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Show fjjityTears Ago EnglanandUnifed States I Were on the Verge of Another War-and It All Was the Result of the Killina of a Pioi VASE VANCOUVER """H VNs " XKL VBELUNGHAM) ! Nv washingt on y ' '. " ' ': Jr VSEATUE) The San Juan island pig, whose death nearly precipitated a war between the United States and Great Britain, wasn't the first to be the central figure in an "international "inter-national incident." Just 100 years ago there was a similar case down in Texas. At that time Texas was a republic re-public to which the United States,' England and France sent official representatives. The French charge d' affairs was Count Du-boise Du-boise de Saligny who, upon his arrival in Austin in 1839, lodged at the leading hostelry kept by James Bullock. After a time the French diplomat called for his bill. When it was presented he declared indignantly that it was too high and refused to pay it. So arbitrators were appointed and they reduced the bill to a sum which Bullock refused to accept ac-cept because he said it was much too low. Meanwhile De Saligny had moved from the hotel to a wooden structure which became the official French embassy building. Being a fastidious gentleman, gen-tleman, the count furnished it beautifully and had his servants cultivate an attractive garden around it. Not only did Mr. Bullock run the principal hotel but he also owned a number of hogs which he permitted to roam at large. One morning Count de Saligny glanced out his window and was horrified to see some of the Bullock Bul-lock hogs rooting in his garden. He hastily sent his servants to scare them away. But no sooner soon-er had they returned to the house than the hogs returned to the garden. gar-den. Again they were chased out arid the count, thoroughly exasperated exas-perated by this time, gave his servants orders to shoot every pig that ventured into his garden thereafter. A short time later Bullock missed some of his hogs and, blaming the French diplomat for the loss, complained to the gov- Capt. Pickett's action was not only a violation of the treaties between be-tween the United States and Great Britain in regard to settlement settle-ment of disputes over title to the northwestern country, but, all in all, it was a most unheard-of proceeding. pro-ceeding. Sir James Douglas had at his disposal enough troops to sweep the insignificant little American force into the sea and if the Yankees Yan-kees were foolish enough to resist, re-sist, they would jolly well deserve the treatment that they got, etc., etc., etc. All of which was duly reported to Captain Pickett who calmly went ahead putting his camp in order. British Warship Appears. On July 30 his orderly told him that a ship was in sight and at the same time handed him a letter. let-ter. When Pickett stepped out of his tent he saw a British warship bearing down upon the island. It was the Tribune, a 31-gun frigate frig-ate from the naval station at Esquimau Es-quimau near Victoria. This looked as though the British Brit-ish really meant to make good their threats. But Pickett was undaunted by this show of force. Ordering his men to run their only piece of artillery, a little six-pounder, to a place where it could sweep the island's only wharf he instructed his force of 66 men to stand to arms, ready for instant action. But suddenly the sails of the Tribune were furled and she dropped anchor, broadside on, a short distance off shore. There she lay grim and foreboding while Pickett, seeing that no immediate im-mediate trouble was likely, tore open the envelope the orderly had handed him. In it was a letter from the agent of the Hudson's Bay company informing him that San Juan island belonged to the lcOTT WATSON wicrn Newspaper Union.) jrtlEW of the recent ' .,-t of the King and Jen of England, with . J British-American good 1 ' -hich it is supposed to Rendered, it is inter-irtf inter-irtf ,0 recall that just 80 &o the two countries, "had been opponents in 'ttars, were on the verge $her. And it all started i course, this animal, .-j, was the property of a ;;n was only a minor " the international But its death at the ;:js of an American proved "be the first incident in a ;;in 0 events which, for a l"e seemed to be leading vi'taW to hostilities. The r'qs came about in this toing the 10 years which fol-"jj fol-"jj the close of the Mexican the rapid settlement of Cali-r-i and the Oregon country by '"Americans resulted in consid--i''e friction between them and ''palish residents of the Pa-': Pa-': Northwest. i; it came about that San Juan '-d, which lies off the coast of : present state of Washington 0ver which the Hudson's Bay r3any asserted a proprietary 5, became a reason for dis-e'ffhen dis-e'ffhen some American farmland farm-land small merchants, some in number, settled there, firm tie belief that it belonged to United States. Disagreements ' trthe most trifling things arose cost immediately. It is impos- it to say who was most to ae for the bad feeling that ; (jjg up between the arrogant . lison's Bay men and the trucu-' trucu-' ; Americans. But affairs grad- y drifted from bad to worse. .Finally one spring morning in B a certain L. E. Cutter, an rsican, found a pig belonging lie Hudson's Bay company rag in his cornfield. In the ist flush of his anger he shot K beast, then decided he had M too hastily. So he went to local H. B. C. agent and of-tA of-tA to pay him the value of the . His offer was refused and I 13 the matter was reported to 1 Krintendent Dallas at Victoria i Vancouver island, Dallas im-fisiiately im-fisiiately hastened to San Juan a.