Brazos Customs Post Re-Established - 1831
Despite Terán's reason for suspending the Galveston Maritime Customs in 1830, a modest post was established at the mouth of the Brazos in early 1831 by soldiers under Terán's command, using Anahuac as a base of operations.
Juan Davis Bradburn, acting in his role as commander of Fort Anahuac, reported that at some point in early 1831 he “... sent Captain James Lindsay with a sergeant and 10 soldiers (to the Brazos)... Señor Lindsay remained as Captain Of The Port and Don Juan Austin as administrator.... In September, Lieutenant (Ignacio) Domínguez went to take Lindsay’s place until Señor George Fisher should arrive ...”. Although Bradburn does not specify a date, this posting was probably before mid-Mar 1831, when a visitor “from the Northern States” aboard the sloop Majesty (out of New Orleans) landed at the beach near the Brazos by rowboat and, after overturning in the surf, reported “… we soon reached the house of Captain Cotton (Godwin Brown M. Cotten), where a flag was flying. It stands on the bank of the Brazos river, and is an inn, for the accommodation of passengers landing here, though a mere log house. The owner was formerly the editor of a Mexican gazette. … There were ten or twelve puny, dark-complexioned men, at Captain Cotton’s in uniforms, who I learnt were Mexican soldiers, stationed there to enforce the revenue laws.”. Cotten was formerly editor of the Texas Gazette, from Sep-1829 to Jan-1831, published at San Felipe de Austin, indeed the publisher of Fisher’s earlier notices. A record from this period has been preserved in the Samuel May Williams Collection which shows the ships that entered the Brazos River between 1-Mar- and 20-Aug-1831 (right), perhaps indicating that the post began operations at this point. A total of 9 ships (7 schooners, 2 sloops) were listed during this period of almost 6 months, carrying a total of 399 tons of cargo, earning 99 pesos and 6 reales in duties. |
Mary Austin Holley described the post on 22-Oct-1831 when she entered the mouth of the Brazos aboard the ship Spica: “... Here there is a Mexican garrison, and the tri-colored flag is hoisted, the first signal of our approach to a foreign land. .... On our right, in front of their palmetto-roofed, and windowless barracks, the lazy sentinels were ‘walking their lonely rounds,’ without excessive martial parade; nor did the unturretted quarters of the commanding officer, show forth much of the blazonry of a Spanish Don.” After a while, she further writes “We came to, before the door of the pilot’s house, which fronts the stream. The officer of the garrison boarded us, to examine our passports; a ceremony, the Mexicans are very tenacious of, from their known jealousy of foreigners. He was a young man, dark and rather handsome, in a neat Mexican uniform, probably his dress suit; for occasions of so much company, are not of every day occurrence, on this station”. This may have been Lt. Ignacio Domínguez. It remains unclear why customs duties were now being implemented, in light of Terán’s suspension of Fisher less than a year before under the claim that the Law of 6-Apr-1830 had extended duty-free privileges to the Texians until 1834. The list to the left shows ships entering at Anahuac, also reported by Bradburn on the same date (20-Aug-1831) but going back to 18-Dec-1830 - also charging duties of 2 reales per ton (1 peso = 8 reales). As Eugene C. Barker wrote “The early history of Mexico’s fiscal administration has been neglected by writers of its political history, so that it is very difficult for foreign students to obtain an intelligent conception of it.” In any event, the posting of a few soldiers at the Brazos was not fully successful as a customs post. |
On the Brazos, and disgruntled with the new requirement to travel overland to Anahuac for customs clearance, owners Edwin Waller and William H. Wharton attempted to sail their schooners Sabine (captained by Jeremiah Brown) and Nelson past the customs post on or about 15-Dec-1831. The ships were fired upon by the Mexican commander (Lt. Ignacio Domínguez) and his few troops (with muskets, as no artillery is mentioned) wounding Capt. Fuller on the Nelson, and a passenger returned the fire, injuring one Mexican soldier - arguably the very first anti-government bloodshed in a series of events that led to the Texas Revolution. Waller and Wharton were arrested and imprisoned at the “fort” (probably then a group of crude buildings) but soon released. The ship William A. Tyson and others had also passed without customs clearance. Stephen F. Austin wrote on 30-Dec-1831 that “The Officer at the mouth of the River has done his duty, so far as it was possible.” After entreaties to Bradburn at Anahuac, the Brazos port was reopened by posting an authorizing customs collector there, Lt. Juan Pacho (till then, Fisher’s assistant at Anahuac). Pacho established his office at Brazoria on 22-Jan-1832, as Stephen F. Austin and others had been suggesting, since Velasco lacked wharves and warehouses, but found immediately that he was not welcomed by some colonists. |
A narrative report that discusses all of the research on
the several Forts Velasco is available at the link below:
the several Forts Velasco is available at the link below:
<<< Suspension of the "Aduana Maritíma de Galvezton" < click for other pages > Creation of the First Fort Velasco >>>
Background wallpaper is from 1834 version of "Map of the State of Coahuila and Texas" by William Hooker of New York
Background wallpaper is from 1834 version of "Map of the State of Coahuila and Texas" by William Hooker of New York