au texas

← the sources

Un naufrage au Texas

Auguste Savardan · 1858 · French — primary, as act

Transcription: doc/text/books/1800/savardan/naufrage/french_clean.md, doc/text/books/1800/savardan/naufrage/english_clean.md

Clean fr + en transcription COMPLETE for ch. I–XVI (to the end of the facsimile, printed p. 249). Only the ch. XVI tail past p. 249 — the rest of the "swallowings-up" tally (running to 14,970) and the conclusion — is missing from the scan; recover from a complete copy. See savardan-transcription.

What it is

Memoir by the colony's physician and interim administrator — "a shipwreck in Texas." An insider's account of the colony's operations and unraveling. Title itself frames the venture as a wreck.

Author's position

Physician; named secretary of the Reunion Society and treasurer (Aug 7, 1855); present through the founding and the critical interim period. Administrative insider — unusually well placed on internal operations and finance.

Stake

Account for the failure from inside management. Has a position in the internal disputes (e.g., his view of Willemet as "le veritable directeur"); the "naufrage" framing is an argument, not a neutral label.

Access

Strong, first-hand: internal administration, finances, personnel, the arrival and interim period. Source of operational details the promoters omit — e.g. Godin's industrial equipment left under a shed to rust.

Known distortions / how to weight

Cross-references

[[considerant-du-texas]] (promise vs. operation), [[burkli]] (parallel insider, Swiss side), [[sceat-statutes]] (charter vs. practice). The page-by-page rebuttal of Du Texas is mapped in considerant_savardan_correspondence.md.

Timeline extraction

Savardan timeline — events extracted from the disillusioned insider's memoir

Source: Augustin Savardan, Un naufrage au Texas (Paris, Garnier Frères, 1858), chs. I–XVI. Translation in doc/text/books/1800/savardan/naufrage/english_clean.md; page numbers below are the printed book pages ⟨ ⟩ where the clean text records them, else the line in the translation. The facsimile stops at printed p. 249 (mid-ch. XVI tally); any events in the missing conclusion are not captured here.

Why this source matters: Savardan was secretary + treasurer (cashier) of both societies, present at Réunion throughout (June 1855 – autumn 1857), and a member of the nine-man Société de Réunion council. He is the administrative insider — the only witness with the books, the inventories, the council minutes, and the statutes in hand. But he is a memoirist writing in 1857–58 to rebut Considérant's Du Texas page by page; he writes in narrative, not diary, order, and his printed dates are systematically corrupted by the OCR/printing (3/5/7 confused: "1833"→1855, "1834"→1854, "1837"→1857). Every date below that the editor had to restore is flagged. Where Savardan gives no recoverable date, the event is kept in his narrative order under 1855.??.?? / 1856.??.??.

Dated events (the memoir spine)

