Personside - 124

Ducoudray-Holstein fortæller i artiklen “Memoirs of my life. By an old soldier” om sin fødsel og opvækst:⁴

I was born in a chateau; my father was neither Monsieur le Baron de Tundertentronk, nor were the windows of his chateau without panes of glass. His large mansion had all the conveniences and brilliancy of the elegantest castles of the Duchy of H-.

The 23d of September, 17**, was a troublesome day for our family; my father had sent for the most famous physician from the capital, besides his own who resided with him, and attended the inhabitants of his vast domains. Both were destines to assist my entrance in this world “of sufferings and misery,” as my good grandmother exclaimed daily, with her twenty thousands a year, and living in splendour and luxury.

Some dozen old and young aunts, cousins and other relations, claiming anxiously the honor of their alliance since the fifteenth century, had assembled before the arrival of the doctor. My parents were often much amused with the manner in which the endeavoured to prove the degrees of their affinity with our family. Two powerful reasons excited in them this anxiety of relation: vanity and avarice. The former was flattered by the acknowledgment of that kindred, and as my father and mother possessed great wealth, these legions of dear cousins, and cousines, lived in the charitable hope, “that God might relieve my parents soon from this world of sin and misery, and not forget them in their will”! They, my cousins, had but a scanty six thousand a year, and thought themselves poor and miserable. What a pity!

Twenty-four hours had scarcely expired after my entrance in the world, when the evil spirit, etiquette, came to trouble the satisfaction of the house. My grandmamma, and the whole host of aunts and cousins, spoke of nothing else to my very weak and suffering mother, than “who should have the honor of being the godfather and godmother of a little baby,” twenty-four hours old! Each of them proposed her candidate, whom each one supported with great loquacity and noise, and sometimes the discussion became so warm and obstinate, that my mother entreated them in vain, to trouble her not at the present with such matters; she would settle this with my father at another time. They stopped for a while, but soon commenced again, in spite of all the urgent entreaties of my parents and the doctors. My father was at last obliged to recur to the following stratagem. He ordered secretly that various notes should be brought, addressed to the most troublesome of our visitors, by which the one received the news that her husband had broken an arm in falling from his horse at the hunt; the second that her friend, the countess R***, was dangerously ill, and requested her immediate presence; a third was expected home by her dear brother, just arrived from Italy, &c. The bustle was great, and the chateau soon cleared of all those loquacious females.

My father silenced all controversy, by inviting the reigning prince of Anhalt Dessau to be my godfather, and to choose himself the godmother. This prince was a friend of my father, one of those rare sovereigns who wished the happiness of their subjects; he governed and examined by himself and not through his ministers. He wrote a letter of excuse saying, that his duty going before his friendship and affection, he was unable to absent himself, but that he would send with his daughter the Gen. Count de Lottum, to represent him at the ceremony of christening.

My parents decided that I and my brother Charles, fifteen months older, should be educated together. The principles of my father differed vastly with those of his equals and of the then existing time, full of prejudices, vanity and ridiculous etiquette. A little boy for instance of four or five years old, whose parents were of high nobility, could never take a walk, except when accompanied by his tutor and two lackeys in full livery behind him. His hat was adorned with white small ostrich feathers, which covered its whole inside, and his coat full of golden laces; then, said they, it was highly necessary that the young count should not be confounded with the plebeians! His parents got him a company, a squadron, or the title of gentleman of the king’s bedchamber, (Kammeriunker).

It is a notorious fact, that in a kingdom in miniature like that of Denmark, of scarcely two millions of inhabitants, is to be found a greater number, a greater variety of titles, knights and soldiers, than in any other country of Europe. The army is about forty thousand men strong, besides the navy, and more than thirty thousand have titles, ribands, orders, or stars! In every society at Copenhagen, Schleswig, Kiel, &c., is to be found some dozen counsellors called justizrath, hofrath, etatsrath, educationsrath, comerzienrath, legationsrath, conferenzrath, or geheimerath, &c., who have never given any advice, or have been asked for by the king or his ministers. The majority of these titles and orders can be bought at a fixed price, and form a part of the revenue of the crown, like imports and exports of sugar and coffee, &c., in our custom houses. The government, glad to find fools enough to spend their money for banbles and toys, grants, graciously, the most humble request of these fools, and ridicules secretly these poor monkeys, an expression which I heard often from the then prince royal, now king of Denmark.

In spite of this general mania of titles, my father was one of the few, (among whom was also count Louis Reventlow,) who never applied neither for orders or titles. e was busily engaged to render his numerous peasantry as happy as possible, and was the first in the whole kingdom who gave them freedom and liberty; they were formerly slaves. But his greatest care was to give us a good, sound, and liberal education.

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Ursula Acosta refererer hans fødselsregistrering fra Schwedt:⁵

Den 23. september 72 blev født i Schwedt kl. 8 om morgenen Henri Louis, søn af Pierre Villaume, præst i den franske kirke i Schwedt, og hans hustru Susanne, født Marre. Han blev hjemmedøbt den 8. oktober af sin far, båret af hans Kgl. Højhed markgreve Friedrich Heinrich von Schwedt und Wegern for hendes Kgl. højhed prinsesse Louise af Anhalt Dessau, født af Preussen.

Underskrevet: Villaume, præst

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Friedrich Heinrich, prins af Preussen, markgrave af Schwedt (* 21 august 1709 i Schwedt, † 12 december 1788 i Schwedt) var den sidste ejer af det preussiske Sekundogenitur Schwedt-Wildenbruch.

Da hans bror Friedrich Wilhelm døde i 1771, arvede han herredømmet over Schwedt-Wildenbruch. Som markgrave af Brandenburg-Schwedt var han var en fortaler for kunst, især teater.

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Luise af Brandenburg-Schwedt

L(o)uise Henriette Wilhelmine von Brandenburg-Schwedt (* 24. September 1750 i Stolzenberg, nu Rózanki /Polen; † 21. December 1811 i Dessau ) var gennem sit ægteskab prinsesse og senere hertuginde af Anhalt-Dessau.

Steven H. Smith refererer på the Napoleon Series:

“Villaume, citoyen danois, qui a deux frères dans les armées de la République, est autorisé à prendre du service; il se rendra au 4e batallion de la Sarthe commandé provisoirement par son frère.”

“Le sieur Willaume-Ducoudray, officier d'état-major à l'armée de Catalogne, est suspendu de ses fonctions; il sera arrêté et amené à Paris, et ses papiers seront saisis et envoyés en même temps au ministère de la police.”

Ducoudray skriver selv om La Fayette:⁶

In December 1795, I was at Hamburg at the house of Captain d'Archenholtz. He spoke to me, with great warmth and feeling, respecting the melancholy situation of the prisoners, and asked me if I was inclined to do any thing to assist them. I eagerly embraced the proposal, and told him that no consideration should restrain me, and that I was ready to make every attempt to release them from their barbarous imprisonment.

Messrs. John Parish, Archenholtz and Masson, in their frequent consultations together, watched with great zeal and solicitude the tortuous progress of the secret negotiations of the English and French diplomatists, to see when La Fayette and his companions became the subject of discussion. These three gentlemen were very well acquainted with several members of the British Parliament, and with persons initiated into the mysteries of the quintuple cabinet of the Luxembourg at Paris. But their inquiries left them not the smallest shadow of hope. Promises had been frequently made, but made only to be violated. These three gentlemen then admitted several others into their views, and it was resolved to despatch secretly an agent to Olmutz, to ascertain precisely the situation of the prisoners, and to inform them of the intentions their friends, in order to act with more prospect of success, and, if possible, to effect their escape from confinement. But the difficulty was, to find a person of confidence and courage, probity and prudence enough to qualify him for a mission so important. It was necessary, besides, that he should be able to speak German perfectly well, in order to avoid all possible suspicion.

Several persons were successively proposed, but there was always found something to object to; and the parties agreed to use their separate efforts to find the man who possessed the requisite qualifications.

The conversation which passed between d’Archenholtz and myself instantaneously suggested to his mind that I was the man they wanted. As he knew me thoroughly, he could easily vouch for my fitness and fidelity. I obtained the suffrages of all, and immediately prepared to set out. As I had already procured a furlough on account of my health, and as I was engaged in the service of the republic, rather as a volunteer than as lieutenant colonel with pay, I knew that I could easily obtain an extension of the term from the minister of war. I wrote accordingly, and left the arrangement of this business to my friends at Paris, telling them that family affairs of great urgency, would probably detain me a longer time in Holstein than I myself desired.

I had then several very long conferences with Messrs. D’Archenholtz, Masson and Sieveking. Having provided myself with a large packet of important despatches, money, bills of exchange, and letters of credit, to the amount of 200,000 Austrian florins, I set out from Hamburg in March, 1796. I had purchased a very elegant berlin, and my servant was faithful, clever, and discreet. My carriage was full of secret places, in which I concealed my numerous papers, my gold, my bills of exchange, and letters of credit, and John, who had served me from an early age, was initiated into all these mysteries, in order that he might be able to assist me in case of necessity.

But it was essentially requisite for me to change my costume and my name, because mine was too generally known throughout Germany. Sieveking and Archenholtz advised me to pass for a Swede, to assume another name and a title. They thought, that with these precautions, with a thorough knowledge of German, and something of Swedish, I would be able to extricate myself from any occasional dilemma. Captain d’Archenholtz took me the next day to the house of his friend, the Baron de Nordensköldt, secretary of the Swedish legation. After speaking a few words in private, which, Archenholtz afterwards told me, related to my pretended business in Austria and Silesia, the Baron asked me to leave my name, place of birth, age, &c., and added, that he would prepare my passport in the course of that day, and send it to me, signed by Mr. Claas Peyron, the Swedish Minister, who was at that time at Hamburg. I had previously selected my fictitious name, and was accordingly metamorphosed into a Swedish merchant, of the name of Peter Feldmann.

I armed myself and my servant with sabres, pistols and dirks, and took leave of my friends after settling upon a plan of secret correspondence, with an entire change of names. I travelled night and day, as my instructions and the information of which I was the bearer, were of the utmost importance to the prisoners. I thus passed rapidly through Leipsic, Dresden, Bautzen, to the frontiers of Bohemia, where the Austrian custom houses were situated, on a high mountain, in a little village called Peterswald. I arrived at this place about 8 A. M. and was obliged to submit to a very strict search; the keys were then demanded of my trunk, which was strapped and chained fast to the carriage. I handed them to John, and was about composing myself to sleep, being excessively fatigued, when I was roused by a dispute between my servant and the officers, about some meat and chocolate, which they declared to be prohibited, while my servant, who was a German, contradicted them stoutly. I soon settled the dispute by a present of a few florins to the principal officer, stating that the chocolate was medicated, by order of my physician, for my own use. My money had the desired effect; for no sooner did he see the siebzehners (Austrian coins, each of the value of two thirds of a florin, as near as I remember) in his own hand, than he ordered all things to he replaced, and very respectfully wished me a pleasant journey.

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I was at last successful at the hotel Römische Kayser the landlord of which met me at the door and making me several low and obsequious bows called me your Excellency and Monsieur le Baron. His servility disgusted me and I told him I was neither an Excellency nor a Baron. He then saluted me with the title of Ihre Gnaden (your Lordship or your Grace) until to get rid of his fulsome compliments I asked him abruptly what paper he had in his hands. After a thousand ridiculous contortions and grimaces I was allowed to understand that it contained a list of questions printed by the order of police similar to the inquisitorial interrogatories which had already been put to me by the officer of the guard. At this I could scarcely control my impatience and found it difficult to summon sufficient self command to write the answers and sign the paper. The landlord then told me that if he unfortunately omitted to send to the police an hour after the arrival of a stranger at his hotel a paper filled up and signed like the one he had presented to me he would be punished by a fine of a thousand florins or by an imprisonment for 18 days.

Exhausted as I was with fatigue having travelled day and night from Hamburg without scarcely a moment's repose I was nevertheless so impatient to reach Olmutz that my intention was to remain at Prague only long enough to go to the banker's and procure the amount of a bill drawn at sight by Mr Strasow a banker at Hamburg. The letters of Sieveking were merely small slips of paper scarcely two fingers in breadth for after the failure of Bollmann no one was willing to incur the smallest unnecessary risk. On this account Sieveking advised me to conceal them with the utmost care which I accordingly did. As his handwriting could not be mistaken he did not sign any of these notes and they contained simply these words: “The bearer is my intimate friend; assist him in every thing as you would me.” The words in every thing which were underscored authorized me to draw for 50,000 florins in case of necessity as Mr Sieveking explained to me himself. But I was already too well provided to make use of his letter of credit.

This scrap of paper from Sieveking produced a wonderful effect. As soon as the Baron de Balabene had read it he received me with open arms begged me to tell him what service he could render me and paid me at once the amount of the bill of Strasow in such coin as I preferred; notwithstanding it was the day of the great festival I thought it prudent however not to communicate my intentions to him not from mistrust for Sieveking had recommended him as a man on whom I could entirely depend but as he could not in any way assist my designs it seemed unadvisable to make an unnecessary confidant.

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The three prisoners of Olmutz owe their liberation exclusively to the esteem and regard in which they were held by Napoleon Bonaparte, at that time General in Chief of the army of Italy. The Directory had made very feeble efforts indeed, to effect their restoration to liberty, and that for reasons already assigned. But Bonaparte, by the advice of Major General Berthier, who highly esteemed La Fayette, resolutely insisted at the treaty of Campo Formio, which was preceded by the negotiation of Léoben and Udine, that, as an indispensable preliminary, the prisoners of Olmutz should be immediately released from confinement.

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On arriving at Hamburg, Messrs. Parish, Morris, and a great number of other distinguished Americans, gave us a very splendid and magnificent entertainment on board of an elegant American ship, which lay at anchor in the harbour of the town. These gentlemen had previously sent several large barges, superbly decorated and manned with American seamen, to meet us at Haarburg, a town on the left bank of the Elbe, immediately opposite to Hamburg.

Through the attention of Messrs. Parish, Masson, Archenholtz, Sieveking, &c. lodgings had been secured and prepared for us all; and the next day M. Reinhardt, the French minister, gave us an elegant entertainment, at which the prisoners made their appearance with the tri-coloured cockade, which they had mounted on the day of their arrival on the territory of Hamburg, in order to show that they were not emigrants, nor indeed, had ever ceased to be Frenchmen and patriots.

It was here I enjoyed the pleasure of embracing my respected father, who had hastened to meet me, and to pay his tribute of respect to the illustrious prisoners. I had sent, when at Dresden, my servant with letters of invitation from these gentlemen, and from Madame de la Fayette, and entreating him to participate in the happiness of his son, who was now received into the bosom of their family.

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Fra en samtidig anmeldelse i "The North American Review" af Edward Everett:⁷

The work published by General Ducoudray Holstein at New York is much worse. It is not entitled to credit. Nearly half of it is taken up with the five years that elapsed between the moment when General Lafayette left the army in August 1792 and his release from the dungeons of Olmutz in August 1797; and the whole of this when compared with the accounts given by Toulongeon, which Madame de Stael declares to be authentic; with Bollmann's own story of his attempt to rescue Lafayette in 1794; and with the general facts known everywhere and the details that may still be obtained from living witnesses can be considered only as an unhappy attempt at romance. Indeed the entire work is not much better for though in some portions the facts and dates may be given with more accuracy yet a false or exaggerated coloring is everywhere perceptible and the documents and public acts which were originally in English and after being translated into French by the author are now retranslated into English for his publisher come to us so travestied that their original features can hardly be recognised.

Ducoudray fortæller om sit møde med Schiller⁸:

Jeg gjorde denne store mands bekendtskab på en meget særlig måde. Her er enkelthederne. Jeg befandt mig i 1803 i Bad Lauchstädt i Sachsen, som er meget populær i hele verden. Mange af disse udlændinge blev trukket til af Storhertugen af Weimars skuespillertrup, der var godt sammensat og stort. Det var dannet og udvalgt af Goethe og Schiller og blev med rette anses for at være i første klasse blandt de daværende tyske trupper, især i tragedien. Da jeg spadserede i en af alleerne omkring Bad Lauchstädt på den dag, jeg ankom, blev jeg meget overrasket over at høre mit navn kaldt af frk. Jag***, som var en berømt skuespillerinde i Weimar, som jeg havde set ofte ved hoffet hos storhertug Karl August, en af de mest oplyste og liberale herskere på sin tid. En dag havde jeg befundet mig i denne skuespillerindes salon, da døren pludselig åbnedes, og en slank og temmelig høj mand, med en fornem mine og en bleg hudfarve, med ørnenæse, præsenterede sig for os. Den unge skuespillerinde rejste sig og løb med åbne arme hen til den fremmede, som hun omfavnede med alle de følelser, som en ung pige havde, når hun genså sin far efter et langt fravær. Det var Schiller. Hun introducerede mig, og vi gjorde hurtigt hinandens bekendskab. Han sagde, at han havde hørt om mig gennem, hvad man sagde om mig i Weimar, hvor jeg opholdt mig i flere måneder.

Ducoudray fortæller om sin deltagelse med Macdonald i slaget ved Wagram 1809⁸:

"Da Bonaparte var blevet førstekonsul, sendte han general Macdonald som ambassadør til hoffet i Danmark. Da Moreau blev retsforfulgt og dømt, kunne Macdonald, der vendte hjem fra sin mission, ikke undlade at ytre sin utilfredshed med hele denne sag mod sin gamle general og ven. Førstekonsulen blev underrettet, og Macdonald havde ingen kommando i lang tid. Jeg har ofte oplevet ham spadsere på Paris’ boulevarder, meget enkelt klædt og i civil, med paraplyen under én arm og en af hans døtre under den anden. Han traf kun på daværende tidspunkt meget få mennesker og beskæftigede sig kun med undervisning af hans to børn, der havde haft den ulykke at miste deres mor. Hans mange venner formåede ikke at vinde nåde for ham hos førstekonsulen, og han forblev længe uden kommando.

Til sidst blev han sendt til Italien for at hjælpe vicekongen med at reorganisere denne hær og med at lede militære operationer. Krigen med Østrig brød ud noget senere. Med ønsket om at gense vicekongen og nysgerrig efter at se hans unge kone og hans hof, dengang meget lysere og mere muntert, bad jeg kejseren om at sende mig til Milano, som attaché ved dette hærkorps’ generalstab; denne tilladelse fik jeg uden vanskelighed.

Slaget ved Wagram er velkendt; her følger noget, som ikke er. General Macdonald, som jeg havde kendt godt tidligere, ønskede at jeg var sammen med ham under slaget. Han udmærker sig ved sin store koldblodighed og sine kloge dispositioner, og bidrog uden tvivl hjulpet af den tillid, som hans kammerater havde til ham, meget til succesen på denne blodige og strålende dag. Han havde to heste dræbt under ham, og af mere end tyve generalstabsofficerer forblev kun syv i stand til at gøre tjeneste; resten blev dræbt eller såret. Hver af os mistede en eller flere heste, fordi vi blev udsat mere end en times beskydning af den mest formidable størrelse fra et batteri, der var etableret på et plateau midt på sletten. Hæren i Italien mødte der en beskydning, der var så dødbringende, at af f. eks. en infanteri regiment på mere end 1.200 mænd, forblev knap hundrede i stand til at gøre tjeneste; allle andre blev dræbt eller såret. Dette batteri blev endeligt fjernet ved beskydning, hvilket afgjorde sejren, denne katastrofale sejr, som fordrejede hovedet på Napoleon, så han mente at kunne tillade sig alt. Han forskød Joséphine, hans enestående veninde, hun som havde bidraget så virksomt til hans storhed, og ofrede hende for at gå forene sig med en østriger, hvis hus gennem århundreder har været den uforsonlige fjende af Frankrig! Fra denne dag faldt Napoleon stjerne, fra denne dag kunne adskillige velunderrettede og fremsynede mennesker forudsige hans fald, eller i det mindste nogle af de ulykker, der blev nationens, og som kostede hundredtusind mænds liv!

Slaget blev vundet; under slaget blev general Macdonald såret i benet; og da han alligevel forblev til hest, indtil sagen var besluttet, var hans ben så betændt, at man måtte skære støvlen af ham. Vi flyttede ham til en hytte i nærheden, og de få generalstabsofficerer, der blev der, var så trætte, at de kun med vanskelighed var i stand til at behandle de sårede, som var stuvet sammen i denne elendige hytte. Pludselig hørte vi udefra en høj stemme, der råbte, Macdonald, Macdonald, hvor er du dog? Det var general Rapp, der blev beordret til at gå ud og søge efter ham og bringe ham til kejserens hovedkvarter. Da general Macdonalds sår kun var let, var han i stand til at ride, og vi fulgte ham meget nysgerrige efter at vide, hvad kejseren ville ham. Sidstnævnte, omgivet af et stort følge ventede på hesteryg ved indgangen til landsbyen, som general Rapp havde sagt. Så snart Napoleon så Macdonald, pressede han sin hest, kastede sig over den sårede general og omfavnede ham med kyssede en sådan kraft, at Macdonald (som han fortalte mig kort efter) næsten faldt af hesten. Han fortalte ham foran alle i en meget høj og klar tonet: General Macdonald, lad os glemme fortiden, lad os være venner, jeg gør Dem til marskal og hertug, det har de fortjent. Siden da forblev Macdonald tæt knyttet til ham lige indtil hans abdikation. "

Fra "Efterladte papirer fra den Reventlowske familiekreds":⁹

Tr. den 28. marts 1812.
     
