Lase Filibustering Expeditions and Independence, I817-r820 171
the men at Fort Las Casas, by the Mexican Insurgents, and Long was informed of the new plans. At this stage Long did not care who was in command. What he craved was action. The few faithful followers he had would no longer stay together in wasteful inaction. He urged Ripley, therefore, to rush supplies to Point Bolivar with the new commander and to authorize an immediate march to San Antonio to prevent any more desertions. But Ripley advised patience. Shortly after the arrival of Trespalacios, Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, made his appearance and was im- mediately designated vice president. The filibusters at Point Bolivar had now become a part of the Mexican Revolution, acting under Tres- palacios as the representative of the Mexican Revolutionary Government." Trespalacios did not remain in Texas long. He soon departed for New Orleans to secure money and supplies. The morale of Long and his men, temporarily raised, sank lower than ever. In December, when three dusty travelers arrived in San Antonio and were brought before Governor Martinez, one of them named Moses Austin-who had come from Missouri to obtain permission to settle in Texas--declared that he had heard on his way through East Texas that only twenty or thirty men were still with Long, that Lafitte had abandoned Galveston, and that the President of the United States had offered a reward of $500.00 for the arrest and imprisonment of Long. His two companions, Jacob Kirkham and Jacob Forsythe, added that Long might have at the most fifty men, starved and ragged, and that they had built a rude fort at Point Bolivar:" Long and a few of his companions continued to wait at Point Bolivar for an opportunity to put their plans into execution. Conflicting rumors concerning the progress of the Revolution in Mexico reached them from time to time. They heard of the Plan of Iguala, proclaimed on February 24, 1821, and of how it laid the basis for the independence of Mexico. They heard of Iturbide and Guerrero, but the accounts as to their success were confusing. Long concluded, however, that the time was ripe for action. In the absence of Trespalacios and Milam, who had left Fort Las Casas in August, 1820, to contact Guerrero, he decided to create a diversion by attacking La Bahia. Taking fifty-two "Lamar Papers, II, 93-98. ·"Declarations of Moses Austin, Jacob Kirkham, and Jacob Forsythe, San Antonio, December 23, 1820, Nacogdoc/ies .Arcl,ives. The interpreter was the Baron de Bastrop. Kirkham had come in search of two runaway slaves, and Forsythe, to request permission to settle in Texas.
Powered by FlippingBook