1854.05.14 - Savardan sends his adherence + first subscription to Bureau, Brunier,
             Bourdon, Guillon (his was the 10th adherence registered) ⟨347⟩ [III]
1854.08.27 - Savardan leaves for Brussels to meet Considérant; states the immediate
             constitution of an associative administrative centre as his condition
             for departing ⟨357⟩ [III]
1854.10.03 - Cantagrel sets off for America without Savardan (whose prep wasn't
             ready); Considérant sends the Belgian medical student Roger with him,
             with secret instructions to watch Cantagrel ⟨377⟩ [III]
1854.10.12 - Considérant publishes the *au Texas* 2nd-ed. supplement answering the
             would-be associates ⟨381⟩ [III]
1854.11.05 - the EACS management writes Savardan asking him to draft the statutes of
             the Phalansterian (Réunion) society — "an associative household and
             possible stock of the first phalanstery" ⟨389, 172⟩ [III/II]
             ↳ printed "1834"; restored to 1854 by the editor.
1854.12.26 - first general assembly of shareholders, Paris, 6 rue de Beaune;
             Savardan presides; assembly votes a 10,000-fr relief fund (statutes
             art. 56) for repatriation / particular misfortunes ⟨174, 397, 976⟩ [II/III/V]
             ↳ printed "1834" in several places; restored to 1854.
1854.12.26 - same evening, Savardan leaves again for Brussels with Bureau, Godin,
             and Bürkli to discuss the provisional agreement ⟨401⟩ [III]
1855.02.28 - Savardan embarks at Le Havre on the *Nuremberg* (1,800 tons) with 43
             companions (45 émigrants charged to him) + considerable equipment ⟨176, 420⟩ [II/IV]
             ↳ printed "1853" at ⟨420⟩; Savardan himself writes "En 1855, le 28
               février" at ⟨176⟩. Restored to 1855. (TIMELINE watch-point.)
1855.03.~01 - Cantagrel makes the Réunion land acquisition; installation work begins
             ("the first days of March 1855") — Fort Worth already taken by
             Gouhénans; Roger pressed Cantagrel to stop the search ⟨529⟩ [IV]
1855.03.12 - the *Nuremberg* crosses the Azores ⟨531⟩ [IV]
1855.03.~15 - Considérant at New York receives news of Savardan's departure and
             collapses into discouragement (no installation news yet from
             Cantagrel) ⟨501⟩ [IV]
1855.04.14 - the *Nuremberg* enters the Gulf of Mexico ⟨539⟩ [IV]
1855.04.20 - the *Nuremberg* makes land at New Orleans ⟨539⟩ [IV]
1855.04.21 - the group lands at New Orleans; no one sent to meet them ⟨557⟩ [IV]
1855.04.25 - Dr. Nicolas + 10 of the most impatient set off as an advance guard ⟨577⟩ [IV]
1855.04.28 - the equipment is finally transshipped onto the Galveston steamer ⟨573⟩ [IV]
1855.05.03 - the *steam-ship Louisiana* carries Savardan's party off toward
             Galveston ⟨696⟩ [IV]
1855.05.05 - lands at Galveston; meets Bishop Odin, Vaizian ⟨698, 742⟩ [IV]
1855.05.08 - sets off for Houston on the steamer *Eclipse* ⟨762⟩ [IV]
1855.05.17 - Considérant leaves Houston alone (without the group), by char-à-bancs ⟨796⟩ [IV]
1855.05.18 - the long convoy sets out from Houston for Réunion under wagoner
             Black ⟨810⟩ [IV]
1855.06.07 - Vaizian, sick, leaves the convoy ahead with Bussy + Montreul for
             Réunion ⟨880⟩ [IV]
1855.06.13 - Savardan reaches Réunion ahead of his convoy at nightfall; cold
             welcome from Considérant; sleeps on straw in an unfinished building ⟨918⟩ [IV]
             ↳ printed "13 June 1853"; restored to 1855.
1855.06.16 - the *Nuremberg* convoy arrives at Réunion; the great building is named
             "the Nuremberg" ⟨178, 922–924⟩ [II/IV]
             ↳ printed "16 June 1856" at ⟨178⟩, with an editor footnote restoring
               1855. **Savardan SELF-DATES the arrival to 1855.06.16; resolved
               TIMELINE date is 1855.07.17 — see Reconciliation.**
1855.06.~17 - Vaizian dies of typhoid, three days after the convoy's arrival
             ("three days after our arrival") ⟨880⟩ [IV]
1855.07.01 - Savardan receives a letter from Prof. Auguste Duméril (Muséum, Paris)
             requesting Texan reptile specimens ⟨2011⟩ [VII]
1855.07.05 - Bürkli ("Burcly") reaches Réunion leading a group of ~20 Swiss (incl.
             the Baër family, the demoiselles Baër) ⟨1338⟩ [VI]
1855.08.07 - Société de Réunion constituted: council of administration meets (6
             named members + Considérant for the general society); names Cantagrel
             director; sets capital advance to capital at 3⅓% and to labour by
             convention; Savardan = member, secretary, and cashier of both
             societies ⟨182, 1725, 1741⟩ [II/VII]
             ↳ printed years scrambled ("1833"/"1835"); restored to 1855.
1855.08.12 - preparatory workers' meeting in the great workshop; Roger tries to