I går kom Dencker retur fra Himmelmark med et meget interessant brev til os - ankommet som ved et mirakel. Villaumes søn i Spanien havde ikke givet livstegn fra sig siden maj, han havde været kommandant over citadellet i Barcelona. I august ankom en ordre, underskrevet af selveste N. om at arrestere ham, beslaglægge hans papirer og bringe ham under god eskorte som fange til Paris, uden at begrunde en sådan vold, eller at hans overordnede havde klaget over ham. Han mødte en stor interesse hos alle sine kammerater. Vreden gav ham en voldsom feber, han blev godt behandlet, uden særlig bevogtning, og kunne modtage besøg fra venner og veninder, når han ønskede, og fandt, mens han ventede, mulighed for at tilbyde sine tjenester til grev Lafey, general i spidsen for de spanske tropper i Catalonien, for at modtage hans svar og en angivelse af, hvor han kunne finde et godt kavalerikorps, som kunne føre ham sikkert til hovedkvarteret. Han reddede sig i november, og er nu aide-de-camp for Lassy og har bistået i to affærer mod franskmændene, hvor spanierne fik fordelen; de er fulde af entusiasme, siger han, og vil sikkert vinde sejren. Dette usignerede brev var adresseret til Schalburg i Eckernförde fra Hamburg, med 21 pd. 8 i porto, hvordan kunne det dog nå frem? Det blev påbegyndt i december og afsluttet den 20. feb.

Ducoudray-Holstein i Louisiana 1813:

USA’s regering fulgte med interesse, at uafhængighedsbevægelser spredte sig ud over Spaniens kolonirige i Latinamerika.

Også i Mexico havde der været oprør, der blev nedkæmpet. Vinteren 1812 besøgte mexicaneren Bernardo Gutierrez Washington for at få hjælp. Den fik han gennem agenten William Shaler, der fulgte ham til byen Natchitoches, tæt på grænsen mellem USA (Louisiana) og Spanien (Texas). Her samlede han styrker til en invasion af Texas, de fleste var amerikanere, herunder løjtnant Augustus Magee, som trak sig fra USA’s hær for at være medkommandant på ekspeditionen, der er kendt som ”Magee Gutierrez Ekspeditionen”. Det fortælles, at eventyrere og fribyttere flokkedes til Natchitoches for at være med, en del for at vinde Texas for USA. Der skulle have været dristige amerikanere, utilfredse spaniere, udspekulerede franskmænd og pirater fra Jean Lafittes bande.

8. August 1812 krydsede Magee og Gutierrez Sabine floden ind i Spansk Texas med 130 mand. De vandt nogle slag, og amerikanere og mexicanere sluttede sig til for at vinde bytte, ivrigt opmuntert af de handlende i Natchitoches. De rykkede ind i San Antonio 1. april 1813, hvor de udråbte republikken Texas.

Det officielle USA modsatte sig ekspeditionen, men forhindrede den ikke. Det antages, at udenrigsminister James Monroe hemmeligt støttede ekspeditionen.

Oprøret begyndte hurtigt at udarte, den spanske guvernør og en del tilfangetagne officerer blev myrdet, og mange af amerikanerne trak sig. Shaler fik skiftet Gutierrez ud med en håndplukket efterfølger, Jose Alvarez de Toledo, men spanierne besejrede oprørerne 18. august 1813 i slaget ved San Medina.
 
Undervejs søgte den spanske ambassadør til USA, Luis de Onís, også at påvirke sagens gang. Sommeren 1813 hævdede han over for James Monroe, at Toledo havde en intrige gående med franskmændene om at afsætte Gutierrez og lade franskmændene overtage ekspeditionen. Han påstod herunder, at Ducoudray-Holstein og Bartholomé Lafon, som ankom til Rapides, Louisiana, juni 1813, var franske agenter, der konspirerede med Toledo. Rapides var kendt som et arnested for fransksindede i det Louisiana, som USA havde købt af Frankrig i 1803.

Tim Mahon beretter på the Napoleon Series:

Found the letter - the following translation is mine and is a little rough at this point. It may well be this is the wrong brother - still an interesting little insight into what went on outside the major events of the time, however.

General Ducoudray in the United States and Mexico (1812-1813)
Originally published in French as Ducoudray, J.-D.-V.: Le général Ducoudray aux États-Unis et au Mexique (1812-1813) in Nouvelle Revue Rétrospective, cinquième semestre (juillet-décembre 1896), Paris, 1896, pp. 140-143

Letter to M. Champigny-Aubin¹
New Orleans, 17 December 1813

“I have been here in the capital of Louisiana, my dear Champigny, for a month, on the pleasant banks of the Mississippi and am taking advantage of a great opportunity to write you this letter and to let you know I am in good health, happy and rich.

Over the last two years I must have written to you at least fifteen times, but do not know whether you have received my epistles. At the risk of repeating myself, I must tell you that I left Cadiz on 24th November 1812 and disembarked at Norfolk, with a surgeon-major friend of mine named Lafon, on 4th February; that I passed via Baltimore to New York and Philadelphia, from whence I wrote to you twice; that there I was appointed adjudant-général in the service of the United States and finally a chief on the general staff and a général de brigade in the republican army of Mexico; that in March I left Philadelphia by land for Pittsburgh; that from there I wrote to you again to tell you that I was leaving by river along the Ohio and the Mississippi with 300 men and a number of good officers and, after a voyage of more than 700 leagues, I arrived on the Mexican frontier with my entourage, at Natchitotches on the Red River in the province of Texas. Look at a map and you will understand the situation.

On arriving in the month of July, I received the bad news that the patriots of this province had been utterly defeated by the royalists; that their general had so lost his head that he had abandoned everything and fled like a coward to the United States; and finally that the Republic of Texas, which had existed for more than two years, had been lost by the ineptitude of this General Toledo. He has been dismissed and is dishonoured for eternity.

The great majority of the republicans, more than 600 families, have taken refuge on the Red River, where I arrived with my men, with whatever belongings they have been able to salvage. The principal families among them came in a deputation to ask me to take command of the army. I accepted their request but unfortunately fell gravely ill.

In the meantime, General Humbert² arrived and I proposed that he should he replace me, with great pleasure, since he is my senior and has far greater experience than me. He was accepted. In brief, a new government of three members has been appointed and it has done me the honour of confirming me in a new post, with plenty of power – not only my choice of officers for the staff but also the right to appoint all the military officials, such as intendant, ordonnateurs, commissaries de guerres, directeurs, inspecteurs, etc.

I am perfectly recovered and have been here in the city with General Humbert for a month in order to recruit and seek good officers, particularly those with service experience. We have been fortunate enough to find a goodly number and we have every reason to be happy with our lot.

I have no more time than to tell you I have a fixed salary of 18,000 piastres, an additional 12,000 in expenses for the office, in addition to my keep and other considerable emoluments; three aides de camp, a secretary and ten good staff officers, all of whom are worthy and who have served before. I am haunted by a crowd of visitors and petitioners, whom the gormless Mexicans attract. You must therefore excuse the rambling nature of my letter and pass all my good news to my dear parents, to whom I am writing via the same courier, but who may not be able to receive my letter.

Address your letters to M. du Coudray de Holstein, care of M. Gardette, Walnut Street No. 75 in Philadelphia; they will reach me.

J.-D.-V Ducoudray”

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1) The superscription reads: To Monsieur Champigny-Aubin, landowner at Langeais, near Tours (Bilbliothèque de l’Arsenal. Collection Victor Luzarche.) General Ducoudray de Holstein is the author of a Histoire de Bolivar that was continued by Alphonse Viollet, Paris, 1831.

2) After his disgrace in France, stemming, we are told, from the passion he had developed for Pauline Bonaparte, General Humbert was exiled to Mexico where he helped the population throw off the Spanish yoke.

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Fra Wikipedia:

Louis Champigny-Aubin

À ne pas confondre avec René-Jean Champigny-Clément, autre conventionnel de l'Indre-et-Loire.

Louis Champigny-Aubin, né à Chinon le 2 décembre 1756 et décédé au même lieu le 14 décembre 1847 était un homme politique français.

Biographie

Champigny-Aubin est propriétaire à Langeais au moment de la Révolution française. Il se rallie aux idées nouvelles avec une certaine modération. Cela ne l'empêche pas d'être élu procureur-syndic du district de Chinon. En 1791, alors "administrateur du conseil du département à Langeais", il est élu député suppléant de l'Indre-et-Loire à l'Assemblée législative.

Le 9 septembre 1792, il est élu député suppléant d'Indre-et-Loire à la Convention nationale, avec 157 voix sur 233 votants. Le 5 vendémiaire de l'an III (26 septembre 1794), il est admis à siéger en remplacement de Jacques Louis Dupont, démissionnaire.

Durant son court mandat, il se fait surtout remarquer par sa proposition d'abolir la peine de mort, qu'il soumet le 30 nivôse an III (20 janvier 1795). Les thermidoriens, qui dominaient alors l'Assemblée, considèrent cette proposition comme jacobine et donc suspecte, ce qui entraîne son rejet immédiat.

Son mandat expiré, Champigny se tourne vers la diplomatie. Un temps en poste à Madrid, il est secrétaire de légation à La Haye, puis en 1798 chargé d'affaire auprès de la République helvétique.

En 1815, il fait sa réapparition sur la scène politique en étant réélu par l'Indre-et-Loire à la Chambre des Cent-Jours, par 62 voix sur 92 votants. Il ne s'y fait pas remarquer et rentre dans la vie privée lorsque l'assemblée se sépare.

Il meurt en 1847 à 91 ans.

Originalen på fransk fra Nouvelle Revue Rétrospective, Vol. 5, Paris, Juli-december 1896:

Le général Ducoudray aux États-Unis et au Mexique (1812-1813).

Lettre à M. Champigny-Aubin¹.

Nouvelle-Orléans, ce 17 décembre 1813.

Me voici, mon cher et bon Champigny, depuis un mois, dans la capitale de la Louisiane, sur les bords riants du Mississipi, et je profite d'une bonne occasion pour vous adresser celle-ci, et pour vous dire que je suis bien portant, heureux et riche.

Depuis deux ans, je vous ai écrit au moins quinze fois, mais j'ignore si vous avez reçu mes épîtres. Maintenant je vous dirai, en me répétant, que je suis parti de Cadix le 24 novembre 1812; que j'ai débarqué, avec un chirurgien-major de mes amis nommé Lafon, à Norfolk, le 4 février; que j'ai passé, par Baltimore, à New-York et Philadelphie, d'où je vous ai écrit deux fois; que j'y ai été nommé adjudant général au service des Etats-Unis, enfin chef de l'état-major général, et le général de brigade de l'armée républicaine du Mexique ; qu'au mois de mars je suis parti de Philadelphie pour Pittsbourg par terre; que de là je vous ai encore écrit pour vous dire que je partais avec 300 hommes et nombre de bons officiers, par eau sur le Ohio et le Mississipi, et, après un voyage de 700 lieues et plus, je suis arrivé, avec ma suite, sur les frontières du Mexique, province de Texas, aux Natchitotchès, situé sur la Rivière rouge. Prenez la carte, et vous verrez sa situation.

En arrivant là au mois de juillet, je reçus la mauvaise nouvelle que les patriotes de cette province avaient été totalement défaits par les royalistes : que leur général avait si bien perdu la tête, qu'il avait tout abandonné et qu'il avait fui, comme un lâche, sur le territoire des États- Unis ; que la république de Texas, enfin, qui avait existé pendant plus de deux ans, était perdue par l'ineptie de ce général Toledo. Il fut destitué et est déshonoré pour jamais.

La plus grande partie des républicains, plus de 600 familles, vinrent se réfugier, avec ce qu'elles purent sauver de précieux, sur la Rivière rouge, où j'étais arrivé avec mes hommes. Les principaux de ces familles vinrent, en députation, me solliciter de me mettre à la tète de l'armée. Je l'acceptai, mais malheureusement je tombai grièvement malade.

Dans cet intervalle, le général Humbert² arriva, et je le proposai pour me remplacer, avec d'autant plus de plaisir qu'il est mon ancien et qu'il a bien plus d'expérience que moi. Il fut accepté. Bref, l'on nomma un nouveau gouvernement de trois membres, l'on me fit l'honneur de me confirmer dans un nouvel emploi, avec plein pouvoirs de faire, non seulement mon choix d'officiers de l'état-major, mais encore de nommer à toutes les places de l'administration militaire, comme intendant, ordonnateurs, commissaires des guerres, directeurs, inspecteurs, etc.

Je suis parfaitement rétabli, et depuis un mois ici en ville avec le général Humbert, pour recruter et chercher de bons officiers, surtout qui ayent déjà servis. Nous avons été assez heureux d'en trouver une bonne quantité et nous avons tout lieu d'être contens.

Je n'ai que le tems de vous dire que j'ai 18000 piastres d'appointemens fixes, 12000 de frais de bureau, outre mes rations et autres émolumens considérables; trois aides-de-camp, un secrétaire et dix bons officiers d'état-major qui tous ont servis et qui sont des gens de mérite. Je suis obsédé par une foule de visites et de pétitionnaires, que les gourdes mexicaines attirent. Veuillez donc excuser le décousu de ma lettre et donner toutes ces bonnes nouvelles à mes chers parens, auxquels j'écris par le même courrier, mais qui peut-être ne pourront pas recevoir ma lettre.

Addressez vos lettres à M. du Coudray de Holstein, sous couvert de M. Gardette, Walnut Street, no 75, à Philadelphie : elles me parviendront.

J.-D.-V. DUCOUDRAY.

¹La suscription porte : A Monsieur Champigny-Aubin, propriétaire à Langeais, près de Tours (Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal. (Collection Victor Luzarche). Le général Ducoudray de Holstein est l’auteur d'une Histoire de Bolivar qui a été continuée par Alphonse Viollet. Paris, 1831, 2 vol. in-8".

²Après sa disgrâce en France, disgràce motivée, dit-on, par la passion qu'il avait inspirée à Pauline Bonaparte, le général Humbert s'était exilé au Mexique dont il aida les habitants à secouer le joug espagnol.

Los Cayos Ekspeditionen

Under navnet Los Cayos de San Luis, eller simpelthen Los Cayos, ekspeditionen kendes den invasion, som Befrieren Simón Bolívar planlagde på Haití i slutningen af 1815 med det formål at befri Venezuela fra de spanske styrker. Bolívar kom fra Jamaica til Los Cayos de San Luis, på øen Haití, 24 december 1815, hvorfra han rejste til Port-au-Prince, hvor han havde en samtale, 2 januar 1816, med præsident Alexandre Pétion, som lovede at yde de nødvendige ressourcer til at udføre opgaven.

Senere, efter at være blevet tildelt den øverste magt ved et møde blandt de vigtigste flygtningeledere fra Venezuela og Nygranada, begyndte Bolívar at finpudse detaljerne i ekspeditionen mod den venezuelanske kyst, med hjælp fra den haitianske militærguvernør i Los Cayos, general Ignacio Marión. Med hensyn til ressourcer modtog ekspeditionen, takket være Petións bestræbelser, 6.000 rifler, ammunition, mad, et komplet trykkeri, en flåde af skonnerter og en stor sum penge. Med alt dette fik Bolívar arrangeret en lille flåde af syv skonnerter, Bolívar, General Mariño, General Piar, Constitución, Brión, Félix og Conejo, ledsaget af et andet, der tilhørte hans haitianske ven, Robert Sutherland, The Fortune. Omsider satte ekspeditionen sejl den 31. marts 1816, med deltagelse af Manuel Piar, Santiago Mariño, Gregor MacGregor, Francisco Antonio Zea, Pedro María Freites, Bartolomé Salom, Pedro León Torres, Carlos Soublette, Pedro Briceño Méndez, Manuel Valdes, Diego Ibarra, Juan Bautista Bideau, Carlos Chamberlain, Juan Baillío, Carlos Eloy Demarquet, Renato Beluche, Henry Ducoudray-Holstein med flere.

Bolívars flådes rute var som følger: efter at have forladt havnen i Los Cayos, i den vestlige del af Haiti, ventede den i 3 dage på øen Beata syd for grænsen mellem Haiti og Santo Domingo, for fortsætte deres rejse i de tidlige dage af april 1816 til en position ud for den sydlige kyst af den nuværende Dominikanske Republik; den 19 april 1816 kom de til øen Vieques ud for Puerto Rico, hvilket blev fejret med artillerisalver; den 25 april ankomst til den hollandske ø Saba, 20 km fra San Bartolomé, fra hvor de fortsatte mod Margarita. Inden de nåede hertil, udkæmpede de den 2. maj et søslag ved Los Frailes, hvor Louis Brións eskadre sejrede og erobredee den spanske brig El Intrepid og skonnerten Rita. Den 3. maj 1816 nåede de den venezuelanske ø Margarita, hvor et møde under ledelse af general Juan Bautista Arismendi den 7. i samme måned bekræftede Bolívars særlige beføjelser fra Los Cayos. Efter denne ratifikation fortsatte Bolívars eksepedtionsstyrker til Carúpano, hvor de endeligt gik i land, og hvor de proklamerede afskaffelsen af slaveriet, hvorefter de fortsatte til Ocumare de la Costa. Kort sagt, på trods af de tilbageslag, som ekspeditionen led, og Befrieren led i Ocumare, er den historiske betydning af Los Cayos ekspeditionen, at den tillod Santiago Mariño, Manuel Piar og Jose Francisco Bermúdez derefter at befri den østlige del af landet, og at MacGregor med Soublette og andre ledere satte sig fast på kontinentet for at bane vej for republikkens endelige sejr.

Docoudray fortæller i sine erindringer om Simon Bolivar:¹⁰

At that time were assembled at Carthagena more than 800 strangers, counting the owners and the crews of privateers. Among them Pineres had a strong party, because Torrices had laid heavy duties on the prize merchandise, and had limited the privateering business, by which Carthagena subsisted in a great measure at that time. Pineres, knowing the persons concerned in the privateers were not much satisfied with those restrictions, employed every means to ferment this dissatisfaction. One of these means was to post up a libel against the existing government, in which he said that the majority of the strangers were on the side of the vice president Pineres; that they should open their eyes upon the vexations and the tyranny of Torrices, and promising formally that all would change in their favour, if they would support him in the approaching election, &c.

The police officers seeing these libels on the church doors and at he corners of the streets, the next morning, showed them to the president and the general-in-chief Castillo. I was some time previous to this event in the service of the army of Carthagena at the solicitation of the president and the general-in-chief. They could not offer me more than the grade of colonel, in virtue of the constitution, by which the Congress of New Grenada sitting at Tunja had reserved the exclusive right to name and to confirm all the generals; but as I had not come to seek any grade, but to serve the sacred cause of freedom as I did at the beginning of the French revolution, I contented myself with the solemn promise of these two gentlemen, to deliver my brevet of general to the president Torrices, who took upon himself to send it to the Congress of New Grenada to be confirmed, and I accepted provisionally to serve as colonel in this army, until the return of my commission. Since then I have heard nothing more of it. Castillo and his superior general Cortez of Campomanes, were no more at that time than colonels, but were called generals.

The president, Torrices, in seeing this libel, sent immediately for the general-in-chief and the Corregidor, as chief of the police, and communicated to them the paper. Castillo, after some convertion, suggested the idea of calling on me as a man whom they could rely on and consult with. We were intimate, and so he came to my house. I had seen the libel and was much better acquainted with the facts, than he and the president could be. I assured him that the government could count upon the firm resolution of a great majority to support it. They departed together to the palace where Ducoudray repeated to the president Torrices, yet pale and agitated, what he had said to Castillo. Ducoudray spoke then with some of the owners of the privateers; amongst them was Mr. Charles I. from New Orleans, an enterprising, wealthy, and very determined man, who had a great ascendency over the other captains of the privateers. He convoked them, and, in a short speech, persuaded them to rally round the existing government, and oppose any faction that should try to overthrow it, &c. This had a very good effect, and amongst them was, I must say to their honor, not a single dissenting voice. Every measure was taken with the general-in-chief, to whom Ducoudray was called. The latter was named the commander of all the strangers residing in the fortress. The numerous crews of the privateers were secretly debarked, armed, and organized in companies, and divided into the different quarters of the city, and at the most important posts on the wall, at the batteries, &c. The day before the sitting of the legislature, all was in the greatest activity. Ducoudray and Castillo went about the whole night, busy in visiting the posts and giving the necessary orders. All the captains of privateers, the foreign officers and merchants, French, English, and German, and the commanders of a good armed Battalion of coloured French people, cannot be too much praised for their exertions to maintain a very severe discipline amongst such an assemblage of men from different countries, and of different colour; and what is much more to be admired, is, that during the two days and three nights of their being under arms not a single excess was committed, not a single complaint of disorder was brought before Ducoudray or Castillo. The inhabitants of Carthagena will, if they ever see this account, confirm what is here stated. Such was the good behaviour of these strangers, so generally hated by the Colombians! Should we have seen a thousand of these latter, or of their troops, behave so quietly, as did these 800 strangers, on a similar occasion?

