Talk:Juan Davis Bradburn

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These are valid facts about the man, but I'm unsure if they fit in this article, so I'm leaving them here for now. Karanacs (talk) 19:57, 6 February 2009 (UTC) In September 1831, Mexican authorities appointed George Fisher as the first collector of customs duties at the port of Galveston. Fisher established a temporary office in Anahuac as he waited for offices and warehouses to be constructed near Galveston. Fisher then ordered that all ship captains would have to file their papers at Anahuac, although this would require a 100 mi overland trip from some of the ports. 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.

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.