Our Catliolic Heritage in T exa.s
1 34
Less than a month before the reception of this letter from Lieutenant Johnson acquainting him with the activities of Lacroix, Toledo had received a communication from a friend, one Albert Victor Lascelli, giving him an account of the success of Humbert in New Orleans. Toledo immediately wrote Lascelli to deny emphatically any connection with Humbert and to express the hope that the French general and his associates would cease using his name without authorization.'° Thoroughly aroused, Toledo decided early in January to go to Natchez to put a stop to French schemes and to check the equally unauthorized expedition of Robinson. Tiu Humbe,e -provisional gove,nment. It was high time for the ambitious and jealous Toledo to come to the scene of action. Shortly before, the association of Natchitoches had elected Judge Sibley governor general of the Interior Provinces. At about the same time General Humbert had invited the disgruntled Colonel Sam~~l )~.emper. apd his fellow survivors of the Gutierrez expedffiontct1oi~ him. Kemper, who was sick, sourly replied that he would have nothing to do -with Fr~nch plotters.' 1 Undaunted by the rebuff of Toledo and Kemper, Humbert and his enthusiastic friends turned to the pirates at Barataria for aid and support. It was agreed with Pierre and Jean Lafitte that a naval expedition would be organized to occupy Matagorda Bay or capture Tampico, while Humbert marched to Nacogdoches and proceeded over- land to join the sea expedition on the coast. Gutierrez appears to have been in hiding at the time, fearful perhaps of Toledo and his friends. But his personal representative, Jean Girard, worked in close harmony with the General. To Humbert it became quite obvious, as the arrangements for launching the new expedition were perfected, that the help of the Gutierrez-Magee survivors and of the numerous refugees in Louisiana would have to be secured. The obstinate attitude taken by Toledo and Kemper decided Humbert to take a bold step. Aided by Girard as age;:t-~of Guti6~;~-;,- Humbert went to Opelousas, Natchitoches, and Rapides, where he harangued the refugees ·from Texas, declaring that he had an army of two thousand French and Irish volunteers ready to invade Texas. A large group of refugees and their friends in Natchitoches called ' 0 Albert Victor Lascelll, Natchez, November 8, 1813; Toledo to Lascelll, Nashville, November 20, 1813, S/raler Pafers, N. A. W. ' 1 Humbert to Kemper, New Orleans, October 27, 1813; Kemper to Toledo, November 20, 1813, Me:tko, Filibustering E:i:feditions, N . .A. W.
Powered by FlippingBook