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Smuggler-settler
knew the law from both sides Y'Barbo Doled Out Justice, Stolen Goods in East Texas Kent Biffle's Texana © 1997, The Dallas Morning News NACOGDOCHES - In the Piney Woods of Spanish Texas, Antonio Gil Y'Barbo (1729-1809) was area distributor for laws and smuggled goods. He founded modern Nacogdoches, if modern may be applied in any sense to a place that claims to be Texas' oldest settlement (1716). Don Antonio was born in a clearing in the pines called Los Adaes - capital of the province of Texas, although located in Louisiana. He was a sort of Moses who'd lead his people out of the wilderness and back again. He was a captain of militia, a chief justice, a lieutenant governor, a slick smuggler, and a cuckold. I'll get to that. Dr. Frances (Ab) Abernethy, curator of exhibits at the Center for East Texas Studies, told me all about Y'Barbo. |
Los Adaes, he said, was "populated by people who didn't mind being beyond the reach of the law, the source of which was 1,500 miles away in Mexico City. They made their personal laws."
In the 1750s, young Y'Barbo served in the king's army, became a rancher, and married Maria Davila Padilla, a settler's daughter.
"He founded Rancho El Lobanillo in what is now Sabine County. El Lobanillo means 'The Wart,' and it might well have been named by Spanish authorities unsympathetic with Y'Barbo's contrabandish way of life," said Dr. Abernethy, adding, "El Lobanillo was a staging area for smuggling of livestock among the Spanish, the French and others."
I trust you shan't repeat the scandal I'm about to whisper. Ab Abernethy got it from an unpublished manuscript - Notable Men and Women of Spanish Texas - by Don Chipman and Hariett Denise Joseph:
"In the late 1750s, Antonio's wife Maria had a serious fling with a soldier named Andres Chirinos. The affair was evidently quite public in that small frontier world. Because adultery was a crime, Governor Angel de Martos y Navarette arrested Chirinos and reassigned him to La Bahía in South Texas with a warning never to return to the eastern frontier.
Returned to be re-exiled
"True love not to be thwarted, Chirinos returned and was re-exiled, only to return in 1766 (or perhaps for earlier trysts). The husband petitioned the governor for something more definite, stating: 'My wife and I are living in a constant state of vexation, anxiety, and discord on account of Andres Chirinos.'
"Governor Martos sentenced Chirinos to four years without pay at El Morro in Havana, Cuba." That chilled things.
The historian said, "Y'Barbo had such a hold on contraband trade on the Texas frontier in the 1750s and 1760s that governors and political agents used his services.
"But Hugo O'Conor, interim governor from 1767 to 1770, believed that his duties included maintaining the letter of the law. He ordered arrest of Y'Barbo, who was in possession of contraband horses purchased from Indians to sell to the French and the English. Sale of horses and mules was taxed by law, or supposed to be. Y'Barbo's animals, it turned out, had been stolen by Indians from San Antonio, San Saba and La Bahía. Governor O'Conor imprisoned him in chains for seven months."
O'Conor's successor Baron de Ripperda ordered Y'Barbo's release, then appointed him purchaser of supplies for Los Adaes.
After an inspection tour, the Marques de Rubi reported to the king that the frontier was corrupt and expensive to maintain. He advised that Los Adaes and other Texas presidios and missions weren't needed. In 1773, Los Adaes was abandoned by royal decree.
Y'Barbo became leader of displaced Adaesanos, who lugged their belongings to San Antonio, a town unloved by the folks from the pines. Months later, Y'Barbo led them halfway home, settling them on the Trinity. Meanwhile, Gov. Ripperda, a co-conspirator in illegal trade with the Indians and French, lavished on Y'Barbo titles of captain of militia and chief justice. He recognized Y'Barbo's governance of his East Texas realm. Don Antonio was a feudal baron.
In 1779, he led his people on to Nacogdoches, where the abandoned 1716 mission and its outbuildings still stood. There he was named Indian agent for the district and - get this - "judge of contraband seizures." This was, I guess, the beginning of modern Nacogdoches.
Officially, Y'Barbo was dubbed lieutenant governor of Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Nacogdoches.
His reign as a Piney Woods grandee didn't end until 1791, when he was summoned to San Antonio to review military strategy with Ramon Castro, commandant of the eastern interior provinces. On arrival, he was slapped in a cell.
An investigator in Nacogdoches was looking into Y'Barbo's smuggling and land dealings. Shortly, all land grants made under Y'Barbo's reign were declared invalid.
He was imprisoned for months, then restricted to San Antonio. Tried in 1796, he was finally exonerated but stripped of his lieutenant governor's title. He wasn't allowed to return to Nacogdoches.
His was a tragic exile, although family tradition holds that as an octogenarian he returned a last time to his beloved Nacogdoches. His bones lie at the crossroads of two East Texas trails - the Camino Real and Trammel's Trace.
In his heyday, Y'Barbo imposed a criminal code on the Piney Woods - 53 ordnances prohibiting every sin - except, of course, smuggling. Twenty-two were death-Peñalty offenses - hanging, burning, or drawing and quartering.
Here's one inventive Peñalty: "Any man who shall assent to the prostitution of his wife, will for the first offense, be exposed in public, being feathered, rubbed with honey, wearing a fool's cap with a string of garlic, and a pair of horns, receive 100 lashes and be sent to the galleys for 10 years; for the second offense, he shall remain in the galleys for life."
But the fierce lawgiver must have been a pussycat. Consider his patience with Juan Jose Peña, a one-man crime wave.
Senor Peña robbed a trader and stole six horses. Judge Y'Barbo brought him in and locked him in the Y'Barbo-built Stone Fort.
He escaped, stole a horse, a cow and arms. When he tried to rape an Indian girl, he was captured by tribesmen. They returned him to Y'Barbo, who put him in stocks in the Stone Fort.
He busted out, stole clothing, horses and cows. A posse caught him. Judge Y'Barbo chained him and stocked him in the Stone Fort. He escaped. Unwittingly, before leaving town, he burglarized Y'Barbo's house. He fled with all the garments on Nacogdoches clotheslines.
Captured, he crashed out once more, taking with him all the balls, chains and irons that had restrained him. He stole horses as he fled. But Y'Barbo overtook him, placed him in double handcuffs and double ankle chains. This time he took all his irons when he left. He was free several weeks, robbing citizens of clothes, arms and horses.
Caught again, Senor Peña was banished by Judge Y'Barbo to San Antonio. The pickings must have been better there. He didn't return.
Judge Y'Barbo showed restraint. Under his criminal code, he could have hanged and quartered the outlaw again and again.
Juan Jose Peña was as persistent as old Andres Chirinos.