The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999 Page: 12
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12 Southwestern Historical Quarterly July
guard two months earlier, and as a Federalist sympathizer, he welcomed
Zavala to his home and introduced him to influential neighbors."'
Zavala found Anglo Texans ambivalent about attacking Santa Anna's
administration, in part because Austin remained a political prisoner in
Mexico City and they feared for his safety. Zavala's arrival coincided with
William Barret Travis's unauthorized capture of Fort Anahuac in June.
The outpost had been closed for two years but was reactivated by Santa
Anna in early 1835. Travis's precipitous action was denounced by the
Anglo Texan leadership who feared retaliation from administration
troops in San Antonio.
Zavala also encountered ethnic prejudice and suspicion of his inten-
tions among many residents of the Brazos valley who knew little about
him. This surprised him; he had not experienced xenophobia in the
more cosmopolitan eastern cities in the United States or in Europe. At
the same time, however, Anglo Texan officials disingenously declined
to execute orders to arrest Zavala. Anglo Texans questioned laws that
allowed the military to arrest civilians. Even Mexican officials in Texas
told their superiors that they could not find Zavala-or that they did
not have sufficient troops to look for him. Santa Anna's list of wanted
men soon expanded to include a number of Anglo Texans, including
Travis. These arrest orders united Texans against the Centralist admin-
istration.
By prearrangement Zavala met Lorenzo Jr. on upper Galveston Bay at
the end of July. The younger Zavala had travelled to Texas through
Nacogdoches to consult with the state land commissioner for eastern
Texas and to inspect the land his father had bought along the Trinity
River. Liking the openness of the San Jacinto estuary better than the
thick forests along the Brazos, Zavala bought a pleasantly situated, one-
story planked home on the north side of Buffalo Bayou at its confluence
with the San Jacinto River. Across the tree-lined bayou was prairie land
that would become the San Jacinto battlefield eight months later. Zavala
probably already knew neighbor James Morgan, the Texas agent for a
group of New York investors including Samuel Swartwout, customs col-
lector for the Port of New York. Morgan was developing the town site of
New Washington overlooking the San Jacinto estuary; soon to leave for
New York, he promised to return with Zavala's family.
Zavala's neighbors invited him to speak at a meeting at Lynchburg on
August 8, but ill with malaria he could only send a treatise outlining his
1 Estep, "The Life of Lorenzo de Zavala," 341; Henson, Samuel May Wilhams, 79-8o; S. F. A. to
T. F. McKinney, Dec. 16, 1835, in Eugene C. Barker (ed.), The Austin Papers, III (Austin: Univer-
sity of Texas, 1927), 265; W. H. Sledge toJames Knight, July 19, 1835, in John H.Jenkins (ed.),
The Papers of the Texas Revolutson, 1835-1836 (1o vols.; Austin: Presidial Press, 1973) I, 269-360.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999, periodical, 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101219/m1/37/?q=%22oil-gas%22: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Historical Association.