Meanwhile the brothers Pineres, Bolivar, Marino, and their adherents, were busily employed in preparing their means to strike a decisive blow in the assembly, which was to assemble the next morning at eleven o'clock. I was that same evening at the house of Bolivar, to visit the Soublette family, and found there a large assembly of Caraguins; but Bolivar was busily engaged with the Pineres in his private room. I saw going into and out of his cabinet, a great many gentlemen, and amongst them the personage mentioned before, but he remained not a half hour in the house. This resembled very much one of the most active head quarters, of which I have seen some during my military career. I could say in truth that the moving in and out of all these, not naturally very sitting Caraguins, would have filled with awe and fear, any one not initiated into the secret, as the presage of some extraordinary event, as if the enemy was to besiege the place; while the palace of the president was quiet and deserted, and himself sick, and in bed!

The following day, the representatives of the legislature of the province of Carthagena assembled at their usual place, in the palace of the now abolished inquisition. All the members were present except the president Torrices, who had, during the night, a strong fever, the effect of his anxiety of mind: Pineres, his antagonist, was highly pleased on hearing this news, as it now belonged to him to preside in the assembly. His retinue, as President on this occasion, assembled at his residence, to escort him with great formality to the assembly. Ducoudray arrived with his adjutants, a little later than the appointed hour, and found a very large company assembled in the saloons. Don Pineres saw him enter, rose from his seat, came to meet him at the door of the saloon, took him by the hand, and told him very obligingly, they were then waiting for him, and that he was welcome; he took his hat to put it upon a table. Ducoudray, surprised at such unusual attention from the chief magistrate of the government, suffered it not, but threw it himself upon one of the tables. Pineres assigned him a seat opposite to himself, near to the open piazza, inquired with apparent interest after the state of his health, and obligingly reproached him for not having yet called to see him. He asked him a number of insignificant questions, but in an awkward manner, and with a mind very much preoccupied and distracted, looking at intervals towards the door, and then at the piazza, which faced the great square; his whole behaviour showed clearly great uneasiness of mind and anxiety. Neither Bolivar, Marino, or any of the Caraguin officers, not employed in the army of Carthagena, were present.

Soon after Ducoudray's arrival, they told the vice president, Pineres, “all was ready to receive him at the assembly. The numerous retinue, consisting of the civil and military officers of the province, and some distinguished strangers, was obliged to cross the public square filled with troops, in order of battle, and paying him the usual honors, and with a great crowd of people. Pineres appeared to wish to harangue these troops, but Castillo and Ducoudray being on his left and right side, and observing all his movements, were ready to oppose such an unusual and dangerous step. He appeared to have observed it, then after having looking some minutes at them, he turned abruptly towards general Castillo, who was at his right, and told him Vamos, Vamos! (let us go, let us go.) In saying these words, he made a motion with his left arm, and saluted with the right hand, in which he held his hat, being uncovered.

As the assembly was a public one, seats were reserved in its interior for the general in chief, and the other officers, and for some distinguished strangers. About half an hour after the opening of the sitting, Gabriel Pineres presiding, one of the representatives belonging to the faction, a great friend of Pineres, rose, and made a motion to convert the sitting into a secret one, to treat and debate upon a subject of the highest consequence, in which it was important to leave to the deputies the liberty to speak, without being influenced by military authority, AND STILL LESS BY STRANGERS. The president, Pineres, rang immediately his bell; then there were heard various murmurs among some of the members opposed to this strange motion. Some rose to speak, but Pineres called to order, and silenced them. He ordered the serjeant at arms to invite every one not belonging to the assembly, to clear the room, and to close the doors; that was done, and astonished all, as being an unusual and extraordinary measure; no president of an assembly in a free state having the right to take upon himself to put in execution a measure, without having been supported by the majority, when a motion of such importance is made.

Ducoudray, who sat next to Castillo, when he heard this strange and insulting motion of Dr. S. said to him, laughing, that it was a forty eight pounder directed against them, and remarked to him the concert which was visible between Pineres and S. as the former silenced with his bell and his cries, every opposing voice. Castillo informed him that S. had, the evening previous, very frequent and long conferences with the vice president, and afterwards with general Bolivar, and was seen passing three or four times from the residence of the one to the other. General Ducoudray, as soon as he came from the assembly, sent the order to the commander of the arsenal to deliver the four brass field-pieces, which he had designated the day before, with their batteries; ordered a larger number of cartridges to be distributed to the different posts, and sent word to their commander to be ready at the first signal given. Every column had received, the night before, the necessary instructions, and the most severe orders were given to suppress any riotous act, and prevent bloodshed, and to leave the most perfect freedom to the deputies. But as the president Torrices had signified in his conversation with Ducoudray and Castillo, that his friends would be intimidated from acting in his favour, by those of the faction, he requested from both, a respectable armed force, to support these friends when they should call for assistance.

While the two generals were on the floor of the assembly, they saw enter in the Corregidor, Elias Lopez, being called to the bar as the director of the police. The friends of Torrices, well informed that a respectable armed force was ready to support their independence, were not to be moved by the hostile attempts of the friends of Pineres against the existing government, and a large majority voted for Manuel Rodriguez Torrices to be continued as president, and another large majority elected Don Juan de Toledo as vice-president, so that Gabriel Pineres was entirely excluded. Enraged at this defeat, they announced that an armed force was assembled, in order to influence the assembly, and moved the Corregidor might be called to confirm the fact. He was asked, “if it was true that an armed corps of strangers were assembled? by whom commanded? and upon what authority they acted, &c.?”

The faction had now good opportunity to avenge themselves upon Torrices, in accusing Ducoudray, who acted by the former authority of the president, and the general-in-chief. But as Torrices had not explained to his friends in the assembly, that Ducoudray had received full authority from him to act as he did, the decree against him, passed without any opposition. The substance of this decree was, that this commander, a stranger, (as they designated him,) should be called before the Corregidor, and that his trial should commence in twenty-four hours after this session, as having committed an act of high treason against the representatives of the people. To this decree was wanting a little trifle, viz: the sanction of the president, to whom alone the executive power was confided.

In the course of the next morning, general Ducoudray received a written invitation from the Corregidor, Elias Lopez, to call at his office, where he, the Corregidor, had to communicate to him some business concerning the said Ducoudray. As the latter was not at all acquainted with the existence of such an accusation, he was surprised to receive an invitation of this kind, and told the bearer to be so good as to tell the Mr. Corregidor that if he had some communication of importance to make, and would take the trouble to do it personally, or in writing, and call on him, he would receive him with pleasure. Some minutes after Ducoudray received an official letter from the same Corregidor in which he compelled him to give a detailed account of his (Ducoudray's) conduct during the night of the 1st and 2d October, and that by superior order! Ducoudray answered him in his letter, that as he did not show any authority superior to him, other than that of the president and the general-in-chief, he was very sorry to decline positively giving to any body else an account of his conduct, demanded through the channel of Mr. Corregidor.”

In receiving this answer, the Corregidor, in a great rage, called immediately on the president, and denounced general Ducoudray formally, showing him the letter. When Torrices had understood the whole affair, he reproached the Corregidor with having acted too rashly, in serving, as an instrument of a faction, which had tried to change the government, and assisting them to ruin an officer, who did nothing except to obey his instructions, and who acted only by his (president Torrices’) formal authority! That he, the Corregidor, must first begin by impeaching him, the president, before he could take any further steps against this officer, &c.

The president sent his aid de camp to general Ducoudray and communicated to him all that had happened between him, the resident, and the Corregidor, and expressed his satisfaction with Ducoudray's services. The Corregidor came some days after to ay a visit to general Ducoudray, and they were, and have since remained, very good friends.

The faction was silenced, and Torrices remained in quiet possession of the presidency.

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The union of Cundinamarca and the changes made by congress had a very favourable influence upon the inhabitants of New Grenada, who were further pleased, as various aggravating laws were abolished, and many strangers called to settle amongst them by a decree of congress of the 13th July 1814, by which protection and assistance were promised to them. A manufactory of arms were established at Antiochia and another of hats at Bogota. The liberty of the press was unrestrained and a great many clergymen distinguished themselves in the most sacred cause of liberty and independence.

A great many strangers came to establish themselves at Carthagena, where they met with a kind reception, and were strongly protected by congress, and the provincial government. Others entered the service in their army. Pierre Labat and Jean Castellux were named to command in chief the forces of the land troops, and Luis Aury those of the marine. Ducoudray Holstein received the command of the fort of Boca Chica in very critical circumstances, and was at the head of the troops by land and sea.

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At the head of the municipality (city common council) of the city of Mompox, was, at that time, Mr. Celedonio Pineres as Corregidor, or mayor. He was the eldest brother of the two Pineres, of which Gabriel (vice-president of Carthagena) tried to remove Manuel Rodriguez Torrices, the president of that government, in union with general Bolivar, as I have related before. This Celedonio Pineres had very frequent opportunities to converse with the general, as the latter lived in his house. He communicated to him all that had happened after his departure from Carthagena, where his two brothers during the absence of Manuel R. Torrices, who was called to Bogota, as one of the commissioners of the executive named by congress, were trying again to get the upper hand. Castillo, at that time, with his army at St. Stanislaus and Baraquilla, hearing of what was going on in Carthagena, assembled his principal officers and proposed to them to march against his native place, to restore the legitimate governor of the province to his office, and to re-establish order in the public affairs, having received various letters from his friends calling on him and his troops for assistance. I was at this time, with general Castillo and intimate with him, so that I was acquainted with all the particulars which I relate, and could name, if necessary, the friends of order which wrote to Castillo. I saw all these letters which he communicated to me. In this private council of war, held by Castillo, it was determined to march against Carthagena, and to defeat the whole faction. This was done very easily, having the majority of the inhabitants on our side, who opened the outer land-gate, called the half moon, at two o’clock in the morning, without any resistance on the 5th of January 1815, and Pineres, Delhagar, and about twenty others, of the ringleaders, were arrested and put into the prisons of the Inquisition. But general Castillo not satisfied, condemned to deportation all these leaders, and remained in quiet possession of Carthagena, where Juan de Dios Amador was elected governor of the province.

Caledonia proposed now to Bolivar to avenge his brothers, and to force Castillo to recall them and their friends. The captain general, who hated Castillo mortally, saw a welcome occasion to avenge his personal insult, changed his mind, and followed the perfidious suggestions of Caledonia Pineres. Bolivar flattered himself with the hope that the strangers might be now in his favour, knowing that they were much displeased with the haughty manners, and arbitrary measures of Castillo in Carthagena. He imagined that these strangers, united with the numerous secret friends of the banished brother Pineres would leave him no more to do than to present himself, with his troops, before the fortress of Carthagena, to see its gates opened to receive him. But as he could by no means go against Carthagena instead of Santa Martha, he consulted with his new friend to find a plausible pretext to put his army in march. Then general Bolivar, who like the greatest part of his countrymen, the inhabitants of Caracas, is very dissembling, and very dexterous in finding out various secret means to intrigue, and to gain his aim by numerous windings and doublings – he openly professed to be a warm patriot, a disinterested soldier who wished for the welfare of his country but was always anxious to save his reputation and zealous to preserve his authority. In the preservation of this absolute power lies exclusively, all the patriotism of general Bolivar. Here is the pretext of which he made use to cover his secret purpose of revenge on this occasion.

He sent an officer (the same Thomas Montilla whom he bad sent to general Miranda in June 1812, after his desertion from Porto Cabello) to the government at Carthagena, in order to demand from it arms, ammunition, &c. of which be was in great need, as he pretended, to enable him to carry on the siege of Santa Martha. This demand greatly surprised the government of Carthagena, as its members were well aware that general Bolivar was amply provided with all the necessary means to besiege Santa Martha; it appeared to them strange, too, that the general sent this letter after a stay of about a fortnight at Mompox, and that he had not applied in embarking at Honda. More strange did it appear to them, how he should not have known as positively as they did in Carthagena, the miserable state of Santa Martha, and the readiness of its inhabitants to open the gates to him as soon as he should present himself with an imposing number of troops. All these considerations together gave rise to many suspicions, and the men best informed, considering the character of general Bolivar, suspected “that his real intention was to render himself master of Carthagena, to displace Castillo, and to punish him in revenge for the affront received in January 1813; to change afterwards the existing government in recalling the banished brothers Pineres, and finally to march with the troops of Carthagena united with his own, and the means which this well furnished fortress could afford him, a second time against Caracas to free his native land, and then re-establish his lost dictatorship.

As soon as this letter was received, the general Manuel Castillo and the lieutenant colonel Marino Montilla (brother of Thomas) at that time a bitter enemy to Bolivar, suggested to the governor, what might be the real intentions of the general. It was, therefore, concluded to send an officer who could be relied on to general Bolivar at Mompox. The bearer of these letters was one of the aid-de-camps of general Castillo, captain Manuel Davilla. - The general wrote in his letter to Bolivar: that he would supply him, with pleasure, with all that he wanted; he would find in the magazine at Savanilla, a small fort and sea port at twenty leagues distant from Mompox, between that city and Santa Martha, all that he demanded, and that he, Castillo, had already delivered the necessary orders to that effect; he could nevertheless assure him positively by all the secret intelligences received from Santa Martha, that its inhabitants were waiting for him, and his army, and ready to open the gates as soon as he would present himself. He added: “he could easily convince himself of the truth, if he would solely advance with his troops, as far as the banks of the Cienega river,” &c.

The governor Juan de Dios Amador confirmed, in a separate letter, all that general Castillo had stated, and urged Bolivar in a very pathetic and strong, but obliging manner to lose not a single moment in advancing against Santa Martha, the inhabitants of which would receive him as their liberator.

Captain Davilla met with a very harsh reception in delivering his letters to general Bolivar, who was still at Mompox. When Davilla came back to Carthagena he repeated to various of his friends some expressions which were not very polite, nor worthy to be used in the ordinary way of conversation. He added that various of Bolivar's officers insulted him, and proposed to the general to arrest and treat him as a spy, sent expressly from Carthagena to examine what was passing in their head quarters! This party spirit, this hatred, this unworthy treatment of an officer in mission, deserving at least a civil, though it should be a cool reception, was communicated from the commander-in-chief to the subalterns, and showed clearly the vindictive character of Bolivar against Castillo and all who came from him. Davilla was dismissed without any answer!

The festivals, balls, dinners, &c. at Mompox, of which Bolivar is a passionate friend, lasted during the whole time of his stay; and the attack upon Santa Martha was delayed. It appears that in leaving Mompox, he had already determined to act hostilely against Carthagena; and in descending the river from Mompox to Magdalena, he gave orders to seize all the armed gun-boats which general Castillo had established on the river, to keep the communication open between Carthagena, Honda, and Bogota. He declared the officers to be his prisoners, and gave the command to others chosen out of his army. This manifestly hostile act against Carthagena showed clearly his real intentions.

He debarked his troops at the little fort called Carabano, and instead of marching directly against Santa Martha, where all were in the greatest consternation, he left it behind and directed his inarch through Baraquilla, Soledad, St. Stanislaus against Carthagena. His head-quarters were established at Purbello, four leagues from the latter city. Here new festivals and balls, were his occupation for a fortnight.

The inhabitants of Carthagena, anxious to hear from general Bolivar, followed his operations and lived in hopes he might act in accordance with their wishes, and take Santa Martha. But as soon as the news arrived of his hostility against the patriot gunboats belonging to the republic, as soon as his arrival at Turbacco was known, the general indignation raised to such a degree, that they forgot the arbitrary acts of general Castillo, and organized themselves in regular corps to repulse by force of arms, the unheard of attempt of general Bolivar against his brethren, against the cause of freedom and independence. More than six hundred strangers established at Carthagena rallied round the government and joined the armed inhabitants, in organizing the camp and mounting guards. General Castillo had never been so powerful as during the siege of Carthagena. Martial law was proclaimed, which gave him unlimited power, and each one was anxious to prove his devotion to the cause. Many thousands, and amongst them the most distinguished ladies in Carthagena, worked day and night at the fortifications, erected and enlarged in order to put the place in a better state of defence.

Soon after Bolivar's departure from Carthagena to Tunja, Ducoudray Holstein was appointed commander of the four beautiful forts of Boca Chica, which are the key of New Grenada. These forts are at the entry of the sea-port of Carthagena, and lay at the month of a very deep and wide canal, four leagues long, by which the vessels pass into the port of the latter place. These forts were considered the key of the main, and were a post of honor and confidence, in the command of that officer in a time of civil war, in which he served against general Bolivar, and whilst Morilla and Morales besieged Carthagena and Boca Chica. He was fortunate enough to save the foreigners at Carthagena, who came to save their lives under the protection of the batteries of these forts. He was, therefore, perfectly able to be well informed of all secret transactions passing at that time.

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The true friends of Bolivar endeavored now to represent to him the dreadful consequences of such a siege; and used every exertion to make him desist from it; but he was deaf, and persisted in besieging the strongest fortress in the present republic of Colombia. The government of Carthagena called general Ducoudray Holstein for some important military transaction from Boca Chica to Carthagena; he departed the 16th April, and visited the fortifications at the forts of San Felipe and the Cerro by request of the government. He saw with pleasure that all was in good order, ammunitions and provisions plenty, and joy reigning every where; all expressed to him the highest indignation against the ridiculous attempt of general Bolivar, who treated his countrymen, his fellow citizens, fighting for the same cause, like enemies. So did the inhabitants of Carthagena, where Ducoudray remained a couple of hours, and then returned to his post. No one of all the inhabitants in Carthagena, or in Boca Chica, was afraid of Bolivar, knowing perfectly well that he was unable to take either place; but commerce was totally annihilated by cutting off all intercourse between Bogota, the interior provinces of New Grenada and Carthagena. The merchants of Carthagena, Mompox, and Bogota, applied in vain to general Bolivar for the restitution of their confiscated property, he replied that he could not do any thing for them, and spent the money resulting from these confiscations, more than two millions of dollars in value, for his troops. This siege lasted until the 20th March, but was reduced to a pure blockade, during which, the diseases and the mortality, natural consequences of the miseries felt by the besieging troops, in their camp upon La Popa, increased every day.

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At the latter end of August 1815, arrived the Spanish squadron in sight of Carthagena and Boca Chica. General Castillo, after Bolivar's embarkation for Jamaica, and Palacios’ departure from Turbacco, acted with very great haughtiness and despotism in Carthagena, and took not the least vigorous step to put the place in a good state of defence. From the 15th January 1815, the day of his entry into Carthagena, at the bead of a part of his army, to destroy the faction of Pineres, he remained quiet in his large and beautiful residence, near the walls of Carthagena, and appeared no more at the head of his troops. He occupied himself with festivals and parties, married a young and beautiful lady, with whom, and her sister, he remained regularly at home, was very seldom to be seen, received his subalterns in a harsh and haughty manner, arrested various commanders unjustly, namely the commodore Aury, and the general Florencio Palacios, and made himself many great enemies. Among them was general Ducoudray Holstein, of whom I am compelled to speak more than I would have done, if what I relate was not a characteristic picture of the chieftains on the Main.

From the time that general Ducoudray had taken the temporary command of the strangers, during the sessions of the legislature, general Castillo became entirely changed in his manners to the former. He became embarrassed, cold and stiff, when he before was very intimate and friendly. When we took a ride out, which happened almost every afternoon, he was silent and appeared sorrowful, and when I asked him the reason of it, he said to me, “that he had no motive at all to be so.” I perceived this change, and declined to ride out any more with him. I heard afterwards that he felt jealous of me, and the ascendancy which I appeared to have over the strangers, and that he wished to have me out of his way, declining to follow a great many of my suggestions, tending to introduce more order and discipline among the army, so called, of Carthagena, counting less than 2000 men in all.

I was therefore appointed commander-in-chief of the four forts of Boca Chica, which I found in a deplorable situation. I arrived in the night, very unexpectedly, and when I rose at day-break, as usual, I met with a handsome young man, well dressed, who approached me in a respectful manner, and welcomed my arrival, saying that the report from the commander in the forts was, that nothing had passed worthy of notice. I lived in a large and beautiful house, called the Commandancia, at some distance from the forts, at the entrance of the borough, called Boca Chica. This young man was nothing else than the first servant of the Commandancia, who told me that the former commanders of these forts, were in the habit of receiving from him, Lucas, every morning, the report from the forts. Astonished at such a disgraceful mode of service, I ordered the four commanders of these forts, the major and the staff officers, before me, and established order and discipline, which had been very much neglected. I understood that the officers on duty and guard, left their guards under the care of a sergeant, and came in short jackets, into the village, where they passed the whole night.

When Bolivar approached Carthagena, the question was suggested, whether I could be trusted to remain, as the commander of such an important station as that of these forts, which lay as a bulwark at the entry of the port of Carthagena, 12 miles from the fortress. Some said I might be in favor of Bolivar, and give up to him these forts, but the majority were in my favour, and expressed great confidence that I would be faithful to my duty, and was an officer of honor and trust. Martial law was now proclaimed in Carthagena, where Castillo commanded, and in Boca Chica, where I had united the three powers. As the garrison of the four forts was very weak, and unable to do field duty, I assembled the inhabitants of the surrounding islands of Boca Chica, Baru, Passao-Caballos, &c.; represented to them, in a short and earnest speech, the situation in which general Bolivar's hostile attack placed us, and showed them the necessity of taking shelter, with their families, in the forts, and doing military duty, as militia, promising at the same time, that not one of them should be pressed, (as was the common use,) for the marine service, and that they should be armed and fed at the expense of government. They assented unanimously, and I had about 1500 young and brave soldiers more, which I organised the same day in different corps and companies. I created a company of 150 boys, from 10 to 15 years old, which rendered me great service. Drills with the musket, rifles, and guns, were regularly established in the forts, and the distribution of good rations provided for, a hospital organised, military tribunals erected, the marine, including 15 armed vessels systematized, the fortifications repaired, the arsenal, workmen, forges, sailmakers, fishers, &c. established, and all was activity, zeal and order, so that many thousand strangers, who were witnesses of what passed in Boca Chica, were surprised to see such activity and zeal, when at Carthagena all was in great apathy.

