The Count Raoussett-Boulbon--A father "de la vieille roche"--Raoussett's
contract to garrison Sonora--Proclamations and pronunciamientos--
Battle of Hermosillo--Negotiations with Santa Ana--Expedition to
Guaymas--Engagement and defeat--Last words of a noble adventurer--
Death of the Count.
To Mexico the gift of liberty was as the boon of eternal life to the
wandering Jew. Freed from the exactions of a despotic master, absolved
by the bounty of nature from the stern, ceaseless struggle for physical
life, stirred no longer by the warlike spirit of the conquerors, the
Latin races in America seemed for a time to have fallen into a
condition of hopeless lethargy.
To redeem this fair land, with its boundless mineral and agricultural
wealth, from the hands of its slothful owners, was a dream which fired
the ambition and, it may be added, the cupidity of many daring minds.
With the decline and final overthrow of Spanish power the richest mines
of Northern Mexico were abandoned for lack of strength to repel the
never-subdued and ever-hostile Indian tribes. Mexico was weak, torn by
strife, and disorganized. In her feeble hands the mines of Sonora and
Arizona were literally "treasure hoarded in the ground."
There was in California, in 1852, a man of high birth and humble
calling, a day labourer, with the proudest French ancestral blood in
his veins--a soldier of Algiers, a count by birth and rank.
Raousset-Boulbon, or, to give him his full name and title, Count Gaston
Raoulx de Raousset-Boulbon, was a prodigal. He had squandered his
substance in the riotous living of Paris and come to the land of gold
to mend his fortunes. Unhappily for his peaceful aspirations,
California, in 1852, offered a poor field to the man whose only gifts
were education, the use of arms, nobility of soul, and a patrician
title. Such endowments were neither rare nor deemed precious in that
primitive community. The poet has sung, and the novelist painted, the
wild contrasts of that marvellous period, but no flight of fancy could
exaggerate the picture. San Francisco, the sea-port, was a truly
cosmopolitan city. There were two French newspapers published daily, so
great were the attractions of El Dorado to the rarely migrating Gaul.
Among the hundreds of his countrymen who, like himself, had failed to
find a fortune in the golden state, Gaston judged that he might easily
enroll a band of adventurers for any bold undertaking. He was not
mistaken when the occasion offered itself. In the indescribable human
medley of California the Count Raousset-Boulbon cannot be said to have
been out of place. Nobody, nothing was that. He was discontented with a
career hitherto fruitful only in misfortune.
He was the son of an _émigré_ of the old stamp, a self-willed fantastic
old man, who carried the sternest rules of obedience into the most
trifling domestic affairs, and might have adopted the motto, "L'état,
c'est moi." His scheme of government may be inferred from a brief
anecdote recounted by the biographer of Gaston. The latter, returning
from Paris, appeared at home with two things distasteful to his sire--a
beard and a cigar. "Madam," said the father to his wife, the stepmother
of Gaston, "it would give me pain to argue with my son, and I could not
brook opposition. The cigar I can overlook; but pray tell him that it
pleases me not to see one of his age wear a beard like a 'moujik,' and
that I shall be obliged to request its sacrifice." Gaston grudgingly
obeyed the royal edict, for which he was formally thanked. Some days
after the sire spoke again, "Madam, I authorize you to say to my son
that he may let his beard grow again. Upon second thoughts I do not
find it unbecoming." Compliance followed as before; but the tardy
efforts of nature did not satisfy the old count, who gravely decided
that "a beard does not become Gaston. Madam, I beg you to tell him once
more that he must shave." Gaston, instead of obeying, packed his
portmanteau and fled to Paris, and was forthwith disowned by his irate
parent.
His life in Paris was that of a Bohemian, until the death of his
father, in 1845, enabled him to carry out a dear ambition, that of
founding a colony in Algiers; but the revolution of 1848 recalled him
to France and to a political career. He conducted a newspaper, _La
Liberté_, and was twice elected to the Assembly. Beaten in a third
candidacy he forsook politics in disgust, and turned his eyes towards
California. Paris in 1850 counted as many as twenty Californian
societies for organized emigration. Gaston, restless, weary, and yet
fired with the longing for some great deed, was almost penniless when,
in his thirty-second year, he took a third-class passage for
California, along with a dozen compatriots of various ranks.
