The History of Texas: Colonization of Texas
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Mexico Gets its Independence From
Spain)
IF
he who, by conquest, wins an empire, and receives the world's applause,
how much more is due to those who, by unceasing toil, lay in the
wilderness the foundation for an infant colony, and build thereon a
vigorous and happy state! Surely there is not among men a more honorable
destiny than to be the peaceful founder and builder of a new empire.
Such was that of the younger Austin. His father, Moses Austin, was a
native of Durham, Connecticut. His life, like that of his son, was one
of enterprise. After marrying in Philadelphia, he engaged in business in
the lead-mines of Wythe county, Virginia. His operations here proving
unsuccessful, he removed to certain mines situated in Washington County,
Missouri, then forming a part of
Louisiana. It was about the beginning of the 1800's that he departed
for that point, taking with him a small colony of emigrants and
operatives.
The great expenses of his establishment,
and the generosity of his disposition, again involved Austin in
financial difficulties. As he had lived for the first three or four
years in Missouri under the Spanish government, he had acquired a
knowledge of the customs, laws, and perhaps the language, of that
people, and had gained some information in regard to the province of
Texas. He had long cherished the idea of making a settlement and
bringing a colony to the country.
Accordingly, in 1820, he set out for the
province, and in December of that year reached Bexar. Making known his
object to the baron de Bastrop, with whom he had some previous
acquaintance at
New Orleans, he was introduced to Governor Martinez, to whom he
explained his projected enterprise.
Death of Moses Austin
A suitable memorial was drawn up, and,
after being approved by the local authorities, was forwarded to the
commandant-general of the northeastern internal provinces. The memorial
asked for permission to colonize three hundred families. The
commandant-general, Don Joaquin Arredondo, then resided at Monterey, and
the answer to the application would necessarily require some time.
Austin, unable to await the result, left the baron de Bastrop to act as
his agent in the affair, and set out on his return from Bexar in
January, 1821. At that time the route from Bexar to the Sabine was an
unsettled waste. In journeying over it, Austin was robbed and deserted
by some who were traveling with him, and left to make his way, as best
he could, to the Louisiana settlements. The exposure and fatigue were
too much for him, but he reached home in the spring. A cold, however,
thus contracted, produced a disease of the lungs, of which he died on
the 10th of June, 1821. A few days before his death, however, he
received the welcome news of the success of his application to plant a
colony in Texas; and one of his last injunctions was, that his son,
Stephen F. Austin, should consummate his enterprise.
Stephen F. Austin Takes Over the Mexican Grant
Considering that this application of
Moses Austin was made while the Spanish authority was still predominant
in Mexico, his success was rather surprising. But it will be remembered
that it was after the revolution in Spain, when the cortes was
reestablished, and a much more liberal system adopted.
This first grant to found a colony in
Texas, dated on the 17th of January, 1821, provided that the colonists
should be Roman catholics, or agree to become so before they entered the
Spanish territory; that they should furnish undoubted evidence of good
character and habits, and take an oath of fidelity to the king, to
defend the government and political constitution of the Spanish
monarchy. In addition, they were to be Louisianians.
Don Erasmo Seguin, who had been appointed
by Governor Martinez to notify Austin of the grant, and to see that its
conditions were executed, met Stephen F. Austin at Natchitoches, and on
the 5th of July, 1821, they both set out for San Antonio. After
consultation with the governor, Austin furnished him with a plan for the
distribution of lands among the colonists. It proposed to give to each
man, over twenty-one years old, six hundred and forty acres, with an
addition of three hundred and twenty acres for the wife, one hundred and
sixty acres for each child, and eighty acres for each slave. This plan
received the sanction of the governor on the 19th of the following
month. Colonel Austin next proceeded to explore the country watered by
the Guadalupe, Colorado, and Brazos rivers, for the purpose of
discovering a suitable location for his colony. He had a choice of the
country, and the wisdom of his selection has been fully approved. Having
satisfied himself on his point, he returned to New Orleans, and
advertised for colonists upon the terms proposed in his contract.
