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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
boarded by a Government Officer, who suspecting that she con- tained contraband articles of war, came to examine her cargo. He also spoke of scrutinizing the contents of Mrs Long's trunk. T1J this the lady peremptorily objected, and prepared to go ashore rather than submit to such indignity. There wa:S, however, another reason for this; her trunk contained a splendid swo~d which had been presented to her husband. The officer was sufficiently gallant not to insist upon the search; and in a short time the vessel set 'Sail. Scarcely, however, had she made the" English Turn", when the sep- aration of l\Irs Long from her only child became so insupportable- that she resolved to proceed no further. The vessel was accordingly hauled to; and l\Irs Long, going on board of a Steamer, returned to the city, and hastened thence to her sister Chesley's, where she had left her little daughter. The "Three Sisters," in the meantime continued her voyage and reached Galveston simultaneously with General Long.- Behold then our enthusiastic hero unfurling his Banner once more in bold defiance of the foe; animated by the high hope of retrieving his late disasters and giving liberty and law to that beautiful, but long degraded land. Before entering, however, upon this period of his public-spirited career, we must parley a moment with the reader, for the purpose of apologising for the homely material's of a large portion of our unpretending narrative. We are necessarily forced into the relation of many circumstances and events, minute, if not trifling in their nature, and which can possess little or no interest for the common reader. To .him probab!y, it would be much more agreeable, if we were to confine ourselves to a mere general outline of the story; for he can hardly be supposed to have any great curiosity or concern about the details of an ill-fated and abortive enterprise, from which nothing resulted of any consequence to coun- try or beneficially to any one connected with it. Such, indeed, is the character of that which forms our present theme. Nevertheless, as it was conceived in a general spirit, and was prosecuted with the hope of extensive good, its minute and circumstantial history (as far as it now can be ascertained) will not be devoid of interest, we presume, to another class of readers, not very numerous at present but destined to become so in a very few years. We mean the present and the future people of Texas. We are confident that thier bosoms will ever throb with a deep simpathy, with whatever pertains to the early annals of their country; and it is for them mainly, that we are now writing, believing that the inconsequential incidents and de- tached episodes which we shall string very loosely together, how- ever uncntertaining to the general reader, will not be altogther destitute of interest to them. - · Order, prudence and general propriety were now indispensible to success. Without these, there could be no public credit nor individual confidcnce.-Gcneral Long was aware of this, and ac- cordingly, lost no time in reorganizing and establishing Civil gov- ernment.- A "Supreme Council" was convened, as had been done· at Nacogdoches. It met on the fourth day of June 1820. The mem- bers present on the occasion as far as known were, Long, Biglow~
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