Reaching the wondrous city, which his biographer aptly calls "the
modern Babel, with the confusion of tongues," Gaston, with a manliness
little to be expected in one of his training, betook himself to the
stern duty of earning a livelihood by hard labour. He tried fishing,
which barely earned him bread. As a lighterman he did better, until the
building of a wharf ruined his business. A speculative enterprise for
importing cattle from Lower California proved "more picturesque than
profitable." At this juncture when, in his own words, "a gendarme would
have charged on me at full gallop," so wretched was his appearance, his
friend, M. Dillon, the French Consul at San Francisco, procured him
letters of introduction to Señor Arista, President of Mexico, and
Gaston repaired to the capital of that country, full of enthusiasm. The
banking-house of Jecker, Torre and Co. acting as agents of the
Government, signed a contract with Gaston, whereby the latter pledged
himself to land at Guaymas, in Lower California, a company of five
hundred French immigrants, armed and equipped for military duty,
ostensibly and immediately for the protection of the Restauradora
Mining Company against the incursions of the Arizona Indians, but
really intended to serve as the nucleus of an extensive French colony,
to be used as a barrier against the supposed encroachments of their
American neighbours. Already the expansion of the United States in the
direction of Mexico and the Pacific coast had aroused the jealousy of
Europe. There is no doubt that Gaston's scheme for the protection of
Mexico, befriended as it was by the representative of France in
California and the French minister in Mexico, M. Levasseur, was not
without substantial aid from the home government. The banker Jecker
played a leading part, years afterwards, in the ill-starred attempt of
Napoleon III. to found an empire in Mexico.
As a present reward for his services in protecting the Arizona mines,
Gaston was to have a share in all their profits. He was yet to learn,
as the royal Maximilian did later, that a bargain needs more than two
parties to ensure its fulfilment, in Mexico. Arista was President of
Mexico, but Governor Blanco ruled in Arizona. Arizona is a state of
boundless mineral wealth, and little else. "Ruins of houses, ruins of
churches, ruins of towns, and, above all, ruins of crouching men and of
weeping women," is Gaston's graphic summary of Sonora and Arizona as he
found them in 1852. Two hundred and sixty gallant Frenchmen landed at
Guaymas on the 1st of June, and were warmly hailed as deliverers by the
fickle populace. Governor Blanco, however, showed himself strangely
lukewarm towards his new allies, whom he peremptorily forbade to leave
Guaymas. The reason of his opposition was simple. He was interested in
a rival company to the Restauradora. Vexatious delays followed. The
recruits lost heart and hope. Gaston, chafing at the delay, had gone
forward to Hermosillo, whither he brought his followers, after vainly
awaiting the governor's leave to set out for Arizona. Blanco thereupon
decided to offer these alternatives: "The Frenchmen shall renounce
their nationality, or I shall compel them to leave the country." Gaston
protested vainly in a letter to the French minister, and kept on his
march to Arispe. He wrote also to Governor Blanco, who temporized and
offered new conditions, denationalization of the company, their
reduction to a maximum force of fifty, or a guaranty that they should
not violate an ancient Mexican law forbidding foreigners to own real
estate, mines, or other such property. These propositions were laid
before the company by Gaston, who, at the same time, offered the means
of departure to any who wished to avail themselves of them. Not a man
was found willing to accept the opportunity. Gaston then, in a firm but
temperate note, declined to accede to Blanco's terms, claiming for
himself and his followers the fulfilment of their contract with the
government of Mexico. Blanco threatened to treat the strangers as
pirates and outlaws. To some of them he made secret offers of rich
rewards if they would betray their comrades.
In these straits, harassed also by the savage Apaches, Gaston took up
the line of march back to Hermosillo. On the 30th of September they
encamped at the pueblo of La Madelaine. Here, as elsewhere in Mexico,
the national gallantry of the adventurers, "half-heroes, half-bandits,"
as they were, won them immense favour with the fair Sonoriennes, though
it is doubtful if the latter's graver brethren took so kind a view of
"_fenêtres escaladeés, des maris infortunés, des duels, des processions,
des bals, des representations theatrales_," and the other exploits
faithfully chronicled by the light-hearted chief.
A sterner welcome met them in another summons from Blanco: "Surrender
your arms, or prepare to be treated as outlaws." Gaston, feeling that
either choice promised little of mercy, proceeded to force the issue at
once by hastening his march upon Hermosillo. By striking there a
decisive blow he expected to rally around his standard the always
numerous body of disaffected citizens, and so prepare the way for the
independence of Sonora. Despatching an emissary to California for
recruits, he set out, on the 6th of October, by the southerly road for
Hermosillo. Fifty leagues from that city Blanco lay at Arispe,
uncertain of his enemy's plans. Gaston's force numbered two hundred and
fifty-three men, including forty-two horsemen and twenty-six marine
veterans detailed to serve the four small cannon of the little army.