The Lively Fitted to Take Colonists to Texas
Austin's means were limited; but he found
a friend in New Orleans, by whose liberality he was greatly aided.
Through J. L. Hawkins, the schooner Lively was fitted out with the
necessary provisions and implements for a colony, and in November sailed
for Matagorda bay with eighteen emigrants on board. Austin himself
proceeded up Red river to Natchitoches; thence, with other colonists, he
continued his course to the Brazos. They arrived at the old La Bahia
crossing in December. Austin sought along the coast for the Lively, but
she was never heard of more. The want of the provisions and implements
on board this vessel reduced the colonists to great straits. In the
meantime, James Austin, a brother of the empresario, had reached
the colony; and the two brothers, with twenty others, set out for San
Antonio, to make a report to the governor. They arrived there about the
middle of March, 1822.
Pioneers Reach Texas
The news of Austin's intended colony had
spread over the western country. The love of adventure, and the desire
to find comfortable homes, excited quite a spirit of emigration. About
the middle of June, 1821, and before Austin had made his selection,
several families at Pecan point, in Arkansas, started for the Brazos,
and on the first of January, 1822, encamped at the crossing of the old
San Antonio road, two miles above the mouth of the Little Brazos. Here
they found the families of Garrett and Higgins, who had reached the
crossing a few days before them, and were engaged in erecting cabins.
Before this, however, on the western bank
of the Colorado opposite the present town of La Grange, had settled
Buckner and Powell. During the summer of 1822, among other emigrants to
Austin's colony were Philip Dimmitt, Jesse Burnham, and Robert
Kuykendall—names well known among the pioneers of Texas.
Austin's Journey to Mexico City
On reaching San Antonio, Austin was
surprised to learn that, on account of the recent changes in Mexico, it
would be necessary for him to proceed to the capital, to obtain from the
Mexican Congress a confirmation of his contract, with instructions and
details relative to the formation and government of his colony. However
unprepared he might have been for this journey, yet such was his zeal
for the consummation of his great object, that he immediately set out.
Leaving the affairs of the colony in care of Josiah H. Bell, he started,
in company with Dr. Robert Andrews and one other person, to perform this
long journey by land, through a country infested with
Indians and
robbers. When two days out from San Antonio, they were attacked and
robbed by the
Comanche Indians; but after suitable explanations—the Indians
learning that Austin was an American—their property was restored, and
they were permitted to proceed. They reached the city of Mexico on the
29th of April, and found the political affairs of the nation in great
confusion.
The plan of Iguala (of the 24th of
February, 1821), and the treaty of Cordova (of the 24th of August
following), guarantied protection to the Roman catholic religion, which
satisfied the clergy; the independence of the kingdom, which satisfied
the leading creole aristocracy; and the indissoluble union between the
Europeans and Americans, which satisfied the Spaniards. But there was no
guaranty for the liberty of the great masses. This the latter desired
and expected; but Iturbide, the ruling spirit among them, had not the
most distant idea of granting such a boon. It was manifest, then, that
the form of government he had adopted could not stand the ordeal of
deliberate public opinion, even in Mexico. Without reciting the details
of occurrences which happened between the treaty of Cordova and the
assembling of the first Congress—which latter event occurred on the 24th
of February, 1822—it will suffice to say that Iturbide and the Congress
quarreled. The majority of the representatives were in favor of a
republic, and Iturbide desired a monarchy. It was, indeed, an
unfavorable period to secure the attention of the government to the
subject of founding colonies in a distant province; yet that attention
was solicited and obtained.
Austin was not the only person in the
Mexican capital seeking such contracts.
Hayden Edwards, General James
Wilkinson, Robert Lefwitch, and Green Dewitt, were also there. To these
may be added the
Cherokee chiefs Bolles, Nicollet, and Fields, who came, not to
obtain a contract, but a grant of lands for their tribe, lately
emigrated to eastern Texas.
