The Lord of Galveston was at the height of his power in March, 1818,
when a colony composed of his own countrymen sailed into the bay. They
were led by General Lallemand, one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s old officers.
The empire had fallen, Bonaparte was in exile at St. Helena, and
Lallemand, no longer happy or safe in France, decided to form somewhere
in the New World a _Champ d’Asile_ (Place of Refuge). His choice finally
fell upon Texas. He left France in October, 1817, with four hundred men
and several women and children. He and his brother officer, General
Rigaud (the latter being eighty years old), were received with stately
courtesy by Lafitte, who assisted them greatly in their preparations for
the journey to the place chosen for their colony.
This was on the banks of the Trinity River, about sixty miles from its
mouth. When all was ready the two generals, with one hundred men,
traveled thither by land; the others set out by water with a number of
small boats carrying provisions, ammunition, etc.
After several days’ march the land party reached its destination, where
the boats should have arrived before them. The boats were not there.
Lallemand and his men were already without food, as they had started
with an insufficient supply. They began to suffer the pangs of hunger,
filled at the same time with anxiety about the missing boats. While in
this condition they found in the woods around a sort of wild lettuce,
large quantities of which they boiled and ate. No sooner had they eaten
than they were seized with violent and deathlike convulsions. Lallemand,
Rigaud, and one of the surgeons had not tasted the poisonous herb. But
they were powerless to help, the medicines being on the boats.
Thus they were in despair when a Coushatti Indian, drawn by curiosity,
came into the camp. He looked with amazement at the ninety-seven men
stretched out and apparently dying on the ground. Lallemand, showing him
the fatal herb, explained to him by signs what had happened. The Indian
sprang swift as an arrow into the forest, and in a short time
reappeared, his arms filled with a feather-like weed. It was the
antidote of the poison the men had eaten; he boiled and made a drink of
it; and, thanks to his skill and kindness, they all recovered.
Some days later the boats arrived. The voyagers had been unable at first
to find the mouth of the river, hence the delay.
The colonists went to work with a will upon their settlement. They built
four small forts,—Forts Charles and Henry, Middle Fort, and Fort
Palanqua,—mounted eight cannons, and hoisted the French flag. Then they
busied themselves with their own houses and fields.
They were very happy, these self-exiled French people. They labored in
their fields and gardens by day; at night they sang and danced and made
merry, looking forward to long and peaceful lives in their new home.
But the grain was hardly ripe in their fields when word came that
Spanish soldiers from San Antonio and Goliad (La Bahia) were marching
upon them to destroy them, or to drive them out of the country. They
were not strong enough to resist such a force, so they abandoned their
cabins and smiling gardens and returned to Galveston. A violent storm
swept over the island a few days after their arrival there. Lafitte lost
two brigs, three schooners, and a felucca; the unfortunate colonists
lost not only their boats, but all their clothing and supplies.
Lafitte gave them the _San Antonio_, a small ship captured from the
Spaniards, and provided them with food and clothes. Some of them sailed
to New Orleans in the _San Antonio_; others made their way overland to
Nacogdoches; thence to Natchitoches, to Baton Rouge, and at length to
New Orleans, whence by the kindness of the citizens they were able to
get back to France.