The Ducoudray Holstein Expedition was an attempt by commercial interests to invade Puerto Rico, and declare it the independent "Republica Boricua" in 1822.
In the 1820s there was a plot to invade Puerto Rico, declare its independence from Spain, proclaim the Republica Boricua and establish its capital in Mayagüez. This invasion was different from all its precursors since none before had intended to make Puerto Rico an independent nation, and use the Taino name Boricua as the name of the republic. It was also intended more as a mercantile venture than a patriotic endeavor. It was the first time an invasion intended to make the city of Mayagüez the capital of the island.
The enterprise was conceived and carefully planned, organized and directed as a for-profit commercial enterprise by general Henri La Fayette Villaume Ducoudray Holstein, a Germano-French veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and the Spanish American wars of independence.
Background In 1819, Ducoudray Holstein moved to Curaçao, there he began socializing with wealthy French foreigners living in western Puerto Rico that conducted business with Curaçao. These foreigners resented the restrictions on commerce and sea transportation by the Spanish Authorities on the island as a consequence to the insurgent activities of Simon Bolivar in Venezuela. They courted Ducoudray because of his military experience, with the intention of making him interested in leading an armed movement to invade Puerto Rico to convert the island into a republic. For this thus group of foreigners would give him support in any way possible and they counted on a simultaneous general rebellion organized by them amongst the black slaves of the island. Even though they counted on the help of the slaves, the political program of the República Boricua, inspired on European Republican Ideals, it did not include the emancipation of the slaves.
While Ducoudray Holstein was in Curaçao he was visited by numerous men including: A. Mattei ("Matthey"), a businessman of French origin with connections in Puerto Rico, George Curiel a Jewish businessman established beforehand in Saint Thomas who in 1819 would return to his native Curaçao, a sailor whose surname was Bouyet, believed to be Juan Bautista Buyé, a contrabandist of French origin and a collaborator of Roberto Cofresí (a beach in Cabo Rojo bears his name). Ducoudray also socialized with a lawyer from the United States called Baptiste Irvine, and editor for the New York Columbian, who would later be a diplomatic agent of the US in Chile. Irvine maintained contacts in Curaçao with Marcow, one of the Marcovich brothers and immigrant sailors from Ragusa, Yugoslavia, who also resided in Curaçao.
On March 1, 1822 Ducoudray moved from Curaçao to Saint Tomas, where he had been before, and on April 6, 1822 he obtained there a passport to Puerto Rico. On April 20, 1822 the Curacayian Francis de Chelo informed the mayor of Aguadilla, don Juan Martínez de Acevedo, about a conspiracy of insurgent corsairs that were organizing in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira, that was composed of three mayor ships and four "flecheras". Each one of those ships would transport three hundred men for disembarking, furthermore the ones that would be brought in the "flecheras" to take the ports of Ponce and Aguada. Afterward on May 18, 1822 the mayor of Aguadilla informed everything to Coronel don José Navarro, Superior Political Chief, "Intendente General" and Interim Governor of the island.
Preparations Ducoudray Holstein's expedition found economic support in Fajardo, Naguabo, Guayama, Mayagüez and Hormigueros, in Puerto Rico, and in Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and New York City. He also found a group of experienced officers, and troops ready in an instant to begin the invasion. The Ducoudray Holstein expedition obtained financial support from influential people through wealthy foreigners in Puerto Rico, and other influential sectors in the United States. The expedition was expensive, but the support he received was plentiful. Included were a number of large well-armed ships, whose owners knew the risk that ran their ships taking part in this bellicose endeavor. The troops were mercenary forces whose officers where French.
In the course of these efforts Ducoudray and his family moved to San Tómas in the Danish Virgin Islands. From there Ducoudray traveled to Philadelphia in the United States where he found much support and hired several ships. On August 10, 1822, don Juan Leamy, the Spanish Vice-Consul in Philadelphia, reported that a Frenchman surnamed "Wischaur" was recruiting 200 men for an expedition. The secret agent in Puerto Rico for the expedition was Peter Dubois, a mulatto, native from Guadeloupe, living in Daguao, a barrio of Naguabo. In Philadelphia, Ducoudray and Irvine, alongside forty other persons leased a brig, the "Mary", for $20,000 from its owner Thomas Wattson, who knew the purpose of the expedition. The Mary was armed with two cannons. They also leased a Dutch brig, the Eendracht. They acquired numerous rifles, pistols, cartridges, gunpowder and other munitions of war, a cargo of flour and left Philadelphia en route to the Antilles in August 1822. A boat from Baltimore and one from New York will also join them on the high seas.
Three neighbors from Fajardo appeared on September 13, 1822 before Don Francisco González de Linares, first Civil Governor of Puerto Rico, to inform him that they had discovered the existence of a revolutionary movement for the independence of the island, this movement had support abroad and had many followers on the island, among whom was a resident Frenchman from Fajardo called don Pedro Dubois; Derzá, a Dutchman from Guayama and José Vicente Roman, a Saint Tomas resident of Puerto Rico since 1811. After June 26, 1821 when an insurgent squadron led by a such Villanueva had appeared in view of the port of Mayagüez intending to seize the port battery and set fire to the city, all of Puerto Rico remained on alert. On that occasion the insurgents were rejected by the neighbors of Mayagüez. The military Department of Western Puerto Rico (which covered from Aguadilla to Guayanilla), the Spanish army had 29 individuals assigned to Mayaguez and Aguadilla forts, but it was obvious that such defenses were completely inadequate. By 1822, in the neighboring Danish island of San Tomas there were heightened rumors of an invasion to Puerto Rico, island in which fields and coasts were being carefully monitored in order to avoid the formation and organization of expeditionary groups that could launch an attack against it.
