RAOUSSET DE BOULBON.
IT is singular to note how the dream of a conquest of Mexico has held possession of the French mind for centuries. Expeditions similar to the one now undertaken by Napoleon III. were planned under Louis XIV., Louis XVI., the Republic, and the First Empire. For the last hundred years, scarce a generation has passed over the scene in France without contributing its share to the search of adventure in the land of Cortez, the country of supposed fabulous wealth and riches. The history of the last of these adven- tures, little known in this country, though vividly remembered in France, is interesting in more than one respect, and is said to have been even not without influence on the policy of the present Emperor. We allude to the romantic expedition into Sonora in 1852-54, by Count de Raonsset-Boulbon.
Count Raonsset-Boulbon, the scion of one of the oldest noble families of Provence, was born in 1817, and losing his mother early, and entirely neglected by his misanthropic father, who spent his days in lonely grandeur in the old castle of Boulbon, was left for education to the companionship of la Jeune France. Hav- ing come of age, he hurried up to Paris, and in a few years managed to run through his patrimony, consisting of about a mil- lion of francs. He then thought of emigration and went to Algeria, but, not succeeding, returned to France just in time to witness the revolution of February, 1848. A few friends helped him to establish a journal, La Libertd, at Avignon, and he set hard to preaching and lecturing in the clubs, for the purpose of being elected into the National Assembly. The votes, how- ever, failed at the critical moment, and disgusted with a republic unable to appreciate his talents, the Count resolved on emigrating to the New World. He landed at San Francisco in August, 1850, with a light purse, but full of mighty schemes, tending to nothing less than the conquest of the western provinces of Mexico. He freely expressed his ideas that the Saxon race was acquiring too much power on the northern continent of America, and that the time had come when the French, as chief representative of the great Romanic nations of Europe, were to take their share of the rich territories between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Of such plans and dreams, Count Raousset was not the only preacher ; but they were held in common with him by all the more enthusiastic portion of /a Jeune France in the Old as well as the New World. Before the arrival of the Count at San Francisco, several parties of Frenchmen had set out from California to conquer, or colonize, as they would call it, the fertile realms of Mexico ; but all of them were.more or less unsuccessful in their attempts, and either miserably perished in the land of promise, or returned as beggars from whence they started. The Count, therefore, had great trouble at first to find willing adherents to his projected enterprise, but at the and of eighteen months succeeded in inducing M. Dillon, the French Consul at San Francisco, to assist him in the execution of his plan. After a long correspondence between the latter and M. Levasseur, Minister of France at Mexico, Count Raousset started for the Mexican capital, to examine personally the field on which to work. Backed by the influential French envoy, the Count found it comparatively easy to proceed, and, in April, 1852, obtained from President Arista a concession to work the silver. mines of Arizona, in the province of Sonora. The concession conferred extraordinary powers, not only for mining, agricultural, and commercial purposes, but for taking possession of the country, from the native Indians, if necessary, by force of arms. On the basis of this important grant a company, called the Restauradora, was formed immediately, the greater part of the shares being taken by the banking-house of Jecker de la Torre and Co. His purse well filled, Count Raousset now returned to San Francisco, and, without further trouble, enlisted a company of 250 Frenchmen, who, fully armed and equipped, with several pieces of cannon, set sail for the shores of Mexico in the first days of June, 1852.
The Count and his little army landed at Guaymas, on the coast of Sonora, after a short and prosperous voyage, and were received with all honours by the inhabitants. The bells kept ringing and the guns firing for several days, after which Count Raousset marched inland towards the town of Hermosillo. Before reaching this place a message was received from General Blanco, Governor- General of Sonora, ordering the French not to advance further into the country before having taken the oath of fidelity to the Mexican Government. Count Raousset sent back a very polite reply, full of assurances of love and goodwill, but declining to obey the com- mand, as contrary to the concession obtained from President Arista. At the same time the Count gave orders to hasten forward on the road, and, while so doing, unfurled a flag containing, in letters of gold, the inscription, "The Independence of Sonora." Thus the Rubicon was passed. When the French arrived before Hermosillo they found the city occupied by the soldiers of General Blanco, to the number of nearly a thousand. Count Raousset at once ordered a storm, and at the end of less than three hours was master of the place, having utterly routed the Mexicans. The two pieces of cannon, brought from San Francisco, greatly contributed to the success of the enterprise, and sent the enemy flying in all directions. The French only lost seventeen killed and twenty- three wounded, while the Mexicans had a loss more than five times as great. The news of this feat of arms created a profound sensation at the city of Mexico, and for a moment almost para- lyzed the action of the Government.
