5. The Long Expedition to Texas in 1819
James Long was a Virginia-born adventurer who resided in Natchez in 1819. Like many fellow westerners, he disagreed with the resolution of the border between United States territory and that of New Spain. In 1818 he began to assemble a group of men in Natchez to enter Texas, separate it from Spain, and establish it as an independent republic. Among the men he approached to join the expedition were Jean Lafitte and his slave-trading partner, James Bowie. Lafitte was offered the post of governor of Galveston Island once the new government was established as the Republic of Texas. Unknown to Long was that Lafitte was at the time a spy in the employ of the Spanish authorities.
Throughout his life, Jean Lafitte operated under the premise that Jean Lafitte came first. He dithered with Long, and profited from selling supplies to the men gathered at Galveston, while informing the Spanish authorities of Long’s plans via the Spanish consul at New Orleans. The Long Expedition managed to seize some territory in Texas – including Nacogdoches – before Spanish troops from Mexico drove them out. A second expedition led by Long took place in 1820, which also failed. Long was imprisoned by the Spanish after the failure of the second expedition; eventually, he was shot and killed by a guard. Bowie escaped by fleeing to Louisiana. His first glimpses of Texas, and the vast amount of unsettled land there, intrigued him. He was particularly enamored of the idea that the territory was outside the jurisdiction of the United States.