546
TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
No. 2064 1841 July 14, SAMUEL ROBERTS, AUSTIN, [TEXAS] TO M[IRABEAUJ B[UONAPARTE] LAMAR, GALVESTON, [TEXAS] 4
Austin July 14th 1841 (at night)
Dear Genl
Since my letter 5 to you this morning an express has come in in :(ive days from "Flour bluffs on corpus Christi Bay via Lamar, Victoria, Gonzales &c, bring certain intelligence that a party of Mexican cavalry under the command of Capt Sanchez aid-de-camp to Genl. Ampudia aid, on the morning of the 4th inst forcibly take Capt P Dimitt & three other Texan Citizens from the loading station of the former, to- gether with all the money goods &c, of Capt D and Mr. Gourley amount- ing in value to about $6000- Capt D & the three men have bern taken as prisoners to Matamoras- The man who come here was also taken but feigned sickness so well, that they left him- He brings let- ters from Capt Byrne & Mr Gourl[e]y, at Lamar, the resolutions & memorial of the citizens of Victoria adopted at a town meetings, & let- ters from several highly intelligent gentlemen at Gonzales & other places, all calling for prompt & immediate action from the Govt The Country they say are ready to turn out en masse to rescue Dimitt 6 & his fellow prisoners; or to retaliate, and if ·not authorised by the Government, we are assured by the Courier (and from the spirit of the letters &c recvd. we cannot doubt it,) that they will take the field without orders- Under this critical State of affair~, the Cabinet upon mature deliberation have concluded to authorise the turning out of the malitia, tho not to order them out- I do not like the measure but the emergency seems such as to justify our going this length even without authority- I say again I do not much like it, for I cannot see what good is to result from it- and if my voice could stop it, I should prefer waiting until we could communicate with you- It is too late to rescue Dimitt, and we will endanger Vanness & Morris safety- It is for the sake of unanimity that I have consented, for I would not have it go abroad that we could not unite on a.ny thing- We will despatch a trusty messenger tomorrow to the Rio Grande to warn Vanness & Morriss of the threatened danger & to advise their im- mediate return- War seems now inevitable, & Arista would no doubt like to secure two such important prisoners- The Courier also states that the Mexican Capt stated on the day of his arrest, that Gomez Ferias had been constitutionally elected President but had been forcibly set aside by Santa Anna, and that Arista at the head of the six Northeast States was preparing to resist the authority of Arista [sic]- I give you this for what it is worth, stating only tbat the courier is an intelligent man & appears to possess the entire confi- dence of all the Western people- •A. L. S. 'No. 20fl3. •captured July 4, by Mexican freebooters on Corpus Christi Bay. See Yoakum, H., History of Texas, I, 371.
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