Hayden Edwards, a wealthy and intelligent
gentleman from Kentucky, having brought his family to Louisiana, left
them there, and repaired, early in 1822, to the Mexican capital, to
procure the concession of a large amount of lands in eastern Texas. He
kept an open house, and used freely his ample means to forward the great
object of founding a colony. General Wilkinson thought, no doubt, that
his conduct in the affair of Burr would entitle his claims to
consideration. In regard to the Cherokees, their wants were different.
This powerful nation of Indians was once the owner of a territory
embracing more than half of what is now the state of Tennessee, the
southern part of Kentucky, the southwest corner of Virginia, a
considerable portion of the two Carolinas, a large part of Georgia, and
the northern region of Alabama! Between the period of the American
Revolution and that of which we now write, the Cherokees had, by
voluntary and forced sale, parted with the greater portion of their
territory; and that which remained to them was claimed by the state of
Georgia and other states: so that they found no other means of
postponing their destruction than by a total abandonment of their haunts
in the American Union. A large number of them, under the direction of
the above-named chiefs, had come to find a home in Texas. It is due to
truth and justice to declare that, during the 1800's, the Mexican people
have treated the claims of the Indian with more respect and
consideration than have been shown by the United States. Their motives
for this we will not inquire into. The business of the Cherokees was
soon adjusted. They had already entered into an agreement with Don Felix
Trespalacios, by which they were permitted to enjoy the lands on which
they had settled in common. The agreement was confirmed by Iturbide on
the 27th of April, 1823, with the understanding that the Indians were to
retire farther into the interior, and that no additional families of
them should immigrate till the publication of the general colonization
law.
The Mexican Colonization Law
So many applications induced the
appointment of a committee, who reported in favor of a general
colonization law. The bill before the Congress was about to receive the
final sanction of that body, when, on the morning of the 31st of
October, 1822, Iturbide (who had previously caused himself to be
declared emperor) abruptly ejected and dispersed them. The emperor,
after an apology to the Mexican people for this high-handed measure,
called a congress, or junta, of forty-five members, nominated by
himself. This body, in pursuance of the wishes of Iturbide, shortly
afterward prepared and passed a new colonization law, which received the
imperial sanction on the 4th of January, 1823. As this exhibits the
general features and conditions of those subsequently enacted, they may
be here properly referred to. The first step, being an abrogation of the
royal exterminating order of Philip II. against foreigners, is an
agreement to protect them in their liberty, property, and civil rights.
But, as a condition precedent, they must
be such as profess the Roman catholic apostolic religion, the
established religion of the empire.
To encourage the immigration of such, the
government will distribute to them lands out of the vacant domain.
Not less than a labor, or one hundred and
seventy-seven acres, will be given to each farmer; and not less than one
league, or four thousand four hundred and twenty-eight acres, to each
stock-raiser.
Immigrants could come on their own
account, and receive their lands, or be introduced through an
empresario.
As an inducement to immigrants, they were
to be free for six years from the payment of all tithes, taxes, duties,
&c.
There was to be no sale or purchase of
slaves, and the children of slaves born in the empire were to be free at
fourteen years of age.
The empresarios, for each two
hundred families they should introduce, were entitled to fifteen leagues
and two labors, or sixty-six thousand seven hundred and seventy-four
acres of land; but this premium could not exceed forty-five leagues and
six labors, whatever number of families should be introduced. The
empresario was, however, bound to have such lands peopled and
cultivated within twelve years from the concession, and to sell or
dispose of two thirds of it within twenty years.
Such were some of the inducements held
out by this general law of Mexico to contractors and immigrants. The law
having passed, Austin was desirous of having a special confirmation of
his previous contract. In this respect, he found a useful friend in
Herrera, the former commissioner of the Mexican patriots to the United
States, and now minister of foreign and internal relations under
Iturbide. The grant was accordingly confirmed on the 18th of February,
1823. While Austin was preparing to return to Texas, where his presence
was greatly needed, another revolution occurred in Mexico, which caused
him to postpone his journey.
Mexican Revolution of 1823
The castle of San Juan d'Ulloa had still
remained in the possession of Spain. Iturbide was desirous of securing
the fortress by treaty. For this purpose he proceeded to Jalapa, and
requested the Spanish commandant of the castle to meet him there. This
the latter refused. They then agreed on the appointment of
commissioners, who met at Vera Cruz, but without coming to any
conclusion.
