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Our Catl,olic Heritage in T e:xas
Herrera in the city in order that he might leave at once to establish a legal port on Galveston Island in the name of the Republican Government of Mexico, set up a prize court, and issue letters ·of marque. The merchant members further agreed to furnish arms, supplies and munitions for volunteers to defend the port and invade Texas. 56 Mutin,y in GaJ,vesto,1,. But before Herrera reached Galveston Island to legalize its occupation in the name of the Mexican Republic, Aury almost came to an untimely end at the hands of his own band of ruffians. The-Negro volunteers from Haiti resented being put to work to salvage_ the ships that had been wrecked on the bar. The crew of La Belona mutinied during the night of September 7, 1816, attacked the head- quarters, seriously wounded Aury whom they left for dead, freed all prisoners, and imprisoned the officers. The mutineers then sailed away in three ships for Santo Domingo. Aury, however, was not dead. A few faithful companions stayed with him and began to clear the wreckage. Watching three vessels approaching late in the afternoon of September 9, desperate hope that the ships bore friends alternated with fear that the mutineers were returning. Fortunately for the reduced and weakened band, it was Herrera. On September 12, 1816, after an agreement was made with Aury and his men, Galveston was solemnly declared by Herrera a legal port, allegiance was sworn to the Mexican Republic, and its flag was formally raised over the island with due ceremony. Officers for the provisional government were named by the Mexican minister. His mission accomplished, Herrera sailed for Mexico in November to make a report to the Mexican Congress. 55 Relations of Mina wit/, Aury and Lafitte. By a strange coincidence, Aury, the Lafitte brothers, and Toledo were now to be closely associated with the plans of the young Spanish patriot Francisco Xavier Mina, whose liberal ideas had forced him to abandon his country upon the •· return of Ferdinand VII and the revocation of the Constitution of 1812. He had decided to dedicate all his energies to liberating the Spanish colonies from the tyranny of the obstinate and ungrateful monarch. The role of Toledo and Lafitte in this instance reflects little credit on either. Their participation, however, is but one more example of the intricate nature of the plots and counterplots inspired by selfish passions and stimulated by the hope of fabulous profits that were continually 54 Antonio de Sedella to the Captain General, New Orleans, August S, 1816, Papeles de Cuba, A.G./,; Tlie Louisiana Gazette, New Orleans, August S, 1816. 55 Warren, o;. cit., 143-144.
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