Under instructions, seven hundred citizens of France and Germany, under the orders of the Ducoudray Holstein had departed from Boston, headed to the island of San Tomas with nine schooners to form an expedition against Puerto Rico. The Ducoudray expedition arrived on September 16, 1822, at the Swedish island of Saint Barthélemy (France gave the island to Sweden in 1784) and there it left the Selina and the Andrew Jackson, vessels which were part of the expedition. Ducoudray wanted to go first to La Guaira in two boats to find Colombian reinforcements, but it was not necessary to bring these. Meanwhile, Simon Bolivar launched his first call for a congress to meet representatives of the Hispanic peoples of the Americas to join efforts and finish his liberating work. On board the Brig Mary, which brought 125 men under his command, Ducoudray Holstein wrote a letter to Mr. Boyé asking him to get the money required from Curiel to recruit one hundred men, indicating that once the boats returned from Mayagüez he would send 300 Daalders to his wife through an agent of the republic, may it be Curiel or anyone else.
Spanish authorities in Puerto Rico were well aware of what was happening, because the Governor of Saint Barthélemy, Johan Norderling, told them two brigantines and a schooner - part of the expedition commanded by Ducoudray Holstein, consisting of eight to nine ships with four hundred to five hundred men, six thousand rifles and large collection of gear to attack Puerto Rico - had arrived from New York and Boston to the island of Saint Barthélemy, which was a neutral port and a base of operations accessible to all, bound for the Dutch Island of Curaçao. They preferred to wait for the expedition to take shape and for all the involved vessels to meet in the Antilles. Another communication from New York reported Puerto Rican authorities that some local separatists had forwarded the sum of twenty-four thousand pesos to finance the costs of this expedition. Furthermore, all this was then confirmed by reports of don Angel Laborde, Commander of the base of Puerto Cabello in Costa Firme; of the Count of Ligny, Spanish agent in Santómas; don Juan Leamy, Spanish Vice-Consul in Philadelphia; and the Secretary of State in Madrid.
Disclosure and arrests in Curacao
In the midst of his journey between San Bartolomé island and the port of La Guaira (Venezuela), Ducoudray and Irvine confronted a storm and rough seas which caused failures in two ships and forced them to change their plans. The owners of vessels decided to interrupt his trajectory and enter the port of Curaçao, where they arrived on September 21, 1822. The Brig Eendracht came under the command of Captain Gold, and the Brig, the Mary came under the command of captain Aaron Burns, commissioned by Ducoudray as captain of the Boricua Navy. Ducoudray and Irvine arrived in Curaçao in the company of a manager, five colonels, one hundred officers and many other Frenchmen which would integrate his projected expedition Puerto Rico, and with a good number of young men from the United States who, as mercenaries, would form part of the same expedition. For the most part these were respectable citizens. Among them was P. Heiliger, probably of the same Heyliger family from the island of San Eustaquio which was very prominent in Santa Cruz and was well established in Hormigueros and the northern coast of Mayagüez. Dutch authorities in Curaçao under pressure from the Spanish authorities in Puerto Rico decided to intervene. The Brig the Eendracht arrived credited by fake Dutch papers as a result Governor Paul R. Cantzlaar, Secretary William Prince, judge Serurier (Daniel Serurier, President of the Curaçao Tribunal of Justice), the Chief Executive Prosecutor Mr. Isaac James Rammelmann Elsevier, proceeded to confiscate the ship. The other brig, the Mary, in different circumstances, since its papers were in order, but it was also loaded in men and arms, was also intervened and put under surveillance by the Dutch authorities. Ducoudray, who had disembarked and was staying in attorney Elsevier house as a guest was arrested on September 23, 1822 and authorities occupied the valuable cargo of weapons that they brought. Also the proclamations and other documents that incorporated the true nature of their business and plans of landing by Añasco, where they would be joined by the men gathered by Peter Dubois in Puerto Rico to then take the city Mayagüez by military force, which was destined to establish the headquarters initially and then the Council of State and the capital city of the Boricua Republic.
Disembarking the valuable cargo of Ducoudray expedition ships, Curaçao's Dutch authorities found 6,000 rifles, 500 carbines, 150 pairs of pistols, 12 campaign cannons, 6 campaign gun carriages, 200 mounts, 15 cartridges barrels, 60 barrels of gunpowder and two boxes, one containing printed proclamations prepared in advance to be used as goals of the invasion were being achieved, and which revealed the purpose of the expedition, and the other filled with Cockades of four colors for the clothing of the expeditionary forces. It is likely that other vessels that were part of the expedition and never came to Curaçao were captured by general don Francisco Tomás Morales Spanish field marshal.