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American CommonU3caltl(jj6f 
 
 TEXAS 
 
 A CONTEST OF CIVILIZATIONS 
 
 GEORGE P. GARRISON 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1903 
 
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 55.fe\ 
 
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 COPYRIGHT, 1503^ 
 ALd^ Kit 
 
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 dy george p. garrison 
 
 Its reserved 
 
 Published May, igos 
 
The reader will pleas^jgemamber that this book 
 is not intended for a histofj^ ol^exas. It is rather, 
 to use the words of the laoei^d Dr. Scudder, the 
 orio:inal editor of the SeH^sfjA study based on 
 [that] history." My aiijUliaSibeen to give a pic- 
 ture of what Texas is, and of the process by which 
 it has become such. With this in view I have, for 
 the most part, neglected details, and have dwelt 
 mainly upon the salient features of the experience 
 of the people under consideration. My special 
 object has been to reveal the significance and the 
 effect of this experience. 
 
 My judgment has been that the purposes of the 
 work would be best served by avoiding a systematic 
 citation of authorities by means of footnotes. It 
 has, however, been written under a keen sense of 
 responsibility for every statement and every reason- 
 able implication. However short of absolute accu- 
 racy it may have fallen, that has nevertheless been 
 the standard aimed at in the writins:- But there is 
 
iv PKEFACE 
 
 yet a vast store of unworked material for Texas 
 history, and many periods in the life of the Pro- 
 vince, the Republic, and the State are still obscure. 
 Through some of these it is necessary, until now, 
 for those even who know most of the subject to feel 
 their way. The authorities and sources used are 
 to be found in the various collections accessible in 
 Austin, and the fairly trained investigator wishing 
 a check on the correctness of the narrative can 
 easily locate the passages on which any part of it 
 may rest. If errors have crept into the book, — 
 and there are doubtless enough of them, — I shall 
 be glad to have them pointed out; but I trust it 
 will not become necessary to change extensively, 
 in essential points, the presentation here attempted. 
 Some difficulty has been experienced in dealing 
 with the question of accenting Spanish proper 
 names that have become familiar in English. The 
 usual custom of English writers hitherto has been 
 to omit the accents. Spanish scholars, however, 
 have adopted a simple and convenient system of 
 accentuation, which it seems to me should be ex- 
 tended, as far as practicable, to the words adopted 
 from that language. The Spanish tilde cannot 
 safely be omitted, any more than the French quali- 
 tative marks which are regularly written, and the 
 accent is quite as important. Neglect of it has 
 
PREFACE V 
 
 already fixed certain popular errors in pronuncia- 
 tion in Texas, e. g. An'a-huac for A-na'liuac. I 
 have followed the usage of the Spanish Academy 
 as far as possible without making it obtrusive. 
 I have not tried to correct Auahuac, nor have I 
 ventured to give the proper Spanish brand to the 
 sacred name Alamo, but I have always written 
 Espiritu, etc. 
 
 The book is not large, but this has not saved the 
 writer from having to ask the help of many in the 
 various aspects of its making. I am under special 
 obligations to Professor W. J. Battle, Miss Lilia 
 M. Casis, Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, Mr. Eugene C. 
 Barker, and Mr. E. C. H. Bantel, all of the Uni- 
 versity of Texas ; Peter J. Hamilton, Esq., of 
 Mobile; Professor John R. Ficklen of Tulane 
 University ; Judge C. W. Raines of Austin ; 
 Mr. R. C. Clark of the University of Wisconsin ; 
 Mr. E. W. Winkler of Brenham ; Miss Elizabeth 
 West of Bryan ; and Judge Bethel Coopwood of 
 Laredo. My acknowledgments are due also to 
 Professors F. W. Simonds and T. W. Page of the 
 University of Texas, and Mr. R. A. Thompson, 
 engineer of the Texas Railroad Commission. 
 
 GEORGE P. GARRISON. 
 
 University of Texas, 
 AprU 15, 1903. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. European Expansion in America ... 1 
 II. Pre-Colonial Explorations of the Texas 
 
 Country 10 
 
 III. Encroachments of the French ... 20 
 
 IV. Counter-Expeditions of the Spanish, and 
 
 THE Beginnings of Texas .... 26 
 
 V. Kenewed French Encroachments ... 34 
 
 VI. Spanish Settlements in Texas ... 53 
 
 VII. The Beginnings of San Antonio ... 67 
 
 VIII. Fixing a Border with the French . . 75 
 
 IX. The Failure of the Spanish Wat . . 85 
 
 X. Mexico at the Wheel 97 
 
 XI. Anglo-American Invasions .... 110 
 XII. The Fringes of Texas during the Decay 
 
 of Spanish Rule 125 
 
 Xni. Austin's Colony 137 
 
 XIV. The Crowd of Empresarios . . . 153 
 
 XV. The Frbdonian War 161 
 
 XVI. Mexican Misrule and Colonial Insubordina- 
 tion 170 
 
 XVII. The Struggle for the Constitution of 1824 189 
 
 XVIII. The Struggle for Independence . . 210 
 
 XIX. Home Affairs of the Republic . . . 228 
 
 XX. Foreign Affairs of the Republic . . 241 
 
 XXI. Annexation and Boundary Adjustment . 255 
 
 XXII. Statehood 269 
 
 XXIII. Civil War and Reconstruction . . . 282 
 
 XXIV. The Texas of To-day 298 
 
 Index 313 
 
TEXAS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 
 
 To understand aright the making of Texas, one 
 must see it in its proper historical relations as a 
 part of the process by which the peoples of Europe 
 occupied America, and which has culminated in the 
 formation of the American Union and its dominance 
 on the Western Continent. It is easy to see that, 
 from the standpoint of general history, the Revolu- 
 tion of 1776 is but the transition to a new stage of 
 this process. Monroe's famous annual message in 
 1823 officially asserted that the period of coloniza- 
 tion from overseas was at an end ; but this did not 
 stop the flow of population, nor the shifting of po- 
 litical boundaries with the advance of the United 
 States. Now the great American Republic, not 
 content with having expanded from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific, has added to its dominions Hawaii, 
 Porto Rico, and the Philippines. What the future 
 will bring it, none can tell, nor is it necessary here 
 to surmise. For the purposes of this book it will be 
 sufficient, first, to see the outlines of this movement 
 in its entirety in oi-der to grasp its meaning ; and, 
 second, to observe how from it has arisen Texas. 
 
2 TEXAS 
 
 In the discovery and exploration of the New 
 World the Spanish led the way. After the daring 
 first voyage of Columbus had established the scien- 
 tific theory that the East might be reached by sail- 
 ing westward and had dissipated the terrors with 
 which superstition had covered the face of the At- 
 lantic, he and his successors soon found their way 
 to the mainland of South America. Gradually 
 they extended their voyages entirely around the 
 Caribbean and the Gulf, along the opposite Pacific 
 coast, and up the Atlantic as far as Virginia ; and 
 De Soto and Coronado led far into the unexplored 
 wilds of the Mississippi basin expeditions that have 
 been a lasting puzzle to investigators, but which in 
 substantial results were fruitless. 
 
 While yet the Spanish had hardly more than be- 
 gun their work, the English came and sailed along 
 a portion of the Atlantic coast. They were first to 
 reach the mainland, but they soon retired from the 
 field and left it to the French. These found their 
 way up the St. Lawrence, and ultimately around 
 among the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi 
 to its mouth. 
 
 Meanwhile in the track of the explorer had come 
 the colonist. Early in the sixteenth century Span- 
 ish settlements had begun to dot the shores first 
 seen by Columbus and his companions, and within 
 less than thirty years from the discovery Mexico 
 had been conquered. Spain had now acquired a 
 good base for colonization on the mainland ; but 
 the work, considering its importance, was carried 
 
EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 3 
 
 on with little energy. The larger part of South 
 America, where there was practically no competition 
 except from Portugal, was won with comparative 
 ease. To the north, however, there was more to 
 fear. In that direction the outposts were thrown far 
 forward. Mission, presidio, and vill were scattered 
 northward, as time passed, through the valleys of 
 the Kio Grande, the Gila, and the Colorado, along 
 the Pacific coast, and thinly here and there over 
 the whole Southwest. But the land was not really 
 occupied, and the few weak and widely dispersed 
 settlements acquired strength much too slowly for 
 the needs of the after time. 
 
 Early in the seventeenth century the French took 
 up the work, and planted colonies along the St. 
 Lawrence and the Lakes and in the country adja- 
 cent. Finding the north coast of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, to which they were led in following the 
 Mississippi, still unoccupied, they established settle- 
 ments, of which the oldest permanent one dates from 
 1699, in the vicinity of the great river's mouth, and 
 set up a claim to the vast region which it drained, 
 and which they called Louisiana. But, like the 
 Spanish, they spread themselves over more territory 
 than it was possible for them to hold with such a 
 light sprinkling of population, and their path-break- 
 ing enterprise was turned finally to the advantage 
 of their hereditary enemies, the English. 
 
 Almost exactly at the time when the French were 
 making their earliest settlements in the Northeast 
 and the St. Lawrence valley, the English estab- 
 
4 TEXAS 
 
 lished on the Atlantic coast two groups of colonies, 
 a southern and a northern. They did not, like the 
 Spanish and the Fi-ench, range far and wide in 
 search of gold or trade, nor concern themselves in 
 any high degree about the souls of those Indians 
 whom they did not kill. On the other hand, again 
 unlike the Spanish and the French, they began at 
 once to wring a living from the soil and the neigh- 
 boring sea, and ere long a little surplus to exchange 
 for whatever the vexatious navigation acts of the 
 English Parliament allowed them to obtain hon- 
 estly, or the enterprising smuggler brought them in 
 defiance of such acts. At the outset, they seemed 
 content with relatively narrow limits ; but, to avoid 
 any dangerous concession to their rivals, they ex- 
 tended their claims westward to the Pacific, though 
 they knew little of the distance, or the geography 
 of the unexplored region beyond the mountains. 
 
 Into the unoccupied section between the northern 
 and the southern group of English settlements, or, 
 roughly indicated, the country bordered by the 
 Delaware River and Bay and the Hudson, pushed 
 the Dutch and Swedes, starting a group of colonies 
 that became in after times the four Middle States. 
 The Dutch took possession of the Hudson and made 
 the original settlements in what became New York, 
 and on the Delaware they were first to settle within 
 the limits of the later New Jersey. The Swedes 
 established colonies that constituted the beginnings 
 of Delaware and Pennsylvania. 
 
 As the work of colonizing went on, there grew 
 
EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 5 
 
 out of it that series of struggles for possession the 
 most remarkable feature of which has been English 
 and Anglo-American expansion. In 1565 came the 
 preliminary conflict of the series. It was between 
 the Spanish and the Huguenot French who were 
 seeking a refuge in Florida. It was bloody and 
 brief, and it ended in breaking the hold of the 
 French on that part of North America forever. 
 This affair, however, was essentially rather an epi- 
 sode of the counter-Reformation in Europe than a 
 contest for territory. It was nearly a century later 
 before the energy which was spending itself in the 
 religious wars in Europe began to be diverted to- 
 wards America and to show its effects there. Dur- 
 ing the latter part of this interval the English, 
 Dutch, and Swedes had established themselves 
 along the Atlantic coast in the fashion already de- 
 scribed, and it was in that quarter that the next 
 group of the series of struggles occurred. In 1655 
 the Dutch began the movement with an easy con- 
 quest of the Swedish colony on the Delaware. In 
 1664 a similar conquest gave to the English the 
 country in possession of the Dutch, including the 
 settlements on the Hudson and the Delaware, both 
 Dutch and Swedish. In 1673 New York was re- 
 taken by the Dutch, but in 1674 it passed finally 
 back to the English, who thus filled the gap be- 
 tween their northern and southern colonies and 
 made of their territory a single continuous strip 
 lying between the Alleghanies and the sea. 
 
