The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 245

Notes and Documents

245

now recollect,)41 who commanded the border ruffians that had in-
fested the country west of the Natchitoches.42
They had entered Texas in July and encountered a small Spanish
force at the Sabine, putting them to flight at the first onset.43 They
retreated to Nacogdoches, which place they abandoned before the
arrival of the Americans, taking with them the garrison of that
place and a number of the citizens.44 Col. Davenport organized a
company of about thirty Mexicans, acting himself as Quartermaster.45
The expedition marched about the middle of September46 for the
Bluffs, on the Trinity river, where they arrived without any in-
41This man may have been Anthony Parish (Antonio Pared), a native of North
Carolina, who in 1801 was thirty-six years old, had had three years' residence in
Nacogdoches, and was a carpenter by trade. By the law of the times, a man
convicted of bigamy in North Carolina could be branded on the left cheek with
the letter B. In a case of manslaughter, a person could be branded on "the brawn
of the left thumb" with an M, and for any other felony "with a T on the same
place of the thumb." Harry W. McGalliard, Assistant Attorney General, State of
North Carolina, to H. P. W., signed statement, April 21, 1961 (MS., in possession
of the writer); Hatcher, Opening of Texas to Foreign Settlement, 18o0r-82x,
Appendix II, 297.
42The area between the Arroyo Hondo and the Sabine River had been in dispute
since the Louisiana Purchase in 18o3, both Spain and the United States claiming
jurisdiction. In 18o6, armies under General James Wilkinson and Simon Herrera
faced each other across the disputed area. The two commanders agreed to leave
the settlement to their respective governments and meanwhile neither country
would exercise control. The "Neutral Ground" soon became a haven for all sorts
of rough characters who tilled the soil and preyed on the trade from Texas to
Louisiana. These border ruffians, whom Lieutenant Magee had so forcefully
suppressed, joined the expedition in considerable numbers. Haggard, "The Neutral
Ground," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVIII, lool-1129; Dudley G. Wooten,
A Complete History of Texas (Dallas, 1899), 1oo.
43There were two skirmishes between the advance guard of the Republican
forces and those of Spain. On July 7, a small party attacked the armed guard of a
mule train of wool and silver belonging to the Reverend Lieutenant Colonel Juan
Manuel Zambrano, who has organized the counter-revolution against Las Casas
in San Antonio during 1811. Zambrano was driven back to Nacogdoches where
his goods were later found and used to build up the Republican war-chest. On
July 9 a party under Lieutenant Colonel Kemper seized a Spanish outpost of an
ensign and eighteen soldiers. Sibley to Eustis, August 18, 1812, in Garrett, "Sibley
Letters," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XLIX, 415.
44When the Spanish officials left Nacogdoches they took with them the records
which passed through many hands during the revolutionary period. Later this
caused much trouble in the establishment of titles to land. Taylor, Spanish Archives
of the General Land Ofice of Texas, 24-25.
45The greater part of the summer was spent gathering supplies under the
supervision of Davenport. Walter Flavius McCaleb, "The First Period of the
Gutierrez-Magee Expedition," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association,
IV, 222.
46The strength of the expedition at this time was Soo Americans and loo
Mexicans. The Mexicans were commanded by Despallia (Despallier). Information
derived from John Villars, native of Kentucky, in Gulick and others, Lamar Papers,
VI, 146.