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Alexandre LaBranche is a Louisiana planter’s son in the 1840s. He has trained as a surveyor and map maker back east. His work as a survey engineer on a New Orleans canal ended after yellow fever killed the Irish diggers, so he moved back to the family plantation. But his father, citing a “lack of prospects” for his son, disinherits Alexandre and kicks him out. Father tells Alexandre he can return once his son demonstrates he has found purpose in his life.
Dangerous Latitudes, a novel by Jack Woodville London, finds Alexandre in New Orleans, where he finds no demand for his services. Out of money, he turns to his uncle, a man of business, for help.
Sometimes one problem is insoluble, but with several, they solve each other. Alexandre wants work; his uncle wants Alexandre on his way. Mirabeau Lamar, President of the Republic of Texas, needs to find the 300 men of the Santa Fe expedition, which Lamar dispatched. The uncle arranges for a meeting between Alexandre and Lamar.
Lamar hires Alexandre to map the boundary between Texas and Mexico. LaBranche is offered $10,000 to map the Rio Grande from Laredo to the headwaters. It is a fortune, and, as LaBranche sees it, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something historic. Lamar never mentions the Santa Fe expedition. He knows LaBranche will hear word while doing the survey.
A month later, with an advance and letter of credit from Lamar, the naïve and marginally competent surveyor enters Texas. That first day, he is robbed of all his possessions and left for dead on the road to Nacogdoches. He is rescued from an entangling thornbush by the mysterious Neome, who claims to be a runaway slave girl but proves more.
Once in Austin with his goods restored, he discovers Lamar is no longer the President of Texas. Sam Houston is. Houston tears up the contract Lamar issued but offers LaBranche a different job for the same pay: spying on Mexico. LaBranche doesn't want the job, but Houston will not let LaBranche refuse. Houston also arm-twists the two thieves who robbed LaBranche to accompany the expedition.
So starts an adventure that spans the Republic of Texas during the tumultuous 1840s. Engagingly written and populated with a cast of historic figures from that period, it is a clever spy story set in the southern and western borderlands of Texas.
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
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