[Texas]. L'Heritier, Louis François. Hartmann, Louis. Millard, Jean-Baptiste

Le Champ-d'Asile, Tableau Topographique et Historique de Texas, Contenant des Details sur le Sol, le Climat et les Productions de Cette Contree... [bound with]: Le Texas, ou Notice Historique sur le Champ d'Asile, Comprenant Tout Ce Qui S'est Passe Depuis la Formation Jusqu'a la Dissolution de Cette Colonie...

Paris: Ladvocat / Chez Beguin, 1819. viii,247,[10],135pp., plus a folding plan. Contemporary French tree calf, expertly rebacked, preserving original gilt leather spine label. Boards noticeably scuffed, with minor losses to boards, edges worn. Tiny wormtracks in lower right margin of a handful of leaves, not approaching text, a few scattered fox marks. Otherwise, a remarkably clean copy. Very good. Item #2463

Two of the rare original French accounts recounting the failed attempt by Napoleonic exiles to establish a colony in Texas in 1817, bound together. Champ D'Asile, or Camp Asylum, was located somewhere along the Trinity River, perhaps thirty miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, but its exact location is still unknown. It was settled by disenchanted soldiers of the French Grand Army in 1817. The group was divided into two sections, and led by Generals Lallemand and Rigaud. Upon hearing of the encroaching French settlement, Mexican residents complained to Spanish authorities, who then set out to confront the French intruders. Before the Spanish could get there, the French military exiles burned the whole settlement down, and fled to Galveston, then Louisiana, where they were saced from starvation by Jean Lafitte. Their story was memorialized in three contemporary accounts, all three published in Paris in 1819, two of which are bound together here.

The first work present here is the first edition, first issue of L'Heritier's Le Champ-d'Asile, Tableau Topographique et Historique de Texas..., with eight preliminary pages. As Decker described it, the work contains a "description of Texas with details on the soil, climate and productions, and authentic documents on the organization of the colony of French refugees, notices of the founders, public acts, social conditions of the colony, etc." Streeter calls the book "a fanciful and idealized account of the Champ d'Asile," adding that about half the text comprises "mostly an account of Texas...perhaps the lengthiest to its date in book form...." The author, Louis François L'Heritier was a French soldier, author, and editor of liberal journals.

The second work is even more important and well regarded than the work described above. Hartmann & Millard's Le Texas was hailed by Thomas W. Streeter as "an indispensable source and by far the best of the group" of works about Champ D'Asile. Concurring with Streeter was legendary Texas bookseller John Jenkins, who called the work "the best contemporary account of the ill-fated colony of Napoleonic refugees in Texas." The work consists mainly of two diaries written by Louis Hartmann and Jean-Baptiste Millard which give an account of the founding of the colony, as well as the life there. The work contains a list of colonists and General Lallemand's Mainfesto, but does not include the code of laws present in L'Heritier's work. Taken together, these two works provide a much fuller account of Camp Asylum than either of the works does separately.

The folding plan in Hartmann & Millard's work depicts the proposed settlement of Champ D'Asile. The plan is illustrated with numerous buildings, some of which are referenced in a key printed opposite the plan. The identified buildings include the quarters of both Lallemand and Rigaud, forts named Charles, Henri, and La Palanque, a row of houses for the colonists, and the Trinity River itself ("Riviere de la Triuite").

Also of note, this copy includes the original ink signatures of Hartmann (one of the authors) and Beguin (the printer) beneath the statement certifying this copy as an authorized edition on the verso of the half title. Streeter writes that such certification is seen only "in some copies."

"Finally, a petite footnote to women's history in Texas-although the Champ d'Asile colony was composed mostly of bachelor soldiers, the colony included four women, whose names are listed on p. 57. Both diaries, but especially Hartmann's, contain glowing, idealized accounts of the women's demeanor and activities and reiterate the enormous esteem in which they were held by others. Again, those views are thoroughly romanticized, although in reality they probably do reflect to some degree the actual functioning of the colony's female members, given that the roles described are conventional ones to be expected at the time. Adrienne and Edouard, a married couple, are especially idealized, and the depiction of their mutual struggle to survive the Galveston hurricane reflects both deep admiration and glorification. Here is a most unusual morsel in women's history in Texas that is apparently the first such depiction since the late seventeenth-century publications concerning La Salle's ill-fated colony" - Sloan.

"Although Champ d'Asile, a colony of Bonapartist refugees founded on the Trinity River in 1818, endured barely six months, its impact on the future of Texas was strong. The concern aroused among United States and Spanish diplomats over this intrusion into disputed territory caused two immediate results. United States pressure forced pirate Jean Laffite and his men, who had assisted the French colonists, to leave Galveston. And French presence at Champ d'Asile precipitated the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, which eliminated the Neutral Ground agreement and established the Sabine River as the Louisiana-Texas boundary and the border between the United States and New Spain. The body of thought, art, and literature evoked in Paris around Champ d'Asile also had important long-term effects on Texas" - Handbook of Texas online.

In the first edition of the Handbook of Texas, the colony of Champ D'Asile was characterized as "a motley mingling of French exiles, Spaniards, Poles, Mexicans, and Americans, with a sprinkling of former pirates...more occupied with military exercises and hunting than with cultivation of the soil." This insensitive portrayal of the colony's inhabitants was edited out of later editions of the Handbook.
L'Heritier: Streeter 1072. Fifty Texas Rarities 6. Graff 2487. Howes L329, "b." Raines, p.109. Brinley 4731. Sabin 95072.
Hartmann & Millard: Streeter Texas 1069. Basic Texas Books 85. Fifty Texas Rarities 6. Howes H270, "b." Raines, p. 109. Eberstadt, Texas 162:386. Dorothy Sloan 21:35. Holliday 490. Braislin 920. Brinley Sale 4725. Kelsey, Engraved Prints of Texas, p. 18. Library of Congress, Texas Centennial Exhibition 62. Monaghan 792. Rader 1807. Rich, Bibliotheca Americana Nova I:66. Sibley, Travelers in Texas 1761-1860, pp. 207-208. Sabin 30706.

Price: $12,500.00