P.\PERS OF ~un.,11E.,u Buo ,.,P.\RTE L.,M,\R
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it purpo ely in order to let them know that we were allowing them to take po es ion of a cemetery in which they should all be buried. It appears that the l\Iini ter reported to his go, ernment by thi same po t, and I have heard nothing mid of thi since. The American government laid before me another great difficulty; namely, that before my coming they had thought about taking po ·ses- ion of the limit of Louisiana. They said that th.ese limits should extend to the Rio Grande, becau c they bad bought all the lands which belonged to thi province from France; and they added that it must be so, ince they had proven by documents in their posses ion that the French w re the first to di cover the port of :Matagorda and plant the French <flag there; and for thi just rea on they bad a right to take pos e ion of tlie -country as far as the Rio Grande. I strongly opposed thi measure, and I was asked to giYe in writing my rea on for not agreeing with them. I refused to do thi and propo ed to defend it only by word of mouth. At the end of some days of argument_ I induced them to -de ist from this meAsure · but ome time afterward they proposed to me another plan, apparently very advantageous for u , which wa thi : that they had decided to give me the aid of fifty· thousand men who were already enlisted in Kentucky and Tennessee. I thanked them for their very lib ral decision, and they went on to rsay that they con idered that the fifty thousand men placed on the border would be too far away to a j t me- that it would be better for them to march to the Rio Grande and from there aid u in the interior. I was asked what I thought of this plan. I wished to answ~r them in only a few word , and to be disposed to agree_, whatever the result might be,-since in reality I could not prevent it. I replied that I a"'recd that the fifty thousand men hould march to the Rio Grande .only on condition that I should be their Commander-in-Chief, and that they l\ould obey my order without di pute until they shonld receive those of my nation. Their ~ns" er wa silence, and there was no further di cu ion of that matter. · At thi time I was impatiently awaiting a -communication from 1fonchaca regarding the government which he was to e tabli h, but everything turned out to the ·-contrary. Iii. a few day news came to the "'0Yernment that l\Ienchaca had played turncoat because of the offers of the Gachupines. Under the e circumstance I went to the ~fu1istcr of..State and gave him to understand that it was very ex- ···· pedient-.that I march i.nmiediately to the frontier and .there -t~ke the •-- - - A ~ prop_e~ measure for opening a communication w1th Generals Ra~n and :\forclo in the interior, who were said to be landing an army there. The American government wanted me to wait a year, but at last yielded, in view of the hope I gaYe of returning or of sending a le- gation. I a ked for the money nece sary for my tran portation. I wa given letter of. recommendation to the authorities on land and sea and immediately tarted for the City of Philadelphia for the purpose of embarking there, which I did on the twelfth day of Feb- mary, 1812. I landed in the City of rew Orleans in the middle of -April I wa welJ receiYed by all the authoritie , and promptly embarked for the post of •ratitoche where I arrived at the end of l\Iay.
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