One Sunday, being at mass, I observed a great bustle amongst the congregation, and all the men and boys running, in the midst of divine service, out of the church. Much surprised, I sent an officer to know the reason of it, and received the report that the commandant of the Matricula (or press gang) had arrived from Carthagena, in order to press sailors in Boca Chica; and that as soon as they heard that the colonel Marques was coming, they fled into the mountains and surrounding forest, fearing they should be pressed. I determined immediately to show them that I was a man used to keep my word, having pledged myself to protect them against any service of that kind. I sent for colonel Marques, and at the same time ordered the inhabitants to return and assemble, without arms, before my house; here, in their presence, I asked the colonel what kind of mission he had, and by what order he came here. He showed me an order from brigadier general Eslava, and general Castillo, to press 80 sailors, of which the marine in Carthagena was in great want. I told him I was sorry that I could not consent to assist him in the execution of such an order, having pledged my word that none of these inhabitants should be pressed during their services in the forts, and I wrote immediately to general Castillo and Juan de Dios Amador, the governor of the province, the motives of my refusal, and the urgency of being faithful in my promises, to inspire that confidence in me so highly necessary in civil war, &c. I dismissed colonel Marques who wished to make me some representations, which I would and could not hear. But he persisting, I was obliged to tell him in a tone of authority, that if he did not embark in five minutes, I would arrest, and send him into one of the forts. I took my watch, and gave the necessary orders to put in execution my threat. This had the desired effect, and he returned without one man.

When the inhabitants saw how I protected them, they had the greatest confidence in me, and served with redoubled zeal.

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After five or six conferences between Brion, Rodriguez, and myself, the following measures were adopted, to favour general Bolivar's return. As Ducoudray possessed the entire confidence of all those under his command; as he had, moreover, many friends amongst the most powerful natives, and strangers in the city of Carthagena, he spoke to Dr. Rodriguez upon the facility of introducing Bolivar, and putting him at the head of the government of Carthagena, instead of the weak and indolent Bermudes. I requested the Dr. to go again to Carthagena, and sound, adroitly, some persons whom I named to him, and any body else upon whom I could rely. He returned and found my observations correct. He said further, that all those persons whom he visited during his three days stay, assured him that Bermudes had entirely lost his confidence and activity, and that they saw him, with sorrow, associating too much with women known to be secretly attached to the Spanish cause. This the Dr. repeated to me twice, and said he had heard it from good authority. Brion offered to go with his five corvettes to Aux Cayes (Hayti) to get one thousand barrels of flour, rice, and other provisions, which might enable Carthagena and Boca Chica to support a longer siege, and to come immediately back to Boca Chica, whilst I engaged the fast sailing well armed privateer La Popa, which was one of the armed vessels under my order, to go for general Bolivar, to Kingston, in Jamaica, and to send Dr. Rodriguez in the vessel with a letter directed to Bolivar. All was ready in a couple of days, and they sailed early in the morning on the 11h of November in company with three other privateers, commanded by me to search on the coast for provisions.

Dr. Rodriguez received verbal instructions, from me and Brion; nobody else in Carthagena or Boca Chica, had the least idea of what was going on. Besides I handed a letter to the Dr. addressed to general Bolivar in French, of which the following is a translation: “Dear General, an old soldier of acknowledged republican sentiments, with whom you are personally well acquainted, and are informed that he has served against you, invites you now to come and place yourself at the head of the government of Carthagena, where Bermudes acts with great weakness and apathy. I engage, by the influence which I have here in Boca Chica and in Carthagena, to put in execution this change of government without the least bloodshed, and pledge my life for all the consequences. In taking this extraordinary step, I can assure you, candidly, that I have no other intention than to save the cause, which is in danger of being lost in Bermudes’ weak hands. Brion is your friend, and Brion alone, has engaged me by showing your character to me in a very different light from that in which I had received it from others. Dr. Rodriguez, who will hand you this letter, will explain to you every other particular concerning this plan, but lose not a minute, and come in the same vessel immediately. Captain Pierrill, who commands the Popa, has orders to take you and your friends to Boca Chica.
Dated, Boca Chica, November 11th, 1815.”

General Bolivar was much surprised at the sudden arrival of Dr Rodriguez, and much more at my letter, and at all the particulars communicated to him by the Dr. Bolivar was so highly pleased, that he remained not a day longer in Kingston, but embarked with the Dr. and two aid-de-camps the same evening to join me in Boca Chica. But being under sail, he met with another Carthagenan privateer, the Republican, captain Joanny, who informed him that all was lost, that Carthagena and Boca Chica wore evacuated by the patriots, and that Ducoudray and the principal patriot families were on their way, in ten armed vessels, under the command of commodore Louis Aury, directing their course toward Aux Cayes (Hayti).

General Bolivar then changed his course and arrived ten days before our squadron at Aux Cayes, and departed from thence to the capital of Hayti, Port an Prince, where he was cordially received by the president, Alexander Petion.

It will undoubtedly surprise the reader, that I, who was so decidedly against general Bolivar in September, 1814, had changed so suddenly in his favor in November, 1815. But this is not so surprising, when we consider the circumstances of my personal and delicate situation, in a land where I was a stranger, and full of enthusiasm for the liberty and freedom of this beautiful country. Recently arrived at Carthagena, I remained more than two months, a quiet observer of all that was going on, before I engaged in the service of this republic, which was offered rne some days after my arrival. But having at last consented to serve as Gefe de Brigada (colonel) in Castillo's staff, until my nomination as mareschal de campo could be confirmed by the congress of New Grenada which was sent to Tunja by the president Manuel Rodriguez and general Castillo, I was in honour bound to support the existing government in Carthagena, and obliged to act again t the united combination of the two Pineres with Bolivar as I did, and as I have stated in another chapter. General Bolivar departed from Carthagena to Tunja, and besieged Carthagena; I being commander of the forts of Boca Chica, was naturally obliged to remain faithful to the established government of Carthagena, and in killing general Bolivar in an action (as I said afterwards to himself,) I should have done my duty. But Brion's arrival from London, my intimacy with him, the warmth with which ho represented to me the necessity of saving Carthagena in pursuance of his plan, and my being fully convinced that this plan was the only one to save the province, which I alone could effect, considering my position at that time, determined me, and I would have fulfilled my new engagement with Bolivar at the peril of my life, if the evacuation of Carthagena had not taken place sooner than I and Brion expected. Then I was like many others, fully convinced of the total incapacity and apathy of Bermudes as commander of Carthagena. I was so fully persuaded that I had formed a wrong opinion of Bolivar's character and abilities, and moreover that I saw in this recal of Bolivar the only way to save the republic from destruction, that I acted in conformity to my conviction, and will never deny these steps taken in favour of a man, whom I found afterwards, not at all to correspond to the ideas I had formed of him.

I will say shortly, in closing this chapter, that the distress was so great in Carthagena, for want of provisions, that it was resolved to evacuate it secretly in the night, without capitulating with a cruel and faithless enemy like Morillo. This was done, and Louis Aury the commodore of the squadron, received these unfortunate people on board, forced the passage of the canal, which forms the entry of the port of Carthagena, from Boca Chica, and all came to shelter themselves under batteries of the forts which I commanded. I was, therefore, the last chieftain who remained, and after all the families from Boca Chica were embarked, I came at two o'clock in the morning of the 8th December, 1815, on board the commodore Aury, where I joined my family; and so we left this unhappy country, and sailed for the port of Aux Cayes.

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The emigrants from Carthagena, and my family, arrived the 6th of January 1816, at Aux Cayes, after having suffered cruelly for want of water and food.

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At my first interview with Bolivar at Aux Cayes, he promised to give me my rank as general, which was due to me, having sent my commission through the regular channel of the president and general-in-chief of the republic of Carthagena to the congress of New Grenada, as I have already stated. We arrived at Margarita where other officers were promoted, and I was passed over, as I have mentioned. We arrived at Carupano, a place laying on the Main, declared free and independent by our presence and that of Bolivar. After having reminded him of his promise already given, and after having said that I cared not much about a piece of paper, (meaning my commission,) which gave me not a cent of pay, nor any solid advantages; I added, that it was just I should not be degraded by the title of a colonel, when I had deserved my ancient rank, by my services at Carthagena, Boca Chica, at Aux Cayes, in the action of the 2d May, and since, at Margarita, and here on the Main; and, moreover, when I saw that Soublette, whom he himself knew to be a coward, ranked with me, who was an old veteran, not only covered with wounds, but deserving, for having, some claims on account of the services I had rendered, my former rank, &c. &c. I spoke very warmly and strongly, and Bolivar, taking me by the hand, gave me again his formal promise, that after the next action, when he could promote others, I should be the first named. He added so many obliging and friendly promises, that I was again foolish enough to rely upon his word and remained.

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I was now perfectly convinced that my longer remaining with such a commander, would be of no avail. I saw clearly that all plans and advice tending to establish order, instruction, drills and organization, in a word, any thing like an army, was powerfully counteracted by most of those who surrounded the general, and who were too much interested to leave every thing in statu quo, as being much more convenient to their wishes. My intimacy with Bolivar, with whom I was always frank, as a man of character and a free man should be, excited the greatest jealousy in all, or the greatest part of these natives. I was not only a foreigner, but I reprimanded, corrected and punished those who did wrong, and Bolivar himself, threw all the blame upon me, as I have already shown. Sarcasm and ridicule have always had a great influence upon Bolivar, as in general they have upon half cultivated and limited minds; and Soublette, powerfully supported by Miss Pepa, was much more at his ease in these evening assemblies, called tertulias, than he is on a field of battle, where he has been seen pale, trembling and mute! To these two were joined Miss Pepa, her mother and sister, who detested me cordially, for some words spoken publicly by me, against this family, and who always called me the maldito Frances. Pedro Leon Torres, whom I punished once, when I was lieutenant colonel and commander of the fort of San Jose, in Boca Chica, where I was chief; major Fernando Galindo, whom I treated once in Aux Cayes, as he deserved; lieutenant colonel Anzoatigui, whom I reprimanded one day at Carupano, and who commanded the body guard of the supreme chief, and some others, now made a combination, and tried by degrees to create suspicions against me, in the too jealous and weak mind of general Bolivar.

It appeared to me, that from the day I had mentioned the wish to command the foreign legion, general Bolivar was no more the same man; his manners were changed; he did not speak to me with the same confidence, with the same frankness, if he is at all capable of frankness, of which I have great doubts, as I said before. All these reasons, and moreover my impaired health, injured by privations and great exertions of mind, determined me at last to leave a service, in which (I declare it here frankly) no man, who has feelings of self respect and personal independence, can consent to remain. I chose, therefore, to write him an official letter, in which I formally requested him to grant me my final discharge from the army, and that I might join my family (wife and children) which I had left at Aux Cayes to restore my impaired health. I ordered one of my aid-de-camps to deliver it into general Bolivar's own hands, and when he came back with the assurance that he had obeyed this my last order, I felt at my ease and cheerful.

Four days passed before I received any answer, during which, the general sent me various persons, as the adjutant Brion, the intemlant Zea, his aid-de-camp Chamherlain, who was always greatly attached to me, &tc., to make me strong representations, and to persuade me to remain, and to revoke my first letter. Adjutant general, Jose Martinez, my officers of the staff, and my aid-de-camps, and a great many foreigners, tried in vain to persuade me; I remained firm, and answered that my health too much required a change of air, and rest. When Bolivar saw that nothing could retain me, he sent, at last, my absolute discharge, in very honorable and flattering terms. He had written it with his own hand, and said, among other things, that he granted me my request with great regret, (condolor,) and saw me departing with reluctance, but that my health having declined, he could not urge me any longer to stay, &c. &c.

Charles Soublette was named to be my successor, and as he dared not to avenge himself upon me, he had the baseness to do it upon my too adjutants, Manuel Flores and Joseph Martinez. These two young promising officers refused positively to serve any more in the staff under Soublette's orders, and had requested the general-in-chief to be placed in their respective ranks, in one of the battalions of infantry. This request was represented by Soublette to general Bolivar in a false and malicious way, and so he consented that these officers should be arrested, and put, for a couple of days, in the fort of Santa Rosa; Soublette knowing very well that I was attached to them. As soon as I heard what had happened, and being now no more in the army, I wrote to general Bolivar a very strong letter against the misrepresentations of Soublette, and urged him to put these young officers at liberty, with which general Bolivar complied, and he himself returned me a very obliging answer.

I inquired in vain for an opportunity for St. Thomas' or Aux Cayes, and was obliged to remain in Carúpano. Two days after, Bolivar seeing that his position was very critical, as I had told him beforehand, gave orders to evacuate Carupano and to embark the same night. I came in the evening to pay a visit to admiral Brion; general Bolivar entered some time after me. I stood up from my seat and came to shake hands with him as usual. But Bolivar withdrew his hand like a madman, and said in a furious tone to me, "that he would not give his hand to a man who deserved to be shot instantly!" I never saw in my life, among the houses of madmen, in Charenton and Bedlam, a figure like our supreme chief, at this moment! and was doubting if it was general Bolivar or some of these madmen, deserters from Bedlam, who were before me. As I have never feared any man, and as my conscience was very clear and quiet, I looked at him some moments, and asked in a firm and strong tone, for an explanation of these strange and unintelligible words, and declared to him positively, that he should explain himself, and that I feared nothing, lie said not a single word more to me, abruptly left the room, jumped upon his horse, and rode away. Brion, in reply to my inquiries, said to me, I need not care about what he said, as I was no longer in his service, and added that Bolivar had been the whole day in a very bad temper, having been very much disappointed, by the desertion of Marino and Piar, who had left bisn in a very disagreeable position, and made it necessary for him now to evacuate this place, where the Spaniards threatened to attack him. And then, added Brion, he is very angry with you for having insisted on leaving him, &c.

I sought Bolivar every where, but could not find him, and Brion said to me, that it would be more prudent to avoid his presence, at a moment when his passion was excited, and so he brought me, who was of course enraged at such treatment, on board of one of his own vessels, the Diana, where the captain and officers treated me with the greatest kindness. Having not been able to see general Bolivar, I wrote a strong and laconic letter to him, in which, I asked an explanation of this strange behaviour to me, and that notwithstanding I was no more under his command, I would submit to be tried before a court martial, and hear what were the charges against me, and who was my vile accuser! That I would remain on board of the Diana, one of the vessels belonging to the expedition, and not go to St. Thomas, until the sharpest inquiry, from the beginning to the end of my distinguished service, should be made, and that I never could have expected to deserve such an indecorous and ridiculous treatment. I gave this letter, directed to general Bolivar, supreme chief, to Mr. Ballot the next morning, to deliver it into the hands of the former. telling him that I waited for an answer. Mr. Ballot gave him the letter, but he answered me not a single word.

Some months afterwards, I found myself at Port au Prince, where general Bolivar arrived as a fugitive, in September 1816.

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Fra "La presence francaise sur la côte colombienne pendant les guerres d’indépendance" af Christiane Laffite-Carles:¹¹     

Alors que le colonel Labatut allait être désavoué, Louis Aury, corsaire français et à la tête d’une jolie petite flotte, faisait son entrée à Carthagène dans le courant du mois de mai 1813. Le gouverneur de la province, don Juan de Dios Amador, tout comme le commissaire des Provinces Unies de la Nouvelle Grenade, Juan Marimón, le reçurent à bras ouverts, lui conférant immédiatement le titre de Lieutenant de marine. Il se trouva alors à la tête de la toute jeune marine de guerre des indépendants. Il fallait qu’il organise la guerre maritime contre l’Espagne et, pour cela, il agit en sorte que le général Marimon lui délivre une patente de course. Il confia alors une partie de sa flottille à ses compagnons de navigation, français expérimentés comme Lauminet, Courtois et Collot. Après s’être donné le titre de commodore, pendant deux ans, entre 1813 et 1814, il sillonna les eaux antillaises depuis l’île de la Marguerite jusqu’au golfe du Mexique sous le pavillon de Carthagène. Dès qu’il entendit parler de l’expédition pacificatrice sous le commandement du général Morillo et de la flotte des royalistes qui allait envahir la baie de Carthagène, il réunit ses bâtiments et se tint prêt à coopérer à la défense de la ville. Mais, en raison des nombreuses pertes (bâtiments et matériel de guerre) dues aux précédents soulèvements entre les villes de Santa Marta et de Carthagène et aux mésententes entre certains chefs républicains, cette défense allait s’avérer très difficile malgré la résistance héroïque dont firent preuve les patriotes. Sur les dix forts de défense disséminés çà et là, à des endroits stratégiques, dans la baie, deux d’entre eux étaient commandés par des Français: le fort de San Felipe par le colonel Rieux et le fort de San Fernando par le colonel Ducoudray-Holstein.

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Henri Louis Villaume de Ducoudray, citoyen français est né en Brandebourg le 23/9/1772. Il a servi dans les armées de la République de 1793 à 1796. En 1795, il est nommé chef de bataillon et on le retrouve avec ce titre en 1811 à l’Etat Major de l’armée de Catalogne. Destitué le 2 septembre, pour trahison, par un décret de Napoléon, il suit un traitement à l’hôpital de Barcelone. Il réussit à s’évader en novembre 1811, après avoir trompé la vigilance de ses gardiens (Service historique de l’Armée de Terre, Série 2YF). Il rejoint les Antilles et dès son arrivée, il demande à faire partie de l’unité corsaire du commandant Aury. Leur amitié explique son aide précieuse lors de la fuite des patriotes.

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Quant à Louis Aury, il commandait l’escadre de la baie. Le général Castillo, commandant de la place forte, le chargea alors d’une mission importante, celle de s’emparer de la frégate espagnole Ifigenia chargée de quarante quatre canons, et qui, à cause du mauvais temps, avait dû se réfugier face à l’île de Barú. Désobéissant aux ordres, il échoua dans son entreprise:

Le général Castillo ordonna que quatre cents hommes d’élite ainsi qu’une partie de son Etat Major s’embarque à bord des embarcations qui s’étaient avérées nécessaires à cette entreprise, sous le commandement du lieutenant de vaisseau Aury. Ce dernier, qui n’était pas du même camp que Castillo, suscita des difficultés pour l’attaque de la frégate, et, contrevenant aux ordres reçus, fit un débarquement dans l’île de Barú, à Santana, sous prétexte de se rendre maître de cet endroit et d’assurer ainsi l’abordage de l’Ifigenia. L’infanterie, après avoir débarqué le 25 septembre, en désordre et sans précaution, se dirigea vers le village de Santana, avec une partie des équipages des bateaux; au moment où ils s’y attendaient le moins, les républicains furent attaqués par un corps de royalistes dirigé par le Lieutenant Colonel de génie, don Juan Camacho: la colonne des indépendants fut dispersée sous cette poussée et perdit vingt cinq morts, trente cinq blessés et cent trente fusils, les autres remontant à bord précipitamment. C’est ainsi qu’avorta le plan primitif, car les Officiers étrangers qui commandaient les bateaux corsaires, provoquèrent des rivalités et désobéirent aux ordres de Castillo qui dut regagner la ville.

Cela eut des conséquences fatales. Malgré tout, et face à de puissants ennemis, les querelles internes entre patriotes continuaient. Aury participa à l’emprisonnement de Castillo. Il lui était reproché de n’avoir pas pris les mesures nécessaires pour assurer plus rapidement la défense de la ville. José Francisco Bermudez, général vénézuélien, le remplaça, devenant ainsi le nouveau chef de la ville assiégée. Il fit ce qui était en son pouvoir pour essayer de tout réorganiser en faisant face à la famine et aux épidémies. En effet, malgré les bombardements des royalistes, les habitants ne se rendaient pas. Les Espagnols dominaient presque toute la baie et les indépendants, à l’intérieur de la ville commençaient à mourir de faim. Les forces militaires diminuaient également. Le colonel français Rieux, qui commandait le fort de San Felipe, n’avait plus sous ses ordres que trente sept combattants au lieu de cinq cents. Il en était de même pour les autres forts de défense. La ville était désormais devenue incapable de se défendre. En raison des nombreux morts qui l’encombraient et de la peste qui commençait à sévir, il fut alors résolu d’essayer de s’échapper par bateau. Le général Bermudez se chargea d’organiser cette tentative de fuite. Il s’agissait d’embarquer environ deux mille individus sur treize bateaux dont sept de guerre et six de commerce sous le commandement de Louis Aury. Naturellement il était difficilement envisageable de transporter tant de passagers et ce, pour deux raisons essentielles: d’abord le manque de place et ensuite des provisions d’eau et de vivres insuffisantes. Encore une fois il fut reproché à Aury d’avoir désobéi aux ordres en ne faisant pas le plein d’eau. Or il était réellement difficile de s’approvisionner en quoique ce fut étant donné que les Royalistes étaient partout. Le commodore se vit donc dans l’obligation de laisser quelques soldats dans la baie, au risque de les voir tomber entre les mains du général royaliste, ce qui revenait à les laisser aller à une mort certaine. D’un autre côté, les embarcations étaient tellement surchargées que de nombreux passagers ne survécurent pas à la traversée. Pendant ces préparatifs, les Royalistes ne perdaient pas de vue les bateaux républicains et s’organisaient pour empêcher leur fuite. Ils avaient établi quatre batteries: deux de chaque côté de la baie et vingt-deux chaloupes et bombardes formaient une barrière dans le chenal de la baie pour en boucher la sortie. Mais les patriotes étaient décidés et courageux. Il y avait parmi eux des femmes et des enfants et rien ne les retenait, pas même l’idée de mourir. Ils avancèrent donc dans la baie, refoulant les forces ennemies jusqu'à se trouver à portée de leurs batteries. Ils forcèrent le barrage et arrivèrent en nombre réduit devant le fort de San Fernando à Boca Chica. Heureusement pour eux, le général français, Ducoudray les y attendait alors qu’il aurait parfaitement pu abandonner son poste. Il fit porter tous les vivres et toutes les munitions qui lui restaient, à bord des embarcations, et la petite flotte put lever l’ancre...

