Three Roads to the Alamo

by William C. Davis

  The journey to San Antonio took them from the flat landscape around San Felipe westward, where after a few miles the country started to take on contour and gentle rolling rises that continued all the way to Béxar. The forest was gone now, and it was all one continuous prairie, a sea of waving grass with occasional small islands of trees offering shade and a spring.77 San Antonio itself was still rather a squalid looking log-and-adobe town when they arrived, at least to eyes that had seen New Orleans and Boston, but its hospitality proved nonetheless generous.78 Veramendi welcomed Bowie and his companions, and Ursula certainly welcomed James in particular. This time there was more concrete discussion of the cotton mill plan, and Veramendi lent it his hearty endorsement, providing Bowie with an introduction and recommendation to one of the leading senators in the congress in Saltillo. Seguín also proved to be hospitable, and would be a friend second only to Veramendi in furthering Bowie's hopes for Texas. The alcalde of San Antonio had formerly been a congressman and was now a leading merchant, enjoying widespread respect in the area. His son Juan Nepomuceno Seguín was also an alderman in town, making them one of the most influential families in Béxar. Bowie met Moses Foster and Peyton Splane, who agreed to join his party.79

  Here, too, Bowie probably got the first news of what must have seemed a setback. However sincere he may or may not have been with the cotton mill idea, there is no question that he also intended to become a major landowner and speculator. But President Anastasio Bustamente in Mexico City grew wary of the growing numbers of norteamericanos and the way they were taking over. Mexico was a republic now, a federation of states—Coahuila y Tejas being one of them—with a constitution based heavily on the one drafted nearly half a century before in Philadelphia. Yet in adopting the letter of the Constitution, the Mexicans had not yet caught the spirit of the document, and even in their infancy as a republic suffered one of the strains that even then had started opening cracks in the Union east of the Sabine. Mexico City seemed constantly caught in conflicts between state sovereignty and national authority, and the most pressing example at the moment was the disposal of public lands. The 1824 constitution left it to each of the states to control its own immigration and land policy. As a result the 1825 colonization law that first attracted Bowie's interest was quite liberal, but as the balance of tejanos and immigrants shifted more and more in favor of the latter in Texas, Bustamente feared that someday there might come an attempt to wrest Texas away from Mexico and align it with the United States. He did not need to be reminded that such had been the intent of more than one of the filibusters who invaded the territory in the past three decades.

  It was time to stop the immigration and make firm Mexico's grip, and on April 6, 1830, Bustamente overrode state sovereignty and issued an edict that closed Texas's borders to more settlers from the United States, though Europeans were still welcome. Moreover, he decreed that Mexican soldiers were to garrison posts at Nacogdoches, Béxar, Goliad, Velasco, Anahuac, and elsewhere, and one of their duties would be to ensure that customs houses to be established received their proper excise. Until now Texians had simply ignored customs duties on their imports, and Mexico City let them get away with it, but no more. As for the soldiers, thirteen hundred of them, their very presence rankled, being redolent of the British occupation of the old colonies that so disturbed their grandfathers, and it did not help that many of the soldiers to be sent north would be released convicts.80 Bowie missed the initial uproar over the April 6 law because he was on his way out of Texas by late May, his party now grown to sixteen, including a few slaves. The country proved much rougher going now, some of it across virtually unsettled territory, and a large party promised mutual protection. Mules were the animals for this sort of trip, and aboard them they rode southwest 130 miles on the Camino de la Pita to the Presidio de Rio Grande. There they remained for a few days before crossing the Rio Grande to Piedras and moving deeper into Coahuila, following the de la Pita to the Sabinas River and then to Santa Rosa. There the road ran beside the mountains southward until they reached Monclova, the first real town since they left San Antonio. There they added another merchant to their party, before they left again after several days for the last 100 miles to Saltillo. It was not an easy journey. They went 60 miles before they found the first well by the road, whose rawhide bucket gave the water such a foul taste that even their mules would not drink. Bowie boiled the water first and then made it into coffee in order to keep it down. Then, too, a notorious bandit prowled the Camino de la Pita, but Bowie and his companions kept careful watch, and their number discouraged any assault.81

  When finally they reached the mountain town of Saltillo, they rejoiced, Ham confessing that he and Bowie “indulged freely” in drinking and bathing away the dust of the road. That done, Bowie found a two-story house to rent for a few months, and then set about the old business of winning friends. There were members of congress to call on and show his letters from Veramendi and others, and here he immediately had to summon his best resources. Only one member from Coahuila y Tejas was a norteamericano, all the rest being Mexican nationals, which meant that Bowie must polish his Spanish as well as his charm, and it was prudent of him to have bought a Spanish-English grammar and dictionary, not to mention a text on mechanics that would help explain the mill machinery itself.82 There were merchants and men of finance who might be investors in the cotton mill to cajole. By the beginning of August he saw himself making progress. “I am driving along tolerable well amongst these people,” he wrote to Samuel Williams, and added with some of his accustomed boast that he had “become something of a favourite at last.”83 At the same time, though, other Mexicans were not won over, and some circles came to regard him as simply a common braggart.84

