The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 62
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Tarnava added other reflections and suggestions to this report.
Whether these were his own, or had been transmitted to him
by Mier y Teran, is not known. The plan of colonization should
be continued for many years; it should keep pace with the west-
ward expansion of the North Americans and eventually should
contemplate the establishment of settlements on the Red and
Arkansas rivers. Tarnava asked if England could not be in-
duced to make a declaration against the designs of the United
States on Texas, such as the United States had made against
the conquest of Cuba by Mexico and Colombia. He suggested
that a Mexican consul should be placed at New Orleans to keep
an eye on the preparations of North Americans at that place.
Finally, the newspapers of Mexico should intimate that in case
of war any means would be justifiable against "so perfidious
an enemy," even to the stirring up of an insurrection of slaves
in Louisiana, thus retaliating with the same measures employed
by the North Americans in inciting the colonists and the Chero-
kee Indians to revolt in Texas (it was hard to forget the
Fredonian Rebellion!) "Louisiana is an open country, and its
extension along our frontier makes it an easy matter to pene-
trate it with a force even smaller than that of the enemy, and
by burning their own homes perhaps diminish the number of
those advocating the conquest of Texas."2'
The chief purpose, then, of placing more troops in Texas was
defense-defense against the designs of the United States and
to "cut short those intrigues by which the department of Texas
is undeniably agitated." Before he had time to learn what
action the government might take on his report and recom-
mendations, Mier y Teran assumed his duties as commandant
general. He wanted to return to Matamoros as soon as possible
and take over the affairs of the office which Felipe de la Garza
had vacated so hurriedly when news of the Spanish invasion
reached him. It is not clear just what were de la Garza's con-
nections with the Bustamante government, but the records
show that he did everything in his power to hinder the progress
of his successor in the office of commandant general of the
Eastern Interior Provinces. In reports to the Minister of War,
28Tarnava to Alam6n, January 14, 1830, in The University of Texas
Transcripts from Department of Fomento, Mexico, Legajo 5, Expediente 30.
Alam2n, in a letter to Vice-president Bustamante written the same day,
treats the suggestions of Tarnava as having come from Mier y Terdn.
MS., in Archivo General de la Naci6n, Mexico, Guerra, Frac. 1, Leg. 7, op.
mil., 1836.62
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/66/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.