Au milieu de la nuit, comme le vent avait fraîchi, la flottille appareilla dans un grand désordre, car le commandant Aury n’avait arrêté aucun plan précis pour que ses bateaux puissent se reconnaître entre eux. C’est ainsi qu’elle passa au centre de la flotte espagnole dont une grande partie s’était déjà réunie au vent des îles du Rosaire. Entre trois et quatre heures du matin, le mauvais temps redoubla et chaque bateau dut prendre une direction différente, selon les circonstances de son départ et l’état de son gréement; trois d’entre eux seulement restèrent ensemble avec la goélette Constitution sur laquelle naviguait l’Etat Major Général et quelques illustres magistrats de Carthagène...

Les autres embarcations avaient été capturées par les Espagnols ou bien s’étaient échouées. Il n’y eut donc que quatre bateaux qui arrivèrent à destination et débarquèrent aux Cayes sous le commandement de Louis Aury qui lui, était à bord de La Constitution. Bolívar le rejoignait peu après, à bord d’une goélette, commandée par son propriétaire, le lieutenant de vaisseau Renato Beluche.

Bolivars afskedsbevilling:

Al señor Coronel Ducoudray Holstein.

Esta es la tercera vez que U. me dirige solicitudes pretendiendo su separación del exército. La persuasión en que estaba de que los servicios de U. fuesen importantes para la República me ha obligado a negársela por dos ocasiones; pero las razones que U. me expone en su última representación, me han movido a concedérsela a pesar de mis deseos. Queda U., pues, segregado del Exército; y el Coronel Soublette, que debe sucederle en el empleo de Subjefe del Estado Mayor general y en el de Mayor General Interino, se encargará de los archivos de estos dos despachos. Sírvase U. entregárselos. Dios guarde a U. muchos años.

Cuartel General de Carúpano, 23 de Junio de 1816-6°. SIMON BOLIVAR

Til oberst Ducoudray Holstein.

Det er tredje gang, at De anmoder mig om afsked fra hæren. Overbevisningen om, at at Deres tjenester var vigtige for republikken har tvunget mig til at afslå det to gange, men årsagerne, De har givet mig i Deres sidste optræden, har bevæget mig til at indrømme Dem det på trods af mine ønsker. Derfor kan De forlade hæren, og oberst Soublette kan efterfølge Dem som ??vicechef for generalstaben og fungerende generalmajor og tage ansvar for disse to kontorers arkiver. Vær venlig at overlevere dem. Gud bevare Dem i mange år.

Carupano hovedkvarter, 23. juni 1816 kl. 6°. Simon Bolivar

Den Venezuelanske historiker Mireya Sosa de León skriver:

Ducoudray Holstein, Henri L.
Brandenburg (Tyskland), 1772 - Frankrig, 1839

Forfatter af en polemisk bog, hvori han gav udtryk for sin vrede mod Simón Bolívar. Ducoudray Holstein (eller Luis Ducoudray, eller Henri Louis Villaume) er en personlighed i amerikansk historie, hvis deltagelse i befrielsen er forvirrende og på en vis måde svært forklarlig. Det vides, at han var en eventyrer, en lejesoldat, og at han var søn af en protestantisk præst, Pierre Villaume. I 1809 skiftede han navn fra Villaume til Ducoudray. Han hævdede at have været chef for citadellet vedr Barcelona (Spanien), under generalen Hertugen af Tarent, mellem april 1810 og januar 1811. Suspenderet fra sin stilling og indespærret på hospitalet i Barcelona, deserterede han fra den franske hær. Han kom til Amerika til Ny Granada. I 1814 var han chef for styrken ved Bocachica ved Cartagena (Colombia). I december 1815 emigrerede han til Haiti. Han deltog i ekspeditionen fra Los Cayos (marts 1816) som stabschef, med rang af oberst. Han var en af underskriverne af protokollen fra Villa del Norte (6. maj), hvor Simón Bolívar anerkendtes som øverste leder. Den 23. juni samme år trådte han tilbage fra tjenesten i Carúpano og vendte tilbage til Los Cayos, hvor han levede som bibliotekar og musiklærer. Han skrev og offentliggjorde i Boston (1829) en bog med titlen ”Erindringer om Simon Bolivar”, hvori han gav udtryk for sin vrede mod Bolivar og andre republikanske ledere. I 1831 rejste han til Frankrig, hvor han døde. Ducoudray Holsteins polemiske bog nåede en grad af berømthed, så den var grundlag for Karl Marx til at skrive en række artikler om de sydamerikanske nationers uafhængighed, som gengiver Ducoudrays nedsættende begreber om Bolivars person og værk.

Francisco Cuevas Cancino skriver¹²:

Kan jeg bede om et par linjer i Deres tidsskrift: Jeg ønsker at informere den venezuelanske opinion om nogle meget interessante historiske data, som henviser til intet mindre end Ducoudray-Holstein. Deres læsere vil huske, at det er navnet på en lejesoldat, der benyttede sig af sine korte måneders kontakt med Befrieren til at offentliggøre et af de mest nedrakkende værker om Bolívar. Ducoudray-Holstein gav den svigefuldt titlen "Memoirs of Simon Bolívar," og udgav den i Boston i 1829.

Den venezuelanske kritik har altid placeret ham i et objektivt synspunkt – overdrevent objektivt, vil jeg sige, -. Jeg har analyseret hans arbejde, og, hvis De har glemt hvorfor, undersøgt baggrunden for, hvem der repræsenterer anklagerens vidne mod Bolívar. Dette spor er blevet fulgt af Bolívar-modstanderne; disse kan bruge Ducoudray, blot ved at hævde, at hans konklusioner er rigtige. Så i realiteten er det vigtigste blevet tildelt Ducoudray-Holstein: fritagelse for den indledende undersøgelse, som en domstol har for at modtage vidneudsagn fra et vidne. Er det ikke fastlagt på forhånd, hvilken type mand Ducoudray-Holstein var, er det derfor umuligt præcist at vurdere hans vidneudsagn.

Mange ting har undret læserne af de berømte "memoirer". Lige fra navnet på forfatteren. De tre initialer (HLV) og de dårligt forbundne familie navne, alle slørede, at vi tænker os en anonym, og bogen er skrevet med list: oplysningerne, som Ducoudray-Holstein stemplede på sit liv, før han kom til Ny Grenada og Venezuela, er tilstræbt uklare. Han har skjult dem grundigt, for eksempel ved Los Cayos ekspeditionen: for at fastslå rangen for hver enkelt af ekspeditionsdeltagerne anvender Ducoudray-Holstein som eneste forhistorie den kommission, han modtog fra byen Cartagena; andre gange kommer han ud med sine egne, og han slipper af med at præsentere sine originale dokumenter, hvilket betyder dem, der skal akkrediteres hans påståede deltagelse i Napoleons generalstab.

Der er alligevel et fejltrin, der giver anledning til undersøgelse: på side 155 i den første udgave, angiver Ducoudray-Holstein, at han var chef for citadellet i Barcelona under generalen Hertugen af Tarento. Vi har omsider fat i en konkret begivenhed, i stand til at afsløre baggrunden for vores Ducoudray.

Hertugen af Tarento, Etienne Macdonald, fik titel og marskalværdighed af Napoleon efter sejren i Wagram. Han blev udnævnt til general og chef for Hæren i Catalonien, som varede meget kort: fra den 24. april 1810 til den 15. januar 1811. Som han selv siger i sine "memoirer," hadede han at deltage i en krig, som var opstået på en urimelighed, og han sagde, at fjenden var hvorsomhelst, men aldrig kunne findes. Det er velkendt, at Napoleons krig mod Spanien var meget grusom; den, der fandt sted i Catalonien, var det om nogen. De udenlandske hjælpetropper, som Napoleon sendte begik alle de kujonagtige grusomheder, og de uophørlige catalanske modstand førte til de værste repressalier.

Med denne oplysning er det allerede muligt at sætte det store maskineri af de franske militære arkiver i gang. Det svar, jeg fik fra Hærens Historiske Tjeneste, fjerner en stor del af det slør, at Ducoudray kastede over sin fortid.

Den person, der anklagede Bolívar hed simpelthen Henri Louis Villaume, og blev født i Brandenburg. Hans flyttede emigrerede fra Frankrig i 1685, efter tilbagekaldelse af den Nantes ediktet. Faderen, Pierre Villaume, var præst i den franske protestantiske kirke i Schwedt, og bibragte sønnen en dyb afsky for alt spansk og katolsk. Sikkert er det, at Madariaga for at synliggøre, at Ducoudrays fobier ikke kun var rettet mod Bolívar, anerkender dette faktum; men Madariaga bekymrer sig ikke om at forklare deres årsag. Henri Louis Villaume blev født i 1772, og ikke som det er blevet hævdet (inklusive i bind IX af Befrierens skrifter) i 1763. På dagen for Los Cayos ekspeditionens afrejse var der en soldat på 43 år, dvs. en veteran på toppen af sine evner.

Familie forhistorie forklarer den omhyggelige uddannelse, han havde modtaget: det virkede mærkeligt, at en lejesoldat som Ducoudray-Holsten kunne give klaverlektioner til general Marion, i Haiti, og derefter være sproglærer på en skole i Albany i staten New York . Stærke aristokratiske træk gennemsyrer alle hans arbejder, de er forklaret uden problemer, når vi ved, at han blev båret ved dåben af markgreve af Schwedt Friedrich Heinrich og hans hustru, Louise af Preussen, Prinsesse af Anhalt-Dessau. Et ekko af denne længsel mod det prærevolutionære Europa opfattes, når vi fortsår at vores militærperson opgiver sit navn Villaume i 1809 og erstattede det med Ducoudray. Det er ikke hans mors pigenavn, for moderen hed Suzanne Marre, men det var måske en fjern slægtning, A. J. Du Coudray, som glimrede ved hoffet hos Louis XVI. Men i Amerika føjede han Holstein til sit nye navn.

Hans familie indvandrede til Danmark på dette tidspunkt, og det dobbelte efternavn gav - omsider! - et indtryk af adel.

Lafayette-navnet, som bruges som sit eget navnet, er af en senere høst; endnu senere end Los Cayos, siden aftalen om anerkendelse af Befrieren som øverste chef, dateret Margarita den 6. maj 1816, stadig er undertegnet ”Luis Ducoudray". For en person med bopæl i USA var "Lafayette" mere værd end en simpel "Louis".

Villaume Ducoudray var er en del af den Tyske Legion i den franske hær, hvor han deltog som soldat i 1793. Som bataljonskaptajn i Sarthe, under krigen i Vendée, modtog han sin afsked i Republikkens år III (1794). Den første krig på kniven, i hvilken Villaume deltog, den første og pludselige afgang fra hæren.

Det er under navnet Ducoudray at Villaume igen gør fransk tjeneste femten år efter i 1809. Han tog til hæren i Brabant, for at tæske Catalonien. I juni 1810 møder vi ham som bataljonschef. Samme år, hvis man citerer hans "memoirer", er han næstkommanderende på citadellet i Barcelona. Efter for seks måneder suspenderes kaptajn Villaume-Ducoudray pludseligt fra sine funktioner, fem måneder senere (november 1811), uden at afvente Krigsretten, deserterede han ved at flygte fra Hospitalet i Barcelona, hvor han havde været interneret.

Er dette den mand, som fire år senere dukker op i vores Amerika og i alle nuancer kræver anerkendelse af sin generalsgrad; den, som Cartagena anvendte til at modsætte sig Bolívar; den, der latterliggjorde Befrieren Bolívar systematisk ved at benægte hans stridbarhed i militære anliggender. Er Villaume-Ducoudray den, der var ansvarlig for forsvaret af forterne ved Boca i Cartagena, og den som - tør jeg foreslå det, at som det passer sig for en lejesoldat, der spiste med begge kæber - var årsagen til den frygtelige glemsomhed om havnesignalerne, som tillod Morillo at beslaglægge de fartøjer, der førte til en fæstning og hjælpe spansk. Er det var denne imtrigante militærperson, der skabte splid mellem alle: som ikke kun handlede imod Bolívar, men mod den samme Castillo, derefter intrigerede mod ham, og som er omfattet stillinger og fornærmelser netop anlagt generaler, som Villaume-Ducoudray betragtede som sin egen. Som gjorde det samme mod Bermúdez, der forrådte ikke god til at erstatte Castillo: den dristige og hensynsløse Bermudez, som han også erklærede ude af stand til militæret, og hvem han anklagede for at forsømme forsvaret af Cartagena, som ydedes af frivillige og kvinder.

Det er ikke mærkeligt, at i Los Cayos, og derefter på kontinentets kyst, var Villaume-Ducoudray den værste af intrigemagerne. Han var, ja, den mest behændige af plattenslagere, som i alle former for sammensværgelser og i afskyelige sammenfiltrede masser af dueller, havde en meget rig erfaring. Hele den begrædelige række af dueller, af konflikter og afsky, som splittede patrioterne i Los Cayos, blev i vid udstrækning motiveret af og fremelsket af Villaume-Ducoudray.

Befrieren havde helt ret, når han talte om Ducoudray som en lykkeridder; han havde presenteret falske papirer, og han fortjente ikke den mindste tillid. Befrieren havde brugt ham i de magre dage på Haiti, men han afviste ham straks efter. Eftertiden bør gøre det samme; Villaume-Ducoudrays fejhed og nedrighed er rigeligt bekræftet. Hans bagvaskelse bør blankt afvises. Og Villaume-Ducoudrays foregivne øjenvidneberetninger om episoder på Haiti, Margarita, og Carúpano bør fortolkes som et produkt af hans underbevidsthed, hans had til alt liberalt, alt, som ikke er europæisk og calvinistisk, til alt, som er virkelig stort.

Det lader til at have været Georges Jeannnet (Nicolas Georges Jeannet-Oudin, 1762-1828), nevø af Danton, der stod bag ekspeditionen mod Puerto Rico:

Fra "Bonapartists in the Borderlands. French exiles and refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815-1835" af Rafe Blaufarb, University of Alabama Press, 2005:

Another Champ d'Asile survivor who was a revolutionary activist in the 1820s was Georges Jeannet. Given his background not merely as a colonial administrator for the French Republic but also as the official charged with effecting slave emancipation in Guyana, it is not surprising to find that Jeannet's hopes centered on the possibility of fomenting slave revolt in the Carribean.

In 1821 and early 1822 he reportedly set in motion a plot to spark a rising of mulattoes and blacks against the white inhabitants of Guadeloupe. The base of the operation was on the nearby island of Saint Barthelemy, in the mercantile house of the brothers Benjamin and Titus Bigard, rich free men of colour who had been trusted lieutenants of the French Revolutionary commissar Victor Hugues during the 1790s. Backed by their money and influence, a fleet of corsairs was to disembark eight hundred armed men at Guadeloupe, burn plantations, murder whites, and try to touch off a race war that would destroy the colonial regime. Jeannet was present on the island as late as March 1822, making connections with potential allies on the island, when he was expelled by the governor-general.

He returned to New York City via Saint Barthelemy and promptly organized a new expedition, this one against Puerto Rico. In mid-August 1822, accompanied by his son Joseph, two nephews, and two former Napoleonic officers (General Ducoudray-Holstein and Colonel Durutte), Jeannet set sail at the head of a force composed of fifty-two men crammed aboard two small ships.

It is unclear how the expedition unfolded, although it certainly did not pose a serious threat to Puerto Rico. Jeannet himself died in 1828 in impoverished circumstances in his hometown, while his son became a small businessman in Peru.

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Fra Les pages de Rédris om Nicolas Georges Jeannet-Oudin (1762-1828):


Il fut gouverneur de la Guyane:
* 14 avril 1793 - novembre 1794
* D'avril 1796 - novembre 1798 (agent particulier du Directoir)

D'abord Maire d'Arcis sur Aube, puis Commissaire du conseil exécutif provisoire à Thionville, Commissaire de la Convention, Agent du Directoire il est nommé gouverneur de Guyane. Neveu de Danton, c'est à lui qu'il doit ce poste.
Il arrive en Guyane le 11 avril 1793.

Il proclama en Guyane la première abolition de l'esclavage à la réception du décret du 16 pluviôse, le 13 juin 1794

Il fit procéder aux élections locales par les nouveaux citoyens en septembre. Mais il s'opposa à la volonté des nouveaux libres de créer une petite exploitation agricole et les obligea à demeurer sur les habitations où ils étaient esclaves.

Jeannet-Oudin, imposa des règles précises de travail quant aux horaires et à la rémunération, mais ne purent empêcher un important marronnage.

Il fut remplacé au poste de gouverneur par François Maurice Cointet de Fillain d'avril 1796 à novembre 1798

Jeannet-Oudin retourna en Guyane en 1796 comme agent particulier du Directoire. A ce titre il reçu le 12 novembre 1796 (22 Brumaire An V), les 16 premiers déportés du 18 fructidor arrivés sur le bateau la "Vaillante"

Il fut remplacé, par Pierre Burnel en novembre 1798.

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Fra Handbook of Texas Online om Champ d'Asile:

The idea of an armed expedition of Frenchmen into Texas apparently took form during Baron Henri Dominique Lallemand's stay in New Orleans early in 1817 but was soon appropriated by his elder brother, Baron Charles François Antoine Lallemand, on his arrival in the United States later in the year. In Philadelphia Charles Lallemand obtained the presidency of a company that had received from Congress a grant of four townships of land in Alabama for the purpose of colonizing French emigrants who would cultivate grapes and olives. Lallemand succeeded in imposing more than sixty refugee officers on the society for the purpose of selling colonial allotments for the benefit of the expedition. The sale of most of the allotments in the early days of December enabled the first contingent, led by Baron Antoine Rigaud, to sail from Philadelphia aboard the schooner Huntress on December 17. Shortly afterward the Lallemand brothers, with more officers and munitions, left New York for New Orleans aboard the brig Actress. Charles Lallemand and his group went on to Galveston on February 19, 1818, leaving Henri Lallemand behind to coordinate the dispatch of supplies and recruits. At Galveston the Frenchmen were the guests of Pierre and Jean Laffite, special agents of the Spanish government. The Laffites provisioned and transported the filibusters while reporting their activities to the Spanish consul in New Orleans. On March 10, with the aid of their hosts, the French left for the Texas mainland in small boats and ascended the Trinity River to a locale now unknown, near the site of the present town of Liberty. There they built their fortress, Champ d'Asile…

There probably were never many more than 100 officers at the encampment at one time. The roster of all those whose names are known amounts to 149. In addition there were four women and four children, three enlisted orderlies, several servants and labourers, and a few others. The officers were organized into three companies, called cohorts, of infantry, foot cavalry, and artillery. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of them were French and the rest were former Grande Armée officers of other nationalities. The latter formed the most discontented and unstable element of the expedition, and most of the desertions were from their ranks. The French themselves were divided, some partisans of Lallemand and others of Rigaud, the second in command, who was in charge during Lallemand's frequent absences. Learning while away that Spanish troops had been dispatched from San Antonio to expel the filibusters, Lallemand ordered the camp abandoned. By July 24 the retreating invaders were at Galveston Bay waiting to be returned to the island in the Laffites' boats. In August George Graham, a United States special agent, arrived at Galveston to inform Lallemand that the American government wanted the French to leave Texas. When Graham left, Lallemand and a few others went with him and Rigaud remained in command. In September a hurricane inundated the island, destroying the refugees' shelters and supplies. In October a Spanish officer arrived and commanded the French to leave. With aid of the Laffites, most of the filibusters were in New Orleans by the end of November.

Kent Gardien and Betje Black Klier

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Fra “Champ D’Asile” af Clay Coppedge i "Letters from Central Texas" om Champ d'Asile:

The official version of the colony’s founding had it that Champ D’Asile would be a place of asylum for officers and refugees from Napoleon’s army and empire after the Battle of Waterloo ended Napoleon’s reign. One of Napoleon’s generals, Charles Francois Antoine Lallemand, led the colonists into Texas under a banner of agriculture. They were to cultivate “vines (grapes) and olives” on that red Pineywoods dirt, a dubious proposition at best.

