Part V: My Father the God – © 2015 (sequel to Those Who Fought for Us)
Having completed his first year at Harvard University, Scotsman Sloan Stewart begins the summer of 1941 working at The Orchard Inn with his friends James, Isolde and Sabrina. But entanglements inevitably lead to a shocking event, one that will transform each of them irrevocably through war, peace, and ultimately, the remainder of their lives. Can they ever surmount the errors of their youth?
Galileo’s Lost Message - © 2016
An intricate mystery for those interested in the history of science. When Contessa Antonietta Floridiana telephones Professor Paul Woodbridge, she asks, “Suppose Galileo wrote a secret encoded message at the end of his life. Would the professor perhaps be able to decode it?” The quest for the solution to Galileo's Lost Message will lead the pair on a search that will alter the course of history.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/624146
Sneak Peek
Hawk Banks – Founding Texas
By
D. Allen Henry
Foreword
As far back as anyone can remember, there have always been disparate groups of people living in Western Europe. For a period of time around two thousand years ago the Romans seem to have united many of these into a single Republic, and ultimately, an Empire. But the old underlying tensions, related to culture, language, and even physical appearance came back. After the Roman Empire fell in 476, the lack of a central government caused the written word to disappear rapidly, thereby leading to the reescalation of the old cultural barriers. By the time of the Renaissance in the 14th century, deep seated mistrust pervaded national and ideological boundaries throughout Western Europe.
By the dawn of the 16th century a new wave of world exploration was underway, fueled by the expeditions of Columbus, Cabral, and others. In 1522-24 members of Magellan’s crew circled the globe under the Spanish flag. The Portuguese were their chief competitors in these endeavors but, thirsty for new sources of wealth, practically every country of any significance had joined the competition by the end of the century.
The Spanish were the leaders of exploration in the Central part of the Americas. Cortez crossed the Isthmus of Panama and subdued the Aztecs. And to the north, Coronado and De Vaca were the first explorers from Europe to pass through the area we now call Texas. The Spanish missions were later built throughout the southern area of the United States. In 1793, the mission San Antonio de Valero was built along the San Antonio River. Today we call that mission the Alamo.
Further east, in the colonies, events were unfolding around the same time that would eventually lead to conflict in the area known today as Texas. The American Revolution, as it is called today, was really a colonial revolt rather than a revolution, albeit a successful one in that its outcome was the creation of the United States of America. This new country became a magnet for the poor, the dispossessed, the outlawed, and the gold diggers of Europe. Having no other opportunities to improve their lives, migrants pushed westward across the Atlantic in increasing numbers, resulting in an ever expanding pressure for settlers to move inland in the early part of the nineteenth century in a quest for the one thing that was most revered for sustaining human life – land.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, understood this fact intimately, having himself become a significant land owner in Virginia. With a bold stroke, he purchased Louisiana from Napoleon in 1803 for fifteen million dollars, thereby doubling the size of the fledgling country. And while his expenditure was questioned at the time, no one has since been so naive.
While the Louisiana Purchase temporarily quenched the quest for land by the settlers in North America, it was inevitable that the unchecked migration of Europeans would eventually mean that even more land was needed. At the southwestern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase lay a vast territory claimed by the Spanish since the times of the great explorations of the early sixteenth century. This territory included Texas, and by the 1820’s it was well within the sites of the settlers pressing westward.
It was at this point that Moses Austin sought and received approval from the Spanish government to colonize a largely unpopulated portion of southeast Texas that stretched roughly eastward from the San Antonio River to the Trinity River. Having secured this dispensation, he was in route back to Missouri to fetch his family in 1821 when he contracted pneumonia, from which he ultimately died.
His son Stephen was destined to take up his father’s quest and colonize Texas with a group of settlers that would come to be known as “the old three hundred”. In 1822 Stephen Austin arrived in southeast Texas with his hand-picked families. They were essentially the first non-Hispanic settlers of any significance to settle in Texas. As such, their allegiance was supposed to be to the country of Spain, which ruled Texas through their colony of Mexico. But by the time the colonists arrived in Texas in 1822 Mexico had gained independence from Spain, and the colonies thenceforth fell under the rule of the Republic of Mexico.
At the time Mexico had an estimated population of eight million people. The northern portion of Mexico, called Coahuila y Tejas to the citizens of Mexico, was considered to be a wild and largely uninhabited territory of little value. Perhaps ten thousand Mexican citizens lived in the entire area north of the Rio Grande (called the Rio Bravo in Mexico).
The military hero of the Mexican war for independence from Spain was the mercurial Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. He led the Mexican army to a great victory at Veracruz in 1821, thereby securing independence from Spain for Mexico.
