The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 296
409 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
LETTER 2
Natchitoches March 12th 1807
Sir
From a paragraph in the Presidents Message to the last Con-
gress, he appears to have been Mistaken with respect to the
Spaniards having had a Guard at Bayou Pierre Previous to the
Surrender of Louisiana to the United States. The first guard
they ever had there, Arrived in June 1805. The 23d of that
Month I was at Bayou Pierre on Business to see an Amiable
family distressed with Sickness. On my return I met the Spanish
Guard Consisting of a Corporal & 5 or 6 soldiers Twelve Miles
this side of Bayou Pierre, they had not then been there, when
Capt. Turner Arrived at this place on the 27th of April
1805.'3 The Spanish Government had no Guard this Side of
Nacogdoches, Except 7 or 8 Soldiers the Commandant of this
place had about him, nor had they had for about 40 years, since
their abandonment of the Adaize [Los Adaes].14 Should you
think it Important I can have these facts Established by the
depositions of all, or a sufficient number of the Most respectable
Inhabitants of this part of the Country. By the
arrival of a number of Persons from Nacogdoches within a few
days we are Informed that Governor Herrara [Herrera] with
three Companies of the troops who had left that place have
returned Again and are fortifying a Hill near the Town of
Nacogdoches, and that More troops are Expected there, and
that the Talk of War [between the United States and Spain]
that had subsided Amongst the Inhabitants after the Sabine
Campaign had revived.
I hear every few days by hunting parties from 3 or 400 Miles
up this River; but Can get no Account of Lieut. Pike. I have
Engaged for him the friendly Services of all the Indians above
-"At this time the United States was pursuing negotiations at the court
of Spain to obtain a permanent boundary adjustment between Louisiana
and Spanish territory. Meanwhile Governor Claiborne of Louisiana and
Sibley gathered information concerning the boundary, and kept Washington
informed of border activities. Here, Sibley refers to the occupation of
Bayou Pierre by Don Antonio Cordero when he was made governor of Texas
in 1805 with instructions to fortify Texas against aggression by the United
States. At that time the United States was fortifying Louisiana, and claim-
ing Texas to the Rio Grande. See W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books,
III, 384-392; Marshall, A History of the Western Boundary of the Louisiana
Purchase, 27-28.
14Marquis Aguayo had expelled the French from East Texas, and re-
asserted Spanish authority beyond the Sabine by establishing the presidio
of Los Adores, which he proclaimed the capital of the province of Texas in
1721. When Spain received Louisiana at the close of the Seven Years War,
Los Addes was abandoned, according to the New Regulations of 1772. Now
Cordero reoccupied Los Adies and Bayou Pierre as Spanish territory which
had been temporarily abandoned. Herbert E. Bolton, Texas in the Middle
Eighteenth Century, 5, 34, 113-115.296
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942, periodical, 1942; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146053/m1/330/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.