Among them were many old soldiers of Africa and barricade veterans of
Paris. Four or five months of sojourn in the Arizona deserts had not
improved their looks. But with a good-natured patience truly French
they made light of their troubles, jested at their sorry attire, and
when their boots gave out made sandals of hides, or trudged along
barefoot. In such guise and manner they marched to Hermosillo, but a
few hours too late, for Blanco had distanced them by forced journeys,
and thrown a body of twelve hundred men into the town. Gaston, without
waiting to rest his weary followers, gave orders to attack. In less
than an hour he was master of the place, and General Blanco was flying
with the remnant of his command to Ures. Yet the latter could better
spare his two hundred killed and wounded than the little band of
adventurers could afford their loss of forty-two. To the filibuster
there are no reserves.
But a greater calamity awaited the expedition. Gaston was stricken down
with sickness in the hour of victory, and, feeling the insecurity of
his position, gave reluctant orders to march to Guaymas. His malady,
dysentery, grew worse as they advanced. Within three leagues of Guaymas
they halted at the rancho Jesus Maria. Envoys from Blanco met them
there and treated for a parley between the two commanders, of which
nothing came but a short-lived truce. That evening Gaston was
delirious, nor were suspicions of poison wanting. The French camp
became panic-stricken, so that M. Calvo, Vice-Consul of France at
Guaymas, and himself a partner in Blanco's rival mining company, easily
persuaded the subordinates to sign a treaty resigning the contract and
agreeing to leave the country. Gaston awoke from a three-weeks' stupor
to find himself without an army. He was permitted to leave the country,
and returned to San Francisco with his ambition only whetted by his
late trials.
There was to be no mistaking the nature of his future operations. The
next expedition should be made up solely of Frenchmen and soldiers, its
avowed end the independence of Sonora. "These men shall be fully warned
that they go to Sonora to fight; that their fortunes rest on the points
of their bayonets; that if they be conquered they shall infallibly
perish as pirates; that it is for them a matter of victory or death."
His friend, President Arista, had resigned his office, in the face of
civil war, on the 6th of January, 1853. Mexico was in worse than its
normal state of anarchy. A dictatorship was proclaimed, and Santa Ana
recalled to govern the wretched country. One of his first acts was to
send for De Boulbon, who, upon promise of a safe conduct, visited the
capital.
The interview was dramatic between the old, crafty, and cold-blooded
butcher of the Alamo, and the young, romantic, hot-headed conqueror of
Hermosillo. The latter was in the prime of manhood, of medium size,
well-proportioned and graceful, erect, broad-browed, with open, frank
eyes, and fair hair and beard. Santa Ana, versed in the thousand wiles
of Mexican diplomacy, and rightly appreciating the skilled courage of
his guest, would have enlisted his talents in the dictator's personal
service. Gaston steadily besought a confirmation of the original
contract. Four months were spent with all the tardiness of Spanish
negotiation in realizing that object. At last a treaty was prepared,
binding the Count to garrison Arizona with five hundred French
soldiers, who were to receive a total compensation of 90,000 francs,
the Government advancing 250,000 francs for outfit and other expenses.
The treaty was solemnly signed, attested, and annulled within a
fortnight! Gaston was furious. The dictator blandly repeated his offer
of a regiment and personal service at the capital, an offer which the
Count spurned as an insult. "You offer me," he said, "a favour that is
personal, when I ask for justice to myself and my brave men. Should I
accept, what would be your opinion of me? what the opinion of those
whom I should command? General, I have the honour to be a Frenchman.
When I pledge my word I keep it." So the two adventurers parted in the
halls of Montezuma.
Gaston, burning with indignation, easily fell into sympathy with some
of the every-ready malcontents conspiring against the new government.
The plot was found out, but Gaston received warning in time to put
fifty miles of hard riding between him and the fatal anger of Santa
Ana.
He returned to San Francisco, his old sense of wrong aggravated by this
new grievance. With singular inconsistency we find him writing to a
correspondent in France, in bitter complaint of the apathy shown
towards his scheme by the "intelligent and rich" Americans, at the same
time that he warns his compatriots against the designs of the United
States on the territory of Mexico and the world at large. His gloomy
forebodings must awaken a smile, in view of the actual results, yet
they speak a sentiment which was powerful enough, ten years later, to
work out the imperial tragedy of Maximilian.
"Europeans," he says, "are disturbed by the growth of the United
States, and rightly so. Unless she be dismembered, unless a powerful
rival be built up beside her, America will become, through her
commerce, her trade, her population her geographical position upon two
oceans the inevitable mistress of the world. In ten years Europe dare
not fire a shot without her permission. As I write, fifty Americans
prepare to sail for Lower California, and go perhaps to victory.