             split "workers" from "bourgeois"; Nicolas named president ⟨1993, 1997⟩ [VII]
1855.08.15 - Robert Nusbaumer + Chavannes arrive from Houston (intermittent fevers,
             quinine, whiskey) ⟨1038⟩ [V]
1855.08.~?? - workers' election to the council: of 66 voters, Loukx 62, Dailly 54,
             Barbot 9 (Considérant cast a blank) ⟨2001⟩ [VII]
1855.08.22 - Savardan begins treating Robert Nusbaumer with small-dose quinine ⟨1054⟩ [V]
1855.08.24 - Nusbaumer's fever breaks after the 2nd dose ⟨1056⟩ [V]
1855.09.05 - council deliberates the substitution of shingles for plank "weather-
             board" roofs (also 09.11) ⟨2267⟩ [IX]
1855.09.10 - Nusbaumer seized with violent bladder/intestinal pains ⟨1066⟩ [V]
1855.09.11 - council deliberation on roofing (2nd of the pair) ⟨2267⟩ [IX]
1855.09.15 - Nusbaumer resumes walks, then refuses further cupping ⟨1070⟩ [V]
1855.09.~26 - Robert Nusbaumer dies after 11 days of illness, Considérant having
             imposed Roger as his nurse ⟨1096⟩ [V]
             ↳ printed "26 September 1856"; the editor + the August-arrival context
               place it in 1855. Treated as 1855 here.
1855.10.~?? - Considérant leaves for Austin with Roger to seek a free land
             concession from the Texas legislature; no word of farewell ⟨2423⟩ [XI]
1855.10.~?? - Daly sets off (late October) for France; falls ill at Fort Washita,
             returns toward Réunion, then rejoins Considérant at Austin to help with
             the legislature ⟨2441–2447⟩ [XI]
1855.12.18 - Cousin's claim in the bulletin (Texas wheat "7–8 feet high") ⟨3407⟩ [XV]
1855.??.?? - autumn prairie burnings; Brunet's open-air forge blows away and ignites
             2–3 hectares 150 m from the dwellings; the "monumental" stone forge
             then built ⟨1402, 1426⟩ [VI]
1855.??.?? - Savardan's cellar-digging drive, then the agriculture-by-groups scheme,
             both killed by Considérant; the "doctors' garden" begun by Nicolas +
             Savardan at the eastern spring ⟨1293, 1483, 1631⟩ [VI]
1856.01.?? - Goodseels (père), Louvain shareholder (~30,000 fr subscribed), passes
             through Réunion to settle at Montagne-Creek; founds the rival "town of
             Louvain" and claims share-reimbursement in kind (art. 48) ⟨3202–3218⟩ [XIV]
1856.02.?? - Guillemet (ex-sergeant-major, on a confidential management mission)
             arrives; Simonin already at work rebuilding the bookkeeping ⟨2669, 2679⟩ [XII]
1856.~02.?? - Santerre arrives via the Houston farm with wife + 7 children; refuses
             Considérant's invitation to turn back; settles at Réunion and stays ⟨2635–2667⟩ [XII]
1856.??.?? - first marriage at Réunion: Abel Dailly + Catherine Bossereau (3 more
             marriages follow) ⟨2685⟩ [XII]
1856.04.?? - rumour that Cousin is surveying/parcelling the colony lands for sale;
             Considérant deflects ("did the council not ask for the plan?") ⟨2717⟩ [XII]
1856.04.07 - Considérant's conciliatory toast ("some good words") ⟨2751⟩ [XII]
1856.04.11 - Savardan's letter to Considérant protesting the spirit of division his
             return has produced ⟨2729⟩ [XII]
1856.04.14 - the management writes Savardan: "your character, your devotion … if
             there is a fine biographical page in our sad history of Texas, it will
             be yours" ⟨1871⟩ [VII]
1856.04.17 - Savardan's note after the Considérant–Cantagrel–Savardan interview,
             protesting the planned dissolution of the Société de Réunion ⟨2759⟩ [XII]
1856.05.07 - Considérant presents a deliberation seeming to restore the associative
             centre + administrative unity; Cantagrel withdraws his resignation ⟨1563, 1761, 2893⟩ [VI/VII/XII]
             ↳ "deliberation of 7 May 1856," modifying the 7 Aug 1855 act.
1856.05.10 - the restaurant (replacing the communist mess) finally opens ⟨3066⟩ [XIII]
             ↳ printed years scrambled; restored to 1856. (Text elsewhere says it was
               "to open on the 1st of April" ⟨2741⟩.)
1856.05.?? - ~600 cattle branded by the veterinarian Louis (~75/day), refuting
             Considérant's "supreme extravagance" objection ⟨2411⟩ [X]
1856.05.23 - Simonin leaves Réunion, having rebuilt the bookkeeping (200+ individual
             accounts) in three months ⟨2677⟩ [XII]
1856.06.04 - Savardan's letter to Considérant on the state of minds ⟨2903⟩ [XII]
1856.06.?? - Guillier (gardener from Milianah, Algeria) arrives from the Houston
             nursery; idles 8–9 months on 40 $/month ⟨3934⟩ [XVI]
1856.07.06 - Cantagrel resigns the directorship definitively (2nd time); Savardan
             resigns as council member + secretary + cashier; Considérant names
