BOOKMAKING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Paris, 14th November 1843.
SIR-I have just read a work entitled a " Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, and Western Texas; written by Captain Marryat." Such is the titlepage. In the preface, Captain MARRYAT states that the opinions and occasional remarks are not his-" I have merely written the work." The portions of the work relating to Texas are in chapters 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, and 32. Of the "authenticity and correctness" of what M. VIOLET asserts, Captain MARRYAT declares that he has " no doubt." All the reviews of the work that I have seen conclude that it is a mere fiction; and it may probably be added to the number of literary curiosities if I illustrate the curious example of bookmaking which this work presents, and at the same time confirm the opinion of its fictitious character. The second paragraph of chapter 13, with the exception of the last eighteen words, is taken verbatim, and without a mark of its being a citation, from a small pamphlet, written by me, and published at New Orleans in May 1842, with my name on the titlepage. The last seventeen paragraphs of the same chapter are taken from a communication signed "G,"publisled in the Arkansas Intelligencer, printed at the town of Van Buren, in the HIMC year. The paragraphs 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 of chapter 19, giving a description of the missions of San Antonio de Bexar, are manufactured, with sonic patchwork, from an account of Texas and of the Santa Fe expedition, published in the Picayune, a newspaper of New Orleans, by Mr. G. W. KENDALL. The origi- nal description was written by me. Mr. KENDALL, being on one occasion much pressed by his business, asked me to write for him a brief account of the missions, which we had both visited. I agreed to do so, and copied for him my notes, from my own journal, which is still in my possession. The account I wrote, thus forms part of his narrative. If he should see this statement, I have no doubt that he will pardou my publication of the fact. The two last paragraphs but two, with the exception of some interpolated words about robberies, are also taken from my pamphlet ; and are contained also in a letter to a friend in England, written by me at 'Matanzas, itt Cuba, in April 1842. Some passages in the same chapter, descriptive of the town and river of San Antonio, are borrowed from Mr. KENDALL'S OVIII narrative.
The greater portion of the 20th chapter is taken from Mr. KENDALL'S publication. Chapter 21 is derived from the same source ; 0 ith the exception of about eight paragraphs, which interpolate a fictitious story of Indian cannibalism, in the place of the particulars given in the original of the massacre of a young Englishman, the only son of the late Major -General TREVOR Hum., and five others of our party, who were suddenly surrounded by some Caygua Indians, when separated a short distance from us. Chapter 22, with the exception of some imeginary Indian talk, also owes its authorship to Mr. KENDALL.
Chapter 25 contains what is called " the Mexican versimi " of the Santa Fe Expedition, prepared from what 51. VIOLET "55w," from " what he heard on the spot," and " from Mexican documents still in his possession." All the Mexican documents on the subject are accessible. They were published in the Diario del Gobierno, and in El Siglo XI X., in Mexico. They include the accounts given of the expedition by the Mexican General ARAUJO, who was actually an eye-witness of what occurred in New Mexico ; and they do not sustain a single fact of " the Mexican version " of the expedition. In the course of that expedition, no Wakoe or other Indian siliage was destroyed- no Indian stores were set on fire-and. no Indian childreu were shot. We only found one inhabited Indian village along the whole route, over a previously unknown country, extending upwards of' 700 miles, from the city of Austin to the Rio Puerco, or Mexican settlements. It was left undestroyed, aud no Indian was killed. There were no Mexican shepherds nor any other Mexicans killed in New Mexico, and there were no sheep stolen. The story respecting a man named Golphin is a most extravagant invention. He neither killed a Mexican woman nor robbed her : his right hand had been perfectly disabled for some months before we readied New Mexico, and he had long been sick and infirm. He was shot by the Mexicans between the Indian village of Socorro on the Rio Grande and Paso del Norte, merely on account of his inability to walk. The other allegations against him, and an alleged identifi- cation of him, are equally unfounded. There is then left, to preserve a claim of originality to " Adventures in Western Texas," abuse of the merchants of San Antonio ; nil Indian story, for the neighbourhood of Trinity River, in Eastern Texas; a story about the pass- ing of some forged notes at Galveston, iu Eastern Texas, mentioned in chapter 27; a story in chapter 32, intended to represent the manner in which justice is administered in Eastern Texas; and lastly, a complaint against Judge WEBB, who is alleged to have charged M. VIOLET for water, though the great fresh- water river of the Colorado fleas near his house, open to the access of every one. It is a remarkable fact, that until the town of San Antonio was surprised by the Mexicans in the course of last year, its chief trade was iii the hands of Irishmen. The principal Irish stores were those of Messra. ELLIOTT, ROBIN- SON, and RIDDLE. Where every man knew every thing respecting his neigh- bour, I never heard any thing amiinst these persons-nor indeed against many others whom I could name ; anti Mr. EhhioTr was much respected by the Mexican as well as the American population. The town itself, though upon the very frontier, was exceedingly well governed. Any story of corrupt male.administration of the law in America or in Texas, among the White population, I should always be disposed to doubt. The evi- dence that it is not corruptly administered, is the general contentment of a most active, intelligent, and clear-sighted people with it, the facilitim they possess to correct its abuses, and the confidence with o hich they invoke its protection. Exceptional cases to the contrary may sometimes occur in the West ; but that which must strike any observer who has lived only a few months in recently- settled districts, is the rapidity with whic-h the influence and the power of the law is established. It is this legal control which has chiefly contributed to the prosperity of America. It is to he traced to the operation of the English laws which we gave to that country, and to our mode of procedure in civil and cri- minal cases, equally as much as to their own political institutions, which take away the desire and prove the inutility of obtaining constitutional changes through violence. How different would be the condition of the Spanish Colo- nies of America if similar influences prevailed among them ? I am, however, well aware of the immediate soul ce of Captain Manavax's information. I should have been perfectly silent respecting it, if the materials lie has used had been accompanied with comments of a generous character : but the feelings of Captain MAuttvier towards America are known to be very bitter and very hostile. He may justify them by his own experience, and by what he has heard: but the preface of this work proves the great extent of his credulity, while the thousands of British emigrants who annually settle in America, and who leave Canada to settle in it, support a more important con- clusion, adverse to his opinions. Jam so far from London that I have not the opportunity of sending to you the papers to ahich I refer. 1 have no doubt, however, that many weeks before I return to England, American papers will be received confirming what I have stated, and perhaps setting forth the claims of others to passages of the work not having any reference to its facts in natural history; which are so very odd, that it would puzzle the Zoological Society to ascertain in what "unknown countries such unknown creatures can be expected to be met with."
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