The real intention seems to have been to establish a French military outpost in Spanish Texas that might help Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, take Mexico, rescue his dictator-brother from exile in St. Helena and then take over North America. This kind of plan – taking over the world or at least a large part of it – was typical of the Bonaparte boys. Joseph Bonaparte also had some experience as a ruler of Spain, courtesy of his brother, and he was in the United States at the time…

By any material reckoning, the French fared poorly at Champ D’Asile. They spent a lot more time with military manoeuvres than they did with agriculture. No vines. No olives. Nor had they anticipated the sultry heat of an East Texas summer, or the mosquitoes. Though ostensibly an agricultural settlement, the people at Champ D’Asile basically set about starving themselves to death. Some drowned. Others poisoned themselves trying to live off the land. At least a couple were captured and eaten by the Karankawa.

Den mislykkede ekspedition til Puerto Rico 1822

1822: Det Hvide Hus begyndte processen med anerkendelse af de forskellige latinamerikanske staters uafhængighed. Uden embargo, men med fastholdelse af sin embargo mod Haiti, og i overensstemmelse med sin såkaldte "teori om modne frugt" (hvor "de politiske tyngdekræfter" senere med Cuba betød, at de faldt i amerikanske hænder), ville udenrigsminister John Quincy Adams fremme en pagt med England og Frankrig for at forhindre uafhængigheden af denne ø og af Puerto Rico fra det iberiske kolonistyre.

Tidligere besejret af spanske tropper forsøgte lejesoldaterne Docoudray Holstein og Baptist Irvine - lejet af den amerikanske regering - at etablere under dennes kontrol en “República boricua” i Puerto Rico. Derudover landede amerikanske flådestyrker i det nordvestlige Cuba under påskud af at ødelægge en gruppe pirater, der havde sat sig fast på øen.

I Puerto Rico var det guvernør Miguel de La Torres opgave at forhindre at uafhængighedsrevolutionen opslugte Antillerne. På bare to år af hans mandat havde befrielsesbevægelsen frigjort næsten hele det spanske Amerika og kæmpede for befrie de resterende dele, Cuba, Puerto Rico og Filipinerne, fra Spanien. Da guvernør De La Torre ankom vidste han om de mange eventyrere og uromagere, som dengang levede i Republikken Boricua og idømte dem hårde straffe. Blandt hans ofre var de sammensvorne i Louis Du Coudray-Holsteins eventyr i 1822 og af de hemmelige samfund, som var inspireret af frimurerne og af Bolivar, Soles y Rayos.

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Fra General Don Alvaro Bazáns arkiv
9. november 1822

Instruktioner i forbindelse med frigivelsen af 700 franskmænd og tyskere, under kommando af den tyske general Ducoudray Holstein, som kom fra Boston med kurs mod den danske ø Skt. Thomas, med to skonnerter og syv flere, som samledes på øen for at danne en ekspedition mod Puerto Rico.

Fra "Puerto Rico og dets befrielseskampe" af Francisco Berroa Ubiera, historiker:

I 1822 er året for Ducoudray Holsteins sammensværgelse for at danne republikken Boricua. Jeg bør præcisere, at general Louis H. Ducoudray Holsten var schweizer og deltog i den separatistiske krig på fastlandet indtil 1816, og ønskede at fremme et oprør af de sorte mod de hvide i Puerto Rico for at skabe Republikken Boricua, selv om programmet ikke omfattede frigørelse af slaver…

Siden 10. august 1822 havde den spanske vicekonsul i Philadelphia rapporteret, at en franskmand ved navn Wischaur var ved at rekruttere 200 mænd til en fribytteraktion, hvis hemmelige agent i Puerto Rico var mulatten Pedro Dubois, en indfødt bosiddende i Guadalupe Daguao, bydelen Naguabo.

Dubois forsøgte at knytte de franske bosættere i Fajardo Monsieur de Saint Maurice til sin sag; men de meldte ham til borgmesteren i byen, som arresterede og undersøgte Dubois, som var i besiddelse af nogle vigtige dokumenter.

Dubois blev derefter skudt foran slaverne fra flere plantager, hvor flere var involveret i plottet i Guayama, nær Anasco, det sted hvor Holstein Doucodray havde valgt at gøre landgang.

Den 12. oktober blev Dubois henrettet for forbrydelsen at være i sammensværgelse med udlændinge, mens Doucodray blev arresteret i Curacao sammen med to fartøjer, beslaglagt af øens myndigheder med våben og proklamationer og andre dokumenter, der forrådte virksomheden.

Et brev fra guvernøren for Skt. Thomas til guvernøren i Puerto Rico fra 8 okt 1822 indeholdt oplysninger om mulatterne Pierre Binet og Luis eller Francois Pinau.

Det sagde, at planerne for den forberedte ekspedition den 28 September 1822 "er udarbejdet af en franskmand ved navn Tunet, en tidligere agent for [Det Franske] Konvent og guvernør i Guadeloupe, og den nu kendte agent de Boyer "(AGPR: RG. 186: Records of the Spanish Governors of Puerto Rico. Political and Civil affairs. Cónsules Panamá-Saint Thomas. Entry 16, Box No. 32).

Den 15. november 1822 sendte guvernøren på Skt. Thomas, C. Scholten, et brev til guvernøren i Puerto Rico generalkaptajn Miguel de la Torre, og den politiske guvernør, Francisco González de Linares - via De Signy - der sagde: "Doucodray Holstein kom her til øen fra Curacao den 1. marts og fik pas den 6. april til Puerto Rico. Denne eventyrer har været her før, men hans adfærd har aldrig givet anledning til mistanke mod ham"(ibid.).

Fra ”Memoirs of Simon Bolivar”:

That the government of Curacao in 1822-1824, was extremely base, I trust will further appear, from the relation of a transaction which excited great sensation at the time, and in which I was concerned. The proceedings of this government to which I now allude as oppressive, fraudulent, and base in the extreme, were against myself, Bantista Troine, and Charles Frangatt Voyel. The projected expedition against the Spanish island of Porto Rico, the object of which was to render its inhabitants free and independent of Spain, excited great attention and interest. With two brigs, which were intended to form part of the force of that expedition, I entered the port of Curacao in distress. This being a neutral port, I had of course a right to protection, by the laws of nations. The brigs were laden with rich cargoes; and Cantzlaar and Compaguree, for the purpose of laying their hands upon this property, caused me to be arrested, while I was in port, and in the condition just stated. For the purpose of covering this outrage and directing the public attention from it, they and their coadjutors took great pains to occupy the columns of various newspapers, with false and calumnious statements relative to my character, and to the objects of the expedition. I will give my statement.

When I took my final leave of the service on the Main, my desire was to retire altogether from such scenes as had engaged the greater part of my life; and to devote my time to my growing family. With this view I engaged in literary pursuits and gave lessons in various branches, with which in the course of my life, I had become sufficiently acquainted to teach them to others. While I was living in this manner, I received, one night, at Curacao, a visit from some rich foreigners who were well settled in the island of Porto Rico. They urged me strongly, to place myself at the head of a numerous party of wealthy inhabitants of that island, for the purpose of expelling the Spaniards from it, and rendering the island free and independent. I had declined various proposals made me to join the patriots in Mexico and Buenos Ayres, and I now declined this urgent one of these inhabitants of Porto Rico, notwithstanding that they assured me, they placed entire confidence in me, and in me alone; and that they would have nothing to do with any other military chieftain. About a month after, a larger number of them came to me and gave me such proofs of their spirit and ability to accomplish their purpose, that I consented to their proposal. This happened at the end of the year 1821. I removed with my whole family from Curacao to St Thomas’. There I left them and came myself to the United States, where I soon found many enterprising men ready to aid me.

The expedition against Porto Rico, was, as yet, a project, which could not he realized until I should have received all the powerful means promised me. Proceeding with part of my vessels, from St. Barts to Laguaira, I encountered a heavy storm at sea, and was forced to put into the port of Curacao with the brigs, the Eondracht and the Mary, in a state of distress, the 16th of Sept. 1822. The 23d I was arrested by order of governor Cantzlaar, in the house of the Fiscal judge. The governor, conscious of the baseness, or rather of the odium of the proceeding, exerted himself to throw the blame of the arrest upon the Fiscal and the tribunal. But the villainy was his own. He was indeed influenced by advisers, who were interested with himself in the spoils they were to gain. I shall not detail the villainies of these men; they are too well known. I will say here (what I have authentic documents to prove,) that Cantzlaar, Elsevier, D. Serurier, Hagunga, Van Spengler, and their accomplices, are a gang of villains, to whom nothing is sacred, but gold.

Had I been sailing with an armament to attack Porto Rico, the government of Curacao, a neutral power, would have had no right to impede me, nor to aid the subjects or allies of Porto Rico in doing so.

I had committed no offence. I came in distress into the neutral harbor of Curacao, and was entitled to such reception as is due to a distinguished stranger in a foreign country. I had done nothing to forfeit my liberty, nor my right to the hospitality of the place. My situation was perfectly known to Cantzlaar; he knew well that he had no right to arrest me. But, instigated by his own avarice and that of others, he did so; and thus rendered it necessary for the purpose of covering the spoliations committed upon the property under my care, to accuse and try me as an offender. Parker, the United States’ consul, who died afterwards at Curacao, Van Spengler, who is now governor of the Dutch island of St. Eustacia, and William Prince, the secretary of the government of Curacao, in conjunction with those already named, were busy in procuring the insertion of false statements relative to me and my affairs in many foreign gazettes, and particularly in those of the United States. I could not contradict them at the time, because I did not know of their existence. I found afterwards, that they had prejudiced the public against me, and the honorable motives which had actuated me; I saw at once, that they were intended to justify the robberies of Cantzlaar and his coadjutors.

Cantzlaar gave orders to institute a cause against me. I protested in strong terms against both the arrest and trial, refused to answer before the tribunal, and demanded to be informed why I was arrested in violation of the rights and laws of nations. Cantzlaar answered me that the Fiscal had caused my arrest; the Fiscal told me that the governor had done it.

The governor accused me of an intention to attack the island of Porto Rico, and to render it free and independent, after having driven the Spaniards from the island. But as I had no troops nor any means of prosecuting such an expedition, this ridiculous pretext failed. Most of the European and North American gazettes printed in the latter part of the year 1822, contain statements of this Porto Rico affair; and I believe all who have read them, are satisfied that my views were upright and honourable.

The Fiscal, Elsevier, seeing that the governor's accusation stood no chance of succeeding, set his own genius to work to invent another. He brought forth a grave charge of piracy, or as he expressed it, similitude of piracy . The evidence stated in this accusation, in support of this charge, was, that I had caused to be printed in Philadelphia various papers filled with liberal and republican principles.

The grand inquisitor Serurier, not satisfied with the form of either of the above charges, himself put the accusation, upon which he afterwards pronounced me guilty and sentenced me to death, into the form of a charge of high treason against all living sovereigns. This course of proceeding carries absurdity, outrage, and villainy, upon the face of it, and needs no comment. The lawyers generally stood in such fear of the governor, that, for some time, no one of them dared to undertake my defence. At last, the court, ex officio, named Mordecai Ricardo, a man in whom, alone, I had entire confidence. M. Ricardo made a bold and masterly defence. But, as my acquittal must have restored to me the brigs and their cargoes; his defence availed nothing. My fate was indeed decided beforehand. After the hearing was over, my friends of whom I had a great many, and those of the most respectable inhabitants, came and congratulated me upon my prospect of speedy release. So sure were they that the court would not dare to condemn me. During the trial, which lasted eighteen months, M. Ricardo behaved like a true friend; and after the sentence, which was sent to me in writing, and which I treated, together with the court, with all the ridicule and contempt I was master of, he insisted upon an appeal to the higher court of Gravenhague in Holland. The appeal was denied. He applied a second time and was again refused.

The inhabitants almost universally understood the cause and the motives of the court, so that the decision excited general indignation. For my part, I kept my pistols and dagger at hand, and in order, determined to defend myself to the last extremity. When the refusal to grant an appeal was known, the public indignation rose to the highest pitch; of which Cantzlaar, being informed by his spies, sent for the president of the court, to come and dine with him; and directed him to grant the appeal. They were seriously alarmed by the excitement among the inhabitants; and wished also for time to make up a plausible statement of the case, to be sent to the higher tribunal. The appeal, therefore, on a third application, was granted. I had asserted aloud, in presence of the Fiscal, (in whose house I had apartments) his son, and three clerks, that the court were a set of robbers; and that no one would dare to execute their ridiculous sentence.

After my condemnation I continued to occupy myself with my usual pursuits, to receive my friends and to walk abroad as before. I gave out that I would send letters to his highness the Sultan at Constantinople, and to the emperor of China, notifying them of my conviction as a traitor and a conspirator against their lives. Hardened and brutish, as Serurier had become, he could not resist the torrent of general ridicule, and was evidently mortified.

Having declared that I would not go in a merchant vessel, nor without my family, to Holland, Cantzlaar fitted out the brig Swallow, a Dutch man-of-war of 22 guns, for that purpose. In a few days, having made all necessary preparations, we were ready to embark, (Nov. 1823) when, one morning the Fiscal entered the room where I was at breakfast with my family, and told me that he came from the governor, who had just received despatches from Holland, in which the minister of the colonies ordered the governor to suspend every proceeding against me, and by no means to send me to Holland, as this affair was not regarded as criminal, but altogether as political. That I must be treated with all the regard due to my rank and education, (an order to the same effect had been given by the governor to the Fiscal at the time of my arrest, and was in force during the proceeding, against me) until his majesty the king of the Netherlands had received the advice of his council of state.

At last came the decision of the king; which was, that the whole of the proceedings against me should be annulled and destroyed; that I should be immediately put at my full liberty, and that all my expenses should be defrayed, until I might arrive at whatever place I should choose to go to with my family.

At the time of my departure from Curacao, various rumors were in circulation; one was, that the governor, and the whole gang had received a very severe reprimand for the whole of their proceedings against me. I know not the fact; but I know they deserved it.

The above is but a sketch of the cause. The principal rolls (or papers) remain in the hands of Cantzlaar, Elsevier and Serurier. One of the articles of the sentence at large, was that my liberal (I suppose they meant to call them licentious) papers should be burned by the hands of the common hangman, in the public square at Amsterdam fort in Curacao.

The king of the Netherlands is an honest and upright man. It therefore would become him to institute a full and particular inquiry into the conduct of these men, relative to my trial; and also to inquire why Leonard Sistare, who had been convicted of altering the ships papers of the Endracht, was suffered to leave the port of Curacao, unpunished. Mr. Van Spanglee, the acting Dutch governor of St. Eustacia, as I am well informed, can give the best information on the subject. The original acts which are kept at fort Amsterdam, will throw light on the subject. There are also, in my knowledge, facts and evidence sufficient to satisfy any impartial man, of the corruption of those who originated and carried on the infamous and groundless prosecution. These facts and evidence shall be produced whenever (while I am living) H. M. the king of the Netherlands shall call for them.

G. W. F. Brüggemanns skriver¹³:

Sagen Ducoudray Holstein og den kongelige anordning af 1823

Hvad der ovenfor blev sagt om kvaliteten af den vestindiske lovgivning, synes især at have været gældende for Curaçao. En smidigt forløbende retsudøvelse blev umuliggjort af en nådesløs konkurrence mellem Politirådet og Retsplejerådet. I denne kamp satte (i 1816) Politirådet en kendelse fra Retsplejerådet ud af kraft, fordi dette sidste råd havde afgjort en sag, der lå uden for dets kompetance. I sidste ende var kongen var nødt til at gribe ind, så Retsplejerådets jurisdiktion blev genskabt med ophævelsen af Politirådets afgørelse. Dette Retsplejeråd led i 1823 under et angreb på dets uafhængighed, hvor kongen var "synderen" denne gang. Hvad skete der?

I år 1822 forberedtes et angreb mod regeringen i øen Puerto Rico i de Store Antiller. Hovedpersonerne i dette næsten-kup var Louis V. Ducoudray Holstein (også kendt som: du Coudray), der kaldte sig general, og B. Irvine, der med USA’s regerings forudgående viden og økonomiske støtte skulle være statsminister for den nyoprettede republik. De to mænd ankom i september måned 1822 til Curaçao med den amerikanske brig Mary og den nederlandske brig Eendragt, som var lastet med passagerer (tropper) og krigsfornødenheder. Fordi Eendragts søpapirer og mønstringer ikke var i orden, besluttede guvernøren Cantz'laar, at skatteopkræveren Elsevier skulle iværksætte en undersøgelse. Man fandt blandt andet pamfletter på spansk, der var rettet til befolkningen i Puerto Rico, og som var underskrevet af Ducoudray og Irvine. Det var hos Cantz'laar, at idéen var kommet til en retssag mod de potentielle forbrydere til retssagen, fordi når alt kommer til alt "ved en mildere behandling, i tilfælde af at denne første plan var lykkedes, ville alle Vestindiske kolonier, den ene efter den anden, falde". Ved kendelse af 7. februar 1823 blev i forbindelse med Ducoudray besluttet: afbrænding af pamfletterne med bødlens hænder, med hensyn til den dømte blev ført under galgen, også straffes med sværdet over hovedet og "evig indespærring for egen regning." Irvine slap betydeligt bedre: Tredive års indespærring, efterfulgt af evig forvisning (under dødsstraf) fra Curaçao og underordnede øer. De dømte ansøgte straks om appel og opnåede, at, henrettelsen blev udsat, da dens udførelse ville forårsage en irreparabel prejudicie. udsat. Den af ministeren for (...) Kolonierne (AR Falck) udgivne rapport viser, at skatteopkræverens kendelse var baseret på en "ukendt kriminalitet af assimileret sørøveri". Dommen blev begrundet i "højforræderi mod en fremmed stat, mod folkeretten og menneskeheden". Såvel Falck som Van Maanen var af den opfattelse, at der ikke var nogen forbrydelse på Nederlandsk territorium og at halvdelen af de dømte ikke var "retspligtige" over for Curaqao. Van Maanen mente primært, at Retsplejerådet, efter at dommen havde erklæret, at sagen om appel kunne bringes for Højesteret i Haag. Getergd bemærkede: "Det er noget uhørt i praksis, at retten afsagde kendelse over gyldigheden af sin egen dom". Det var ikke godtgjort, at domstolene på forhånd havde tilladelse til at procedere ordinario modo, således at proceduren blev anset for ekstra-ordinær og derfor ikke kunne appelleres. Denne proces, som ikke kun i tekniske termer var ekstra-ordinær krævede en ekstraordinær indsats fra kongen. Denne besluttede ved Kongeligt Dekret af 22. oktober 1823, at dommen fra den 7. februar 1823 af Det civile kriminalråd for Curaqao var annulleret, med forbud for skatteopkræveren mod yderligere opfølgning af denne dom. Og uanset at Ducoudray og Irvine intet kriminelt havde foretaget sig, fik guvernøren besked på straks at forvise de to personer fra kolonien "med forbud mod nogensinde at komme tilbage til Kongeriget Nederlandene eller i nogen af dets lande."

Det var en meget diplomatisk beslutning. For det første var man fri for de farlige eventyrere. Dernæst var Retsplejerådets fejl ophævet. Endelig havde man ved denne hurtige udvisning ikke åbnet for udleveringsbegæringerne fra guvernørerne på Puerto Rico og Martinique.

Hvad jurisdiktion angår, skal bemærkes, at kongen med den ene hånd tog tilbage, hvad han havde givet med den anden. Han havde givet regeringen forordninger, som fastslog, at ingen politisk myndighed bør gribe ind i retsplejen, og at Retsplejerådet "skulle være frit og uafhængigt af alle indflydelser”. Af friheden og uafhængigheden - hvor dårlig udført den end var - i dette tilfælde kun lidet tilbage. For kongen selv må sagen have været klart. Ikke blot gav art. 60 i loven af 1815 ham overopsyn over kolonierne, men det var også i hans navn rigtigt. At statsrådet ikke blev hørt i denne sag har tilsyneladende ikke forstyrret nogen.

Endelig havde appellanterne ikke noget at sørge over. Det er indlysende at antage, at Højesteret - hvis kongen ikke ville have grebet ind - ville have erklæret sig inhabil til at appellere til denne ekstra-ordinære sagen, således at en udsættelse af gennemførelsen af den elendige dom ville blive ophævet.

Fra ”The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States”¹⁴:

Expedition against the island of Porto Rico

Communicated to the House, February 4, 1823.

To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th of December last requesting the President “to communicate to the House such information as he might possess with regard to any expedition prepared in the United States, and having sailed from thence within the year 1822 against the territory or dependency of any Power in amity with the United States; and to inform the House whether any measures had been taken to bring to condign punishment persons who have been concerned in such expedition contrary to the laws,” I transmit to the House reports from the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, with the documents mentioned in each. Those documents contain all the information of the Executive relating to the subject of the resolution. That a force of a very limited extent has been equipped in the ports of the United States, and sailed from thence for the purpose described in the resolution, is manifest from the documents now communicated. The reports from the collectors of Philadelphia and New York will show in what manner this equipment escaped their notice. The first information of this equipment was received from St. Bartholomew's, the place of its rendezvous. This was confirmed afterwards from Curaçao, with an account of its failure. Should any of those persons return within the jurisdiction of the United States, care will be taken that the laws applicable to such offences are duly enforced against them. Whether any aid was afforded by others to the parties engaged in this unlawful and contemptible adventure, in the ports in which it was planned, inconsistent with ordinary commercial transactions and contrary to the laws of the United States, will be referred to the Attorney General, on whose advice any measures in regard to them will depend.