  Bowie came to Saltillo with more than one agendum. The public reason was his cotton project, and by the time he wrote Williams, Bowie had made an intimate friend of Donoho and sent him back to San Felipe with news of the progress on that front. All parties in Saltillo welcomed the proposal, so there would be no trouble in gaining the charter he needed from the congress. But beyond that, and much less public, lay his old passion for land. The avenue to a large grant was cut off now, at least for the time being, by the April 6 law. Austin and other empresarios could get around that within their established colonies, but in any event a mere league of land was too small for James Bowie. He would have learned from Veramendi, if not others, that eleven-league grants for Texas land had been given to Mexican citizens on application during the past five years, Veramendi himself receiving one. They sold for one hundred to two hundred dollars per league depending on the nature of the ground, but few Mexicans had the money to apply, and of those who bought them, fewer still did anything with the property. If he could simply purchase some of these he would have more than enough land to start speculating, and this time legitimately.

  Williams took an interest in the scheme with him, and also Donoho, as well as S. Rhoades Fisher, a recently immigrated Pennsylvanian who scarcely knew Bowie, yet whom he so impressed that Fisher told Austin that “the most valuable emigrant you have ever had is James Bowie. I consider him of the first order of men.”85 Bowie and Fisher had discussed their land hopes with Austin and apparently gotten his blessing, suggesting that Austin, too, had fallen under Bowie's spell. The expectation seemed to be that at least two of the current eleven-league grant holders would sell out cheaply, and that was enough to make a start.86

  Inevitably Big Jim Bowie found a way to step between the laws. It developed that there were no grants to be had for sale in Saltillo, but having become a “favourite” with some of the Mexicans, he persuaded them to apply for the eleven-league awards, at the same time agreeing to buy them once awarded.87 Thus his lengthy stay in Saltillo, for it took time first to make friends, then more time to come to terms with them, and yet more for them to apply for and receive their grants. Meanwhile, one by one all the rest of his original party left except Ham and Donoho, and on August 1 he sent Donoho back to San Felipe t
o bring Williams news of his progress. In the end Bowie secured commitments to buy fifteen or sixteen new grants, and once again he was looking at a small empire. One square league contained 5,760 acres; all the grants combined totaled close to one million acres or more, and at a total cost of around $25,000. Moreover, it was not necessary for the grantees to pay all at once, and so with only a few thousand dollars Bowie could simply buy leases on the grants and make the actual purchase after he sold enough land himself to raise the necessary money. He was back in the land business again, and this time on a scale that dwarfed his Louisiana enterprise. Though perhaps a bit shady at the edges—some of the grants would just “happen” to fall on property already occupied by earlier settlers on prior Mexican grants—the enterprise was on the whole legitimate.88 But then Bowie was stymied when the large sum of money he expected Rezin to send from Natchez did not arrive.89 There seemed to be nothing to do but ask Ham to return all the way to Louisiana to get the money in person and bring it back to him.90

  Now Bowie stayed in Saltillo by himself on into the fall. Welcome relief came in early September when the Veramendi family arrived, for Juan Veramendi had been chosen lieutenant governor of the state and—though he would still spend much of his time in San Antonio—went to the capital to take his oath and assume office. Bowie enhanced the growing friendship, and passed most agreeable time with Ursula for the next several weeks, the interest between them clearly growing into open courtship. He might have been stymied in his suit late that month when a warrant for his arrest was issued, but it soon proved to be a mistake and did him no harm with the Veramendis.91 At the same time others of his plans came to fruition. On September 30 the congress granted his application for Mexican citizenship, making it conditional on fulfillment of his promise to build the mill.92 Five days later the congress granted him a concession to establish a cotton and woolen mill under the title Compania de Manufacturas de Coahuila at Monclova, with an authorized capitalization of one million pesos, to be raised through the sale of two thousand shares at five hundred pesos each. Once he sold one thousand shares, or raised five hundred thousand pesos, he could commence business.93

  That decree was the last to be heard officially of the cotton and woolen mill, though no doubt he continued to promote the idea. Bowie may have been feigning all the time, using the plan as a means of impressing Veramendi and others, or as a tool to secure his citizenship so that he could pursue his real interest in land. He may even have conceived it as a way of raising a fortune from investors by share sales, with no actual intent to spend the money on machinery. And of course it is possible that he really intended to establish the mill. Within a few months he would have a couple of machinists with him in Texas, presumably to set up the mill, and six months after getting his charter he did claim to have twenty thousand dollars in the hands of Angus McNeil in Natchez for “the buying of one machine and all the utensils necessary to a manufacturing plant of cotton goods and wool” from a Boston supplier. Bowie even kept with him a manual on mechanics. But it is just as probable that he made the claim only for the purpose of impressing Governor Veramendi.94 Besides, industry and manufacturing were not in James Bowie's temperament. They required too much careful preparation and long-range planning. His goals were always short term, exploiting a quick opportunity, and employing “confidence” in many meanings of the word. He may never have sold a single share in the new company, and the only loom he would ever operate in Mexico was the one on which he wove his own tangled webs.95

