The ALAMO Gazette

Who will tell us if François-René Viscount de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), one of the greatest names in French literature, met the Crockett family in 1791. Chateaubriand is twenty-three years old then. Idle and preoccupied by the revolutionary political situation, he leaves France for North America. His journey will last four months only but, beyond the cities still in the making, he discovers, fascinated, the American wilderness: the Niagara Falls, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi and the Indian tribes who inhabit these lands. More than thirty years later, he writes down his Journey to the New World through the prism of his memories and his readings. He also reinvents everything he has not seen, so that it is sometimes difficult to disentangle the true from the false. Chateaubriand tells us for instance that « the Creeks, whose ancient customs I have painted, could not put two thousand warriors on their feet at this moment. » My question is: Had the French traveler visited the tribes himself and where did the Crockett family stay in 1791? At Cove Creek maybe? What was young David Crockett doing that same year? Could the two future celebrities have met, and if so, under which circumstances? David was only five and Chateaubriand would rather have made the acquaintance of his father John, a miller by trade who opened a tavern three years later.

Across The Alley From The Alamo.

Here is Texians' arch-ennemy, General Santa Anna.