Revolutionary Lult
49
the easy plunder afforded by the constantly increasing trade between Nacogdoches and Natchitoches. Dr. Sibley, Indian agent at Natchitoches, complained bitterly that robbers and murderers were increasing to an alarming degree, and were daily becoming bolder. They even sent messen- gers to Rapides, Opelousas, and Natchitoches for recruits and openly dis- cussed projected raids into both Spanish and American territory. By the summer of 1811 they had established a colony at Pecan Point on Red River, described as a "lovely location between the villages of the Caddos and the Panis." The squatters, fugitives principally from the United States, came from the Arkansas and Washita rivers. They not only preyed upon defenseless traders and merchants, but also committed numer- ous depredations among the neighboring friendly Indians. Dr. Sibley asserted that their unscrupulous activities made the natives restive and hostile. Worse still, they were enticing Negro slaves to escape from Louisiana. 1 ' By December, 1811, the settlement at Pecan Point, located some five hundred miles upstream from Natchitoches, had grown from a small camp of twenty families to more than five hundred souls. Almost all of them were fugitives from justice. Many were Spanish rebels and some few were runaway Negroes. They recognized no law, exercised no restraint. In desperation the friendly Indians were forced, in protecting their interests, to kill some of them. Dr. Sibley thought much more highly of the Indians than of the residents of the Neutral Ground, whom he characterized as "murderers, thieves, and robbers." 15 Trade between the two outposts of Louisiana and Texas flowed over two routes. One led from Nacogdoches across the Neutral Ground to Natchitoches by the way of Bayou Pierre over the present Old Spanish Trail; the other, known as the Opelousas Road, followed the present highway from Orange to Lake Charles. 16 Even in normal times the Province of Texas had depended largely upon the trade with Louisiana for much of its supplies, particularly goods used as gifts for the Indians. The Revolution had practically cut off all communication with the interior. 14 John Sibley to William Eustis, February 9 and July 17, I 8 I I, "Dr. John Sibley and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier," T/,e Soutliwe.rlern Historical Q11art4rl,i, XLVIII, 547-549 and XLIX, ll 6-1 I 7. Hereafter references to this collection of letters of John Sibley as also of any oth_er articles in this publication will be cited as Tire Qt1arterly. 15 Sibley to Eustis, December 31, 18u, Tire Quarlerly, XLIX, 403-405. Trade with, Natchitoches. 16 For a description of the two routes and a map of the Neutral Ground, see J. Villasana Haggard, "The House of Barr and Davenport," Tire Quarterly, XLIX, 70.
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