The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 348
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
A somewhat different picture of this enterprise is presented
by later studies based on documents and records uninfluenced
by the romantics. Reeves, in The Napoleonic Exiles in America,"
has pictured the whole colonization scheme, sparked by the Gen-
erals Charles and Henri Lallemand, as being led by Imperial
die-hards who still dreamed of a new empire in America, where,
with a Bonaparte on the throne, the Old Guard could again
come into its own. The connections shown between attempts to
interfere in the Mexican revolution with an advance through
Texas on the one hand and similar plans of the Bonapartists to
meddle in South American destinies on the other rob the earlier
accounts of the innocence and pacific purpose they almost unan-
imously sought to purvey.
One exception to the idealistic picture drawn by contemporary
publications, perhaps unknown to or purposely avoided by later
studies of the episode, is a short account by an anonymous au-
thor, published in Paris in 1822.6 The author is described by
the editors as one of the Napoleonic exiles who enlisted in
the party of General Charles Lallemand.7 Because of the
unfavorable attitude towards confirmed Bonapartists and the un-
certainty as to how each stood in the eyes of the restored Bourbon
government, it is not surprising that the identity of the writer
should be concealed, perhaps as a part of the permission to print
the extract. This caution might have been unnecessary, but evi-
dently the French exiles concluded that each had to make his
individual peace with the restoration government before his re-
turn--witness the Lallemands and even Louis Bonaparte.
This account is significant, however, in that it is not a part of
5Three standard discussions of this phase of the French intrusion into Texas
are J. S. Reeves, The Napoleonic Exiles in America, Johns Hopkins University
Studies in Historical and Political Science, XXIII (1905), 531-656; H. G. Warren,
The Sword Was Their Passport, 189-232; Carlos E. Castafieda, Our Catholic Heri-
tage in Texas, 5z9-z936 (6 vols.; Austin, 1936-1948), VI. A short account is also
found in H. H. Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas (2 vols.;
1886-1889), II, 44-45.
a"Notice sur l'exp6dition des Francais, dans le Texas et sur le pays de Attahapas,
encore peu connu et habits par une colonie de Frangais Canadiens: Extrait d'une
lettre d'un jeune r6fugi6 Frangais au Champ-d'Asile, Journal des Voyages, decou-
vertes et Navigations modernes, XVI (1822), 194-204.
7This author is not to be confused with the Charles N..., who was responsible
for a letter with similar title but entirely different content published in the
Minerve frangaise, II (1821), 525-526.348
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/460/?rotate=90: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.