  With all of his business completed, or as complete as it could be until Ham returned with his money from Natchez, Bowie accompanied the Veramendi family on their return journey to San Antonio in October. Along the way, if not before, James made a formal proposal to Ursula and she accepted. Equally important, her father agreed to the marriage, though with a proviso.96 Perhaps he was not entirely convinced by Bowie's talk of his wealth back in Louisiana or of his bold plans for Texas. The man's interest in the San Saba mine made him a treasure hunter, and a treasure hunter could just as easily be a fortune hunter. As a condition of the union, Veramendi demanded to see a statement of Bowie's real assets, and at the time of the wedding he wanted Bowie's written pledge of a portion of those assets to Ursula for her protection and security. James and Ursula planned to be wed in the spring. That would give him time to return to Louisiana and close out all his remaining holdings there. He was making two commitments, now, one to Ursula, and the other to Texas. Whatever else might be said of James Bowie, when he fixed his mind on a purpose, like Crockett he went ahead.

  11

  TRAVIS

  1831-1833

  Mexicans have learned a lesson, Americans know their rights and will assert and protect them.

  WILLIAM BARRET TRAVIS, JULY 8, 1832

  Blooming dogwood and purple wisteria grew wild along the road from the Claiborne ferry. It would have brightened the spirits of the ordinary traveler, but William Travis, running away from his failure, probably failed to notice. As his horse's hooves kicked up the redorange earth of Clarke County, he set his eyes on the future and redemption. Along the way the great tufts of Spanish moss hanging from the trees offered at least a taste of Texas to come. The well-traveled road led straight across Mississippi to Natchez. With his taste for gambling he was fortunate if he escaped falling into one of the gaming dens on the bluff, or down in the notorious waterside area called Under-the-Hill. After Natchez he went overland to Alexandria, then on to Natchitoches, and so on into Texas by early May, only a few weeks behind the now newlywed Bowie.1

  Travis knew enough to go first to San Felipe. Though he felt no urge to be a farmer, still if he could get a piece of cheap land merely for the asking, he would be wise to do so. Men respected other men who owned land, and besides, it would be something to use as collateral if he needed to borrow money or to sell if he must. And to get land he had to see Stephen Austin. Knowing and caring little for the soil himself, he probably did not bother to scout property before he showed up in San Felipe in the first week of May.2 Undoubtedly, like so many before him, his introduction to Texian society came at Peyton's or Whiteside's, where others at the supper board eyed the newcomer and asked the inevitable questions: “What have you come to Texas for?” or, “What did he do that made him leave home?”3 Some may even have read the real answer in his face, regardless of what he said, for they knew the look of those immigrants who, as one traveler said, “fled their country, to shake off the burden of debt.”4

  Though Travis may have evaded their curiosity, he found immediate signs for hope. Within just a few days of his arrival he already did his first business, surely brought to him by word of mouth, for there had been no time to make his presence and purpose known, and in any case he did not intend to settle in San Felipe. On May 11 he was engaged to make out a petition over a contested note involving, among others, William H. Jack. When he finished with it he made the acquaintance of the alcalde, Frank Johnson, and presented the document for signature. It seemed an auspicious beginning.5 At the same time he introduced himself to Austin and Williams. He told them he was a lawyer from Alabama, which was true in principle, however little he had been able to make it a reality in practice, but prevaricated a bit when he listed himself as twenty-two instead of twenty-one, and rather a lot when he declared that he was not married as he filled out application number 588 for the standard quarter-league grant for single men.6 That done, on May 23 he gave Austin his promissory note for ten dollars, due in one year. He was paying less than one cent per acre.7

  Based either on what he had been told by de la Garza or had read in Alabama, or advice he got once in Texas, Travis turned his reins west from San Felipe, on the old trace that led to Harrisburg. There, as he crossed Buffalo Bayou, he could inspect his new property, the first he ever owned, though he had no intention of settling on it then. He was a town man, a professional. Another few miles east brought him to the San Jacinto River, where it flowed into the great Galveston Bay, and skirting the nor
thern rim of the bay he came to the mouth of the Trinity. Once across that and it was not much farther to Turtle Bayou, and then, on a low rise on the eastern side of Trinity bay, to Anahuac. It was an old Attacapan word that locals pronounced “anawack,” but its meaning lay forgotten in the dim past. A man who came just two months before Travis found it a pleasant village, bordered by poor soil called “pig-bed” prairie behind, and a thirty-foot bank down to the bay in front. About twenty log houses and another seven rather crude shops made up the town. Spanish moss hung from the trees, and redwing blackbirds nested in their branches, while out over the waters of the bay the graceful egrets and white herons and pelicans pressed their ceaseless quest for food. Alligators were numerous in the bay, where the locals joined the birds in dining off redfish, catfish, drum, and perch, not to mention crabs and oysters. Now and then they even pulled from the water a prehistoric-looking monster called the alligator gar, appearing to be half fish and half reptile. Ducks, wild turkeys, deer, and wild hogs also contributed to make the area a cornucopia, while the bears, wolves, wildcats, foxes, and more filled the nearby forests that dotted the prairie. Morning and evening the cacophony of the wild geese overhead could be heard for miles.8