Dubuis, Claude Mary, Bishop of Galveston, Brownsville, Texas, to Archbishop John Mary Odin, C.M., New Orleans, Louisiana, 1863 October 4

Dubuis has doubts if news will reach Odin because he has not received any reply to the letters he sent to Odin or to the seminarians before leaving the Rio Grande last May. He has not been able to get to Galveston. He visited all the German and American settlements of the West as far as Frelsburg inclusive, and he returned to San Antonio to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. He left the same evening to give Confirmation on the next Sunday at Medina and on Monday at Atascosa and from there to the Nueces?, then Laredo where he stopped for 5? days. He did not pass any ranch without stopping. Before leaving Laredo he felt the symptoms of a pernicious fever; he arrived at Roma just in time to be attacked. He recovered only after 21 days of great suffering. He tried to devote several hours to each of those immense haciendas which almost link Roma to Brownsville. The valley of the Rio Grande has been poor in harvest but rich in trade so that all the gold and silver of the country is found there. The priests all asked to be remembered to Odin. At Brownsville the Oblates of Mary Immaculate are busy completing their new church. The Sisters of the Incarnate Word still have their good spirit and a fabulous number of pupils. They have just lost the youngest Sister Euphémie, V.I.? of the three subjects he brought from Europe. They have just acquired the sister of Father Chambodut Marie Thérèse Chambodut?. She entered as a novice. The Brothers of Mary sustain themselves well and their school is especially renowned. The Benedictine Fathers have displayed much zeal in the administration of their parishes. The only serious difficulties he has encountered come from Liberty where it is impossible to obtain anything. He has recommended that the Ursulines return to Auch. The matter of Father Nicholas Feltin and the Franciscan Fathers has not yet been settled amicably. The Ursulines Convent at Galveston is all right; their pupils are returning; he received a letter from Mother St. Pierre Margaret Harrison, R.U. announcing that all was well. He has paid the interest on the debts that he knows of: the Ursuline Convent, Mr. Bouchu, Mrs. Trinidad Soto, and Mrs. Haffner of the Lavaca river; he was obliged to pay the interest for 2 years and all in specie. These conditions seem a little hard; 8% amounts to at least 40. To let the interest accumulate would expose them to not being able to get out of debt, and he has resolved to free themselves of it as much as he can. He paid $200 to Mrs. Haffner and he notified Bouchu that he would not ask Odin to place his 10,000 francs somewhere else, withdrawing them from the draft Dubuis left in Odin's hands. Dubuis agreed with the Ursuline Convent of San Antonio not to pay any more interest, offering repayment if the trustee refuses to consider the sum as a deposit. At Galveston, he hopes to find means to satisfy the most exacting persons. When Father Louis C.M. Chambodut went to San Antonio, he forgot the note which was to guide Dubuis. Since then Chambodut wrote that Dubuis' presence would be necessary to settle all the accounts. Bishop Joannes Francisco de Paula Verea of Linares spent several months at Agualeguas. Dubuis would have paid him a visit during his convalescence at Roma if he had not learned that Verea was en route for Saltillo. Verea lost an eye because of Amaurosis, and his grand vicar Father Antonio Vega had his arm cut off by the accidental discharge of a gun. If Odin could send Dubuis Father J.M. Giraud, it would deliver him from a great embarrassment; he has no one for Austin where there have been several defections since Father Stephen Mackin's departure. The Episcopalian minister is the most dangerous man he has met. Dubuis is going to confide these lines to the Oblates at Matamoros so that they can take advantage of the first opportunity for New Orleans. In a few hours he is going to proceed to the interior. He asks Odin to recommend them to the Propagation of the Faith as he cannot communicate with the members of the council. Perhaps it would be advantageous to inform them that the damage caused to St. Mary's Cathedral of Galveston by the bullets and bombs cannot be repaired without $6000. For want of time he cannot write to Father Perché; he knows Odin will greet him as well as Fathers Rousselon and Chalon. :: VI-2-g A.L.S. French 4pp. 4to.