Pre-paring to Weatlzer tlie Storm, 1790-1800
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able difficulties presented by the extensive, unsettled region [between Nacogdoches and this place] which is full of rivers and liable to terrible floods, the settlers are deprived of the hope of securing anything . . . from these regions." Any attempt to deprive them effectively of trade with Louisiana would result in starvation and the abandonment of this advanced post. 92 Extent of leakage. Fortunately, a list of the foreigners in Nacog- doches and its vicinity was prepared in 1804, which reveals how many had succeeded in squeezing through the half-closed door and in estab- lishing themselves in Texas. Of the sixty-eight on the list, fifty had been in the province three or more years. In this group were included Americans, Irishmen, Frenchmen, and Englishmen. The earliest for- eigners to settle in Nacogdoches seem to have been French who entered in 1778; the first English arrived in 1783, and three years later the Irish appeared upon the scene. By 1789 Americans had begun to trickle into Texas. Those listed are far from the actual number who slipped unobserved across the frontier and penetrated far into the interior to trade with the natives and to steal horses. 93 Typical of the latter is the case of Juan Calbert, whose name does not appear in the list cited. He was caught in the villages of the Tawakoni and Taovaya Indians in the summer of 1795, and taken first to Nacogdoches, and then sent to San Antonio. Upon being ques- tioned by the governor, he answered that he was a native of Philadelphia, a Presbyterian, gunsmith by trade, and that about six years before he had gone to Fort Pitt on the Ohio, then drifted down that riYer to the Mississippi. He had lived for a while in Natchez and New Orleans, later moved to Natchitoches, and finally had gone directly to the country of the Tawakonis and Taovayas. He had lived among them for fourteen months, during which time he had gone hunting buffalo with them. He had kept their guns in repair. Asked how far it was to his home in Pennsylvania, he estimated the distance to San Antonio to be seven hundred leagues. Calbert requested permission to settle in Spanish terri- tory and to practice his trade. The commandant general acceded to the request and instructed Munoz to permit him to settle in Coahuila. The following year he was arrested in Candela, but was released upon presenta- 92 Nava to Elguezabal, August 4, 1801. Bexar Arc/Jives; Hatcher, M. A., The Openi11g of Texas to Foreign Settlement, 1801-1821, 304. 93 List of the foreigners in the pueblo ... Nacogdoches, January 1, 1804. Cited in Hatcher, Tlie O,Pe11ing of Texas, 297-300.
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