 But the real struggle was between the English 
 
6 TEXAS 
 
 and the French. It came with the great series of 
 European wars following the accession of William 
 and Mary in England, and ending in the overthrow 
 of French supremacy in Europe, and the trans- 
 fer, from France to England, of an empire more 
 substantial in its potency than any the world had 
 ever seen. At the conclusion of the contest in 1763, 
 the English possessions had expanded westward to 
 the Mississippi, southward to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 and northward as far as the land was worth claim- 
 ing ; the French were practically excluded from the 
 North American continent ; and the Spanish, whose 
 interests had led them to join the losing side, had 
 been deprived permanently of the territory they 
 claimed in Georgia, and temporarily of Florida, but 
 had obtained by way of compensation Louisiana 
 west of the Mississippi, and a fragment, including 
 New Orleans, to the east of it. 
 
 In 1776 the English colonies joined in declaring 
 themselves independent of Great Britain, and by the 
 treaty of Paris in 1783 their independence was fully 
 established. They were no longer simply a mouth 
 by means of which England might devour America ; 
 they were a separate political organism, which had 
 inherited all the appetite for territory of its parent. 
 Although their population had yet hardly begun to 
 flow across the Alleghanies, through bold diplomacy 
 they succeeded in winning by this treaty the coun- 
 try westward to the Mississippi, so lately torn from 
 France. Soon their experience taught them that 
 in order to enjoy the full benefit of this acquisition 
 
EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 7 
 
 they must control the navigation of the river that 
 gave access to it from the Gulf ; and seizing the op- 
 portunity when the remainder of the valley, which 
 Spain was unable to hold, was taken back from her 
 by Napoleon, who then needed it less than the 
 money it would bring, they were enabled to buy it 
 in 1803 at a price hardly worth naming. 
 
 Meanwhile the French and Spanish had clashed, 
 in rather feeble and irresolute fashion, in the border 
 land between Louisiana and Mexico. A French 
 colony planted by mischance on Matagorda Bay in 
 1685, and a commercial expedition sent by the gov- 
 ernor of Louisiana to the Rio Grande in 1714 had 
 roused the Spaniards from their neglect of the 
 country north of that river. The founding of a few 
 scattered missions was sufficient to secure them 
 possession. The French were more easily displaced 
 in that quarter than they had been in Florida. The 
 country thus weakly colonized by the Spanish was 
 formed into a province in 1727, and acquired more 
 or less definite boundaries with the name of Texas. 
 But although the Spaniard had taken possession 
 of the land he feared the French might win, his title 
 was still in dispute, nor was it fully recognized till 
 1819. By the treaty between the United States 
 and Spain made in that year, the claim which the 
 French had based on the settlement made by La 
 Salle in 1685, and which had passed with the Lou- 
 isiana purchase in 1803, was given up as part of a 
 general bargain by which Florida was acquired, and 
 the way for the Anglo-American to the Gulf on the 
 south was completely cleared. 
 
8 TEXAS 
 
 In 1821 a revolution, begun in 1810, whose 
 original occasion had sprung from the French oc- 
 cupation of Spain during the Peninsular war, and 
 whose final impulse was received from the rising of 
 Eiego and Quiroga in 1820, culminated in the sep- 
 aration of Mexico from Spain. During this period, 
 and even earlier, Texas had been an inviting field 
 for those who love the excitement of revolutionary- 
 agitation, and various filibustering expeditions, com- 
 posed mainly of Anglo-Americans, were directed 
 thither. But after Mexico became indeiDcndent, 
 its government inaugurated a more liberal policy 
 towards immigration, and the Anglo-Americans 
 came peaceably in large numbers, brought in by em- 
 presarios as colonists. In a few years they became 
 the dominant element in Texas. They could not 
 adjust themselves to Mexican methods of govern- 
 ment ; in 1835, unable to endure it any longer, 
 they rose in revolt, and in 1836 they finally threw 
 off the Mexican dominion. The new-born republic 
 at once sought annexation to the United States ; but 
 for nearly ten years, because of opposition from the 
 anti-slavery element in that country, it had to stand 
 alone. Texas, however, was too great a prize, and 
 too willing to be won, to remain independent. The 
 expansion impulse at length prevailed, and annex- 
 ation, the Mexican war, and the acquisition of the 
 whole Southwest followed in rapid succession. The 
 Teutonic civilization had made another notable 
 encroachment on the Latin, and Texas had been 
 enabled to bring a history peculiarly its own, short 
 
EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 9 
 
 in time, it is true, but rich in achievement, to merge 
 in the greater record of the American Union. 
 
 The observant reader will see at once that this 
 conspectus serves as a general explanation of the 
 making of Texas, not simply in a geographical, 
 but also in a social and political sense. The spread 
 of revolutionary ideas in Mexico and the separa- 
 tion from Spain gave a new impulse and a different 
 direction to the national life, but the Spanish ele- 
 ment in Mexican civilization was not essentially 
 reduced. The coming of the Anglo-American s 
 and the overthrow of Mexican sovereignty brought 
 about a much more radical change, but did not en- 
 tirely wipe out the Spanish influence even in Texas. 
 This influence has, in fact, left ineffaceable marks, 
 not on the Texan character, perhaps, but certainly 
 on the institutions of Texas, especially on its 
 system of jurisprudence. All the peculiar social 
 forces that have helped to determine the life of 
 the Province, the Republic, and the State must be 
 included in accounting for the result as it exists. 
 The Texas of to-day can be understood only through 
 a knowledge of its development, the origin and 
 external relations of which have been briefly pre- 
 sented in this chapter. It now remains to consider 
 a little more closely the process itself. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS OF THE TEXAS 
 COUNTRY 
 
 The land which now goes by the name of Texas 
 is a district of irregular shape, 265,780 square 
 miles in superficial area. It reaches from 26° to 
 36° 30' north, and from 93° 30' to 106° 30' west. 
 Its southeastern boundary is the shore of the Gulf 
 of Mexico. In a geographical and topographical 
 sense it consists of a number of belts or benches 
 nearly parallel to the Gulf coast, each somewhat 
 narrower in the middle than at the ends. The whole 
 series rises gently northwestward to the great pla- 
 teau of the Llano Estacado, the northern part of 
 which reaches an elevation of over four thousand 
 feet. The larger rivers of the district all have a 
 general southeasterly direction. None of them is 
 important for navigation. The flora and fauua 
 are of a transitional type, between the character- 
 istic forms of the Appalachian and the Cordilleran 
 systems. There are immense forests of large tim- 
 ber in eastern Texas, while in the central part are 
 extensive prairies, and farther southwest and west 
 is a comparatively barren strip lying along the Rio 
 Grande and widening as it extends up the river. 
 This strip is low and flat next the Gulf, but be- 
 
PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 11 
 
 tween the Rio Grande and the Pecos it becomes 
 broken and mountainous, some of its peaks being 
 over nine thousand feet in height. A considerable 
 part of the upper end of it is within the limits 
 of New Mexico, while eastward of the upper Pecos 
 it contains the plateau of the Llano Estacado 
 already mentioned, of which the eastern half lies 
 in Texas. Reaching northward between Oklahoma 
 and New Mexico is the rectangular projection of 
 Texas known as the Panhandle. The primary and 
 evident adaptabilities of the section are for agricul- 
 ture and stock raising ; but of its natural resources 
 in detail there is more to be said later.^ 
 
 It was nearly two hundred years after the dis- 
 covery of America before this country had a name, 
 or, in fact, boundaries definite enough to claim one. 
 It might have been otherwise but for the fact that 
 these were such busy centuries in Europe. Within 
 less than two years after the first voyage of Colum- 
 bus, France and Spain, which were just passing 
 from feudal disorganization into the unity of na- 
 tional statehood, began to match their new-born 
 strength in a contest for possession of the weak 
 and divided principalities of Italy. This contest 
 was closely followed by a succession of confused 
 and general European wars, due to the rivalry 
 between the French kings and the Hapsburgs ; and 
 these, through the working of the Reformation, 
 were gradually converted into a series of religious 
 struggles that ended only with the practical disso- 
 
 ^ In chapter xxiv. 
 
12 TEXAS 
 
 lution of the Empire at the peace of Westphalia 
 in 1648. In the same year that Cortes began the 
 conquest of Mexico his youthful king became the 
 emperor of Germany. Thenceforth Charles was 
 too much engrossed in preserving and strengthen- 
 ing his imperial inheritance from the Caesars to 
 realize the splendid possibilities of America. His 
 successor as king of Spain, Philip II., was not 
 gifted with the ability to recognize great opportu- 
 nities, and even if he could have understood that 
 which he had in the New World he could never 
 have improved it while he exhausted his resources 
 in fighting the battles of Catholicism. During his 
 reign the defeat of the Armada broke the power 
 of Spain, its decline began, and its chance to win 
 America became thereafter less and less ; but it 
 still clung to the policy of wasting its strength in 
 European wars and neglecting its interests in the 
 West. Meanwhile England, wrestling with the 
 devil and with itself, making martyrs alternately 
 of Protestants and of Catholics, and fevered with 
 the raging antipathy of Puritan and Cavalier, was 
 passing through one of the most intense periods 
 of its history. After the peace of Westphalia 
 Europe had scarcely a breathing spell before the 
 nations lying around France found it necessary to 
 combine against the ambitious schemes of Louis 
 XIV. One of these schemes it was, in fact, which 
 roused a weak energy of expansion in New Spain 
 and led finally to the birth of Texas in the latter 
 years of the eighteenth century. 
 
PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 13 
 
 During this interval, however, the Spanish ex- 
 plorers, though working slowly, had not been alto- 
 gether idle. Little by little the veil was lifted 
 from the Southwest, and bit by bit the true geo- 
 graphy of the Caribbean and Gulf and the adjacent 
 lands was brought to light in the maps embodying 
 the results of successive expeditions by sea and 
 land. In his first voyage Columbus sailed for 
 some distance along the northern coast of Cuba. 
 In the third (1497) he reached the mainland of 
 South America at the point where the line of 
 the Lesser Antilles, the eastern limit of the Carib- 
 bean, diverges from the coast. Two years later 
 Ojeda followed the southern shore of this sea from 
 there to Cape Vela, near the western boundary of 
 the present Venezuela, and in the winter of 1500- 
 1501 Bastidas and Cosa traced it thence to the 
 Gulf of Darien. In his fourth voyage (1502) 
 Columbus reached the coast of Honduras and 
 passed along the shore of the Caribbean from 
 there southeast to the Isthmus. In 1513 Ponce 
 de Leon landed in Florida and gave it a name, 
 and ran the entire length of the outer side of the 
 peninsula and the inner as far up as Tampa Bay, 
 and later in the same year Balboa crossed the Isth- 
 mus and discovered the Pacific. In 1517 Fran- 
 cisco Hernandez de Cordoba led from Cuba to Yu- 
 catan a slave-hunting expedition, which sailed west 
 and southwest along the coast of the Gulf to a 
 point a little way beyond Campeche. The reports 
 carried back to Cuba by the survivors of this expe- 
 
14 TEXAS 
 
 dition led Governor Velasquez to fit out another, 
 which he placed in charge of his nephew, Juan de 
 Grijalva, and which was dispatched in 1518. Gri- 
 jalva extended the exploration of the coast to the 
 mouth of the river Panuco. In 1519 the remain- 
 der of the Gulf shore, that is, the part lying be- 
 tween the Panuco and the upper end of the Florida 
 peninsula, was explored by Pineda, acting under 
 the orders of Garay, governor of Jamaica. 
 
 In the same year, 1519, Cortes began the con- 
 quest of Mexico, and the city was finally taken in 
 1521. By 1523 the whole country south, from 
 Panuco on the Gulf coast and Colima near the 
 Pacific to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, was under 
 the control of the Spanish. 
 