General Echavarri was at that time
commander of the southern division of the empire, including Vera Cruz,
and
Santa Anna was in command of the town. These two officers quarreled,
and Echavarri preferred charges against Santa Anna. The latter, who had
been a great friend to Iturbide, and had aided him in the revolution,
immediately repaired to the court of the emperor, at Jalapa, to answer
the charges of Echavarri. To his surprise, Iturbide treated him harshly,
and dismissed him from his command at Vera Cruz. This fatal step ruined
the emperor. Santa Anna suddenly departed for Vera Cruz, and reached
there before the news of his dismissal. He paraded his troops, denounced
the emperor, and raised the standard of revolt. The people and troops,
wearied with the oppression of the usurper, and disgusted with his
treachery, soon joined in the insurrection. Guadalupe Victoria,
Guerrero, and Bravo, all distinguished in the wars of the revolution,
took their places as leaders of the populace. Iturbide, alarmed, and
seeing the army and people all arrayed against him, returned to the city
of Mexico, and on the 8th of March, 1823, called together as many as he
could of the old Congress, and tendered his resignation as emperor; but
a quorum of that body not being present, they refused to act. At length,
on the 19th of March, seeing himself totally abandoned, Iturbide sent in
a letter of abdication to the Congress, and retired to Tulancingo. The
Congress, which by this time had assembled, refused to accept his
resignation (as that would legalize his usurpation), but permitted him
to leave the country, upon an annual allowance of twenty-five thousand
dollars. He accordingly embarked, with his family, for Leghorn, and thus
left the republicans of Mexico to manage the government of their country
as they chose.
The old Congress immediately established
a provisional government, and appointed Bravo, Victoria; and Negrete, to
act as the executive for the time being. A new Congress, known as the
Constituent Congress, was called, which assembled in August, 1823. They
proceeded, among other things, to declare the acts of the late emperor
void. This decree rendered it necessary to enact another colonization
law. But, in the meantime, Austin, unwilling to wait for this action of
the republican Congress, made an application to the executive for a
confirmation of his former grant. This confirmation was had on the 14th
of April, 1823, and the empresario returned to his colony.
The Mexican revolution produced
some alterations in the internal organization of the country, to which
it may be well to refer. Previous to the revolution, the geographical
divisions of New Spain consisted of eleven intendencies and three
provinces; but, by a decree of the sovereign junta, passed in January,
1822, the empire was divided into six captaincies-general. The federal
constitution of 1824, however, produced an entirely different
organization, which will be noticed hereafter.
Mexican Constitution of 1824
The Constituent Congress were engaged,
not only in reenacting a general or national colonization law, but also
in maturing a constitution. The former was passed on the 18th of August,
1824, and differed little from that of Iturbide, except that it provided
for the passage of special colonization laws by the legislatures of the
several Mexican states, and was quite general and liberal in its terms.
As a restraint upon speculation, and to prevent a monopoly of the public
lands, it was provided by the twelfth section that there should not be
united in the same hands more than one league suitable for irrigation,
four leagues of arable land not irrigable, and six leagues of
grazing-land.
The federal constitution was not
proclaimed till the 4th of October, 1824. Before directing our attention
to this celebrated instrument, it will be well that we should notice the
progress of the settlement of Texas.
Early Indian Troubles for the Texas Colonists
After the promulgation of the treaty of
Cordova, the old citizens of the towns of Nacogdoches and San Antonio,
who had fled for safety to Louisiana, gradually returned. In the latter
part of 1821, the town of Nacogdoches already contained a hundred
inhabitants; they were a mixed population of Spaniards, French,
Americans, and free negroes. Captain Dill was their worthy commandant.
The population of the place was gradually increased by immigrants, even
before it had become the center of a colony; and many of the immigrants
for Austin's colony, from one cause or another, were induced to stop at
this point and settle.
