The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 85
717 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The House of Barr and Davenport
permission to bring a physician from Natchitoches. He stated
that he was aware of superior orders prohibiting communication
with Louisiana but pointed out that this was an urgent case and
that no physician was available in Nacogdoches.73 At the same
time he wrote to Don Manuel de Salcedo, governor of Texas,
telling him that his wife had experienced no improvement.
"On the contrary," he wrote, "each day she is more feeble, and
she is flickering like a failing candle." Don Pedro Lartiga, a
practitioner in Nacogdoches, he continued, had employed his
knowledge to no avail. Consequently, he was compelled to ask
the commandant to let him get a doctor from Natchitoches
because "her life is extremely important to me and to her small
children. I can do nothing, and I am desperate."74
Spanish authorities gave Davenport permission to bring a
doctor to Nacogdoches from Louisiana. Davenport reported to
the governor that his wife was much worse and that even
Doctor Helphen, a German physician from New Orleans, gave
little hope.75 She died on February 27, 1812.76
Available records do not disclose the cause of Davenport's
change of attitude toward the Spanish government in the fall
of 1812. He appeared to be loyal to his Spanish citizenship as
late as July 21, 1812, when he addressed a letter from Natchi-
toches to his friend, Lieutenant Colonel Bernardino Montero.
In this letter he still considered himself a Spanish subject. He
warned the Spanish officer that the United States was planning
to furnish all the means possible to start a revolution in New
Spain because Spain was England's ally and the United States
had just declared war on England. He also warned him that
expeditions were being organized in various points within the
United States to strike at the Spanish frontier at a moment's
notice. He added that he wished his ". . . ox-carts were here
in order to take advantage of this trip before the clouds that
darken this hemisphere release their thunder."77 A few weeks
later, Davenport was serving as captain and was in command
of a corps of about one hundred fifty Spanish volunteers in
73S. Davenport to Bernardino Montero, February 6, 1812, MS., Bexar
Archives.
74S. Davenport to Manuel de Salcedo, February 6, 1812, MS., Bexar
Archives.
75S. Davenport to Manuel de Salcedo, February 14, 1810, MS., Bexar
Archives; Abstract, 30.
76S. Davenport to Manuel de Salcedo, March 9, 1812, MS., Bexar Archives.
77S. Davenport to Manuel de Salcedo, July 21, 1812, MS., Bexar Archives.85
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/96/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.