He died on September 1, 1865 in Matagorda, and was buried in Matagorda Cemetery located on South Gulf Road.
However, within days of the Texian victory at the Battle of Gonzales, Captain George Morse Collinsworth and members of the Texian militia in Matagorda began marching towards Goliad.
When he returned to his base at Matagorda, Texas, Hawkins was promoted to the rank of Commodore and placed in command of the entire Texas Navy.
The Pelican was then sent as a prize to Matagorda but she ran aground on a sandbar off the port and was wrecked.
First the captain sailed past Galveston for Matagorda, Texas but heavy seas prevented him from entering so Jones headed for the Brazos River where on June 3 he was informed by a local pilot that "several Acts of Piracy" had been committed by the Montezuma and that there were no slave ships in the area.
The next year, Jane, her father, her brother Robert and a company of German settlers set out to take possession of the land, but the scheme failed when the German settlers refused to go beyond Matagorda.
Upon returning to sea duty, Brutus found herself blockaded at Matagorda by the Mexican brig Vencedor del Álamo.
She was previously the privately owned ship William Robbins which was purchased in November 1835, by the rebellious citizens of Matagorda when the Texas-bound schooner Hannah Elizabeth was captured by the Mexican Navy brig Bravo.
In 1839 he was editor of the Matagorda Bulletin and purchased the Matagorda Colorado Gazette and Advertiser the following year, which printed until 1843.
The scheme failed when the German settlers refused to go beyond Matagorda, and McManus returned with his daughter to Brunswick, NY, in 1834, and died there soon after.
He lived in Brazoria, Texas where he became district clerk before representing Calhoun, Jackson, Matagorda, and Wharton counties in the House of Representatives of the Third and Fourth Legislatures from 1848 to 1853.