The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907 Page: 58
ix, 354 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
of Louisiana and the future president whose administration was to
be marked by the acquisition of that province.
Gayoso's letters to de Nava had suggested the advisability of
arresting all foreigners in order to prevent Americans from form-
ing intimate relations with the Indians, and especially singled out
Nolan as a "dangerous man and a sacreligious hypocrite who had
deceived the previous governor to get" a passport."' Nolan's almost
miraculous escape on his preceding journey should have rendered
him cautious about venturing again into Texas, especially in view
of de Nava's probable orders to arrest him, should he attempt to do
so. Nevertheless his interview with Jefferson seems to have deter-
mined him to penetrate again into the forbidden country, for whose
officials his previous experiences may have given him a hearty con-
tempt. In this expedition he seems to have planned deliberately
to arouse the hospitality of both Spaniards and Indians, for his
party numbered twenty-one-too many for a peaceful excursion,
though not enough for defense against an aroused antagonist. The
result, as might be readily foreseen, is expressed in a later letter
from Dunbar,2 who at the same time aptly describes the adventur-
er's character:
"But lately we have been cut off from our usual communication
with that Country by the imprudence of Mr. Nolan who persisted
in hunting wild horses without a regular permission; the conse-
quence of which has been, that a party being sent against him, he
was the only man of his company who was killed by a random
shot.- I am much concerned for the loss of this man. Altho his
eccentricities were many and great, yet he was not destitute of
romantic principles of honor united to the highest personal cour-
age, with energy of mind not sufficiently cultivated by education,
but which under the guidance of a little more prudence might
have conducted him to enterprises of the first magnitude."
It was in October, 1800, after his return from Philadelphia, that
Nolan set out on what was to prove his final excursion into Texas.3
1Garrison, Texas, 113.
2Dunbar to Jefferson, August 22, 1901, in THE QUARTERLY, VII 315.
3For the details of Nolan's last expedition, cf. Yoakum, History, of
Texas, I 111-116; Garrison, Texas, 111-116. The Memoirs of Ellis P.
Bean (properly P. E. Bean), one of his.companions, are found in the
Appendix of Yoakum, I 403-452; Cavo, Tres Biglos de Mexico, Appendix,
660 (Jalapa, 1870).
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907, periodical, 1907; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101040/m1/66/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.