John Tumlinson and Robert Kuykendall to the Commandant General of Texas, January 7, 1823; Province of Texas v. Stephen R. Wilson, Minutes, March 8, 1823; Verdict, District of Colorado, March 8, 1823; Affidavit of Robert Kuykendall, Thomas Williams, John Petty, Seth Ingram, William B. Dewees, Micajah Reader, John Frazer, Moses Morrison, Jesse Burnam, Pumphrey Burnett, Charles Garrett, Nicholas Clopper, James Cummins, and Zadock Woods, March 9, 1823; Decree of the Court, San Fernando de Bexar, April 8, 1823; and John Tumlinson to José Félix Trespalacios, March 9, 1823, all in Bexar Archives, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin; Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, pp. 31-36; Kuykendall, "Reminiscences of Early Texans," The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, vol. 6, no. 3, January 1903, p. 237. The incidents on the coast were not well reported in contemporaneous documents, and were confounded in the memories of those who wrote recollections of them. It is commonly accepted that the Lively made two voyages to Texas, and that the John Motley, with the refugees from the wreck of the Lively, arrived at the mouth of the Colorado in early June 1822. The Only Son's voyages are less well known. Gregg Cantrell, in a footnote in his thoroughly researched article, "The Partnership of Stephen F. Austin and Joseph H. Hawkins," citing the arrival records of the port of New Orleans, states that the Only Son made three voyages between New Orleans and Texas in 1822, returning to New Orleans on May 7, July 11, and September 18 (see Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 99, no. 1, July 1995, p. 8). The Only Son's first voyage took some three months, as it searched, finally successfully, for the mouth of the Colorado. It had deposited its passengers there before April 24. It was back on the Texas coast early in June, arriving at the mouth of the Colorado almost concurrently with the John Motley, and dropping off, among others, the man who had owned it when it made its first voyage, William Kincheloe. Then it returned to New Orleans to pick up provisions and more settlers, arriving on July 11 and departing on or about July 23. By this time, it had apparently been purchased by Joseph Hawkins. It was back on the Texas coast in August or early September, when it deposited the cargo that was to be plundered (see Kuykendall, "Reminiscences of Early Texans," The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, vol. 6, no. 3, January 1903, pp. 236-237, The Austin Papers, vol. 1, pp. 476, 502, 521, 648. That it was in New Orleans as late as July 23, 1822 is confirmed by the letter that is transcribed on pages 532-533 of volume 1 of The Austin Papers. That letter, which mentions Musquiz, was sent to Texas via the Only Son). Kuykendall remembered that the guards were murdered and the vessel looted shortly after the landings in June 1822 (see Kuykendall, "Reminiscences of Early Texans," The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, vol. 6, no. 3, January 1903, pp. 237, 247). His memory was apparently wrong. The Dewees book stated that the cargo that the murdered men were guarding had been left by "the second vessel that had landed at the mouth of the Colorado" (see Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, p. 31). This may have been his attempt to differentiate it from that which arrived in June 1822. The Cloppers, apparently by oral tradition, believed that the theft and murder occurred in October 1822. Because the bodies were never recovered, for a time Clopper's family held out hope that he and his friend White had been captured (see Clopper, An American Family, p. 109). Dewees does not mention Clopper or White by name, and remembered that only one man had been left to guard the ship, but he does say that the body was not found. He accounted for the missing body by concluding that the Indians, who, since they had already acquired a reputation as cannibals, must have been Karankawas, had eaten it (see Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, p. 32). The papers generated by the court in the trial of Stephen R. Wilson associate the Cloppers with the camp at the mouth of the Colorado where the guards were killed, specifically stating that it was the camp of Seth Ingram and Nicholas Clopper (meaning, apparently, Nicholas Clopper, Sr.) (see Province of Texas v. Stephen R. Wilson, Minutes, March 8, 1823; and Decree of the Court, San Fernando de Bexar, April 8, 1823, Bexar Archives, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin. The older Clopper was certainly alive in 1823, for he testified at Wilson's trial). The Clopper family story and particularly the October 1822 date is lent further credibility because Trespalacios did not mention the incident until November 13, 1822 (see Letter of José Félix Trespalacios, November 13, 1822, Bexar Archives, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin) and by the fact that Tumlinson's report on the investigation of the incident was written on January 7, 1823 (see John Tumlinson and Robert H. Kuykendall to the Commandant General of Texas, Bexar Archives, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin). It is most likely, of course, that the investigation occurred shortly after the incident rather than months later.
    Further evidence that the Only Son made at least two voyages is provided by the business dealings of Littleberry Hawkins. On October 7, 1824, Hawkins wrote a long letter to Austin regarding his dealings in Texas. Among his complaints was that he had lost provisions that had been landed at the mouth of the Colorado but subsequently had been "taken from the encampment by those Americans," meaning presumably Wilson, Moss, and Park (see The Austin Papers, vol. 1, p. 918). The provisions that the Only Son carried on its second voyage had been obtained in New Orleans by Victor Blanco, Francisco Madero, and Ramon Musquiz. Madero, however, could not pay for his share of the provisions, so he borrowed money from Hawkins. Hawkins, and later his representative, Phillip Dimmitt, were unable to collect the debt, and Hawkins thereby acquired a share of the provisions themselves (see The Austin Papers, vol. 1, pp. 532-533, 648-649, 917-922).