The large number of troops stationed at
San Antonio caused that place to flourish. In 1823, it is said that the
population. amounted to five thousand. Yet the Comanche Indians visited
the town at their pleasure, and when there, were masters of the place.
They brought in dried buffalo-meat, deerskins, and buffalo-robes, which
they exchanged for sugar, beads, &c. Their trading was carried on mostly
with Americans, though they were on good terms with the Mexican
population.
The immigrants to Austin's colony came in
as fast as could be desired. In fact, it was difficult for those already
there to raise a sufficiency of provisions to support the new-comers
till they, in turn, could cultivate the soil. Their privations in this
respect were great; and they were often reduced to the necessity of
living on the proceeds of the chase alone, and to clothe themselves with
skins.
The chief trouble of the colonists,
however, for the first three or four years, was with the Carankawae
Indians. This tribe, occupying the coast opposite the colony, had been
greatly exasperated against the whites by the conduct of the
Lafitte
men. Again, in 1821, after the pirate-chief had left Galveston, some
twenty persons, under the direction of Dr. Purnell, visited the island
in search of supposed buried treasures. The company, failing to discover
the treasure, found that a hundred of the Carankawae Indians were at the
"Three Trees." It appears that a fine schooner had been run into the bay
by pirates, and there abandoned. The party of whites ascertained that
the Indians had visited the schooner, and had taken away the sails and
stretched them as an awning at the Three Trees. They therefore concluded
to attack them. Having made the necessary preparations, they set out in
time to reach a bayou, running into the pass, just at dark. They landed,
and found the Indians under the live oaks, dancing and singing. The
company was divided into two platoons, and thus, marching up to within
forty yards of the Indians, opened the fire by platoon. At the first
discharge, the savages flew to their weapons, strung their bows, and
sent a shower of arrows in the direction of the enemy. They soon,
however, retreated into a, swamp of high grass, carrying off their dead
and wounded. The Americans, with the exception of Purnell, escaped
unhurt. He had an arrow shot through his cap and the skin of his head,
which, it is said, he did not discover till the fight was over. The
Americans carried off a young Indian as prisoner.
All these provocations rendered the
Carankawaes hostile to the colonists; and they never failed, when the
occasion offered, to take revenge upon the innocent and defenseless.
They are described as being a very fierce and warlike tribe. They
averaged over six feet in height, and were stoutly built. Their weapons
were bows and arrows; each warrior carrying a bow of his own length, and
so very strong, that but few Americans could string them. It was said
that they could shoot their arrows with the accuracy of a rifle!
In the summer of 1823, three young men,
named Loy, Alley, and Clark, went down the Colorado in a canoe for corn.
The Carankawaes were at that time encamped at the mouth of Skull creek,
and lay in ambush for the canoe as it returned. When it came near
enough, they shot and killed Loy and Alley; and Clark leaped into the
river, and endeavored to escape by swimming to the opposite shore. This
he did, but received seven wounds from their arrows.
The same evening, Botherton, another
colonist, coming down on horseback from the settlement, fifteen miles
above, fell in among these Indians. Thinking them to be a friendly
tribe, he was surprised, his horse and gun taken from him, and, as he
attempted to fly, was slightly wounded with an arrow.
News of these outrages reaching the
settlement, a party of fourteen men was raised that night, and they
marched to the Indian camp and surrounded it before daylight. Here they
lay till daybreak. When it became light enough for them to see, they
opened a murderous fire upon the natives, and succeeded in killing
nineteen out of twenty-one in the camp. The Indians were so completely
surprised, that they did not return the fire.
Again, in 1824, several of the immigrants
had been cut off, on their way from the mouth of the Brazos to the
colony; and the bodies of white men were found in the prairie. This was
correctly charged to the Carankawaes. To prevent a recurrence of such
outrages, Colonel Austin ordered Captain Randal Jones, with a company of
twenty-three men, to proceed down the Brazos, and along the coast as far
as Matagorda bay; and should he learn that they had been concerned in
those murders, or discover in them any hostile designs, he was commanded
to attack them. Accordingly, in September, Captain Jones proceeded, with
his company, by water, down to the mouth of the river. Here they were
visited by some of the Indians, who, seeing their preparations, appeared
quite friendly. At this point Captain Jones learned that about thirty of
the tribe were encamped on Jones's creek, a tributary of the San
Bernardo, and about seven miles distant; also that ten or twelve more
had gone to Bailey's, higher up on the Brazos, to purchase ammunition.