             Duthoya (the accountant) acting director and transmits his powers to
             him ⟨186, 2937, 2953, 2965⟩ [II/XII]
1856.07.07 - Considérant agrees with the workshop chiefs to pay half the reserved
             parts; act to be signed the next day ⟨2971⟩ [XII]
1856.07.08 - **Considérant disappears at dawn with Cousin** ("the flight"), the day
             fixed to sign the reserved-parts settlement; not seen again at Réunion
             18 months later ⟨2975⟩ [XII]
1856.07.?? - typhoid carries off Abel Bossereau "amid the extreme heat of July
             1856," after a fortnight ⟨472⟩ [IV]
1856.08.03 - Cantagrel leaves Réunion with his family ⟨3080⟩ [XIII]
1856.08.27 - the management (Bureau, Guillon, Godin & Co.) writes Savardan to take
             the directorship until Bureau can reach the colony (~end Nov) ⟨3082⟩ [XIII]
1856.09.07 - Bureau embarks from France (per the management's notice) ⟨3104⟩ [XIII]
1856.10.27 - Considérant, at San Antonio, sends the 27 Aug letter back to Savardan
             unread ⟨3100, 3118⟩ [XIII]
1856.11.01 - Savardan receives the forwarded letter, hands Duthoya the enclosed;
             Duthoya offers his resignation; Savardan declines the directorship,
             Bureau being imminent ⟨3102⟩ [XIII]
1856.12.31 - the management's bulletin "Information proper to free colonization":
             land "at most 4 $/acre," promising "20,000 fr net profit … >100%" the
             first year ⟨3521–3527⟩ [XV]
1857.01.17 - Bureau arrives at Réunion (15° below zero), already overwhelmed after
             48 h with Considérant at San Antonio ⟨3122, 3140⟩ [XIV]
1857.01.20 - Savardan reads Bureau a report on the colony's situation + an equitable
             reserved-parts scheme; Bureau: "we were quite in agreement … at my
             departure" ⟨3170, 3182⟩ [XIV]
1857.01.24 - Bureau says he "no longer sleeps … would be happier at the bottom of a
             well"; Goodseels/Duthoya bookkeeping-arbitration before 4 arbiters;
             Mme Considérant moves Bureau + the archives into her cottage ⟨3194, 3232, 3252⟩ [XIV]
1857.01.26 - Bureau convenes the colony on the reserved parts; the meeting collapses
             amid vociferations ⟨3242⟩ [XIV]
1857.01.27 - Bureau somber, obsessed with suicide; Savardan writes Considérant +
             the management to intervene ⟨3250, 3254⟩ [XIV]
1857.01.28 - **a notice signed Bureau announces the Société de Réunion dissolved** —
             the coup d'état Mme Considérant engineered; statutes arts. 7 + 18
             violated ⟨3262, 3268⟩ [XIV]
1857.01.31 - Willemain + Bessard propose a "committee of public safety" ⟨3270⟩ [XIV]
1857.02.03 - first meeting of the consultative commission (12 named members), Bureau
             presiding; proposes half the reserved parts in labour-bonds ⟨3278, 3282⟩ [XIV]
1857.02.15 - Cousin arrives at Réunion (pretext: to fetch Mme Considérant + Mme
             Vigoureux); installs himself by Bureau's bed, controls all his
             communications ⟨3336, 3417⟩ [XIII/XV]
1857.02.20 - Savardan writes Mme Bureau ⟨3344⟩ [XIII]
1857.02.28 - the Blot 91 $ transfer to Savardan's account (later annulled by Cousin
             on 28 Mar) ⟨3471⟩ [XV]
1857.03.04 - Mme Bureau reaches Dallas ⟨3344⟩ [XIII]
1857.03.06 - Bureau leaves Dallas with his wife for Austin, never to return ⟨3356⟩ [XIII]
1857.03.09 - Considérant writes Savardan: "I have exhausted there all my strength
             and can do nothing more there" ⟨3589⟩ [XV]
1857.03.24 - Cousin, with Colin + Delore, tries to seize Savardan's medical/met
             instruments by force; the young men refuse; Cousin backs down ⟨3597⟩ [XV]
1857.03.28 - Cousin annuls the Blot transfer, removing 91 $ from Savardan's account ⟨3479, 3481⟩ [XV]
1857.04.06 - Cousin returns from Dallas with a general + special power of attorney
             from Considérant; conflict with Savardan ends ⟨3649⟩ [XV]
1857.04.?? - "the town of Réunion": Cousin's town plan, 3 plank cabins built; 10
             "country lots" formed by agreement or force; "Oh!… melancholick
             Re-union!" ⟨3759, 3773, 3783⟩ [XV]
1857.05.05 - Cousin's bulletin praising his Réunion water "arrangements"; the
             management's bulletin (per ch. I epigraph) on the dissolution's
             advantage to "private appropriation" ⟨63, 3819⟩ [I/XV]
1857.06.01 - dateline of Savardan's ch. I header: "Réunion (Texas), 1 June 1857" ⟨66⟩ [I]
1857.??.?? - Savardan leaves Réunion (autumn 1857); Haizé drives him toward Fort
             Smith for 80 $; the "Nuremberg" building turned into the store this year ⟨924, 3551⟩ [IV/XV]
1857.09.07 - Savardan writes "these lines … at Fort Smith … the sixty-fourth
             anniversary of my birth" (b. 7 Sept 1793) ⟨2041⟩ [VII]
1857.10.25 - dateline of ch. I close, Paris ⟨108⟩ [I]