-d and threatened to arrest t'.er and take him back to.Vic-ia to.Vic-ia for trial under British law. No Arrest for Him. f. course, such a' threat was a Stable red rag to the Ameri-l Ameri-l He seized his rifle and told Has that if he tried to make arrest '--he would suffer the 'e fate as the " British ." Dallas, was sufficiently im-5sed im-5sed by -Cutter's determined , so that he hastily returned to : teia. 1 , leanwhile the other Americans tie island sent a message to ; military commander of the : Jirtment of the Columbia at trt Vancouver, Wash., telling of f indignities they had stiffed stif-fed at the hands of the H. B. C. (eats, including Dallas' threat to N Cutter, and demanding t their government give them flection. The department com-raer com-raer was Brig. Gen. William Yarney, a successful Indian fler and typical hard-boiled of-F of-F of the "old army." Also he a man accustomed to acting cPPtly, if not always wisely. f without waiting to consult , superiors in the war depart-,F, depart-,F, Harney ordered a company . Pantry to San Juan island to Ft the inhabitants from the cPMations of the northern In- who had been troubling if1: to afford adequate protec-' protec-' f1 to the American citizens in F rights as such. Also, to L attempts at interference ;.Rans of force or intimidation -'c controversies of the above-"'v above-"'v d parties fcy the British tilid S residin8 on Vancouver riwordingly on Jul 2? 1859 "2anytD of the Ninth United ;.s infantry, commanded by George E. Pickett, landed dn Juan island welcomed by of the Americans on . Puted terrain. Immediate- fLwWads; CaPtain Pickett-tatio Pickett-tatio S e disregard for dip- k Lam,enities-issued a prc- t'tth! Placine the island un-ils un-ils lu"sdictin of the United iUvt he seIected a good k.,.positln for his camp ia foJlewto the establishment t fnr , five or six compa-1 compa-1 0r long stay." ka the new of hi's ac- vSria-ried t0 the British Vd lmmediately and it f EV6ry- ,ernor nf u ames Douglas. St:?h n crown colony of t W ("mbia, down to the X CIt'zen declared that ' ! declined the invitation but asked the three naval captains to a conference con-ference in his camp. His invitation invita-tion was accepted and the British officers demanded that, the United Unit-ed States troops be withdrawn. When Pickett declined to do that they next proposed that troops of both nations occupy the island jointly. Pickett refused to accept any such arrangement and added that until he could communicate com-municate with his government and receive its instructions on the matter, he would oppose with force any attempt of the British to land troops on the island. Seeing that they could neither bluff nor persuade the American captain, the Britons returned to their ships. The parting was amicable am-icable enough, with many expressions expres-sions of respect and esteem on both sides. Meanwhile the H. B. C. had been busy and prevailed upon the civil authorities of British Brit-ish Columbia to summon him to appear before a Victoria magistrate. magis-trate. Pickett's reply to that move is not recorded in the official offi-cial correspondence of this whole affair it was probably a bit too warm to be entrusted to paper. A week passed with the British Brit-ish on Vancouver island in a turmoil tur-moil over the situation. Pickett calmly sat tight as though unaware un-aware of all the fuss that his British Brit-ish neighbors were making. It was all rather ludicrous but it is doubtful if Pickett's men saw the humor of the situation. There was no telling when the British might launch an attack. A Critical Situation. Of "course, if they did, the first shot fired would be a declaration of war and would brand them as the aggressors. But that would be small comfort to the 66 infantrymen in-fantrymen if a blast from the British cannon snuffed out their lives. They probably thought of that when two more British ships joined the three already at anchor off the island. Now there was a force of five ships, carrying 167 guns and 2,140 men, 600 of them marines and engineer' troops, trying try-ing to intimidate them and force them to evacuate the island. But the British evidently didn't realize the caliber of this man-Pickett. man-Pickett. He just wouldn't be bluffed! Neither would General Harney who, from distant Fort Vancouver, sent dispatches by the Shubrick, a small vessel commanded com-manded by Captain Alden of