Jones, on receipt of this information, sent two of his company up the
river, to raise additional force. These two, arriving at Bailey's, found
eight or ten of the colonists already collected there to watch the
motions of the Indians sent for ammunition. They perceived their designs
to be so manifestly hostile, that they attacked them the following
morning at daybreak, killed some, and drove the others away.
Captain Jones, not waiting for the
additional forces for which he had sent, returned up the river, opposite
to the Carankawae camp on Jones's creek, and disembarked with his
company. Here they concealed themselves till evening, and sent out spies
to discover the locality of the Indian camp. The spies, returning at
midnight, did not give such description of the locality as to enable
them to proceed. Jones remained quiet the next day, and just at sunset
heard the howling and war-whoops of the savages at their camp. This had
been caused by the return of their comrades, who had on that morning
been defeated at Bailey's, and brought with them their killed and
wounded.
Having thus ascertained the situation of
the Indian camp, which was on the west bank of the creek, where it
widens out into a lake, before emptying into the St. Bernard, Jones
conducted his company across the creek, half a mile above their camp,
and came down on the west side. Arrived within sixty yards of the enemy,
the company halted to wait for daybreak. So soon as it was light enough
to see the sights of their rifles, they discovered the Indian camp
immediately on the margin of the creek, surrounded by reeds and tall
grass. Captain Jones formed his men, and advanced rapidly to the attack.
Upon the first discharge, the indians concealed themselves in the long
grass, from which they returned the fire with balls and arrows. The
whites, being exposed, and having one of their number killed and several
wounded, retreated up the creek, recrossed it, and retired in the
direction of the settlement. The Indians pursued them till they crossed
the creek. Just at this time, Captain Jones, observing an Indian
pointing an arrow at him, shot him down. Thus the engagement ended. The
whites lost, in killed, young Bailey, Singer, and Spencer; the Indians
had fifteen killed; and there were some wounded on both sides. The
whites returned home, and the Indians retreated west across the St.
Bernard.
About this period, another affair with
the same tribe occured on the Colorado. An old man by the name of White,
with two Mexicans, came round in a yawl from La Bahia to the mouth of
the Colorado to procure corn. They were taken prisoners by the Indians
at the mouth of the river. White, to save his life, promised to go up
the stream, purchase corn, and come down to trade with them. Retaining
the Mexicans and the yawl, they permitted him to depart alone, with the
understanding that he should set the prairie on fire, two miles above
the mouth of the river, on his return, that they might know where to
find him. White proceeded up the river, and reported the facts in the
settlement, when Captain Burnham raised a company of thirty men, and
marched down nearly to the mouth of the river, where they found the two
Mexicans and the yawl. The Mexicans reported that the Indians were
either at the mouth of the river or on the peninsula across the bay.
Captain Burnham divided his company, half remaining where they were,
while the other half marched a mile farther, down. Those above gave the
signal to the Indians by setting the prairie on fire. In a short time, a
large canoe, full of Indians, was seen coming up the river. When it
arrived opposite the lower half of the company, the indians were
attacked, and ultimately all killed.
In a short time afterward, the
Carankawaes, tired of this unprofitable warfare, in which their numbers
were rapidly melting away before the rifles of Austin's colonists, sued
for peace. They proposed to meet Colonel Austin at La Bahia, and make a
treaty. The latter, collecting a hundred volunteers, met them at the
creek four miles east of La Bahia. Peace was made, and the Indians
obliged themselves not to come east of the San Antonio. This pledge they
ever after observed.
