The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985 Page: 56
476 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
harpoon the reptile, but it escaped. An 1840 emigrant guide noted
that Aransas Bay abounded "with fish and turtle," specifying that
... the largest and most valuable of all this tribe of animals is the sea or
soft shelled tortoise, which are abundant in and about Aransaso [sic] Bay.
They are very numerous, grow to a large size, and may be conveyed alive
to any required distance. It is unnecessary to say, that their flesh is a great
luxury, especially when prepared in that most savory form, turtle soup.
Such a dish, fit for London aldermen, may be cheap and ordinary food in
the south and west of Texas."7
In the early 1840s William Bollaert, who had a keen eye for land-
scapes, reported that game was plentiful around Black Point, present-
day Bayside, the old Spanish landing place where the Aransas River
meets Copano Bay. He hunted there in March, 1842, noting that a few
alligators prowled wetlands. Sharks were uncommon, but turtles, like
rabbits and cattle, were "in great abundance." 38
Several years later another report came from a U.S. soldier in the
Corpus Christi area. On July 23, 1845, Zachary Taylor and the Third
Regiment had sailed for Corpus Christi, "an adobe station used by
smugglers," where they established headquarters and prepared to de-
fend Texas's claim to the land between the Nueces and the Rio
Grande. In early September they were joined by additional troops,
among whom was Ulysses S. Grant. Grant remembered that military
life was filled with hunting on the prairies and that storms beached a
plentiful supply of green turtles.9
In spring, 1851, Teresa Vield sailed from New York to Texas with
her husband, Lieutenant Egbert L. Viel, who was taking up duties at
Ringgold Barracks. At New Orleans, the couple boarded the Globe,
an old steamship that was stranded and went to pieces shortly after
their voyage. Teresa's recollections of Galveston, probably in late
37Benjamin Lundy, The Life, Travels and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy (reprint ed.,
New York, 1969), 105 (ist quotation), lo6; [A. B. Lawrence], Texas in z840; or, The Emi-
grant's Guide to the New Republic (reprint ed., New York, 1978), 89 (2nd quotation),
201 (3rd quotation).
38Hollon and Butler (eds.), William Bollaert's Texas, 42, 43 (quotation); Webb, Car-
roll, and Branda (eds.), Handbook of Texas, I, 169-170. William Bollaert, "Notes on the
Coast Region of the Texas Territory: Taken during a Visit in 1842," Journal of the
Royal Geographical Society, XIII (1843), 226-244, failed to include turtles in an account
of Copano Bay (p. 23o) but did mention them for Matagorda (p. 232).
a9Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant (Boston, 186o), 124 (1st quotation), 125 (2nd quota-
tion); David M. Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexi-
can War (Columbia, 1973), 254-256, 373-374. Clark, The Texas Gulf Coast, I, 419, sug-
gests that the "green turtles 'stranded on the beach by storms'" were on St. Joseph's
Island.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985, periodical, 1984/1985; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101210/m1/78/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.