Name/Title
Champ d’Asile [Engraving]Context
This engraving presents a greatly romanticized image of a short-lived French Bonapartist refugee venture near present-day Liberty, Texas, in 1818. With the likely goal of joining revolutionary forces in Mexico to place a Bonaparte on the throne, the French filibuster incursion prompted Spanish forces to march from San Antonio to expel them. The incident also helped bring about the Adams-Onís Treaty (1821) that did away with the so-called Neutral Ground between United States and Spanish territory that was left in dispute after the Louisiana Purchase and designated the Sabine River as the western border with Texas.