FEBRUARY 4, 1823.

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Mr. Ingersoll to the Secretary of State.

PHILADELPHIA, January 8, 1823.

SIR: Since the receipt of your letter dated the 1st instant, concerning the Porto Rico expedition, I have ascertained as the enclosed original papers will show, that an illegal expedition was fitted out in this port against that island, and sailed from here in the month of August last.

It appears that Ducoudray Holstein and Baptiste Irvine, with about forty other persons, chartered the brig Mary of this port, from Thomas Wattson, her owner, for $20,000, and sailed in that vessel for Porto Rico, with a quantity of muskets, sabres, pistols, cartridges, gunpowder, and other munitions of war, besides a cargo of flour, but without, as I understand, other armament of the vessel than two cannon, which she had had mounted before her employment on this enterprise. A vessel from New York, and another from Baltimore, were to meet the Mary at sea, and the three to proceed in company to their destination.

With the result of the expedition you are informed, and the enclosed letters will acquaint you particularly. They have been freely put into my hands, together with the charter party, policy of insurance, and copy on account of the invoice, also enclosed, by a gentleman, who received them as assignee of Mr. Wattson, with whom also I have had an interview on the subject, in which he was fully apprized of my object in seeking it. I understand from him that, although the business was conducted with great despatch, there was nothing clandestine about it. You will see by the list of articles annexed to the charter party, that bills were furnished for the printing materials and iron-mongery supplied. But I believe all these articles were purchased by Mr. Wattson. Policies of insurance were also effected on the Mary's cargo; two by insurance companies in this city, and one by an insurance company in Baltimore, (enclosed), the tenor of which shows that the voyage was disclosed to the underwriters.

Why and how this expedition so far eluded the notice of the public officers of the United States as to have met with no obstruction, nor to have been made known to any of the Executive Departments at the Seat of Government, I am unable to inform you, further than by submitting the enclosed note, which I addressed to the collector of the port, and his answer, on the subject.

I have good reason for believing that the Minister of Spain was aware of the expedition at the time of its departure, but refrained from complaint here, preferring to take measures for its destruction after its concentration in the West Indies.

The first knowledge or intimation I had of it was derived from the newspaper accounts of its failure.

I remain, with great respect, &c., C. J. INGERSOLL

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Aaron Burns to Thomas Wattson, dated at CURAÇAO, September 26, 1822.

SIR: It falls to my part to inform you that every thing relating to the expedition is entirely destroyed. I will endeavor to give you all the particulars relating to this unfortunate expedition, and every transaction that has come within my knowledge shall be fully related.

We left the capes of Delaware on the 11th of August; on the 13th arrived at Barnegat; after cruising twenty four hours off that place for our consorts, and not finding them we proceeded on our passage for St. Barts. Nothing of consequence happened on our passage, except a little assumption on the part of Mr. Reid, which was highly resented by some of the passengers; they supposing him not vested with such high authority as he assumed. On the 8th of September we arrived at St. Barts; we found Captain Gould, who is deeply concerned in the expedition, and who had been waiting some days for our arrival, he having arrived from New York in the schooner Selina, Captain Sisters; you have doubtless heard the General mention his name. He came on board, and desired us to come into port, which was immediately done after consulting with General Holstein, who advised to that effect. At that place all the chief officers went on shore, where there was nothing but disputations between them and Mr. Reid, as they wished to take part of the cargo to raise funds. Four days after arrived schooner Andrew Jackson, Sanderson, from New York. After lying here five days we were ordered off by the Governor, who repeated his order, declaring he would fire into us if we did not immediately obey the order. We left the principal officers on shore, and made sail for the Five Islands, at which place we arrived in two hours, it being only ten miles distant; both schooners from New York anchored there also, and a sharp built brig called the Endracht, formerly the American privateer Saratoga, which had been bought at St. Barts by Captain Gould for the expedition. In the afternoon all the officers who were compelled to leave St. Barts came on board. While at the Five Islands, nothing but the most violent disputes and contention was visible among the principal persons, and at last it was concluded to put all the military stores on board the brig Endracht, which was done, she being a very fast sailer. Several reports were current at this place, viz: that the inhabitants of St. Barts intended to rise and come against us; next, that several French men of war were cruising off for us, they having understood that the expedition was intended against St Martin’s and Guadeloupe. We all got under way immediately; the schooner Andrew Jackson proceeded to St. Barts, after having put all her military stores on board of the other brig, together with her passengers, to about thirty people in number, (the sharp brig, or Endracht, had in all about sixty in number,) all of the vessels doing the same; the rest, three in number, immediately put out to sea, as I thought with an intention to proceed to Crabb Island, to windward of Porto Rico, where the General repeatedly declared that every thing was in readiness to prosecute the expedition; but after being at sea about six or eight hours, Mr. Irvine and the Captain of the brig came on board, and declared that they had determined to proceed to Laguyra, instead of Crabb Island, the General having raised their expectations to the highest pitch in respect to procuring several hundred men at the latter place; they then discovered they had all been deceived, and that he had been guilty of the basest deception in holding out to them ideas which he never expected himself to be realized. We accordingly steered for Laguyra, but we got separated; some time after, Mr. Reid wished to go on board the other brig on some business, and I endeavored to come up to her, in which I succeeded; he went on board, and returned soon after, apparently very much alarmed, as he declared that they had threatened to detain him on board, and, with much uneasiness in his looks, also said they were desirous of sending a part of the passengers on board, to which I was strongly opposed. I then hailed the brig, and told them the decided course I should pursue; that if it was l to save the lives of the passengers, I would do a in my power to assist them; if, on the contrary, it was only a wish to get rid of some of them, that I would not take them on board; but would at any rate stay by them, and render them all necessary assistance; on which the French passengers in the other brig declared, unless I hove to they would fire into me, and they had actually their muskets ready; on which I was compelled to heave to, and take some of them, but not until Mr. Irvine had come on board and said that their determination was to fire unless their demand was complied with. Those who had declared their determination to fire were nearly all French, to whom the General always appeared particularly partial; their determination was not only to fire into the brig, but to endeavor to kill all hands and take the brig from me. The number I took on board was twenty six, mostly black, and of the lowest class. I then immediately lost all confidence in the principals, and determined to save the brig and cargo by getting her into the first port; and I succeeded in getting her in here on the 20th of September, and on the next day the brig arrived that I took the passengers out of. Both vessels were taken possession of by the orders of the Governor. After various examinations and questions, the Mary was given up; but the other brig is still in the hands of Government, with her cargo, which I believe will be cleared in a few days - at any rate, the cargo. Since we have been here there have been continual disputes and contention among the passengers, myself, and Mr. Reid; some will have one thing and some another.

I have determined to abandon the expedition, and save the brig and what cargo is left, as, in my opinion, there is but little confidence to be placed in any one, and great deception. The General at this time is confined; for what, I cannot say; the rest of the principal officers are rambling about, but not permitted to leave the place. The Mary's cargo is all out, and I shall take in for home in two or three days. All the cargo I had on board when we arrived here was the flour, beef, pork, bread, and saddles, with some trifling articles, as everything else was put on board the brig Endracht at the Five Islands. I will conclude by observing, that the deception practised by the General almost exceeds the bounds of belief; for the resources and funds which he so repeatedly declared that he possessed in the West Indies were totally false, and every thing that he has said in relation to the expedition has proved a chimera of the wildest nature; and I cannot but believe him to be a foolish old man, whose ideas are almost obscured by age; and that he wanted not only the abilities to command, but a knowledge of the place to which he was destined, as his ignorance of the latter was only exceeded by his incapacity for the former.

Mr. THOMAS WATTSON

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Robert Tillotson to the Secretary of State.

SIR: I have the honor to enclose an extract from a communication on the subject of the expedition in part fitted out in this port against the Spanish island of Porto Rico. Delicacy to those who have been good enough to give the information prevents me from accompanying this statement with the names of my informants. Should you, however, deem it necessary that a disclosure, on the authority of their names, should take place, I am authorized to say it shall be done.

Why this expedition eluded the vigilance of our public officers may in part be explained by that vigilance not being necessarily excited by a shipment that did not, in fact, develope its character until it left this port.

With great respect, &c.
Hon. J. Q. ADAMS, Secr’y of State


Early in the month of August last, or thereabouts, there appeared in this city a Mr. Vogel, representing himself to be an agent of General William Henry Ducoudray Holstein, by him furnished with power to raise men and officers, and obtain supplies of arms and munitions of war, for the purpose of revolutionizing a Spanish colony, the name of which, for prudential motives, was concealed, until it might be more expedient to disclose it; at the same time representing that the object in view had the sanction, through her agent in Philadelphia, of the Colombian republic, under whose flag, and in conjunction with whose forces, it was to be carried into effect; General Ducoudray in particular asserting, as we were informed, that Commodore Daniels, with his squadron, would co-operate in the attack. In consequence, on the 13th of August last, two vessels, the Andrew Jackson and the Selina, both schooners, sailed from New York, having on board a number of passengers, principally Americans and French, all of whom we believe (and in our own particular case do assert) were under the persuasion that our operations were to be conducted under the Colombian flag; the cargoes consisting of muskets, sabres, saddles, powder, lead, and provisions, in packages of various sizes, having been shipped as merchandise for St. Thomas's or St. Barts. On leaving this port. we proceeded directly to the spot appointed as the place of rendezvous between our vessels and a Colombian twenty two gun brig, which we had been taught by the agents of General Ducoudray to expect to fall in with off Barnegat - on board this vessel, which he asserted would sail from Philadelphia with men, arms, &c., it was our expectation to be transferred. After cruising some time on the above mentioned ground without falling in with any such vessel, we proceeded (as had been preconcerted) to the second point of rendezvous, St. Barts. It may not be amiss, in this place, to remark, that a sail appearing in sight which was mistaken for our expected consort, a flag was displayed at the mast head which we have since discovered to have been an assumed one, but respecting which we were at the time kept in ignorance whether it was a private signal or the Colombian flag, though we generally supposed it to be the latter. The Andrew Jackson being a dull sailer on a wind, and the weather proving adverse, our consort, the Selina, parted company, taking on board some of our principal officers, with intention to make the best of their way to St. Barts, to expedite some preparations making in that place. About this time it became known to some individuals that our destination was Porto Rico, though the same was not generally understood until about the time that we arrived at St. Barts; no suspicion being yet entertained that we were deceived respecting the expected succors and the protection of the Colombian flag. On our arrival at St. Barts, we learned that, instead of the Colombian brig, a vessel had arrived from Philadelphia, called the Mary, with men and arms; and that in consequence of the non-performance of General Ducoudray's engagement, a vessel had been purchased in St. Barts, which had been few days previously taken by a patriot privateer from the Spaniards. The Andrew Jackson did not enter the harbor of St. Barts, but lay on and off for three days at the expiration of which time she received orders to make sail for Five Islands, where, on our arrival, we found lying in a small bay three vessels, the Mary, Selina, and Endracht, (as she was then called) being for some reason unknown to us, under Dutch colors.

At this place we first saw Mr. Irvine and General Ducoudray, and several persons to whom he had, as we understood, given commissions; but of what description we know not, as we, the subscribers, never received any, nor saw one, until after our arrival at Curaçao. The Governor of St. Bartholomew's, as we were informed, suspecting something of an improper nature in the expedition, had ordered these three vessels out of port; in consequence of which, but few of the soldiers there enlisted had been taken on board. The latter part of the day of our arrival at Five Islands was occupied in transferring the passengers, arms, munitions of war, and part of the stores, from the three vessels last mentioned into the newly purchased brig Endracht, and on the following morning the Endracht, Mary, and Salina weighed, and set sail (as was believed) for Crabb Islands and St. Thomas's, there to take on board troops which had been previously raised; the Andrew Jackson entering the harbor of St. Barts to dispose of the remainder of her cargo; from and after which time we saw nothing more of her or of the Selina. On the same day, at sea, to our utter astonishment, we were informed by the captain of the Endracht (though the same was probably already known to some of the senior officers) that we had been deceived by General Ducoudray with respect to the existence of any Colombian commission for the vessels; on which the determination was, we believe, pretty general to leave the expedition on the first opportunity. About this time a council of the higher officers was held, in which it was determined that we should immediately proceed to Laguyra, to obtain the requisite commissions and a reinforcement of men; but this resolution was rendered impracticable by the discovery that the vessel was in danger of sinking; the guns were immediately thrown overboard, and the upper masts and spars sent down to ease the vessel; and the same evening, it coming on to blow hard, she was so damaged, and made so much water, that the master determined to enter the port of Curaçao, stating that an attempt to enter that of Laguyra in our crippled state would unavoidably subject us to capture, as that place was in a rigid state of blockade. In consequence of the warped and colored representations of some interested person, a totally undeserved stigma has attached to the character of the Americans engaged in the expedition, by the assertion that they wished to fire into an American vessel. This vessel was our consort the Mary, the captain of which, refusing to take on board any of the passengers from the Endracht, (though informed that she was in danger, and had but one boat on board) was compelled by the threats of the troops on board this last vessel, being within half musket shot, to bring to for that purpose; but in this attempt to compel that assistance so inhumanly denied, however warrantable by the law of self-preservation, no American, we affirm, was engaged, and as no organization of the troops had taken place, they could not, had they been so inclined, have prevented it. Some of the passengers in the Mary from Philadelphia had signed, as they informed us, a declaration of independence; but the same was never seen by the subscribers, [to this communication,] and the first and only copy of General Ducoudray's proclamation seen by us was on our homeward passage in another vessel, and was the same of which a translation appeared in the public prints. During an alarm occasioned by the appearance of the United States sloop Cyane, which was taken for a Spanish frigate, a bundle said to contain proclamations was brought on deck with intent to throw it overboard; but the Mary, being to windward of us, was first boarded by an officer from that ship, and stating us to be a vessel in distress under her protection, the Cyane stood upon her course, and the proclamations were again carried below. On our arrival at Curaçao, a Spanish admiral in that place demanding that an inquiry should he instituted into the nature of the expedition, such an inquiry accordingly took place; and circumstances appearing to justify such a measure, General Ducoudray and Mr. Irvine, who, as we understood, had signed the proclamation as Secretary of State, were arrested. The papers of the Endracht having been discovered at once to be forged Dutch papers, she had been already confiscated; but the master of the Endracht having succeeded in proving (as he himself informed the subscribers, who have since seen him in this city) the cargo of that vessel to be American property, shipped at New York and Philadelphia, it was given up, as was the brig Mary and cargo, which had also been libelled; nothing having occurred in the proceedings of the court (before the departure of the Mary) to show her connexion with the expedition.

The subscribers know little further of the proceedings of this court (which was still in session when they came away) than that, to our very great surprise, we heard that General Ducoudray and Mr. Irvine had there asserted that they had the sanction of the United States in preparing such an expedition; in relation to which, we can only say that such a thing had never been mentioned to us; but only that they had the authority of Don Manuel Torres, the Colombian agent at Philadelphia, and (he dying before the completion of the scheme) of his successor, Mr. Duane; for which reason we consider the assertion which we have above alluded to as ungrounded, and only intended to answer some private purpose of the General and his secretary.

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Extracts from a letter of Mr. Robert M. Harrison to the Secretary of State, dated St. Bartholomew's, 16th September, and received at the Department of State 14th of October, 1822.

“I have the honor to inform you that there is an expedition, consisting of the following vessels under the American flag, now at anchor in the Five Islands, for the purpose of going against Porto Rico, viz: schooner Andrew Jackson, of and from New York, captain's name unknown - cargo flour, salted provisions, and munitions of war; brig Mary, of and from Philadelphia, Burns, master, laden as above; schooner Selina, Sisters, master, cargo the same as the others; the Dutch hermaphrodite brig Endracht - that is to say, she hoists Dutch colors, but, in reality, has no papers, being a prize to a Colombian cruiser, which came here originally under the American flag: all these vessels are apparently under the direction of a Captain William Gould, who pretends that he is under bonds to the amount of $150,000.

“The chief of this expedition is a person of some celebrity, by the name of Ducoudray de Holstein; and Ï am sorry to say some citizens of the United States are engaged in it, not only of splendid talents, but who have heretofore held honorable and confidential situations under our Government, and who, I fear, will be forever lost to the country.

“I have been the more particular in detailing this affair to you from the circumstance of its originating in the United States, and its being prosecuted under that flag.

“I regret that none of our vessels of war should be here as they might inquire into the conduct of the commanders of these vessels.”

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Mr. Cortland L. Parker, American Consul at Curaçao to the Secretary of State, dated


SIR: On the 21st a brig under the Netherlands flag, and another, under the American, arrived at this place from St. Bartholomew's; the former had on board Mr. Ducoudray Holstein, formerly a general in the Venezuela service, and a number of others, mostly European French, composing his staff as general, on an expedition against the Spanish Government of Porto Rico. On board the Mary, of Philadelphia, were several young men from the United States, mostly citizens, and of considerable respectability, attached to the above expedition. The vessels were brought in against the will of the General and all his foreign passengers, the masters declaring that they would follow no longer in an expedition unwarranted by their country or any other, and without either commission or force equal to the attempt.

The Dutch brig has been seized, and will no doubt be condemned, as her papers are false; the cargo I hope to get released as American property. The American brig has been permitted to unload her cargo, as usual though under very strict examination.

The most correct information I can give you is in the proclamations enclosed, which I have with difficulty obtained permission to keep; but the most strange part of the affair, and of that which proved the unfitness of Ducoudray Holstein to carry on such a plan, is, that he has bulletins ready written, in which he declares the brilliant success of the expedition. There are also letters from Mr. Irvine to Mr. Duane, wherein the success of the attack and landing is described at large.

I think it my duty to state these circumstances to you as soon as possible; and have the honor to be, with the greatest respect your humble servant.

Hon. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,

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The General in Chief of the Army of the Republic of Boüqua (formerly Porto Rico) to the inhabitants of Porto Rico.

To arms, Americans, to arms! come and join our standard; your reward will be independence, your reward the name of free and brave Americans.

Our enterprise is easy and brilliant; the Spanish Governor has no other auxiliaries than those of the country, and he confides in your generosity! And what American could be such a traitor to his country, to his family, as to remain in the service of the King, and assist his tyrants to enchain us again.

To arms, companions, to arms! Live our independence, live our liberty! God, justice, reason, our valor, our union, and our sacred rights, call us and will protect us! Look at your families, your parents, your friends, think of their misery, of their slavery, and choose between chains or liberty!

Let the numerous patriots of this land who have called me come immediately to our headquarters to be rewarded; let the valiant friends of independence unite under our banners; all shall be very well received and employed, according to his taste and his merits. The greatest part of you know me as one of the chiefs of the independence from the year 1811, and know that, as an old soldier, I have distinguished myself in the defence of the fortresses of Boca Chica, and I am, moreover married to a young American lady of Santa Fe de Bogota. I promise you liberty, a fixed and firm republic, if you choose to follow my counsels, and assist me, as your own interest requires, with your union, your zeal, and your valor.

That there may be regularity and order, I decree the following:

ARTICLE 1. Every one shall have protection and security of property. The person infringing this shall be punished capitally.

ART. 2. There shall be profound respect for divine worship, the churches, and the ministers of God, under pain of death.

ART. 3. The slaves shall not be set at liberty; otherwise the country would be ruined, and the greatest disorders would take place.

ART. 4. The General-in-chief shall choose from among men of property, talents, and experience, inhabitants of the country, counsellors of state, who shall labor, conjointly with him, for a wise and solid organization; for laws, the maintenance of justice and of the tribunals; for the establishment of a good administration. These counsellors shall be engaged later in forming a project of a Constitution and the mode of convoking a Congress.

ART. 5. The etat major shall dispose and organize what relates to the forces by land and sea.

ART. 6. Military men who serve under the royalist flag, European Spaniards, Americans, or strangers, shall have superior rank, if they come immediately to our side with their arms; or they shall be rewarded according to their merit.

ART. 7. European Spanish civil officers, physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, shall all remain in their situations until a new order, and those who conduct themselves well shall be continued.

ART. 8. There shall be appointed in each town one or more commissioners, to appoint freemen of the vicinity as citizens of our republic. Those who shall not conform to that order shall be treated as enemies of our cause. We shall keep a similar register at our headquarters.

ART. 9. Americans born in the country shall enjoy the greatest advantages; they shall have the right of being employed in the Government, or in the army according to their merits.

ART. 10. Foreigners, defenders of the country, or very useful with their talents and their industry, justly deserve the name of citizens, and shall enjoy the same rights as the rest.

ART. 11. Town councils shall, without delay, send us a deputy; other voters shall remain each in his place and employment, to maintain quiet and order. The town councils which shall not conform to this article shall be treated as enemies of the country, and be brought before a military commission.

ART. 12. In each town a city militia shall be organized, which shall serve, till all be quiet, to maintain the public security.