Thus, shortly after arriving in Texas, the old three hundred found themselves without a treaty, as their colony had been established by Stephen Austin’s father with the government of Spain. Not to be deterred, Austin travelled to Mexico City and secured a new treaty for the colony in Texas. The three hundred became citizens of the newly formed country of Mexico, and would remain so until they found it necessary themselves to revolt more than a decade later.
Within this patchwork of Americans, Europeans, and Mexicans north of the Rio Grande a sort of camaraderie was to develop during the decade of the 1820’s that was respectful and even friendly despite the barriers imposed by differences in language and culture. Although Hispanics were more common west of the San Antonio River, east of the San Antonio River Mexican villas and haciendas were to become neighbors to English speaking settlers who were for the most part farmers. This sparsely populated region composed almost entirely of immigrants flourished because the populace shared a single common desire – to build a new life on the Texas plains.
Unfortunately, the peaceful coexistence among the settlers was to be repeatedly assailed by the government of Mexico to the south. And occasionally the intrusions came in the form of incursions by military forces. It would not be a stretch to say that the settlers who lived in Texas at the time, no matter where they came from, were coexisting for the most part contentedly, but as is so often the case, distant governments are prone to misunderstand the local populace. Such was the case on multiple occasions in Texas.
By the early 1830’s the government of Mexico had become more and more incursive. Whether this was intrinsic or was caused by the repeated waffling of Lopez de Santa Anna is immaterial, the reality is that Santa Anna seized power and formed a new government with himself as president of Mexico in 1832. Over the succeeding months he enacted laws that seemed capricious to the Texians, they having been used to the democratic ways of England and the United States. Eventually, Santa Anna repealed the Mexican constitution of 1824, thereby essentially setting himself up as de facto dictator of Mexico. Unfortunately, this did not sit well at all with the Texians.
The result was the so-called Anahuac disturbance in the summer of 1835. A Mexican army was sent by sea northward from Veracruz to quell a perceived uprising by a band of Texians, and although the outcome was peaceful, the seeds had been laid for a coming revolution.
Prologue
Texas Beckons
I have given England a maritime rival who will sooner or later humble her pride.
-Napoleon Bonaparte, describing the impact of the Louisiana Purchase
Boston, Massachusetts-July 5, 1803
Perched upon Nob Hill, the brownstone was ample evidence of the family’s affluence. Inside, a middle-aged man sat within his opulent study, assimilating an article within a locally distributed pamphlet.
A boy appearing to be about the age of twelve suddenly chased into the room. Bounding to the man’s side, he exclaimed, “Father! What’s news have we today? Surely there’s something exciting on this, the day after Independence Day!”
Eyeing his son with irritation, the man responded, “Not much, nothing good, at least,” and, accepting the intrusion, he added, “Well, there is one thing here, on page three.”
“What is it, father? Let me see,” the boy inquired, somehow managing to squirm betwixt his father and the pages of the pamphlet.
Now fully distracted by his entirely too rambunctious child, the man sighed and suggested, “See this drawing here? See that, son?”
“Yes, sir. Looks to me like a map of North America.”
“Precisely,” his father supplied, “Notice anything unusual about it?”
“Of course – there’s a big grey smoke plume right in the middle.”
“Smoke plume? What on earth are you talking about, son?”
Pointing at the map, the boy announced proudly, “There, father! See down there? Looks like the mouth of the Mississippi spouting off a smoke plume, if you ask me!”
His father peered at the image and, his eyes suddenly lighting up, he exclaimed in recognition, “Why, darned if your aren’t correct, Hiram, it does in fact give the sensation of a smoke plume. But it’s more than that, son.”
“What is it?”
“It’s called the Louisiana Purchase. It seems that darned fool President Jefferson announced yesterday that he had purchased it from France on behalf of The United States of America for fifteen million dollars.”
“Dad! Don’t say bad things about Thomas Jefferson – he’s our president!”
“Precisely, son, he’s the president, not the emperor, and in this country, that means every citizen has the right to question anything, including hair-brained actions by our president.”
“But, sir, why did you call President Jefferson a fool?”
“I should think it would be clear to anyone – tis an enormous amount of money to pay for what amounts to a barren and useless wilderness.”
“What makes you say that,” the boy queried insistently.
“Well, son, just look at the map - look at where the land is – it must be a thousand miles from here.”
Studying the map, the child now inquired pugnaciously, “What’s that there?”
“Where?” his father queried in return and, observing where the boy was pointing, he responded, “Oh, that! That’s a territory that belongs to Mexico. It’s called Texas.”
“Texas,” the boy repeated wistfully, “What a strange name.”
“Right, son. Might as well be a million miles away. Frankly, I doubt that anyone from this country will ever lay eyes on it, at least, not in your lifetime.”
“Oh, yes they will!” the boy exclaimed with self-assurance.
“Oh, and what makes you think that, son?”
“Because I’m going to go there someday,” he responded proudly.