Our Catlzolic Heritage in Texas
of invading Spanish territory, but failure of the Spaniards to with- draw west of the Sabine would be considered a violation of American territory. 95 Herrera replied the next day, in a firm and dignified note, that th<:: troops under his command had advanced east of the Sabine, and had taken positions according to instructions received from the commandant general. His orders were to hold the occupied ground against any inva- sion of the king's domain. This territory belonged to Spain from time immemorial and was an integral part of Texas. He took occasion to protest against the unjustified attack made recently upon a small Spanish detachment by American troops and warned that he could not permit the usurpation of Spanish territory. 96 The two commanders now stood poised while the war clouds gathered rapidly. Governor Claiborne, who had been granted a leave of absence to visit his family in Tennessee, was at the time in Concordia near Natchez. He immediately rushed to Natchez for a conference with Cowles Meade, acting governor of the Mississippi Territory. They issued a joint proclamation on August 17, calling upon the people to aid the regular troops in expelling the Spaniards from Bayou Pierre. The Orleans Gazette published a sensational account, declaring that 900 men under the governor of Texas had advanced to within twelve miles of Natchitoches. 97 Claiborne formally took up American grievances with Herrera on August 26. He stated that the territory under dispute should be left unoccupied. The advance of troops east of the Sabine River could be considered in no other light than that of an unfriendly act to the United States. But this was not the only unfriendly act committed recently. Major Freeman and his party had been arbitrarily stopped on .the Red River and forced to give up a purely scientific expedition; a group of Spanish troops had entered a Caddo village and had cut down the staff from which an American flag flew; and a party of Spanish soldiers had seized Shaw, Irwin, and Brewster, three American citizens, within twelve miles of Natchitoches and had sent them as prisoners to Nacogdoches. Last but not least, slaves in Louisiana had been encouraged 9ST. H. Cushing to Lieutenant Colonel Herrera, August s, 1806. State Papers and Publick Documents, II, 163-164. 96Herrera to Cushing, August 6, 1806. Nacogdocltes Archives, X, pp. 164-165. 91McCaleb, Tl,e Aaron Burr Cons,pirac,y, 117-II8.
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