Specific items (figures, names, mechanisms)

Reconciliation with TIMELINE.md

Names

Savardan — names from the back-of-book index

A names-accumulation list, not a full-text reference extraction (unlike [[burkli]] and [[wolski]] colonists.md, which quote every passage). This pulls every entry I judge to be a person's name out of the alphabetical subject index at the end of Savardan's volume, with its page references, so the names can be cross-matched against the other lists. A full-text pass over the 18 chapters can be layered on later.

Source: Auguste Savardan, Un naufrage au Texas (Paris, 1858), Table (alphabetical index, pp. 331–339), transcribed in doc/text/books/1800/savardan/naufrage/french_clean.md. Page numbers are the 1858 edition's. [?] = uncertain reading carried from the transcription.

How to read this: the index mixes the colony cast with Fourierist-movement references, historical/literary allusions, and Americans met on the road. I've tagged the ones I'm fairly sure are not colonists; everything untagged is a plausible colony participant pending confirmation against deeds / manifests / [[cordillot]].

Variant spellings & cross-list links (the high-value part)

Notable absence: none of the post-colony Dallas figures — Remond, the Frichots, Priot, Michel, Long, Boll — appear in this 1855-vintage index. Savardan's cast is the colony cast, not the Dallas-builder cast. Confirms the two are largely different populations (the [[sandell]] side picks up the latter).

Colony cast (names; confirm against other lists)

Management / leadership:

Rank-and-file / colonists (alphabetical):

Also confirms group structure ("Groupes," p.25–29): Cantagrel, Cousin/de Louvain, Raizant et Nusbaumer, Considérant, and "du Nuremberg" (the Nuremberg-ship contingent).

Likely non-colonists (names, tagged)

Fourierist-movement / intellectual references:

Historical / literary allusions:

Americans / figures met on the road & the return journey (pp. 268–329):

Uncertain / flag for review