_Voila les Etats-Unis!_"
On the 2nd of April, 1854, three hundred French military colonists
sailed from San Francisco, upon a formal invitation from the Mexican
consul, to perform the duty formerly allotted to De Boulbon; the latter
had been declared an outlaw by the Government. Nevertheless he resolved
to hazard a descent upon Arizona, counting on the fidelity of those
colonists and the moral support of the French Government, still uneasy
over the ambitious designs of the United States. On the 24th of May
he sailed from San Francisco on the little schooner _Belle_. His
departure was hurried, as the United States authorities, warned of his
purpose, had taken steps for his arrest and detention. In his haste he
was forced to leave behind a small battery which he had bought for the
expedition. The captain of the _Belle_, an American, hesitated to
put to sea, but Gaston (so says his biographer) promptly put him in
irons and took command of the vessel himself. His avowed object was the
carrying out of the original contract of 1852, namely, the protection
of the mines of Arizona; but Arizona had meanwhile become American
territory, under the Gadsden treaty of 1853. Hence the present attempt
of Gaston was filibustering, pure and simple, if not something worse.
The voyage was long and tedious, lasting thirty-five days. On the 27th
of June they came in sight of Guaymas. Landing at Cape San José, he
sent two of his men to the city to prepare the three hundred Frenchmen
there for his coming, and to concert a plan of action. The envoys were
recognized and thrown into prison by General Yanes, who had succeeded
Blanco in the governorship of Sonora. An amicable but fruitless parley
followed between the commandant and Gaston. They arranged a sort of
armed truce, which lasted until the 8th of July; but it needed only a
small spark to explode magazines of such fiery material as formed the
two rival garrisons of Guaymas. The French company, overweening, vain,
and quick-tempered, met and jostled the dark-browed peons, jealous,
revengeful, and proud. Both were armed, both quarrelsome as gamecocks.
The French put faith in their national valour, the Mexicans in their
national odds of eight to one. At the first outbreak, some petty street
brawl, the native soldiers sounded the general alarm. The French rushed
to their quarters, whence they sallied, fully armed, and met the
irregular attack of the enemy with a resistance as unmethodical as
intrepid. For three hours the battle raged on the rocky streets of
Guaymas. Gaston, always a gentleman by instinct, refused the proffered
leadership, as that honour belonged to Desmarais, the commissioned
chief of the three hundred. He commanded a company, however, and fought
with splendid courage, until, twice wounded, his men in retreat and
everything lost, he broke his sword over his knee, and led the remnant
of his force to the French Consulate, where they formally surrendered
to their country's representative. An hour later they gave up their
arms, upon the pledge of M. Calvo, backed by the promise of General
Yanes, that their lives should be spared. Gaston was thrown into
prison. Ten days later he was taken before a court-martial, tried, and
condemned to death as a traitor and rebel. "Mark that they did not name
me once as a filibuster," he wrote home.
The American consul, Major Roman, pleaded earnestly, but vainly, for
mercy. M. Calvo would not interfere. Gaston in the hour of trial bore
himself with manly fortitude, begging only, and not in vain, to be
spared the indignity of dying with bound hands and bandaged eyes. The
faith of his childhood returned to him, and his lifelong unrest shaped
itself into perfect peace and resignation. The "old nobility," too,
spoke out in his farewell letter to his brother, a curious blending of
worldly pride, Christian humility, and philosophic fatalism. "It is my
loyalty to my word that has dug my grave.... A mysterious chain,
beginning at the cradle, leads to the tomb, and life is but a link
thereof.... M. Calvo will bear witness that I died as became a
gentleman.... To-morrow morning I shall have burned my last cap and
fired my last cartridge.... Tell your children that Uncle Gaston died
with a priest at his side, and that yet Uncle Gaston was a brave
man.... If any wonder that I submit to this death, you may say that I
look upon a suicide as a deserter.... I go to death a gentleman, and I
die a Christian." The philosophy of this dying chevalier throws a
little light upon his strange character. He died with touching and
simple bravery, on August 12, 1854, at the age of thirty-six. Eleven
years afterwards another and more imposing filibuster, lured to Mexico,
partly by the intrigues of the same commercial house which had held the
glittering bait before the eyes of poor Gaston, died with equal
firmness at the hands of his executioners. Maximilian of Austria, Prim
of Spain, and Napoleon of France, all played with fire, like the
ill-fated Count Gaston Raoulx de Raousset-Boulbon, and all, like him,
suffered.
But another and stranger being had witnessed the bootless expedition to
Guaymas in 1852, and drawn his own false moral from the example before
him--with what results will be told hereafter.