James Morgan to Sam Houston, May 10, 1843 - Page 1
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Private
Campeachy [Campeche] 10th May 1843 Monday
My Dear Genl
When I last had the pleasure of writing you I had every thing arranged
to take the vessels direct to Galveston & Com. Moore was to have gone immediately
up to Washington after our arrival there, believing that he could Satisfy you he
never had an intention of doing any thing but what he was legally authorized to do.
As I know, precisely, how this matter stood, I was disposed to get along to Galveston
as quietly as I could & took passage in the Austin. I found her in fine order
well equip’d & fitted for a cruise—a fine crew & a pretty full one; indeed, every
thing on board that could be needed for fighting; and must have been put there
at a vast expense to somebody! The Brig equally well man’d & fitted both
of them in better fighting trim, I presume, than they ever were before. That your
personal friends & the friends & the friends [sic] of Texas must have had some hand
in this there could be no doubt[.] And that Com. Moore found friends to aid
him in the matter, also, there is less doubt. Any how, the vessels were, really,
in apple pie order & great Solicitude felt in N.O., I could perceive for their
final success. At the moment of their starting, or on the day that it was und-
erstood we were to leave, a powerful effort was made by the Mex. Consul to
stop the vessels, by calling on the authorities in that place to do so; he, however,
failed in his object[.] [A]t least we got wind of his intention and frustrated his
design, by getting on board & off! The circumstances, alone, induced me
to believe that there was something wrong in the Mex. Navy & that the Consul
was fearful we would fall in & Capture it; but, still, I had my intention of going
out of the way to Galveston, until I got to the Balize, when two vessels arrived,
one 3 1/2 days, only, from Campeachy [sic], confirming, so fully, what I had conjectured, that
I was induced to Sanction a cruise along the Mex Coast on our way to Galveston.
The Steamer Montesuma [sic], we had fully ascertain’d, was alone at Telchae —
that her crew of Englishmen (some 30 or 40) on board, were under no restraint or deci-
pline [sic] whatever, and there appear’d a certainty of capturing her in Case we did
So fall in with her (alone). The rest of their fleet was represented in pretty much
like condition—and in fact every person whom I had seen, that any kind of reliance
could be placed in, told the same tale. As the time that might be consumed
in visiting the Mex. Coast on our way to Galveston would not exceed, I supposed, some
twenty days—or thirty at fartherest—and with the information I possessed I became
fully under an impression, that if you did not censure me for not visiting
Telchae, you would at least approbate it if I did—particularly, as you know had
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James Morgan to Sam Houston, May 10, 1843. Andrew Jackson Houston Papers # 3047, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.