 The success of Cortes aroused the envy and jeal- 
 ousy of many influential Spanish leaders, who 
 wished to have the continuation of his enterprise 
 committed to themselves. While their efforts at 
 widening the area of the Spanish dominion were 
 not brilliant with results, they succeeded in paralyz- 
 ing his own ; and thus the work, that, under a com- 
 petent general and with unity of plan, might have 
 been accomplished in a few years, was spread over 
 three centuries, and was never thoroughly done. 
 It began on the Pacific coast and was gradually 
 extended north and northeastward. The tide of 
 conquest and political organization rolled with 
 wearisome slowness towards the Rio Grande. One 
 by one Nueva Vizcaya (from the northern part of 
 which was later formed Chihuahua), New Mexico, 
 
PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 15 
 
 Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon emerged into more or 
 less definite provincial existence. But as the Span- 
 ish arms and civilization came in closer contact 
 with the wild and fierce Apaches and Comanches 
 of the north, their progress became increasingly- 
 difficult and uncertain ; and until within the last 
 quarter of the seventeenth century there was no 
 Spanish settlement east or north of the Rio Grande 
 except Santa Fe, and no other, in fact, in the 
 whole of the northern Gulf shore region between 
 that and San Augustine on the eastern coast of 
 Florida. 
 
 During the earlier decades of the two hundred 
 years while the New World Scythia beyond the 
 Great River of the North was still left to the sav- 
 age and the bison and whatever living thing the 
 wilds had nourished, the Spanish imagination had 
 flown thither and returned with tempting legends to 
 invite the Spanish adventurer. The Indians told 
 the conquerors, in language which they could but 
 poorly understand, tales which must have been 
 framed to meet the evident wishes of the hearers, 
 and which were doubtless embellished on repetition 
 to suit the designs of would-be adelantados. The 
 atmosphere of New Spain was exceedingly favorable 
 to the production of myths, and they grew rapidly ; 
 the most important being that of the Seven Cities 
 of Cibola in the unexplored country to the north, 
 which were reported to be exceedingly rich and pop- 
 ulous. This tale was much used by the enemies of 
 Cortes to further their designs in opposition to his. 
 
16 TEXAS 
 
 While the stoiy of the Seven Cities was on the 
 tongue of every Spaniard in the land, there arrived 
 in Mexico in the year 1536 three white men and a 
 negro who told one of the most extraordinary tales 
 of shipwreck, suffering, captivity, and ultimate es- 
 cape that ever fell from mortal lips. The most 
 prominent man of the party, Cabeza de Vaca, after- 
 wards wrote a detailed account of his experiences. 
 The four were survivors of the Narvaez expedition, 
 which had been sent out from Spain to subdue and 
 govern Florida, and the remnant of which had suf- 
 fered shipwreck on the western shore of the Gulf 
 in the year 1528. After an awful experience of 
 about seven years in slavery among the Indians, 
 they had run away and finally reached the Christian 
 settlements in Mexico. They were apparently the 
 first Europeans to tread the soil of Texas, and they 
 brouofht the earliest information as to the inhabit- 
 ants and the character of the yet unchristened 
 land. 
 
 To Cabeza de Vaca and his companions the coun- 
 try was a part of Florida, which, by the commission 
 of Narvaez, included the Gulf coast to the river 
 Panuco ; but the remoteness of the Spanish settle- 
 ment on the east, and especially the French seizure 
 of the mouth of the Mississippi, naturally joined it, 
 when possession was obtained, with New S^^ain. 
 
 The four involuntary explorers who had come 
 from beyond the Rio Grande had seen no rich and 
 populous cities, but they had heard of some which 
 had many people and very large houses. Though 
 
PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 17 
 
 it was but little that they could add to the current 
 story about Cibola, their coming aroused a new in- 
 terest in it. The viceroy, Mendoza, sent a friar, 
 Marcos de Niza, to ascertain if he could what truth 
 there was in the tale. Niza went on this errand in 
 the year 1539, leading a party which included the 
 negro Stephen, one of the wanderers with Cabeza 
 de Vaca. Starting from Culiacan on the Gulf of 
 California, they traveled in a general northerly 
 direction, and finally reached Cibola, which has 
 been identified with one of the Zuni pueblos in 
 western New Mexico. Stephen, who went in ad- 
 vance, reached the pueblo, but was not allowed to 
 enter, being lodged outside the walls. His miscon- 
 duct aroused the hostility of the Indians, and they 
 killed him. Niza, therefore, did not venture into 
 Cibola, but only saw it from the top of a neighbor- 
 ing hill. He went back, however, with extravagant 
 accounts of the size and wealth of the place. It is 
 difficult to believe that his description was not 
 colored to suit the wishes of Mendoza and of Coro- 
 nado, whose interest in the matter will appear be- 
 low. 
 
 The outcome was what Mendoza had planned, 
 an expedition for the conquest of Cibola. Cortes 
 desired to lead such an expedition himself, and so 
 did Guzman and De Soto ; but the only effect of 
 their efforts to secure the command was to prevent 
 the appointment of any of them, and to leave the 
 management in the hands of Mendoza, who ap- 
 pointed as its leader Francisco Vasquez de Coro- 
 
18 TEXAS 
 
 nado, governor of Nueva Galicla. In 1540 Coronado 
 led forth from his province a strong and well- 
 equipped force into the northern wilds. With his 
 two years of wanderings and conquests and the dis- 
 appointment of both himself and Mendoza over the 
 unsubstantial results of the expedition, we have no- 
 thing: here to do. The one fact to be noted in this 
 connection is that his route must have carried him 
 across the northern part of what is now Texas. 
 
 Subsequently the country was penetrated by ex- 
 plorers at various points while it was yet unsettled 
 and nameless. De Soto must have passed through 
 the northeastern part of it in 1542, and in 1582 and 
 1590 respectively Espejo and Sosa penetrated to 
 the valley of the Pecos from the west. In 1601 
 and agfain in 1611 Governor Onate of New Mexico 
 made expeditions eastward which must have carried 
 him into Texas ; and in a little more than four 
 decades after the latter date there had been made 
 from the same province, according to the records, a 
 half dozen visits or entradas directed towards the 
 country of the Jumanas and the Quiviras that could 
 not have failed to lead the padres or soldiers who 
 undertook them through the same section. An 
 entrada of 1650, led by Captains Hernan Martin 
 and Diego del Castillo, is said to have penetrated to 
 the Tejas tribe of Indians ; and in another in 1G84 
 Padre Nicolas Lopez and Captain Juan Domingo 
 de Mendoza conducted a party of missionaries and 
 soldiers from El Paso down the Rio Grande to the 
 mouth of the Conchos and thence into the interior 
 
PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 19 
 
 across the Pecos to a rancheria of Jumanas and 
 Hediondas. 
 
 Before this time there had been established the 
 oldest town within the present limits of Texas. 
 Simply because it is the oldest, it deserves a pass- 
 ing notice. It began as a village of Tiguex Indians, 
 who were friendly to the Spanish, and who were 
 driven from Isleta in New Mexico by the rising of 
 1680. They were settled by Governor Otermin in 
 a pueblo which was within twelve miles of El Paso, 
 and which was also called Isleta ^ after the name of 
 the New Mexican settlement the Indians had been 
 forced to abandon. It could have had no Spaniards 
 among its population other than one or two padres, 
 and for this reason it cannot be properly regarded 
 as a Spanish colony. It has had no important share 
 in the life of Texas, which has grown from another 
 quarter ; but it has had a continuous existence dat- 
 ing from the year 1682. 
 
 ^ In the spelling' of this name as applied to the town in Texas, 
 the old form, Ysleta, has prevailed. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ENCKOACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 
 
 Fort Saint Louis 
 
 The delay of the Spanish was the opportunity of 
 the French. During the two centuries of slow and 
 feeble advance by their rivals in the Southwest, 
 they found their way along the St. Lawrence to 
 the Great Lakes and down the Mississij^pi to the 
 door that Spain had left ajar. In 1535 Cartier 
 sailed up the former river till he was stopped by 
 the rapids now known by the name of Lachine. 
 One by one the lakes were discovered, and in 1673 
 Joliet and Marquette made their way from Green 
 Bay on Lake Michigan, by Fox River and Lake 
 Winnebago, after a short portage, to the Wiscon- 
 sin, and thence to the Mississippi. They followed 
 this river as far down as the mouth of the Arkan- 
 sas, and then, for fear of the Spaniards, went back 
 the way they had come. But La Salle, starting 
 with a party of about fifty followers in December, 
 1681, passed from Lake Michigan by way of the 
 Chicago and the Illinois to the Mississippi, and 
 in the spring of 1682 reached its mouth. Elated 
 by what he called his discovery, and ignorant or 
 regardless of the fact that the Spaniards had antici- 
 
ENCROACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 21 
 
 pated him therein by about a century and a half, 
 he called the country Louisiana and claimed it for 
 France. Then, as early as possible, he made his 
 way to Paris with the purpose of organizing an ex- 
 pedition to return and secure possession of the long 
 neglected land. Louis XIV. was just at that time 
 nearing the high tide of his aggressive policy. He 
 had men and money to employ in extending French 
 power and influence in any part of the world, and 
 it was not difficult for the enthusiastic explorer to 
 obtain a share for use in seizing the Mississippi 
 valley and subduing the Spanish colonies in New 
 Spain. 
 
 In the summer of 1684 La Salle started back to 
 America. The king had given him more ships 
 than he had asked, and had put in charge of one 
 of them a captain of the royal navy. This man, by 
 name Beaujeu, though under La Salle's orders, was 
 the better seaman of the two, and did not hesitate 
 to quarrel with his suspicious and irritable chief, 
 and between them they brought the undertaking to 
 disastrous ends. It was the intention of La Salle 
 to establish a fortified post near the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, that would control the navigation of 
 the river and thus give security to French settle- 
 ments in the upper part of the valley ; but he 
 missed his destination, and, after various mishaps, 
 landed early in the year 1685 at what is now Mata- 
 gorda Bay on the coast of Texas. This, in spite of 
 evidence to the contrary, he took for one of the 
 mouths of the Mississippi ; so he established on 
 the shore a temporary camp. 
 
22 TEXAS 
 
 La Salle had started with four ships. One was 
 captured by Spanish buccaneers in the West Indies, 
 one was wrecked in seeking to enter the bay, and 
 soon after the landing Beaujeu sailed for France 
 with the third and most important, thus leaving 
 but one for the service of the colony. 
 
 It was soon ascertained that the bay on which 
 the French had landed had no connection with the 
 Mississippi. It therefore became necessary to select 
 a better location for the quarters to be occupied 
 until the original destination could be discovered, 
 and the party conveyed thither. The choice fell 
 on what La Salle considered a satisfactory spot, 
 about six miles from the head of the bay on a river 
 emptying therein. 
 
 The river on which the settlement was fixed La 
 Salle called La Vache, and the Spaniards, with 
 unusual tolerance, simply translated the name into 
 Lavaca, and continued to use it. The fort built 
 for the defense of the colonists he called by his 
 favorite name, St, Louis, which he had given to 
 another establishment planted by himself on the 
 Illinois River in 1682, and which he gave also to 
 the neighboring bay. The Spanish, however, gave 
 the bay to which their attention was drawn by this 
 settlement the name of Espiritu Santo, and some- 
 times they called it alternatively San Bernardo. 
 