ART. 13. There shall be raised a corps of infantry, and another of cavalry, composed of young citizens, who can equip themselves at their own expense, under the name of guards of honor. These guards shall have a brilliant uniform, and shall march with the General-in-chief.

ART. 14. All prisoners of state, whom the Spanish Government has confined for the sake of their political opinions, shall be set at liberty.

ART. 15. In each seaport in our power, all vessels shall be at once laid under embargo. None of them shall sail without leave in writing from the General-in-chief; the captains and their crews who shall assist us shall have the greatest advantages, according to their services and their merit. Those who do not conform to this embargo will expose themselves to all the rigor of the laws. The voters of the town council and the officers of the custom-house shall be responsible for the execution of this article.

ART. 16. Each town, each city, each individual, &c., who shall first rise in favor of independence, and shall send us deputies, or shall join us, shall have great rewards and privileges, according to their merit.

ART. 17. Commerce shall be free; and to alleviate the public misery, the duties of entry and clearance in our ports shall be reduced to the half of what they were before for all articles of primary necessity.

ART. 18. The prohibition of any article whatever in the time of the King is null, and all may be introduced into our ports.

ART. 19. The beginning of the Government hall be very liberal, and shall protect not only commerce, but agriculture, industry, arts, sciences, public education, and the talents of the citizens.

Nothing shall be neglected that will give to our republic solidity and prosperity. The General-in-chief will receive with gratitude all plans and projects from any person whatsoever which tend to propose an establishment useful to the country; such individuals shall be rewarded.

When every thing shall be well arranged that the republic be quiet, fixed, and firm, that we have a Congress and a wise Constitution, that the three powers be well distinguished, then we shall be able to cry out with truth. Live the country, live our independence, and perish the disturbers of it!

Given at our head quarters of -

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Fra "Baptis Irvine’s Observations on Simon Bolivar, 1818-1819" af John C. Pine¹⁵:

Under de latinamerikanske befrielseskrige, 1810-1825, udsendte USA specialagenter til patriotismens centrer som observatører. I 1818 blev Baptis Irvine sendt på en sådan mission til Venezuela.

Irvine var en ærgerrig irsk immigrant, som var kommet til Amerika som en journalistisk nybegynder. Efter at have arbejdet for redaktører i Philadelphia og Washington var Irvine redaktør for aviser i Baltimore og New York. Han var en berømt, om ikke berygtet, liberal og radikal.

Brev fra John Quincy Adams til John Forsyth¹⁶

Department of State,
Washington, 3 January, 1823.

Sir,

Mr. Edward Wyer, the bearer, is despatched as a confidential messenger, with the letters and documents which he will deliver to you. The unpleasant incidents which occurred in the course of the last summer at Algiers are doubtless known to you. If the misunderstanding is known to you to be still subsisting upon Mr. Wyer's arrival at Madrid, he is instructed to proceed thence with a despatch to our Consul General, Mr. Shaler, wherever he may be. It is hoped, however, that ere this an amicable explanation may have removed the difficulties which had arisen, and that Mr. Shaler will have returned to Algiers and resumed his consular functions there. In that case Mr. Wyer will transmit the despatch for Mr. Shaler with which he is charged, by any safe and ordinary mode of conveyance, and will return here, with any despatches which you may intrust to him; waiting as long as you may think advisable for the answer to the demand of permission to pursue the pirates of Cuba on the shores of the Island.

Besides the correspondence with Mr. Anduaga, copies of which are herewith transmitted, I have received several long and very earnest communications from that minister, the replies to which have been and are yet delayed, in the hope that they may be received by him in a disposition more calm and temperate than that which is manifested by his notes. He appears to think it material to the interest of his government to maintain the attitude of loud complaint in regard to transactions with respect to which the primary cause of complaint is on our side. The only exception to this remark relates to a miserable attempt at an expedition against the Island of Porto Rico by a foreign officer named Ducoudray de Holstein, but on board of which were some misguided citizens of the United States. One of the vessels appears to have been fitted out at Philadelphia, and one at New York; but the first intimation of these facts received by this government was long after they had sailed, and from the island of St. Bartholomew.

We have since learned that the masters of the vessels were deceived with regard to their destination, and that when it was discovered by them, they positively refused to proceed upon it, and insisted upon going into the island of Curasao, where the chief and others of the expedition were arrested. You will make this known to the Spanish government, and assure them that this government knew nothing of this expedition before the departure of the vessels from the United States. This will not be surprising when it is known that it escaped equally the vigilance of Mr. Anduaga himself, who divides his residence between New York and Philadelphia, and of all the other Spanish official agents and consuls at those places.

Mr. Anduaga has taken this occasion to renew with much sensibility all his own complaints and those of his predecessors, against armaments in our ports in behalf of the South American patriots, and even against that commerce which our citizens, In common with the subjects of all the maritime nations of Europe, have for many years maintained with the people of the emancipated colonies. These complaints have been so fully and repeatedly answered that there is some difficulty in accounting for Mr. Anduaga's recurrence to them with the feelings which mark his notes concerning them. Should the occasion present itself, you will give it distinctly to be understood, that if some of these notes remain long, and may even finally remain unanswered, it is from a principle of forbearance to him, and of unequivocal good will towards his government and country.

I am, etc.

Brev fra Baptis Irvine til Henry Clay¹⁷:

From Baptis Irvine
January 29, 1824

Sir,
To encourage you to glance over these notes & expostulations, I promise to trouble you no farther. Mr P….e¹ is no honester than the rest of the band. I use him solely as a medium. All began with Parker & the notorious Von Spengler.² Cantzlaar &c. followed.

The ship expected at New Year, with a decision, or [ sic] suppression of farther farces, not yet arrived – perhaps gone to the bottom.


Seeing that Parker is a man who STICKS AT NOTHING, it is probable that he has poisoned the ear of Mr–⁴ or of the President, by false representations of D––y’s⁵ project. This may be one source of Cantzlaar’s insolence. – If the President be once undeceived, as he must be on enquiry, I trust to his prompt and energetic interference.⁶ Ought he not make an example of this gang of legalized freebooters before all of the West-Indies?–

I hope you will coincide with your obdt. servt.
B. IRVINE

Hon H. Clay

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^{1 William Prince
2 Cortland Parker; Von Spengler not identified
3 Extracts copied from a letter written by Irvine to Prince, January 25, 1824, again protesting the illegality of his imprisonment, are here omitted by the editors
4 Probably John Q. Adams
5 H. La Fayette Villaume Ducoudray-Holstein
6 The Administration, forced to extend assurances to the British, disclaiming any part of the venture, viewed it as a violation of American neutrality law. After nearly a year and a half of imprisonment Irvine and Ducoudray-Holstein were released upon orders of the King of the Netherlands and ordered from Dutch territory. Niles’ Weekly Register, XXVI (April 10, 1824), 96; Adams, Memoirs, VI, 104, 430-31.}

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Om Baptis Irvine fra Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series):

Biography:

Republican. Editor, the Baltimore Whig, 1807-1813; New York Columbian, 1815-1817.

Baptis/Baptist/Baptiste Irvine came to Maryland from Pennsylvania, where he worked with William Duane, publisher of the Philadelphia Aurora, a sounding board for Jeffersonian Democrats. Duane faced criminal charges numerous times for the items he published.

Irvine himself was tried for contempt of court in February 1808 for publishing an editorial which criticized the judges and juries of the Baltimore County Court of Oyer and Terminer. His criticism was in response to the conviction of George Tomlin, a foreman in the Whig office, for assault. Tomlin's sentence was still pending at the time of publication. During this case Alexander Contee Hanson served as one of the lawyers for the state of Maryland, and described Irvine as a "factious, hot headed, turbulent printer... who himself fattens upon the 'dead carcass; of plundered reputation.'"

Thomas Kell, one of Irvine's attorneys, argued: “A free press is the best safeguard of freedom. It is the only sure dependence upon which the people rely for information and the preservation of their rights and liberties. It is the only certain vehicle of intelligence which instructs them upon topics equally interesting to us all. It is the duty of every virtuous citizen to preserve it pure and free from all undue influence and improper bias. To ward off every blow which is aimed at the liberty of the press, is alike the duty and interest of us all.”

Irvine was found guilty of contempt, and sentenced to thirty days in prison and to pay court costs. The court based the conviction on the "principle of common law...that publication of any matter, during the pendency of a suit tending to influence the decision of the court or jury, or reflect upon the persons or parties concerned in the execution of justice, is a contempt," because Tomlin's sentence was pending at the time of publication.

In his opinion, Walter Dorsey, Chief Justice of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, noted "there is a wide difference between liberty of the press, and its licentiousness."

In July, 1808, Irvine was convicted of printing libel against Edward J. Coale, the Baltimore City Register. Coale later went on to become a bookseller and publisher. Irvine was fined $200 plus court costs, and received a sixty day jail sentence. One hundred dollars of the fine was remitted by Governor Robert Wright. Other criminal charges Irvine faced in 1808 included exhibiting the effigies of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and two others, with the purpose of burning them. These charges were dropped, but in February, he was found guilty of assault.

Spencer H. Cone and John Norvell took control of The Whig in 1813. At this same time, Irvine was serving as a second lieutenant in the Maryland Militia during the War of 1812. Irvine reappeared in New York around 1815, when he began editing the Columbian, where he remained until sometime in 1817. Sources also credit him with editing the Washington City Gazette.

On January 21, 1818, Irvine was appointed special agent to Venezuela. U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams instructed Irvine to seek restitution of two U.S. ships that had been seized during the revolution taking place there. His negotiations had him in direct contact with dictator Simon Bolivar.

In 1822, Baptis Irvine took part in an expedition against Puerto Rico led by Henry William Ducoudray Holstein. Irvine claims his involvement in the expedition was a result of his desire to use some of Holstein's work in his book Traits of Colonial Jurisprudence: or, A Peep at the trading Inquisition of Curacao. Accounts indicate that the intention of the expedition was to overthrow the Spanish government, and establish the Republic of Boricua, with Holstein serving as president and commander in chief, and Irvine as government secretary.

Following the failure of the expedition, Irvine and his cohorts were imprisoned on the island of Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles. Attempts to have Irvine freed based on his status as an American citizen also failed, because the governor of the island viewed him more as the secretary of state for the Republic of Boricua, as he had been referred to in numerous documents concerning the whole affair. After a trial, those involved were sentenced to thirty years of labor in salt mines.

In 1824, after sixteen months of imprisonment at Curacao, the King of the Netherlands, who controlled the island, ordered Irvine's release. His exploits after this date are unknown.

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Baptis Irvine var tilsyneladende af irsk oprindelse.

John D. Crimmins skrev i bogen ”St. Patrick's day: Its celebration in New York and other American places, 1737-1845; how the anniversary was observed by representative organizations, and the toasts proposed” fra 1902 om et arrangement i The Shamrock Friendly Association 17. Marts 1819, hvor M. H. Bowyer foreslog en skål:

“Our brother in South America, Baptis Irvine – We regret his absence, but are consoled by the prospects of his mission being accomplished”.

Louis Gottschalk skriver¹⁸:

Sparks… contains… an account of Lafayette's departure for America which was quoted at great length in the footnotes of Lafayette's Memoires by its editor. Consequently it has been accepted by Lafayette's biographers as having Lafayette's sanction. It may indeed have been the version given to Sparks in 1828, as the editors of Lafayette's papers believed…, but it is also possible that he copied from a manuscript later put at his disposal by Lafayette, as exactly the same story is told in the second edition of Ducoudray-Holstein, Memoirs of Gilbert Motier Lafayette, (Geneva, N.Y., 1835), and Holstein claims in his "Preface" to have received "valuable documents" from Lafayette which enabled him "to present this edition in a more perfect and authentic manner." On the other hand, it is not inconceivable that Holstein plagiarized Sparks. In any case, Sparks's account rather than Holstein's has here been followed, when not corrected by other more reliable sources, because, in the few cases where Holstein's story does not follow his verbatim, Sparks probably has been guided by other information put at his disposal by Lafayette, with whom he was in fairly regular correspondence. Furthermore, in these particular instances Holstein's version appears somewhat fantastic; see below, pp. 159-60.

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In 1824-25 when he made a triumphal tour through the United States, feted and banqueted such as no one, not even Washington, had ever been, collecting souvenirs and honorary degrees, and keeping bookdealers and authors busy publishing volumes about him, several of the hastily compiled biographies assumed as it seemed most logical to assume that if the members of the French government had agreed to prevent his departure, he could not have made good his escape. None of these tracts displeased him more than Ducoudray-Holstein's Memoirs of General Lafayette, which committed this offense. Five thousand copies of the Memoirs were sold within a few months and its version of the Lafayette incident was spread throughout the country. Though, because of friendly regard for the author, Lafayette did not publicly deny his story, he saw Ducoudray-Holstein, set him right about what had happened and provided him with approved biographical materials; and the second edition of Ducoudray-Holstein's Memoirs carried the censored version.

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This was even more so after his death, since the old general, admired by his friends as a leader of liberal causes and respected by his enemies as a noble adversary, suffered at the hands of few skeptics and iconoclasts. Shortly after he died his family gathered the papers he had left behind, edited them with touching filiopietistic tenderness, and published them. The completed Memoires contained several versions of the American venture among others the account found in Sparks's then recently published Writings of George Washington (Boston, 1 834). Sparks's narrative tallied almost word for word with that in the second edition of Ducoudray-Holstein, which appeared a few months later, and it is possible, unless Ducoudray-Holstein plagiarized Sparks, that both historians copied from a manuscript put at their disposal by their hero.

A page of history

From the Rochester Mirror of date 1832.

The ancestors of Henri Louis William Du Coudray Holstein were Huguenots, driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and being kindly received by the King of Denmark, settled in Holstein in which Duchy they had large estates. The attachment to liberty and republican principles, which has governed his life, is hereditary, for his father, the count P. D. Holstein, was the first who gave freedom to his peasantry, and by a peculiar and interesting system of education instilled into the minds of his two sons the sentiments which governed his own.

As early as 1789 General Holstein held the post of Captain of Dragoons in the French Service, and gave proof of the sincerity of his love of republicanism by resigning as a member of the Assemblée Constituante the feudal rights and privileges of his marquisate of Coudray in Bretagne, and his countship of Holsteinsburg to which he had succeeded by the demise of his father, and which is now held by his younger brother.

During the reign of terror general Holstein remained with the army, being twice arrested by those suspicious and bloody rulers, as an ex-noble and moderatist. Once he was rescued by his own soldiers, and the second time by the influence of the National Convention. He made all the campaigns of La Vendee, that most dreadful civil war, in which not a day of rest was allowed to the republican army. To the instructions of Gen. Hoche, whose aide-de-camp he was, he attributes the knowledge and interest he possesses in sound and clear republican principles.

From these scenes, he was summoned to assist in an act, which endear him to every American heart - the delivery of Gen. La Fayette and family from confinement at Olmutz.

When Bonaparte became First Consul and organized his new staff, Gen. H. had the honor of being appointed one of them, and was successively promoted to the rank of General de Division (Maj. Gen.) At Ulm he was wounded, and several times subsequently on the fields of Austerlitz, Jena, And Eylan. In 1810 he was left on the field of battle, when serving as the Governor of the headquarters of Marshal McDonald, having come in contact, in a night ambuscade (when accompanied by an escort of only 150 dragoons) with Count Lacy's corps of 1500 Spaniards. He was taken and saved by the Capt. Gen. Lacy, and treated with kindness and distinction; but notwithstanding great exertions were made to affect it, could not be exchanged. This led to his removal to Majorca and Cadiz, at which latter place, he formed an intimacy with Baron Wimpfen, and Gen. O'Donnel, one of the regents who at that time held the whole city prisoners of war. Admitted into the higher circles, he became acquainted with those patriotic members of the Cortes, who secretly formed a junta in favor of the South American colonies, took a part in their nightly conferences, and was by them names chief of the staff of the patriot armies in Mexico. They equipped secretly a fast sailing three masted vessel, in which the general with twenty-five chosen French officers made their escape and landed safely at Norfolk.

After a visit to General Moreau, shortly before the departure of Mde. Moreau, the company passed through Pittsburgh, crossed the Sabine and after a long journey found, at length, a wretched patriotic army in the interior provinces of Texas, under the more wretched chief, Jose Alvarez de Toledo. The jealousy of this man against foreigners was so great that Gen. Holstein, finding it impossible to co-operate with him, passed on to New Orleans, and entered the service of Colombia, in Carthagena. Of these services and his intercourse with the great "Liberador," the public have had a detailed account in his "Memoirs of Simon Bolivar," a book which, while it was written evidently under the influence of warm and injured feeling, gives us a more intimate knowledge of the character of that strange man than any other that has been published. The facts asserted in it are supported by a mass of documentary evidence that leaves no doubt of their general accuracy, and implies, necessarily, the admission to the best sources of information on the part of the narrator. Originally printed in Boston in 1829, it was republished in London in 1830, in two volumes with plates, maps, &c. and a French edition in Paris during the past year (1831.) During his connection with Bolivar, Gen. H. married a young lady from one of the most distinguished families in Bogota, at that time, of large possessions. By the treachery of the government and the success of the Spaniards, his personal estate and that of his wife was lost; and after some honorable exertions to support himself in at private station, he became at Porto Rico involved in a political charge, which nearly cost him his life. His arrest, trial, and condemnation form an interesting chapter of the work of which we have alluded. By the favor of the King of the Netherlands, all proceedings against him in Curacao was stopped, and the liberal offer made of defraying the expenses of himself and family to any place he chose to go.

The United States had been for some time the residence of his fondest choice, as an asylum for Liberty, in which he hoped to spend the residue of his days, when his duty was done, of contending for those principles of freedom in less favored lands. In 1824, he arrived at New York and in May 1828 accepted a situation of Professor of Modern Languages in GENEVA COLLEGE, where (in 1832) he now resides. Though the toils of sixty years have whitened his locks and furrowed his cheek, he possesses the vivacity and energy of youth. His habits of labour are particularly severe. During the day he allows himself no repose, the early part of the evening is spent in the society of his family and a select circle of friends; until midnight, he is engaged in reading and writing, and at four o'clock in the morning resumes the private exercises of his study, until his public duties summon him abroad.

No one acquainted with the vicissitudes of his eventful career can look, without astonishment, upon the equanimity and contentment of his present life. The past seems to have left no traces of disappointment and gloom, and the man who in his early life was the cherished first born of a noble stock, in youth the successful prosecutor of literary honors, in manhood the enterprising soldier, casting from him the accidental advantages of rank and fortune, and fighting his way to distinction and eminence; in riper years the familiar companion of Napoleon and his crowned satellites, now conducts the studies of his youthful charge, with as much energy and vivacity as if he had never known reverses, which would have wrecked many a mind in sullen misanthropy. Long may he be spared to enjoy his peaceful retirement, to accomplish his anxious plans for the literary advancement of the West, and realize his dearest wish and that of his distinguished associates in the faculty, in the prosperity of the institution in which he fills a chair, and to whose interests his exertions are most liberally devoted.

The travels of the General have carried him through every country except Portugal; and at the principal courts he has been presented and received with distinction. He has had personal intercourse with the crowned heads - Catherine, Frederick II., Fred'k William II., and the present King of Prussia, - the Emperors Joseph, Francis, Alexander, &c.

With most of the literary men he has been in habits of intimacy. Schiller occupied a place in his carriage and accompanied him for several months in a tour through some of the principalities of Germany. Wieland, Goethe, Klopstock, Heifeland, Niemeyer, the two Fosters, Schloezer, Heeren, Ritter, Haydn, La Place, La Grange, Biot, Delille, Chaptals, Fourcroy, Mirabeau, Carnot, Talleyrand, have been his associates in private life and political connections.

His literary labors of a public nature in Europe were a "History of Mankind" in French, translated into German, which has gone through three editions - a treatise of 300 pages on the "Formation of a general staff." The French Minister of War, Servan, charged him with the formation of a military depot for the recruits, and another French minister, Gen. Aubert Dubayet, adopted and ordered to be introduced into the armies of France, his "Manual for Infantry and Cavalry," (8 editions.)

General Holstein has lately received through the French Minister of War, Marshal Gerard, his renomination as Major General in the French army, by the Citizen King, Louis Phillippe - but from his little confidence in the stability of the present government, he has, as yet, we believe, not acted on it. In speaking upon this honorable nomination, the general, with his characteristic energy, remarked - "I prefer, sir, remaining in the United States, where a man can be a man - and not a courtier or a slave. And I prefer my present occupation in forming and instructing men, to that of destroying them by fire and sword, for the benefit or crowned cowards and the criminal views of ambition."

Nekrolog fra “The Knickerbocker”¹⁹:

GEN HLV DUCOUDRAY HOLSTEIN. - The death at Albany of this distinguished officer and civilian has been generally announced in the public journals. Our readers will remember the series of articles from his pen upon Talleyrand and the Secret Police of Napoleon which he contributed to these pages. They attracted much attention on this side the Atlantic and were widely copied in England and France. Gen HOLSTEIN was one of Napoleon's staff, and personally acquainted with if not an actor in some of the most prominent scenes and events of more modern French history. He was an accomplished scholar and filled honorable collegiate offices at Geneva, Albany etc. Those who knew him best speak of him as an exemplary and excellent man in all the relations of life.