Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
of Galveston. His duties were threefold: the collection of tonnage dues, the issuance of clearances, and the prevention of smuggling. But Fisher took his duties and himself too seriously. Finding it impossible to establish his office in Galveston, he opened his head- quarters temporarily at the mouth of the Brazos and placed a deputy collector on Galveston Island. He declared that all ships would be re- quired to have a manifesto of cargo and all passengers would need a passport. He then requested from Austin a statement of the privi- leges enjoyed by his colony and a list of the goods not exempted by law. Fortunately, Teran suspended the establishment of the projected customhouse, because he was convinced that the Law of April 6, 1830, permitting foreign vessels to engage in coastwise trade, made the establishment unnecessary. Teran also temporarily annulled Fisher's commission. 59 Fisher might have left Texas and caused no trouble had not the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe offered him a position as secretary because of his ability to write both English and Spanish in a beautiful hand. Within a few months the City Council regretted its action. He was dismissed for having taken documents from the archives to implicate the colonists in the party politics of Mexico. Fisher was furious at the accusation. 60 It was natural, consequently, for the settlers to mis- interpret his apparently arbitrary measures when he was again made collector of tariff duties. Fisher was reappointed tariff administrator in September, 1831. This time he established his office at Anahuac, where Bradburn had his new post. He arbitrarily issued inflexible regu- lations, requiring, among other things, that shipmasters entering the Brazos, the Colorado, or any other river, obtain clearance from him at Anahuac before sailing. This meant that ships would be idle for days while the papers were obtained from Fisher, who was more than a hun- dred miles away from river ports. Austin protested to Teran the im- practicability of the order, and the colonists attributed his action to spite. At the end of December, 1831, a small guard stationed at Brazoria attempted to detain two ships that had not secured proper clearance papers. In the scramble that followed one of the soldiers was seriously wounded. Austin, who happened to be in town, advised that the ships The Brazoria wrangle. 59 Barker, Life of Austin, 381-382. 60Barker, "Minutes of the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Austin," TIie {2uarterl'1, XXII, 265-278.
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