 As the buildings at St. Louis went up, disease 
 was busy among the colonists, and before the end 
 of the first summer thirty of them had embarked 
 for the final voyage of all mankind. The reader, 
 
ENCROACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 23 
 
 sitting secure and afraid neither " for the pestilence 
 that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction 
 that wasteth at noonday," will be, perhaps, little 
 moved by the recital of this fact ; but when the 
 imagination restores the true original color of the 
 picture it becomes heart-breaking. With constant 
 toil and privation the lot of all ; with treacherous 
 and cruel Indian enemies always at hand ; with the 
 outraged Spanish expected day by day ; with escape 
 impossible ; and with Death, meanwhile, making his 
 ceaseless round from couch to couch, what more 
 could men have been expected to do and suffer? 
 Yet this was but the prelude to a more heroic his- 
 tory, in which desperate courage and unfailing 
 endurance, self-devotion untainted by self-seeking, 
 and self-sacrifice without the hope of reward became 
 almost too common to invite attention and record. 
 Moreover, the pitiful truth, which must be told, is 
 that those who were buried at Fort St. Louis dur- 
 ing that fatal summer of 1685 were most of them 
 victims, not of hardship nor of an insalubrious cli- 
 mate, but of their own beastly self-indulgence ; and 
 that the colonists, whose sufferings might win them 
 so much sympathy had they deserved it, were few 
 of them worthy of respect. Joutel, the historian 
 of the expedition, and himself a member of the 
 company, says, " they had all been caught by force 
 or surprise ; " and some of them proved themselves 
 in the course of time to be most absolute villains. 
 
 When the colonists had been sufficiently pro- 
 vided with shelter and protection from enemies, 
 
24 TEXAS 
 
 La Salle set out to find the Mississippi. He left 
 in October, 1685, and returned in March, 1686, but 
 without having accomplished his object. In April, 
 1686, he started on a second journey, aiming to 
 make his way in search of help by the Mississippi 
 and the Illinois to Canada. He reached the Cenis ^ 
 Indians, a tribe belonging to the group known as 
 the Tejas, on the Trinity River, where he was 
 attacked by a fever that delayed him two months ; 
 and when he recovered he found it necessary to 
 return to Fort St. Louis. In January, 1687, he 
 went forth to make another attempt to reach 
 Canada, and had gone nearly as far as in the jour- 
 ney previous when he was assassinated by some 
 malcontents among his men. 
 
 The settlement at Fort St. Louis survived about 
 two years longer. When the Spaniards finally 
 reached the spot, in the year 1689, they found the 
 buildings empty, and looking as if they had been 
 plundered but a short time before. Three dead 
 bodies, one of them that of a woman, lay on the 
 adjacent prairie. Four men who had belonged to 
 the colony were found among the Indians in the 
 neighborhood with a small party of roving Tejas, 
 and they reported that the destruction was the work 
 of a band of savages. 
 
 Thus came to its end in disastrous failure the first 
 European settlement made on the soil of Texas. 
 It was the outcome of a bold and splendid plan 
 soon afterwards consummated in the French pos- 
 
 ^ Called by the Spanish Asinais. 
 
ENCROACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 25 
 
 session of Louisiana. Its founder was one of the 
 foremost of those brave spirits who, working, as is 
 the common lot of heroes, not for themselves but 
 for all mankind, tracked the far-reaching and per- 
 ilous wilds of interior North America and won a 
 continent for civilization. But misfortune seems 
 to have usurped the seat of its tutelary genius, and 
 given it ruin and desolation for its prayers. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH, AND THE 
 BEGINNINGS OF TEXAS 
 
 Mission San Francisco de las Tejas 
 
 The capture of a French vessel on the coast 
 of Yucatan had given the Spaniards information 
 of La Salle's coming and stimulated them to make 
 some efforts to defeat his plans. The viceroy 
 strengthened the northeastern frontier of Mexico 
 b)'^ the establishment of a villa and presidio at 
 Monclova in Coahuila ; the one, as judged by pre- 
 vailing Spanish standards, very populous, and the 
 other unusually formidable. Two hundred and fifty 
 families were sent to the villa, and the garrison 
 numbered two hundred and seventy. During the 
 next three years four expeditions by sea were sent 
 from Vera Cruz to search for the French colony 
 and destroy it. They found the wrecks of two of 
 the ships which had helped to bring it, but St. Louis 
 itself, not lying exactly on the coast, they missed. 
 At the same time a search by land was instituted. 
 By order of the vicei'oy of New Spain, Governor De 
 Aguayo of Nuevo Leon sent a company of cavalry 
 under Captain Alouso de Leon to follow the coast 
 along from Tampico northward and try to find the 
 
COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 27 
 
 intruding Frenchmen. This detachment passed 
 the Rio Grande and came to another river, which 
 the Spaniards called the Solo. It widened at its 
 mouth into a lake, which they could not pass, and 
 they returned without news of the French. An- 
 other expedition under De Leon terminated at the 
 same point, and brought back no further informa- 
 tion. By this time the impression began to exist 
 in New Spain that the whole story about a French 
 colony on the bay of Espiritu Santo was without 
 foundation ; but there still came reports of white 
 men who were said to be living in that quarter, and 
 by and by an old Frenchman, naked and painted 
 like the savages, was found among them and car- 
 ried to Mexico. This roused a new interest in the 
 matter, and the viceroy determined to send an 
 expedition which should penetrate to the bay and 
 ascertain the facts. He dispatched, therefore, in 
 the year 1689, eighty men under De Leon accom- 
 panied by a Franciscan padre named Manzanet, 
 who played an important part in the events which 
 followed. This party finally reached Fort St. 
 Louis and found, as has been told already, that 
 the colony had been destroyed by the Indians. 
 The mission of De Leon was now accomplished ; 
 but plans were soon devised for a fourth expedi- 
 tion, which should leave permanent Si3anish estab- 
 lishments in the country, and thus forestall its 
 occupation by the French, The Indians in the 
 vicinity of Fort St. Louis had reported that there 
 was among them a small band of Tejas led by the 
 
28 TEXAS 
 
 governor of these Indians and accompanied by four 
 Frenchmen.^ These Tejas were a long way from 
 home, for their people lived on the upper Neches 
 and the Trinity in what is now known as " East 
 Texas." De Leon before returning south secured 
 an interview with them and took two of the French- 
 men, who had adopted Indian ways, into custody. 
 But Padre Manzanet, after some encouraging 
 words from the governor of the Tejas in response 
 to his exhortation, promised to come again to his 
 jDeople the next year and bring other priests like 
 himself. 
 
 As a result of this expedition there were sev- 
 eral meetings of the viceroy and other prominent 
 men in Mexico to devise measures to Christianize 
 the Indians in the country just coming into notice, 
 and keep out the French. De Leon and Manza- 
 net were sent for and interviewed on the subject 
 by the viceroy. The captain seems to have dwelt 
 on the fact that there was said to be settled among 
 the Tejas a considerable number of Frenchmen, 
 who might be reinforced by their countrymen and 
 do much harm to Spanish interests ; while the 
 padre emphasized the desirability of mission work 
 among the Indians, who had expressed their will- 
 ingness to receive priests and hear the gospel. It 
 was finally decided to send De Leon back with one 
 hundred and ten soldiers to destroy the fortifica- 
 tions at St. Louis and make a thorough search for 
 Frenclimen, and with him were to go Manzanet and 
 three other padres as missionaries to the Tejas. 
 1 See p. 25. 
 
COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 29 
 
 The expedition started from Coahuila in March, 
 1690. It arrived duly at the deserted fort, to 
 which Manzanet, as he states with evident satisfac- 
 tion in his account of the journey, set fire with his 
 own hand. Then the party set out for the country 
 of the Tejas. On the way they recovered from the 
 Indians a young man and a boy who had belonged 
 to La Salle's company, and further along they en- 
 countered the governor of the Tejas, who had come 
 out to meet them. They provided him with cloth- 
 ing, as Manzanet puts it, " that his people might 
 see how highly we thought of him." Three days 
 later they entered his village. 
 
 Soon after reaching the Tejas the padres began 
 to look for a suitable spot on which to locate a 
 church. During this search they were shown a 
 place which they were told the French had selected 
 for their settlement, and they saw there the bodies 
 of two Frenchmen who had shot each other. By 
 and by they found a satisfactory location, and in 
 three days they had erected a church and a 
 dwelling for the priests. With the celebration of 
 masses, the firing of royal salutes, and the chant- 
 ing of Te Deums the church and villages were 
 dedicated to the founder of the order to which the 
 padres belonged, and the mission thus established 
 was known by the name of San Francisco de los 
 Tejas. Three padres with three soldiers were left 
 in charge, and De Leon, Manzanet, and the rest 
 went back the way they had come. 
 
 The history of Mission San Francisco de los 
 
30 TEXAS 
 
 Tejas is shorter In time, but hardly less abundant 
 in misfortune, than that of Fort St. Louis. The 
 padres founded another small establishment near 
 by and worked zealously, but their experiences in- 
 cluded drought and overflow, ruining the harvests 
 and followed by famine and pestilence. The In- 
 dians refused to live in communities, and the sol- 
 diers became unmanageable and outrageous in 
 their conduct. Finally the viceroy ordered the 
 abandonment of the mission, and in October, 1693, 
 the padres and soldiers buried whatever property 
 they could not carry away with them and departed. 
 Only one of the Spaniards had died there, but they 
 had little more real success to boast of than the 
 French. The mission was revived in 1716 under 
 the name of San Francisco de los Neches, and in 
 1730 it was transferred to the San Antonio River, 
 where it became known as San Francisco de la 
 Espada.^ 
 
 The exact locality of San Francisco de los Tejas 
 is now unknown. It was somewhere between the 
 Trinity and the Neches, probably near the latter, 
 about forty-five miles in a southwesterly direction 
 from the present town of Nacogdoches. The 
 wooden buildings, altogether different from the im- 
 posing and substantial structures erected further 
 west, where stone was almost necessarily used and 
 where the builders had more time for their work, 
 soon disappeared, and nothing was left to mark 
 the spot. It might possibly, however, by a careful 
 2 See p. 71. 
 
COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 31 
 
 examination of the records and the ground and 
 comparison of the facts, be even yet identified. 
 
 In 1691 another expedition was led to the north- 
 eastern frontier by Captain Domingo Teran. It 
 was organized in two divisions, one going by land 
 and the other by sea. The first division consisted 
 of fifty soldiers, nine priests, and a number of 
 attendants, etc. ; the second was made up of forty 
 seamen. The purpose of this entrada was to 
 strengthen the missions already existing and to 
 establish others, to look for Frenchmen or any 
 foreigners who might be found among the Indians, 
 and to learn as much as possible about the country 
 and the natives. Captain Teran accompanied the 
 division that went by land, and with it was also 
 Padre Manzanet in the capacity of commissary. 
 The history of the expedition is the same old story 
 of mismanagement and misfortune so common in 
 the chronicles of Spanish efforts at colonization. 
 To mischievous dissensions between Teran and 
 Manzanet was added failure to accomplish the 
 junction of the land and the sea divisions until the 
 summer was past, and the whole force did not start 
 from Mission San Francisco de los Tejas for its 
 objective point, the country of the Cadodachos, 
 until near the opening of winter. The destination 
 was reached,^ but Teran did little in fulfillment of 
 his instructions from the viceroy. Both going and 
 returning his men suffered greatly from cold and 
 hunger, and it was fortunate enough for them that 
 ^ The expedition penetrated apparently to Red River. 
 
32 TEXAS 
 
 they were allowed to go back home by way of 
 Espiritu Santo and the Gulf rather than overland. 
 The attention drawn to the land beyond the Rio 
 Grande by the establishment of Fort St. Louis 
 and the resulting Spanish entradas gave it at 
 last a name, Tejas, or, in the usual English form, 
 Texas.^ The Indians called by this name had a 
 considerable degree of civilization and a pretty 
 well-defined locality.' The tribes between it and 
 the Rio Grande, as it appeared to the Spanish in 
 their five entradas^ were insignificant in their 
 numbers and roving in their habits. Manzanet 
 remarks that in 1690 De Leon's company did not 
 find a single Indian between the Rio Grande and 
 the land of the Tejas. They had observed no nat- 
 ural feature that had so impressed them as to make 
 them call the country by its name. There were in 
 the district they had traversed but two important 
 localities for which they had specific designations : 
 Espiritu Santo, and Texas, the country of the In- 
 dians among whom the mission had been estab- 
 lished. They manifested no desire to repeat the 
 French experiment of a settlement on the bay, or 
 
 ^ The manuscripts vary with little partiality between Tejas and 
 Texas ; but the earliest English books in which the name occurs, 
 such as Vi]s.e''s Expeditions and the translation known as Hum- 
 boldt's New Spain, use only the form Texas. This has fixed the 
 spelling of the name as applied to the land ; but the name of the 
 Indians is usually spelled Tejas. In one or two other Texas names 
 in the spelling of which the same alternatives once prevailed, the 
 X has finally triumphed entirely, e. g. Bexar and Mexia ; the first 
 of these two, however, is perhaps better written B^jar for the 
 peiiod previous to the Revolution. 
 
COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 33 
 
 the State migbt now be known by a name alto- 
 gether too sacred for its busy secular habits. After 
 the expedition of 1689 there was but one people 
 in the country it penetrated of whom the Span- 
 iards in Mexico thought seriously, and that was 
 the Tejas Indians ; but one district there, besides 
 Espiritu Santo, of which they talked, and that was 
 the country of the same Indians, which they called 
 Texas. If the evidence of one of the missionaries 
 can be accepted, — and there seems no good reason 
 to the contrary, — Tejas was the name, not of a 
 single tribe, but of a confederacy of nearly thirty, 
 including the nine tribes of the Asinais or Cenis, 
 It was but natural that this name should be ex- 
 tended to the whole region, theretofore without one 
 of its own. Nuevas Filipinas, which was for some 
 time the official designation, was not sufficiently 
 upon the popular tongue, and was at length dis- 
 placed entirely by Texas. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 
 
 * Expedition of Saint-Denis 
 
 The danger of occupation by the French having 
 disappeared for the time, the Spanish at once 
 relapsed into their customary neglect, and for more 
 than twenty years little attention was given to 
 Texas. The work of founding missions, converting 
 the Indians, and widening the limits of actual 
 Spanish occupation was not entirely suspended ; 
 but while the occasion demanded energy and haste, 
 it was answered with the neglect and tardiness of 
 blind security. The most noteworthy outcome of 
 such effort as was made was the establishment, in 
 the year 1700, of the mission of San Juan Bautista 
 near the Rio Grande, which remained for fifteen 
 years the Spanish outpost in the direction of Texas, 
 and which accordingly, when the movement for the 
 occupation of that country was renewed, became 
 a very important centre. 
 
 Again the principal explanation of Spanish dila- 
 toriness is to be found in Europe. The aggressions 
 of Louis XIV. caused an organization among the 
 German princes to resist him, and finally led to a 
 war which began with a French invasion of Ger- 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 35 
 
 many in 1688 and raged fiercely, keeping the whole 
 of western Europe busy, till the peace of Ryswick 
 in 1697. The next four years were spent by the 
 powers in diplomatic chess-play and preparation for 
 another war which was evidently impending, and 
 which bade fair to be still bloodier and more pro- 
 longed. It came according to expectation, and ful- 
 filled its worst promises of evil. Its causes were 
 sufficient, as they must be estimated by the historian 
 who is experienced in weighing the motives which 
 produce war ; for the Spanish empire, which hardly 
 more than a century previous had been the mighti- 
 est power of Europe, was becoming unable to hold 
 together and protect itself, and the nations waited 
 impatiently, France the most eager of all, for the 
 struggle over the spoils to begin. The death of the 
 childless king Charles II. in 1700 was the signal 
 for the outbreak, and the contention was ended only 
 by the treaties of Utrecht and Baden, concluded 
 respectively in the years 1713 and 1714. 
 
 Leaving out of the question, therefore, the rela- 
 tive inertness and inefficiency of the Spanish as 
 colonizers, it is not difficult to understand why 
 Spain did not anticipate France in securing the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, and why she did not take 
 firm hold of Texas at once. During the first decade 
 after the founding of the mission among the Tejas, 
 she was practically without a king, and during a 
 large part of the next thirteen years her people 
 were divided between two rival sovereigns backed, 
 the one by France, and the other by the allies in 
 
36 TEXAS 
 
 opposition. The eagle, sick and attacked in its own 
 nest, coukl not fly abroad in search of prey. 
 
 France made good use of the iutervak She was 
 busy enough at home, it is true ; but her resources 
 had been nursed into a marvelous development by 
 Colbert, and she still had men and supplies to send 
 to America. Had she not been matched, for the 
 moment, against almost the whole of Europe, it is 
 possible that she might have established herself in 
 Louisiana for all time. But the nearer and more 
 glittering prize tempted the ambition of the king 
 of France, and led him to waste his strength in 
 contending for the mastery of the Old World. It 
 was no quixotic folly that led William of Orange 
 to enter on his desperate struggle with Louis XIV. ; 
 for it now looks to the historian as if the work of 
 subverting European liberty, in which Napoleon 
 afterwards failed, was about to be done before his 
 time. But even the farsighted William builded 
 wiser than he knew. Neither he nor Louis could 
 understand that the premature snatch at empire by 
 France was only making opportunity for England, 
 and that the cost of the southern Netherlands and 
 Franche-Comt^, and the Bourbon inheritance in 
 Spain, would be the loss of Texas first, and finally 
 of Louisiana, of Canada, and of India. 
 
 The peace of Ryswick was hardly more than 
 concluded when France took advantage of the lull 
 in military operations to make good her possession 
 of Louisiana. In 1699 an expedition led by Iber- 
 ville established a French colony at Old Biloxi, 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 37 
 
 west of Mobile Bay, and from that time dates the 
 permanent settlement of the country. In 1718 New 
 Orleans was founded, and the work which La Salle 
 had planned, in which he had labored and suffered 
 with such heroism, and which had finally cost him 
 his life, was done at length. The French had ob- 
 tained control of the great river's mouth, and thus, 
 in some degree, of the vast basin which it drains. 
 If the results were less than he had hoped, if France 
 won Louisiana from Spain only to pass it on to 
 England and the American heirs of England by 
 and by, this was not his fault ; it was simply 
 because Louis XIV. unconsciously sacrificed an 
 imperial future in pursuing the phantom of an 
 imperial present. 
 
 France, however, had been none too prompt in 
 the occupation of Louisiana, for a more energetic 
 rival than Spain was now contesting for the same 
 prize. Soon after the settlement had been made 
 at Old Biloxi, an English ship, one of the three 
 that had been sent out on the same errand as the 
 expedition of Iberville, was found by the command- 
 ant Bienville in the Mississippi ; and its captain 
 was induced to leave only by being assured that the 
 French were able to expel him. 
 
 The period between the peace of Eyswick and 
 the beginning of the war of the Spanish Succession 
 is marked by a complete change in the relations of 
 the two powers that were now face to face on the 
 shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Previous to this, 
 Spain had been, from motives of self-protection and 
 
38 TEXAS 
 
 from the common European interest, an enemy of 
 France ; and La Salle, when seeking to obtain from 
 Louis XIV. the necessary equipment for his expe- 
 dition to colonize Louisiana in 1684, had sought 
 the king's favor for his enterprise by framing- 
 plausible schemes for the conquest of the Si3anish 
 mining province of New Biscay from Louisiana as 
 a base. But when England, France, and Holland 
 undertook to dispose of the Spanish inheritance by 
 a partition treaty, the wounded pride of Charles II. 
 rejected the arrangement and detached Louis XIV. 
 from it by bequeathing to his second grandson 
 the Spanish territory undivided. In the war of the 
 Spanish Succession, therefore, which followed the 
 death of Charles II., the sympathies of most of 
 the people of Spain were with France, and the 
 formal relations of the French and Spanish colo- 
 nies in America became peaceful. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, the French had done much 
 towards building up their new colony. The life of 
 their settlements depended in large measure on their 
 trade with the Indians, and this trade they wisely 
 sought to attract and foster by all possible means. 
 Finally, in 1712, Louis XIV. granted a monopoly 
 of the Louisiana trade to Antoine Crozat for fifteen 
 years, and the event was followed by the inaugura- 
 tion of a commercial activity in that colony that 
 became the occasion of a new turn in the history of 
 Texas. It was, of course, not difficult for an alert 
 man of business like Crozat to see that much would 
 be gained by adding a trade with the neighboring 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 39 
 
 Spanish colonies to that with the Indians, and to 
 this end his policy was directed. His plans were 
 furthered and his work greatly facilitated by the 
 active cooperation of Governor Lamothe Cadillac, 
 the official representative of the home government 
 and special trustee of its interests in Louisiana, who 
 became by his action in this case, as the sequel will 
 show, the agent in delivering possession of Texas 
 to the Spanish. 
 
 In 1713 Cadillac, in accordance with the desire 
 of Crozat, sent a ship to Vera Cruz for the purpose 
 of opening a trade with Mexico ; but even the im- 
 proved diplomatic relations of France and Spain 
 could hardly be expected to admit of the growth of 
 a direct commerce between their colonies. Spain 
 especially was exceedingly jealous of her monopoly 
 of her American colonial trade. Consent to any 
 treaty stipulation in breach of it had to be wrung 
 from her by war, and was given in much the same 
 spirit in which she would have surrendered a 
 conquered province. The viceroy rejected all the 
 overtures of Cadillac, and the expedition was fruit- 
 less. 
 
 The ojjportunity desired by Crozat and Cadillac 
 now appeared in another quarter. Fray Francisco 
 Hidalgo, who had worked at the short-lived mission 
 of San Francisco de los Tejas, and had afterwards 
 helped to establish that of San Juan Bautista near 
 the Rio Grande, had still later returned to the scene 
 of his earlier labors in Texas, and had remained for 
 several years as a missionary among the Asinais. 
 
40 TEXAS 
 
 During this time he and his co-workers of San Juan 
 Bautista had been constant in their appeals to the 
 viceroy to reoccupy the country of the Tejas, aban- 
 doned by the friars in 1693, where Padre Hi- 
 dalgo himself was doing such effective work for 
 Catholicism and for Spain by teaching the Indians 
 and winning a secure influence over them, against 
 the day of threatened French encroachment. But 
 it was impossible to inspire the authorities in 
 Mexico with the enthusiasm of the Franciscans, 
 and after long and impatient waiting, Hidalgo, like 
 Cadillac, laid aside his patriotism for the moment, 
 and in his excess of religious zeal appealed for help 
 to the French. Early in 1711 he wrote a letter to 
 the governor of Louisiana inviting his cooj^eration 
 in the establishment of a mission among the Asi- 
 nals. In the course of time the letter was received 
 by Cadillac, and the invitation was responded to 
 with a promptness in sharp contrast with the Span- 
 ish neglect. The details of Hidalgo's proposition 
 are not known, but it involved in some way the 
 suggestion of an experiment at an intercolonial 
 trade to be carried on through Texas, of which the 
 governor was quick to take advantage. He sent 
 out a French expedition, whose general object was 
 evidently to try such an experiment. How far the 
 results that followed were foreseen it is not easy to 
 say ; for the plan was largely clandestine, and the 
 statements contained in the documents as to the 
 purposes of the expedition are evidently not frank. 
 It may be that all was anticipated substantially as 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 41 
 
 it happened — that Hidalgo was willing to let the 
 French enjoy even an illicit commerce with Mexico, 
 if that would facilitate his mission work among the 
 Indians, and that Cadillac was indifferent to the 
 Spanish possession of Texas if a chain of settle- 
 ments could be made through which trade might 
 pass from the Eed River to the Rio Grande. If 
 these were their respective views, then neither could 
 have been greatly surprised or disappointed by the 
 outcome. 
 
