 8 Skylark (ship): 10 Slavery: 50, 51, 52 and n., 70 and n., 89-90, 116, 117 and n., 118, 129, 138-39 Smith, Dr. Ashbel: 21 and n., 27, 28, 45 and n., 101 and n., 120 and n., 121 and n., 122 Smith, Horace and James: 32 n.; Rejected Addresses, 32 Snakes: 102-103 Snipes: 14 Social customs, Texian: 22 Somerset, Lord Charles, 155, 156 Sophie (ship): 60 n. Southey, Thomas: 60 n. Spaeth, Sigmund: 90 n. Spain: 56, 60 n. Spitting habit, Texian: 36-40 Spittle (singer): 155 Starr, James H.: 16 n., 101 n. Steamboats: 20, 29 and n.; see also Neptune; Constitution Stephen, Sir James: 70 and n. Stewart (of Port Royal): 3, 4 Streeter, Thomas W.: 104 n. Sturge ("Sturgess"), Joseph: 13 and n. Sucriere (ship) : 154, 161 Suman, J.: 7 Symons Bay (Union of South Africa): 154

7*

Table manners, Texian: 18 Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles Maurice de: 159 Texas Times: 16 n. "Texian Star" (sand dollar): see sea shells Thomas, R.: 59 n., 61 and n. Thompson ("Thomson"), Alexander ( ? ) : 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 27 Thorne, Parson: 151-52 Timber supply, Texas: 20 Tremount House (Galveston): 33, 39, 40, 74 Trinity River: 85, 121 Trollope, Frances: x, 13 n., 18 n., 22 n., 37 Turkey buzzard: 49 Turner, Dr. William: 3 and n. Velasco (Texas): x-xii, 12-29 passim, 31, 76, 89 Veracruz, governor of: 56, 132 Vestris, Madam (singer) : 91 Vicksburg (Tennessee): 113 Victoria, Queen: 69 and n., 75 Viesca, Agustin ("Augustan Viscan"): 136 Viesca, Jose" Maria: 139 Virginia: 31 Vyse ("of the Life Guards") : 7 Walcot (of the Pilot): 21, 26 Walker (pseud.): see Lafitte, Jean Walmsley ("of the 56th Regiment"): 2 Ward, William: 71 n.

Warner, Miss: 17, 23-27 passim Washington (Texas): 85 Wasy, Young: 2 West Indies, British: 89 West InHies^ French: 89 Whittingham, Sir Samuel Ford: 4 and n. Whyte, Mark: 154 Wild game: 14, 17, 102; see also birds Wild turkey: 17, 32 William Rufus (William II): 34 William the Conqueror: 34 Williams ("of the Royal Artillery"): 2 Williams, Captain: 60 n. Williams, Samuel May: xii, 30 and n., 50, 96, 118, 124 and n., 128 n., 130-48 Wilson, J.: 7 Windward Islands: viii Women, Texian: 148 Wood, Mrs.: 91 Wordsworth, William: 19 n. Work, Miss: 27 Work, Mr.: 28 Wright, Muriel H.: 110 n. Wynberg (Union of South Africa): 155 Yankee: 12, 56, 57, 87 Yellow fever: 120 and n., 122 Yucatan: 8 n., 68 Zacatecas (' 'Zacuticus''): 135,

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