Note 1 — THE DEATH BELL OF THE BRAZOS

[More than one early Texan was concerned with slave-running. Yoakum1 says that the three Bowies, Rezin, James, and John, made sixty-five thousand dollars in this trade. Fannin also ran slaves, operating from Cuba to Texas under the name of J. F. Walker. With him, as with others, the Brazos was a port of entry. Writing from “Velasco, Rio Brazos, Prov. Texas, Aug. 27, 1835,” he says: “My last voyage from the island of Cuba (with 152) succeeded admirably.”2 On May 26, 1837, it was reported from New Orleans to the British minister, Pakenham, that “some slaves were brought from Cuba and landed in Texas by the Am. Schooners Waterwich and Emperor. A some few Months ago a Cargo was run at the Brazos River by a Vessel under the Texas Colors.”3 Until a few years ago the ruins of a house near Velasco were pointed out as marking the habitation of a man whose business had been the buying and distributing of smuggled slaves.