 The leader chosen for the expedition was Louis 
 Juchereau de Saint-Denis.^ He was doubtless the 
 best available man for the place. He had previ- 
 ously led parties into Texas, knew both the Span- 
 ish language and that of the Indians, and was 
 experienced in dealing with the natives. Already 
 he had played a more important part in extending 
 the French explorations and settlement on the 
 western border of Louisiana than any other man 
 in the colony. Early in the spring of 1700 he had 
 accompanied Bienville up Red River to the village 
 of the Yatase Indians, where they heard from some 
 visiting Cadclos a report of the existence of a Span- 
 ish settlement five days' journey towards the west. 
 The records, however, furnish no other evidence of 
 any such settlement in Texas at the time. About 
 two months later Saint-Denis ascended the river 
 again, passing through the country of the Natchi- 
 toches, and reaching finally that of the Cadclos. 
 
 ^ This Saint-Denis must be carefully distinguished from his 
 older brother, who worked mainly in the Ohio valley. 
 
42 TEXAS 
 
 Here the Indians told liira that they had seen no 
 Spanish for more than two years. About 1705, if 
 his own statement to the Mexican authorities is not 
 misunderstood, he must have crossed Texas to the 
 Rio Grande, but of the details of the expedition 
 nothing is known. So, when the call from Cadillac 
 came to him in 1713, he doubtless felt that the 
 enterprise that was to be committed to his charge 
 was one for which he had already paved the way. 
 / Previous to starting on the expedition Saint- 
 Denis made an agreement with Cadillac, and 
 obtained from him a passport. The two instru- 
 ments taken together, the latter being read between 
 the lines, indicate clearly enough the real nature of 
 the work that Saint-Denis had undertaken. He 
 agreed to carry goods to the value of ten thousand 
 livres out of the stock of Crozat and try to dispose 
 of them in Mexico. His passport stated that he 
 was to take twenty-four men and as many Indians 
 as needed, to search for the mission of Hidalgo, 
 and there to buy horses and cattle for the Louisi- 
 ana colony. 
 
 The expedition started from Mobile in the late 
 summer or the early fall of 1713, but was delayed 
 several months at Biloxi, and probably did not 
 enter Texas until some time in 1714. It consisted 
 of five canoes, laden with men and goods, and the 
 route was up the Mississippi and the lied River to 
 the country of the Natchitoches, and thence west to 
 that of the Asinais. At the village of the Natchi- 
 toches where the overland march began, Saint- 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 43 
 
 Denis stored the goods and left ten men to guard 
 them. Then, adding thirty Natchitoches Indians 
 to his force, he proceeded to the Asinais, where he 
 spent six months trading with the Indians, taking 
 horses, cattle, and buffalo hides in exchange for 
 guns, beads, knives, and cloth. During this period 
 he made a trip back to the Natchez to report to 
 Cadillac and bring more goods. 
 
 Unconsciously the Asinais lent themselves as 
 instruments to Saint-Denis's policy. He found 
 among them well-marked traces of Hidalgo's work, 
 and the Indians were anxious to have the zealous 
 padre among them again. Their desires concurred, 
 at least in some degree, with the aims of Saint- 
 Denis ; so, when they besought him to ask the mis- 
 sionaries, and especially Hidalgo, to come back to 
 them, he took their governor and twenty-five men 
 to act as guides, and set out towards the Rio 
 Grande, apparently to do as they wished. After 
 six weeks' marching, in the course of which the 
 party fought and defeated a band of Indians hos- 
 tile to the Asinais, they arrived at the presidio of 
 the Rio Grande, or the mission of San Juan Bau- 
 tista, two leagues from the river on the Mexican 
 side, and some thirty-five miles below the site of 
 the present Eagle Pass. 
 
 How far the real objects of the expedition were 
 stated to the commander of the presidio. Captain 
 Diego Ramon, or to what extent he penetrated the 
 designs of Saint-Denis, is not clear. His action was 
 such as would seem to have been wisest in any case. 
 
44 TEXAS 
 
 He treated the Frenchmen well, but detained them 
 until he could get instructions to fit the case from 
 the viceroy. 
 
 Meanwhile Saint-Denis contrived to send a letter 
 to Cadillac informing him of the state of affairs, 
 expressing confidence as to the outcome, and indi- 
 cating the writer's hope that his services in connec- 
 tion with the enterprise would secure him the pat- 
 ronage of the governor. And for the tedium and 
 suspense of waiting for the viceroy's answer, he 
 found relief in the company of the granddaughter 
 of Captain Diego Ramon, to whom he soon became 
 engaged. Before he returned finally to Louisiana 
 they were married ; and some historians, in dealing 
 with this episode of the expedition of Saint-Denis, 
 have so far lost the perspective that they have 
 allowed the real significance of his woi'k to be ob- 
 scured by the incidental romance. 
 
 By and by a guard from Coahuila was sent to 
 conduct Saint-Denis to the city of Mexico. Even 
 before the news from the presidio of the Rio 
 Grande had reached the viceroy, he had heard 
 from the Spanish at Pensacola of the coming of 
 the expedition. But there were evidently private 
 suggestions that the entrada was in no spirit of 
 hostility to the Spanish interests, or at any rate 
 that Saint-Denis himself had no such motive. The 
 representative of the outraged majesty of Spain did 
 not fling the French adventurer into a dungeon, as 
 might have been expected, but simi^ly questioned 
 him closely as to his objects and requested him to 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 45 
 
 make a written statement of them. This was given 
 to Espinosa, the fiscal, in order that he might report 
 thereon to a council which was held soon after to 
 consider it. 
 
 Though Saint-Denis had told, in his declaracion^ 
 less than half the truth, it contained enough to set 
 the Spaniards thinking. Espinosa saw and set 
 forth clearly in his report the danger in the situa- 
 tion. They were threatened with French encroach- 
 ment, the loss of the northern trade, and the dis- 
 covery of their precious mines. To prevent all 
 this, he recommended that the governors of the ex- 
 posed pi'ovinces be directed to keep out the French, 
 and that the missions in that quarter be rees- 
 tablished. The council, in accordance with his 
 report, planned an expedition to establish four 
 missions among the Tejas Indians. Thenceforth 
 the French were to be more strictly watched, and 
 any attempt at encroachment reported promptly. 
 
 The expedition was organized under the leader- 
 ship of Captain Domingo Ramon, son of the gov- 
 ernor of the presidio. The strength of it was, to 
 all appearances, contemptibly inadequate for the 
 work in hand. Besides Ramon, his son Diego, and 
 Saint-Denis, of whose place in the company I shall 
 have more to say presently, there were only twenty- 
 two soldiers. This little force would hardly have 
 been regarded as sufficient to secure the defense 
 of such a distant and exposed frontier if there had 
 been any reason to expect hostility on the part of 
 those against whom the barrier was to be erected. 
 
46 TEXAS 
 
 The party included twelve friars, besides three lay 
 brothers, and a number of civilians. In all there 
 were sixty-five. It is worth noting, however, that 
 there were a few families and several married men 
 whose wives had come with them. Small as the 
 colony was, it was better suited for permanence than 
 any the Spanish had previously sent into the north- 
 eastern wilds. 
 
 An interesting fact, and one not entirely expli- 
 cable from the records, is that Saint-Denis accom- 
 panied the expedition as an important salaried offi- 
 cial. The contemporary accounts do not speak 
 with one voice as to his duties. They call him now 
 caho coniboyador (chief of convoy) and again con- 
 ductor de viveres (quartermaster) ; possibly he per- 
 formed both functions. In any case, it seems that 
 he was quite helpful to the Spanish ; and one can 
 scarcely doubt that he was regarded as a sort of 
 personal pledge of French acquiescence in their 
 designs. It is, however, difficult to acquit him of 
 double-dealing. On at least two occasions while 
 he was seeking to ingratiate himself with the Span- 
 ish and induce them to undertake the reoccupation 
 of Texas, once while he was at Presidio del Rio 
 Grande, and again when he was in the city of 
 Mexico, he contrived to send to Governor Cadillac 
 information as to the course of his affairs ; and in 
 the latter case he gave warning of the expected 
 Spanish entrada and proposed a counter-expedition 
 to Espiritu Santo Bay. And while in his state- 
 ment to the viceroy he enlarged on the desirability 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 47 
 
 of fixing the boundary between the French and the 
 Spanish at tlie Mississippi, in his letter to Cadillac 
 from Mexico he favored placing it at the Rio 
 Grande. 
 
 In January, 1716, Cadillac wrote that he had in- 
 formation from Saint-Denis in Mexico of the inten- 
 tion of the Spanish to make a settlement among 
 the Natchitoches, and that he would instruct him 
 to oppose it, because that country belonged to the 
 French king ; he did not, however, indicate his 
 plan in case they confined themselves, as in fact 
 they did, to the valley of the Sabine. In 1721 
 Bienville declared, in a protest against the Spanish 
 settlement at Adaes, that when he gave permission 
 to the missionaries to establish themselves there it 
 was with the assurance from them that they meant 
 only to found a mission and preach the gospel. 
 This is no doubt true, and it is possible that the 
 assurance was suggested by Saint-Denis himself. 
 It indicates that Bienville, who was keenly alive to 
 the interests of France, saw no danger to those in- 
 terests in having Spanish settlements so near the 
 border if they were purely missions ; but it is diffi- 
 cult to see how he could entertain such views. And 
 as for Saint-Denis, to acquit him of treachery to 
 France on that supposition is impossible. He was 
 too evidently moved by other considerations. 
 
 Considerable light on the real nature of Saint- 
 Denis's designs and on the relations that existed 
 subsequently between the French and Spanish along 
 the Texas border, and between the missionaries and 
 
48 TEXAS 
 
 the Spanish officials, is reflected backward by some 
 correspondence that took place in the year 1719 
 between Benard de la Harpe, who had just estab- 
 lished a French post among the Nassonites on Red 
 Eiver above Natchitoches, and Padre Margil,^ supe- 
 rior o£ the Texas missions. La Harpe wrote a most 
 cordial letter to the good father, professing great 
 reverence for him, and an earnest desire that they 
 should maintain perfect harmony which should be 
 useful in upbuilding the missions. He went on to 
 say that he knew that supplies were necessary in 
 order to preach the gospel, and that he would sug- 
 gest a sure way of getting them. Margil had only 
 to write to his friends in New Mexico, Parral, and 
 Nuevo Leon that they could find among the Natchi- 
 toches or Nassonites all sorts of European merchan- 
 dise at reasonable prices, on which they could make 
 sure profit. La Harpe would fix prices with them 
 and give Margil five per cent, of sales. He urged 
 this as an effective means of opening trade, of serv- 
 ing many persons who needed the goods, and of 
 establishing the missions securely ; and he averred 
 that the offer came from a heart devoted to his rev- 
 erence, in which benevolence had a larger place 
 than any other motive. Finally he begged for ten 
 cows and two bulls, praying that Margil would send 
 to him for a supply of maize and beans in return, 
 and remarked that he had sent by the bearer a 
 present for the padre, consisting of ten pieces of 
 Brittany linen and one piece of damask. 
 
 ^ In the French documents the name is written " Marsillo," but 
 it evidently should be Margil. 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 49 
 
 By the same bearer La Harpe sent a brief, 
 though courteous, communication to Governor 
 Alarcon, transmitting a diplomatic note from Bien- 
 ville, but not mentioning trade. Soon afterwards 
 the bearer returned with answers to both letters. 
 The governor's reply was short and direct. While 
 acknowledging the orders of his king and his own 
 desire to keep on good terms with the French, he 
 expressed surprise at their having settled among 
 the Nassonites on territory belonging to Spain, and 
 suggested that he might have to force them to 
 withdraw. 
 
 But Margil wrote in a very different tone. He 
 said that he had heard of the arrival of La Harpe 
 among the Nassonites and wished to know him, 
 and that he should prize his friendship and seek to 
 merit it. He accepted with joy the proposal of har- 
 mony. He said he would write to his friends as 
 La Harpe had suggested ; but, as it was not fitting 
 for a religious to engage in trade, their correspond- 
 ence would best be secret, not only for fear of 
 possible consequences, but because they were not 
 friends with Alarcon, and he might foil their pur- 
 poses. He did not think, however, that Alarcon 
 would stay long in the province. There were 
 many complaints against him ; for example, he had 
 not executed the viceroy's orders, nor had he dealt 
 properly with the Indians. Margil promised to 
 keep La Harpe well posted, and said that when 
 the streams fell he would send him four cows and 
 a bull, which were all he could spare just then. 
 