Count Raousset, however, though able to gain a victory, was unfit on this occasion to make use of it. While all Sonora trembled before the French conqueror, he rested on his laurels at Hermosillo, making speeches and serenading dark-eyed beauties. In California itself, then in the very throes of the gold-fever, Count Raousset's victory had produced such an impression that hands of Frenchmen and adventurers of other nations were forming in all directions, and at the end of a few weeks, from five to six thousand men stood ready for an expedition into Mexico. Before, however, they could get ships to convey them, the news arrived that the Count and his band, instead of advancing, were in full retreat. This, indeed, turned out to be case. Attacked by a violent fever, brought on by excesses, Count Raousset had fallen seriously ill, and, in his desponding mood, ordered an immediate retreat to Guaymas. On the road thither, a messenger of General Blanco demanded a secret interview with the Count, which was at once accorded, and ended in the French leader going over, in a most mysterious manner, to the Mexicans. He even refused to see deputations from his own men, and the latter, helpless and disorganized, were glad to accept a sum of eleven thousand dollars from General Blanco, and a ship for returning to San Francisco. Count Raousset fol- lowed, after a stay of many more months in Sonora, retained, it was rumoured, by the same dark-eyed senoritas who had hemmed his activity at Hermosillo. At last a note from Consul Dillon brought the Count back to California. " It is high time to re- commence," wrote the Minister of France; " Rerenez ici au plus
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Count Rammed returned to San Francisco, but had scarcely begun his preparations for a new campaign into Sonora, when he received a pressing invitation from Santa-Anna, the new President of the Mexican Republic, to meet him in his own capital. En- ticed by the singularity of the call the Count started, and, in the spring of 1853, had his first meeting with Santa-Anna, who re- ceived him with open arms, and great demonstrations- of affection. For a few brief months the victor of Hermosillo was the lion of the Mexican capital, and the festivities culminated in a new presidential grant, promising not only immense estates, but an immediate advance in cash of 250,000 francs, or 10,0001., besides a monthly subvention of 90,000 francs. The ostensible object of the treaty between Santa-Anna and the Count was the defence of Sonora against the Indian tribes in the north ; howefer, it was well known in Mexico that in reality the President wanted help against his rivals in power, particularly General Juan Alvarez, who had just risen hi rebellion. But the emissaries of the latter, looking upon Count Raousset as a military genius, also entered into negotiations with him, which he favoured, and the plot being discovered, an order for the arrest of the victor of Hermosillo was despatched by Santa-Anna. The Count received timely notice from the French Minister, and throwing himself on his steed, galloped away, in the middle of the night, to Acapulco. Riding night and day, and killing several horses under him, he managed to reach the coast, and in a ready vessel embarked once more for San Francisco. Here all things were ready, M. Dillon having been hard at work, in the absence of his friend, to organize a new expedition into Mexico. A thousand men were already enlisted and steamers prepared to embark them, when, on a sudden, the American Government, jealous of foreign filibusters, stepped in to arrest the progress of the enterprise. M. Dillon was made a prisoner, and, notwithstanding his diplomatic character, had to give heavy bail before being released, while an embargo was laid upon the ships engaged for the expedition. How- ever, the steamer Challenge managed to slip out of the harbour of San Francisco, on the 2nd April, 1854, with some three hundred men on board ; and Count Raousset, who was watched in all his movements, followed in the night of the 23rd of May, in a little French schooner of only twelve tons' burthen, called La Belle. The expedition landed safely at Guaymas, but was attacked forthwith by a body of Mexican troops, numbering several thousands. The French held out bravely until the arrival of their cm-inlander, who entered Guay- mas only at the beginning of July, having been shipwrecked in his little vessel, on the coast of Sonora, and obliged to live on herbs and mussels for several weeks. Eager for the strife, Count Raousset had no sooner put himself at the head of his men, than he gave notice of attack to- the Mexican commander, General Yanez. The battle began in the streets of Guaymas, on the morning of July 13. The Mexicans, well provided with guns, fought bravely, and although the French, too, stood their ground like lions, they were overpowered at the end of four hours, having lost more than one-half in lead and wounded. Count Raousset, flying into the house of the French Consul, was taken away forcibly at the end of several days, and put before a council of war. The sentence, of course, was death. Led out upon the shore early on the morning of the 12th of August, the order was executed by six Mexican soldiers, and, after the first discharge of muskets, the Count fell to the ground, crying " Vive In France !" Thus ended, at the early age of thirty-six, Count de Rammet- Boulbon, surnamed by his friends the "French Cortez."
As already mentioned, the story of Count Raousset is far from being forgotten in his own country, but forms the theme of con- versation at many a French fireside. Books and pamphlets have immortalized the life of the young Count of Provence, and his strikingly handsome portrait is to be seen in the printshops of Paris, and adorns, it is rumoured, one of the salles d'attente in the Tuileries. The belief, expressed in the published correspondence of Count Raousset, is general that had he but had a few thousand more men under his command, he would have conquered, not only the province of Sonora, but the whole of Mexico. In all probability, this is the opinion, too, of Napoleon HI. ; or, at least, was at the commencement of the great Mexican campaign. The French have a striking tendency to remember victories and to forget defeats. As Austerlitz is spoken of in France more than Water- loo, so the glory of the field of Hermosillo seems to have obscured completely the view of the bleeding body on the shore of Guaymas.
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