The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume I

21 .

PAPERS OF M1R.\BE,\U BuoN.\PARTE L.\ L\R

some one who informed me of this intended crime, and I went to the house of a good Frenchman, Ioncieur Tulin, who protected me. Not- withsta11ding this fact, three men, prominent members of the Toledo party, came to 1ook for me and tried to lure me into doing them the favor of accompanying them to the town; but one of their servants warned M:oncieur 'l'ulin not to let me go, as they were going to kill me, and had left four armed men hidden by the road for that purpose. Wherefore my friend had to keep me in the woods, because they continued to come and look for me until the news came of the total rout of the army due to Toledo's poor management. I forgot to say that when Toledo was on hi way to Vexar, be arrived at Nacogdoches and asked a citizen of that place to go to Vexar to ki11 me, whereupon this -citizen, Jo e Antonio Garcia, told Toledo that though he should offer him much more, he would not do it, because he belonged to the same party that I defended, and that I was the man whom those people recognized as their liberator. 'l'oledo changed the subject and made another request of him; namely, that he should go as a secret courier to Vejar to take some letters. He consented and started with the letters, but what he did was to go to the road and open them. He found that To1edo ordered his friends to try to have me killed before he arrived. As soon as Garcia learned of this p1ot he returned to his hou.se where he hid himself until Toledo went to Vexar. While Garcia was in his house he was reported to the Commander of that place a:s having committed some crime. Tbe Commander, who was drunk, called for armed men and went out to get liim. As Garcia attempted to escape, the Commander ordered the men to fire upon him. . He was hot and appeared to be mortally wounded. They took him to the prison and began to force confessions from him. As he thou 0 ht he was going to die, he made known To- l('do 's wicked plan in detail. He did not die, but remained a prisoner. Twelve days after receiving the command, Toledo was routed, but he escaped with some few prisoners. When he reached Nacogdoche.~. he found the aforementioned Garcia a prisoner and his own wicked plan revealed by Garcia' statements which were in the Commander's house. Toledo commanded those who accompanied him to take Garcia from the prison. -They then took this poor man to the outskirts of the settlement and killed him, leaving his body unburied and burning the statements he had made. Toledo continued fleeing until he reached the United States. I also wish to tell ·what happened to me in connection with 'l'oledo in the government of the north, the •first ti~e I saw him. When I arriv d at the eat of 0 overnment, it was known .everywhere that I wa going to treat with the gpvernment of the north about certain commissions with which I came entrusted by the fexican inde- pe11dents. ·Tqledo was in Philadelphia and_allsoon as he learned that l was in '\Va hington, he came to find me for the purpose of embar- ra~ing me... He bad first circulated, thrt>ughi...the urora Gazette of Phi-ladelphia, vp.rious discotir es which breathed the highest patriotism, in order that I, before knowing him but after seeing his artic1es, would form the opinion that he wished to be well received by me; and thereby make it ea ier for him to influence and destroy me and assure hims~lf

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