The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Juan Davis Bradburn, commander of the Mexican fort at Anahuac, was described as "incompetent to such a command and ... half crazy part of his time"?
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In September 1831, Mexican authorities appointed George Fisher as the first collector of customs duties at the port of Galveston.[1] Fisher established a temporary office in Anahuac as he waited for offices and warehouses to be constructed near Galveston.[2] Fisher then ordered that all ship captains would have to file their papers at Anahuac, although this would require a 100 miles (160 km) overland trip from some of the ports.[3] The people near the port of Brazoria prepared a petition asking Fisher to rescind his order. Although he refused, Bradburn accepted the petition and sent one of his own men to the Brazos River to administer customs duties and examine the ships' papers locally.[4]
The following month, the American crew of the schooner Topaz mutinied while transporting Mexican soldiers intending to establish a new base near the Brazos River. The sailors killed the captain but were overpowered by the soldiers, who then managed to sail the ship to Anahuac. Bradburn jailed the crew, who claimed that they had done nothing, and that the Mexican soldiers had instead killed the captain. Texians, most of them American, believed the sailors and began writing letters to newspapers and friends in the United States disparaging Bradburn for believing the story. The New Orleans Louisiana Advertiser printed a letter in May 1832 naming the charges against the sailors "impossible", and blaming Bradburn for their imprisonment. It is likely that the letter was written by hotheaded lawyer William Barret Travis.[5]