Go to Page | Index | Contents 455     | Biblio. | Page- | Page+

Capture and Death of Dimitt

Influenced by these ideas, and anxious to regain his popularity in the west, Lamar sent a letter to Governor Miguel Barbachano of Yucatán informing him of the desire of the Texan government to establish "relations of amity and friendship" and "to reciprocate, in the fullest manner, every evidence of good will manifested by the Federalists of Mexico" towards Texas.[36]  Lamar informed him that the ports of Texas were open to the commerce of Yucatán on the same terms as the most favored nation, and invited him to send an agent to Texas "to enter into more permanent and specific relations." Upon the receipt of Lamar's friendly letter, Yucatán immediately availed itself of this opportunity to improve its foreign relations and dispatched an agent to Texas, in the person of Martin Peraza, to negotiate. Peraza reached Austin late in August 1841, and on September 17 signed a treaty with Texas, but not until the Texan State Department had made a careful check with Van Ness and Morris, who, having recently returned from Arista's headquarters, were delayed at San Antonio to attend the District Court then in session and had not yet made their official report. In response to Secretary Roberts' request for information on the outcome of their negotiations with Arista, Morris replied:

I only deem it necessary at this time to state that no treaty or stipulation has been entered into by General Arista, with us, which can in the slightest degree clash with any arrangement which may now be made with the commissioner from Yucatán -- whether of a hostile or pacific character towards the government of Mexico, and that the Republic of Texas, so far as our Mission is concerned, is perfectly free and open to pursue any course which it may deem fit towards that Country. No stipulation has been entered into restraining the movements of Texas in any manner whatever, and so far we stand in the same position towards Mexico, which we have always occupied.[37]

The treaty pledged the cooperation of the Texas navy with the Yucatán naval force in preventing a Centralist invasion by sea[38]  and



36. Mirabeau B. Lamar, Letter from the President of Texas to the Governor of Yucatán; Mirabeau B. Lamar to the Governor of the State of Yucatán [Miguel Barbachano], Republic of Texas, Executive Department, Austin, July 20, 1841, in Harriet Smither (ed.), Journals of the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas, II, 91.

37. John D. Morris to Samuel A. Roberts, San Antonio, Sep[t] 13, 1841, in Garrison (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence of Texas, 1908, II, 767.

38. Jim Dan Hill, The Texas Navy: in Forgotten Battles and Shirtsleeve Diplomacy, p. 145; Joseph William Schmitz, Texan Statecraft, 1836-1845, pp. 128-139;

Go to Page | Index | Contents 455     | Biblio. | Page- | Page+

AFTER SAN JACINTO: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1836-1841
Joseph Milton Nance, 1963