The letter reminded the Spanish Governor of Article XX of the treaty between the United States and Mexico which said fugitive slaves must be returned to their owners. The letter was signed by Judge John Carr, and Justices Rouquier and Paillette.
The above letter and a letter from Governor Claiborne brought about the desired results. The governor might have been influenced by the knowledge of the Phillip Nolan filibustering expedition in 1800 which spent itself at Waco-Texas vicinity. Nolan had for several years traveled westward from the Alexandria, Louisiana area and established a trail straight westward into the Texas-San Antonio area, where he was trading for and capturing wild horses and cattle. This trail later became known as Nolan’s Trace.
XI
THE DEVIL’S PLAY GROUND
When Generals Wilkinson and Herrera agreed to the boundaries set by their two junior officers, Turner and Gonzalez, they created a back door to the United States of a forty-mile-wide strip which was to become one of the most lawless places that ever existed within the confines of the United States.
Every outlaw and murderer made this Neutral Strip his destination, The Free State of Sabine, it was called. Neither Spain nor the United States wished to have the responsibility or the expense of policing this outlaw state, although the southland’s busiest road cut through the center of it. But traffic was heavy just the same. Many found that the only safe way to cross the strip was to travel in force, therefore, either at Natchitoches or on the west side of Sabine River, the travelers waited until a large enough group was gathered to guarantee safe travel.
The outlaws of the Strip dealt in horse stealing, cattle rustling, counterfeiting, or any other form of crime that might strike their fancy. There is no definite data or history of the goings-on inside the area, but many men who lived in, or traveled through the district recorded their experiences in diaries and stories or just handed down hearsay tales of the happenings in this lawless land. There, a person’s security was strapped at his hips or carried in his hands in the form of pistols, long rifles or knives. Even the long, rawhide whip was considered a deadly weapon in the hands of an expert.
Los Adais was a waystation and on the bulletin board appeared one day a word with a new meaning, Sabina 28, the same sign appeared on the Rendezvous Oak at Natchitoches. To the average citizen it meant nothing, but to those in the know it meant slaves would be for sale at a point near Pendleton at the ferry on Sabine River on the 28th of that month.
With the discovery of a new way to granulate sugar and with the invention of the cotton gin, the land around Los Adais and Natchitoches became highly productive when planted in sugar cane and cotton and more slaves were needed, but the United States had forbidden their importation.
To Jean Lafitte, the pirate, the Sabine River with the protection of the Neutral Strip, became the back door to the United States. Slaves for wagon loads of food were commonly exchanged, according to the statements of a Mr. Tulley at Los Adais and Mr. Gunlineau at Natchitoches. Lafitte needed food for his pirate operations. Up the Sabine River the boats were pulled, poled or paddled by the slaves to be sold. From the Los Adais and Natchitoches areas came wagon loads of food, smoked hams, kegs of salted bacon, cornmeal, kegs of molasses, wine, corn whiskey, dried beans, peppers, tobacco, sweet potatoes and gourds of honey, with spiced cake sent by hopeful wives to the pirates so that their husbands might make more profitable deals.
Back on the same wagons came the slaves, bolts of cloth, jewelry and perfume (Lafitte’s storehouses was filled with goods from every Spanish and British ship that he could capture). Everything was legal as far as the bills of sale went. A certain honest merchant in New Orleans, with a good reputation and scruples, signed blank bills of sale, to be filled in by Tulley and Gunlineau.