These were days of want and peril in the
colony; yet its members continued to toil, and their numbers were
increased by new immigrants. In April, 1822, the schooner Revenge,
Captain Shires, brought upward of eighty colonists. They landed at
Bolivar point, spent a night there, and looked at the remains of Fort
Bolivar, lately occupied by the forces under Long. They then proceeded
up the bay, and ran aground on Redfish bar. The passengers left the
vessel, and went ashore on the west side of the bay. From this point
they proceeded in search of homes. Two of them, Moses L. Choate and
Colonel Pettis, went up the San Jacinto river some ten miles above its
mouth, where they made, perhaps, the first improvement ever effected on
that stream.
Austin Returns to Texas
Early in the summer of 1823, Austin
returned to his colony. He stopped at Monterey, on his way back from the
capitol, to ascertain from the captain-general of the northeastern
internal provinces the extent of his authority, and to have the same
defined. This was done, in the Spanish form; and Austin was declared to
have full power to administer justice in the colony, to make defensive
war against the Indians, and to command the militia with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel. In fact, he was clothed with legislative, executive,
and judicial powers, being required to report his proceedings to the
governor of the state, and being responsible to the captain-general of
the provinces.
On his return to the colony, Austin
proceeded to lay off a town on the Colorado, eight miles above the
Atasca sita crossing; but, after surveying the lots, he concluded to
change the location to the Brazos. Here, accordingly, he laid the
foundations of San Felipe de Austin, as the colonial town.
The return of Colonel Austin infused new
life into the colony. The news of the confirmation of his grant, of the
overthrow of Iturbide, and of the prospect of a permanent republican
form of government, caused the colonists to believe that they had
homes—free homes—for themselves and their children. They went to work to
select and survey their lands. Don Luciana Garcia, the governor of
Texas, was friendly to their interests, and did all that he could to
promote them. On the 17th of July, 1823, he appointed the baron de
Bastrop commissioner to extend land-titles. Thus the governing system of
the colony was completed.
Although Austin's powers were almost
absolute, he governed with parental mildness. His soul was absorbed in
the great business of the successful completion of his enterprise. He
was esteemed by each colonist, not so much as a ruler, as a father and
friend. By example and precept he inspired them with a love of order and
industry. True, he was often annoyed by bad men, intruders in the
colony; yet his forbearance, even in such cases, was great. When he
found it necessary to use strong measures, and inflict wholesome lessons
of punishment or restraint, he did it, but with regret.
To illustrate this; in 1823 and 1824, the
colony began to be infested by robbers—men who had fled from justice in
the United States, and came to the colony with the hope of committing
their depredations with greater impunity. At first, they were pursued,
the property reclaimed, and the robbers whipped and turned loose. It was
found that this only exasperated them, and caused them to add murder to
robbery, in order to prevent detection. Austin, on being appealed to,
directed the application of a more efficient remedy. An opportunity soon
offered. Corasco, a Mexican, with his servants, was driving a caballada
of mules through Texas to Louisiana. After crossing the Colorado, they
were attacked, and all murdered, with the exception of a Mexican
servant, who escaped, badly wounded, to a settlement of the colonists.
The robbers, with their booty, proceeded toward Louisiana. As they were
crossing the Brazos, they were overtaken, and all instantly killed
except one, who escaped. The head of one of the robbers was cut off and
set on a pole, as a warning to like offenders.
These were rough times among the Texan
pioneers. Yet they were engaged in a good work, and met and overcame
difficulties with manly firmness. They had no other luxuries than such
as were afforded in beholding the loveliest natural scenery, and in
taking part in the stirring adventures of the chase. The common dress of
the men and children was made of buckskin, and even the women were often
obliged to wear a like dress. Rarely were they able to obtain from some
strolling peddler a piece of " domestic," or calico, at the high price
of seventy-five cents per yard.
Austin was anxious to fulfill his
contract, and introduce the requisite number of families. As many young
men and unmarried persons came into the colony, he suggested the
propriety of their uniting in pairs, making one the head of the family,
by which means the two would obtain a family headright, and the
number of families be increased. This arrangement was made in many
cases, and with a fortunate result to all concerned.
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Texas History:
Hayden Edwards
and the Fredonian Revolution] |