50 TEXAS 
 
 After this specimen of the intrigues that were 
 being hatched in the frontier nest, in evident con- 
 tinuance of the policy of Saint-Denis, there needs 
 no further illustration of the work in which he was 
 engaged. 
 
 The expedition led by Ramon made its final 
 start from the Rio Grande just beyond the presidio 
 of that name, April 27, 1716, following the route 
 previously traveled by Saint-Denis, which became, 
 under the name of the Old San Antonio or Pre- 
 sidio Road, the first great Texas highway. After a 
 march of about two months the Spanish reached 
 the country of the Tejas, who received them with 
 great friendliness. Mission San Francisco was re- 
 established, but on a site about four leagues far- 
 ther inland than where it first stood. Instead, 
 however, of the original designation " de los Te- 
 jas," it was rechristened " de los Neches." ^ Be- 
 sides this, five other missions were founded, whose 
 names were as follows : Nuestra Senora de la 
 Guadalupe, La, Purisima Concepcion, San Joseph, 
 San Miguel de Linares, and Nuestra Seiiora de los 
 Dolores. They were to serve respectively, in the 
 order in which they have been named, beo'inning 
 with San Francisco, the Neches, or the Nacogdoches, 
 the Asinais, the Noaches, the Adaes, and the Aes. 
 Guadalupe was in the neighborhood of the present 
 town of Nacogdoches, and the others were situated 
 in an irregular group around it at distances ranging 
 
 1 It served several Indian tribes, and the designation varies 
 to some extent. 
 
RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 51 
 
 from twenty-five to fifty miles, the last two being 
 well towards the east and near the French settle- 
 ments already established on Red River. 
 
 This mission founding was not completed until 
 in the year 1717. In the mean time Ramon had 
 paid a friendly visit to the French post among the 
 Natchitoches, and Saint-Denis had gone to Mobile. 
 As to the subsequent operations of the latter, the 
 accounts differ greatly, and it is a curious commen- 
 tary on the inner history of this episode that the 
 Spanish documents make a much more favorable 
 showing for him than the French. It seems, in 
 fact, that his conduct was better understood in 
 Louisiana than in Mexico, except perhaps by the 
 Ramon family and some of the padres. Aside from 
 the conflict in the sources, it is evident that, while 
 he gave out that he was going to Mobile to settle 
 up his affairs and move to Mexico to serve the Span- 
 ish, his real purpose was to organize the illicit trade 
 at which he had been aiming from the start. The 
 risks of his enterprise were plain, and he could get 
 none of Crozat's goods until a colonial company was 
 formed to help it on. Then he went back with the 
 merchandise, representing it as his own. The effect 
 was to rouse suspicion against him in Mexico. The 
 goods were seized, and he was imprisoned. After 
 a short time he was released by a royal order, but 
 it provided that he and his wife should be sent to 
 Guatemala. Soon afterwards he escaped to Louisi- 
 ana and reentered the French service, and in the 
 course of time his wife rejoined him. 
 
52 TEXAS 
 
 His work had been effective in everything hut 
 the results he wished. Like a good vassal in old 
 feudal days, he served his immediate lords, Cadillac 
 and Crozat, better than he served his king ; and it 
 is probable that if the government of either France 
 or Spain had really understood what he was about, 
 he would have been rewarded with a halter. 
 
 But Spain owed him much ; for he had given it 
 possession of a goodly land. Thenceforth, until 
 the Anglo-Americans came, Texas followed the for- 
 tunes of Mexico. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 
 
 The Spanish have inherited the imperial, and 
 perhaps also a sufficient degree of the colonizing, 
 instinct ; but the empire they built has been lost to 
 them by reason of their ineffective work in coloni- 
 zation. This is at least the proximate cause. It 
 may be doubted, indeed, whether the native strength 
 of the Peninsula was ever adequate for a struggle 
 over world-wide dominance ; but if it were, the 
 national experience of the Spaniard never gave it 
 proper direction till it had suffered a virtual paraly- 
 sis. The Spanish explorers were daring, energetic, 
 and persistent enough for any undertaking. No 
 adventurers went farther or risked and suffered 
 more. In the annals of the discovery and conquest 
 of America, the wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, 
 Coronado, and De Soto stand forth preeminent, as 
 much for hardihood as fruitlessness. But the con- 
 quistador was not backed up by the settler, and the 
 officials could not organize a compact political and 
 social system from native material alone. So it 
 was that, while the explorations and claims of the 
 Spanish were wide enough for a schoolboy's dream, 
 their grasp was too weak for permanence. 
 
54 TEXAS 
 
 The ultimate explanation of this lies at least 
 partly in the religious history of Spain. The Eng- 
 lish colonies were peopled to a large extent by those 
 who, much as they loved England, preferred the 
 hardshijas of America to conformity at home. The 
 domestic quarrels, therefore, of the English served 
 at least to secure their possessions abroad. But 
 religious uniformity in Spain, purchased at the cost 
 of the expulsion of the Moors and Jews and the ex- 
 tirpation of heresy, left no such popular motive to 
 emigration ; and, had it been otherwise, the Span- 
 ish heretic would have been excluded from the set- 
 tlements of his countrymen in America, just as the 
 Huguenot was from those of France. Considering 
 these facts together with that already noted, — that 
 all the failing strength of Spain was required to 
 maintain its rights and claims in Europe, — it is 
 not strange that the policy of that government 
 seemed so weak in meeting the crises in the history 
 of its colonies. 
 
 The Spanish settlements in Texas were of three 
 types : the ecclesiastical, the military, and the civil, 
 named respectively the mission, the presidio, and 
 the pueblo or pohlacion. Before going any farther, 
 these must be briefl}'^ described. 
 
 The mission was the instrument for accomplish- 
 ing one of the main objects professed — and no 
 doubt sincerely — by the Spanish in their coloniz- 
 ing work in America, i. e. the Christianizing of the 
 Indians. Its principal element was a group of 
 priests, usually quite small and sometimes includ- 
 
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 55 
 
 ing one or more lay brethren, whose duty It was to 
 instruct the natives at the same time in the elements 
 of Christianity and o£ civilization, or, as Eden's 
 translation of the bull of Pope Alexander VI. divid- 
 ing the New World puts it, " in the Catholyke 
 fayth and good maners." The instruction in the 
 one case was largely in the forms of the Catholic 
 religion, and in the other mainly in agriculture and 
 the commonest industries and arts. In order to 
 accomplish these purposes it was necessary to in- 
 duce the Indians to abandon their roving life and 
 settle in reach of the padres. A natural adjunct of 
 the mission, therefore, was the pueblo, or village 
 of the natives. Those who could be induced to ac- 
 cept the mission-village life were known as Indios 
 reducidos, in distinction from the hostile rovers, 
 who were called Indios bravos. The most effective 
 means of " reducing " the Indians lay in the gifts 
 that were distributed among them from time to 
 time; but, as might be supposed, the "reduction" 
 was in most cases only temporary. The census re- 
 ports made periodically from the various missions 
 show clearly how shifting was the population held 
 together by such means. By Spanish law the In- 
 dians could be detained in the pueblos by force, 
 and the policy of the missionaries was to prevent 
 their escape if possible, and, when they ran away in 
 spite of priestly vigilance, to recapture them ; but 
 the authorities would not always furnish the neces- 
 sary soldiers. 
 
 The best idea of the mission and its actual daily 
 
56 TEXAS 
 
 round of life may be had from the detailed contem- 
 porai-y accounts that have been left us. The fol- 
 lowing description of the village connected with La 
 Concepcion at San Antonio and of the common life 
 at the missions is translated from a report of the 
 missionaries on the state of the missions in 1762 : 
 
 The pueblo is composed of two rows of stone houses 
 and huts in which the Indians Uve, which are furnished 
 with boilers, flat earthen pans, pots, and other domestic 
 utensils, the pueblo being also surrounded by a wall for 
 its protection and defense. It has its inclosed fields, the 
 necessary supplies of water, a flowing irrigation ditch with 
 its stone dam, and a ranch with its dwellings for the fami- 
 lies who look after its two hundred mares, one hundred 
 and ten hogs, six hundred and ten head of cattle, and 
 twenty-two hundred head of goats and sheep. There are 
 stored in its granary, which is a single large room, about 
 eigiit hundred fanegas ^ of corn and fifty of beans for 
 the sui3ply of the pueblo. 
 
 The same report describes the management of 
 the Indians at the missions as follows : — 
 
 The catechism of the Gentile and Christian Indians-is 
 uniform in all the missions, and the same which the 
 reverend father founders, highly venerable for their vir- 
 tues and character, used. . . . 
 
 Every day all the Indians recite in concert the text 
 of the Christian doctrine according to the catechism of 
 Ripalda, in the morning before work and in the evening 
 after it. Three or four times a week the ministers in- 
 struct their Indians, with reference to the same text of 
 
 ^ Afanega is about one hundred pounds. 
 
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 57 
 
 the catechism, in the mysteries of our holy faith and the 
 obligations of Christians, with similes and arguments 
 adapted to their inexpressible rusticity. 
 
 The Gentiles are taught separately by means of their 
 interpreters, which requires extra expenditure of time, 
 until they are grounded in the elements ; and when they 
 have shown some disposition to remain at the missions 
 (which not even the oldest Christians have in full measure) 
 holy baptism is administered to them. Besides the reci- 
 tation in concert, the boys are also instructed separately 
 every day by their fiscal, and often by their ministers, in 
 order to see their progress. 
 
 To the dying and the sick is promptly administered 
 holy baptism, if they are infidels, and to the Christians 
 are administered the holy sacraments of penance, the 
 eucharist, and extreme unction . . . 
 
 For those who come from the woods married, the nat- 
 ural contract is ratified (leaving only one wife to those 
 who bring several) before their baptism, and the Chris- 
 tians are married at the proper time by the church offi- 
 cials and in conformity with the regulations of the holy 
 Council of Trent. 
 
 All those who are of sufficient age confess and receive 
 the sacrament, according to their respective ability to 
 understand, during Lent and on any festivals when they 
 wish. . . . 
 
 The missionaries have paid special attention to the 
 temporal assistance of the Indians, both because this is 
 their personal business, and because it is one of the most 
 important means of subsistence for those who live at the 
 missions, and for the attraction of those who inhabit the 
 woods, who observe and consider the advantages the 
 others enjoy. 
 
58 TEXAS 
 
 For this purpose are used the cattle which the mis- 
 sionaries manage to acquire in order to kill, at each 
 mission every Sunday and on some special feast days, 
 four or five head, according to the number of people — 
 dividing them into pieces in order that each individual 
 may have his corresponding ration ; and mutton is given 
 to those who are sick. 
 
 The corn crop is consumed by giving the Indians what 
 they need for all purposes ; and they are also furnished 
 beans, pumpkins, watermelons, melons, pepper, salt, and 
 sugar, which is made from cane that they take care to 
 plant at each mission annually, because this is the best 
 thing to regale the Indians and the most pleasing to their 
 appetite. In the missions cotton and wool are used by 
 making them into manias,^ terlingas^ rebozos^ coarse 
 cloths, and blankets for their protection and covering. 
 
 The surplus of all these products, if they are pro- 
 duced in abundance and there are persons to buy them, 
 is sold for secured bills, which are sent to our reverend 
 fatTier guardian, whence they pass to our brother syndic, 
 in order that they may be laid out in cloths, flannels, 
 hats, knives, boilers, pots, flat earthen pans, metates,^ 
 tobacco, glass beads, rechas,^ hatchets, crowbars, pick- 
 axes, bridles, thread, needles, saddles, and whatever is 
 necessary, and for the goods to satisfy the Spanish stew- 
 ards and serving men for the care of the mission, crops, 
 and cattle. 
 