the United States navy, approving of Pickett's action and taking the responsibility if an armed clash should result. He also engaged in a fierce but dignified correspondence corre-spondence with Governor Douglas Doug-las in which he steadfastly maintained main-tained his right to keep his troops on the island. On August 10 the tension lessened less-ened somewhat for Pickett when reinforcements, consisting of four companies of infantry, commanded command-ed by Lieut. Col. Silas Casey of the Ninth infantry and a battery of eight 32-pounders arrived at San Juan. Because of a dense fog they could not get up to the wharf near which lay the British Brit-ish men-of-war. So they landed on the beach a short distance away and the first intimation that the British had of the arrival of help for the Americans was when they saw their tents pitched beside those of Pickett's 66 men. With the arrival of the lieutenant-colonel, lieutenant-colonel, the young lieutenant's responsibility re-sponsibility ended, for Casey immediately im-mediately assumed command of the whole force on the island. Four days later three more companies com-panies of infantry arrived. With the opposing forces more nearly equal, the danger of a conflict was lessened. Eventually the diplomats arranged ar-ranged for a joint occupation of the island by both nations, each keeping one company of soldiers there. But when the final settlement' settle-ment' was made San Juan island became a part of Oregon territory. terri-tory. Today it is a part of the state of Washington. GEN. W. S. HARNEY ernment of Texas. James S. Mayfield, secretary - of state, addressed ad-dressed a formal inquiry to the count. In reply the Frenchman wrote bitterly of his sufferings "from the many hogs with which this town is infested" and particularly partic-ularly those of Mr. Bullock. He declared that his servants had used no less than 140 pounds of nails in repairing the palings of his fence "which these animals have thrown down for the purpose pur-pose of eating the corn of my horses and destroying my garden." gar-den." But he didn't deny responsibility respon-sibility for the disappearance of Bullock's hogs. Thereupon the keeper of the hostelry flew into a rage and when he encountered Eugene Pluyette, one of the count's servants, serv-ants, on the , street he gaVe the ; man a thrashing. The result was a formal demand by De Saligny upon the secretary of state for protection due a foreign minister minis-ter and his retinue. Although Bullock Bul-lock was indicted for the assault it was evident that the Texas officials of-ficials were sympathetic to him and had little intention of punishing punish-ing him. Irritated by their stalling tactics, tac-tics, De Saligny complained -to the French government. But he soon had an even more serious matter to report. The choleric Mr. Bullock proceeded next to thrash the French emissary himself. him-self. When the officials of Texas refused to take official cognizance of this attack, the indignant count rushed off another complaint to Paris, pointing out how the honor of dignity of France itself had been injured by this ruffian of a hotelkeeper. More than that he announced to his friends in Austin that the French government was sending a fleet of warships to the Texas coast to see that proper apologies apolo-gies were made for the humiliating humiliat-ing assault upon the honor of Franct. Next he demanded his passports and went to New Orleans Or-leans to await developments. It so happened that about this time the government of the United Unit-ed States sent a squadron of its warships to the Gulf of Mexico. Whether this was done as a warning warn-ing to France, which may or may not have intended to make good De Saligny's threat, is unknown. un-known. But the fact remains that no French warships appeared off the coast of Texas although it is a matter of record that, because of the indignities which her ambassador am-bassador had suffered, France declined to make a loan of $5,000,-000 $5,000,-000 which Texas was trying to float in that country at that time. company and ordering him to leave immediately. If he did not, the letter said, the company would appeal to the civil authorities authori-ties at Victoria to force him to go. The captain wrote a letter in reply in which he denied the right of the Hudson's Bay company to dictate his course of action, pointed point-ed out that he was there upon orders from his government and affirmed his intention of staying untune was recalled by the same authority. Then he wrote a report re-port of what had happened to Harney and ended it with a request re-quest for a supply of window sashes and doors which he said were needed to make his men comfortable during the autumn anOdnWiugeurst 3 two more British tlonse fo this bigger threat was fn bring up two mountain howitz-Zlce howitz-Zlce them beside his six-pTundrand" six-pTundrand" train them on the thereupon Captain Hornby, the senior British naval officer, in-w in-w ? the American captain to |