adams had read lature's report. he can give up -- he can make some concessions there because it's just a matter of time before those americans will find their way into texas and take it for themselves. well, some of my distinguished fellow speakers will tell you about how that really happened. but in a nutshell, ity here. and beginning in the early 1820s -- come on up, there we go. stephen f. austin, as you know, will begin leading settlers into texas. other impresarios will bring them into texas. by 1824, there were roughly 2,000. by 1830, there are 30,000. by 1835, there were 35,000. someone has turned the spigot on and forgot to turn it off, just as jefferson and prophepro prophesied. you guys know what happens next. john wayne, lawrence harvey, sorry, steve, i prefer the original. but in any case, what's happening here is that it's exactly as had happened in the west florida rebellion. americans had moved into texas. they had not been completely happy with the situation in texas. so they began asking for concess

how many of you guys have heard of lature? my wife has. she's lived with me all these years. latour is kind of these enigmatic figures. he's lived in the shadow of the american history. he's a frenchman, as can you tell by the name. he makes it to louisiana in 1803, and he's an architect. he's an engineer. he had trained as a military engineer. well, by the time of the war of 1812, he's a having a hard time making ends meet. so he joins andrew jackson to fight in this war of 1812. and, in fact, he is the person who designed the defenses for jackson at shalmette. well, after the battle, jackson dismissed the army by march of 1815. latour is unemployed. he speaks french. he speaks spanish. he speaks english. so he's actually going to be hired by the spanish government to go on an expedition. he claims it's an expedition into the gold-producing regions of arkansas. yeah, you can actually find gold in arkansas if you're lucky. so he and jean lafitte will go up into the arkansas. and for eight months, they are out of sight. when he returns, being an architect/engineer, he drafts a

. >> they have knowledge of lature's report.st sort of their immediate needs kind of overcome that, overtake that knowledge? >> first of all you've got to keep in mind -- as i said the report is submitted to the captain general of cuba, the vice royalty of mexico. so it's those high officials. then it circulates or trickles down to the various independent governors. by the time it gets to the independent governors, they are -- they're already bee besieged and beleaguered. they don't have enough men or money or splice. now you're telling me i've got to worry about these americans pouring. in i know that. i can see them coming on the horizon. so yes, they are aware of this. they just couldn't do much about it. by that point in time the spanish government is on the verge of collapse. is that good enough? okay. >> that's all the questions we up can take. we've got to keep moving. we're on tv. thank you very much, dr. smith [ applause ] >>> you're watching american history tv, 48 hours of people and events that help document the american story. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >>> next, ab