 1 Shawls or light hed coverings of cotton or wool. 
 
 ^ What this Avord means, I am unable to say. It is probably a 
 copyist's corruption. I have not been able to find the original 
 report. — G. P. G. 
 
 ^ Light scarfs used to throw over the head. 
 
 * Flat stones on which boiled maize is crushed into a pulp. 
 
 ^ Probably meant for rejas, ploughshares. 
 
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 59 
 
 For tlie same purpose, in large part, is used also, by 
 direction of our sacred college, the annual offering which 
 the king our lord contributes for the missionaries, our 
 prelates assisting us with chocolate, powder, cloth, under- 
 clothes, drugs, and what is, from the standpoint of the 
 religious, considered indispensable. 
 
 All the aforesaid, with the bills that are taken in (which 
 bills, however, are not always obtained), is spent for 
 ornaments, vases, sacred images, and other necessaries 
 for divine worship, adornment of the churches, and sat- 
 isfaction of the workmen. It is used also in dressing, 
 adorning, and maintaining men, women, and children, 
 not only by annual appropriations, but on all occasions 
 when they tear, lose, or waste the clothing. 
 
 The horses are used in looking after the cattle, gather- 
 ing the flocks, and in other services of the missions to 
 which they belong ; most of them being lost or stolen, 
 either by enemies or by the Indians of the missions them- 
 selves when they escape. 
 
 The Indians are assisted, when they are sick, with 
 medicines which this country furnishes, and some which 
 are brought in for the purpose. They are visited by the 
 fathers and by other persons who have been charged 
 with the care of them ; and in serious cases they are fed 
 from the kitchen of the fathers, and in all they are re- 
 lieved from work. For this reason not a few of them 
 get to making pretenses, and the missionaries, in order to 
 keep them from running away, behave as if they were 
 deceived by them. 
 
 The labor of the Indians is to plant the fields, look 
 after the cattle, to water the crops, to clear away weeds, 
 and to gather their grain, to erect their dwellings, and 
 other buildings of the missions to which the community 
 
60 TEXAS 
 
 attends ; but with such slowness and carelessness that it 
 is always necessary for some Spaniard to be directing 
 them, and four of them are not sufficient for what could 
 be done by one. They work, with a lack of energy cor- 
 responding to their inborn laziness, some at weaving and 
 in the forges, and others as carpenters and bi-icklayers, 
 in which ti'ades instruction has been furnished them by 
 the missionaries with no small endeavor for their com- 
 fort. They have been provided also with the proper 
 tools for all these occupations. 
 
 The employment of the women and children is to spin 
 with malacates,^ and to comb cotton. All this labor 
 constitutes no impediment to their spiritual welfare or 
 the help due their families, but is very moderate and con- 
 formable to their want of culture, little talent, and great 
 sloth. 
 
 Naturally enough recruits for the mission work 
 were obtained among the friars rather than the 
 secular clergy, and that in Texas was done by Fran- 
 ciscans, who came either from Queretaro or from 
 Zacatecas. The colleges of the order at these two 
 places were, therefore, the bases from which the 
 efforts of the missionaries were organized and di- 
 rected. The Queretarans and Zacatecans worked 
 separately, but, while exhibiting perhaps a touch 
 of jealousy now and then, usually in all harmony. 
 
 The presidio was the fort, or instrument of mili- 
 tary occupation. It was used where defense or 
 protection with arms was a necessity. There was 
 generally at least one for each group of exposed 
 
 ^ Rough spindles. 
 
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 61 
 
 missions, so located as to be most effective in shel- 
 terins: them all. It was not uncommon for a little 
 guard of soldiers to be stationed at a mission, if 
 there were no presidio immediately at hand, but 
 the padres usually preferred to be without them ; 
 for the soldiers sent to do duty as presidiales, or 
 mission guards, were of the lowest type of hu- 
 manity that could be picked up, and their outrages 
 on the Indians often interfered seriously with the 
 work the missionaries had been sent to do. 
 
 The noblest and most enduring visible monu- 
 ments of the Spanish occupation are the mission 
 and presidio buildings. Those erected in east 
 Texas were the oldest ; but owing to the abundance 
 of wood and lack of stone in that country most of 
 them were built of perishable materials, and they 
 have long since disappeared so completely that no 
 one knows even where they stood. There was till 
 recently one notable exception in the old Stone 
 Fort at Nacogdoches, erected for the defense of the 
 pueblo of Bucareli, which was moved thither from 
 the banks of the Trinity about 1778 ; but that has 
 recently been torn down to make room for a busi- 
 ness house.^ In the west, however, timber was less 
 abundant and stone plentiful, and the mission 
 buildings in that quarter were massive and endur- 
 
 ^ This fort played an important part in the Fredonian war and 
 the disturbances of 1832. It was the last monument of the origi- 
 nal Texas, and there is now left perhaps no visible mark by which 
 the old district conld be located. The stones have been saved, 
 and it is hoped that the building will be restored some day on a 
 spot suitable for the purpose. 
 
62 TEXAS 
 
 ing. There is an especially interesting group in 
 the ruins of the five missions that were located in 
 and near the city of San Antonio. What means 
 and appurtenances the devotion of the Spanish 
 missionaries and secular authorities led them to 
 provide for the worship of God, even in the wilder- 
 ness, may be seen from a description of the church 
 of Concepcion in the report of 1762, already men- 
 tioned. The writer dwells with evident pride on 
 the attractive architecture of the building, the 
 mural decorations, the finely sculptured images of 
 stone, the elegant service for the mass, the supply 
 of ornaments, the rich vestments for the priests, 
 and the convenient and comfortable construction 
 and furnishing of their vivienda or dwelling. 
 
 The third instrument used by the Spanish in 
 their colonizing work in Texas was the civil settle- 
 ment. This form was so connected, and often so 
 blended, with the other two, that it is rather diffi- 
 cult to define in general. The Spanish word for 
 any aggregation of settlers is pueblo ov pohlacion. 
 If the settlement acquired special rights of self- 
 government it might still be known by either of 
 these designations, but more specifically it then 
 became a villa or a ciudad (city).^ Its local gov- 
 ernment was administered by a council known as 
 the cabildo or ayuntamiento, composed of alcaldes 
 (judges), regidores (town councilors), and cer- 
 
 1 Under the Mexican government the villas of Texas were the 
 administrative centres or capitals of districts which were known 
 as raimicipalities. At the time of the Revolntion of 1830 these 
 municipalities became the counties of the Republic. 
 
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 63 
 
 tain other officials. The members were nominally 
 elected, but the election meant little. The council 
 had really none of the independence and legislative 
 power that is possessed by municipal authorities in 
 the United States. In its more elementary and 
 theoretical aspects the system of government for 
 the Spanish colonies in America was quite simple. 
 They were governed, even to the minutest details 
 of lawmaking, by the king through a body of his 
 appointees known as the Council of the Indies. 
 There were subordinate courts, but no legislative 
 bodies. Practically, however, there was great con- 
 fusion. The viceroys had all the power of the king 
 except as they were expressly limited. The laws 
 did not harmonize, and the special rights of the 
 privileged classes and the multitude of conflicting 
 jurisdictions made all pretense at justice a mockery. 
 The disorder reached its height towards the early 
 days of the nineteenth century. The northern pro- 
 vinces were then under a general commandant with 
 headquarters at Chihuahua. Original judgments 
 which were given at that time by the provincial 
 governors were subject to review, if on military 
 subjects, by the commandant at Chihuahua ; if on 
 fiscal, by the intendant at San Luis Potosi ; if on 
 ecclesiastical, by the bishop at Nuevo Leon ; and 
 if on civil, by the audiencia of Nueva Galicia. 
 
 Under such a system local self-government was 
 only a pretense. Of organized and self-conscious 
 municipal life expressing itself through popular 
 elections or mass meetings or any of the recognized 
 
64 TEXAS 
 
 instruments of local public opinion in countries 
 which have inherited English institutions, there was 
 nothing. Neither was there any scope for independ- 
 ent action on the part of the councils. All they 
 could do was to move in prescribed lines. Every- 
 thing depended ultimately on the decision of au- 
 thorities who were far away and tardy with their 
 answers. Any attempt to enforce rights by law was 
 like a shot at the moon ; it might be started in the 
 proper direction, but there was little prospect of 
 reaching the mark. The main hope of the settlers 
 was in the forgetfulness or neglect of the distant 
 lawmakers and judges, too ignorant of actual con- 
 ditions in Texas to rule it wisely, which left them to 
 fight out their own petty quarrels among themselves. 
 Accordingly the minutes of the cabildos or ayunta- 
 mientos are a record of petitions and trivial dis- 
 cussions, which derive their interest from the light 
 they throw on current questions of real impor- 
 tance. They are concerned with grievances of one 
 member of the council against another, with com- 
 plaints against the neighboring missionaries and 
 presidiales, and with other affairs of like weight 
 and import. In 1735 the council of the villa of San 
 Fernando at San Antonio petitioned for a leave of 
 absence for an official who wished to go to Saltillo 
 for medical treatment, contrary to restrictions pre- 
 viously laid on the Canary Island settlers of the 
 villa. The petition was sent to the governor and 
 forwarded with his recommendation in the premises 
 to the viceroy, and the next year the answer came. 
 
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 65 
 
 The man might go, — presumably he was still alive, 
 — but he must be watched and if he tried to run 
 away arrested for a traitor. This is a sufficient 
 illustration of the nature of municipal government 
 in Spanish Texas. 
 
 One hopeful aspect of the municipal activity 
 of that period consists in the efforts made at San 
 Fernando to establish and foster a school system. 
 These began May 1, 1789, — a date significant 
 enough, — and continued in a weak and fluttering 
 way, but evidently gathering strength, up to the 
 eve of the Revolution in 1835. Inadequate as they 
 were, they show that the Spanish inhabitants of 
 Texas were not wholly without noble aspirations ; 
 and when recounted in connection with the famous 
 indictment in the Texas declaration of independence 
 against the Mexican government for its neglect of 
 popular education, they acquire no small degree of 
 interest. 
 
 But however little of political virility and pro- 
 mise there may have been in the Spanish civil col- 
 ony, it was the real germ of the typical Peninsular 
 civilization, and the one which could best be relied 
 on for successful transplanting to New Spain. 
 Whether the Spanish appreciated its importance or 
 not, one secret of their failure lies in the expendi- 
 ture of energy on the two other colonial types to 
 the neglect of this. While upwards of twenty-five 
 missions and presidios were founded first and last 
 on Texas soil, there were, when the Anglo-Ameri- 
 cans began to pour in, but three centres of Spanish 
 
66 TEXAS 
 
 population between the Sabine and the Rio Grande : 
 San Antonio,^ Goliad,^ and Nacogdoches. In the 
 rapidity with which settlements began to multiply 
 and spread from that time on, there is a most in- 
 structive contrast. 
 
 1 Or B4jar. 2 Or La Bahia. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 
 
 As I have said, there were but three permanent 
 Spanish settlements established in Texas. This, of 
 course, does not include the old town of Ysleta, 
 which has always been Indian and not Spanish. 
 Nor was it a part of the Texas with which we are 
 now dealing. Although the determination of 
 boundaries has left it finally within the State, and 
 the building of the Texas Pacific and Southern 
 Pacific railways and the growth of El Paso near 
 by have helped on its real geographical incorpora- 
 tion with the developing commonwealth, it was 
 completely isolated from the province by the 
 intervening desert and the fierce Apaches and 
 Comanches. 
 
 Of the three which are properly included, and 
 which have already been named, San Antonio was 
 the most important. It was the capital of Texas 
 during nearly the whole period of Spanish and 
 Mexican rule.^ Its situation as outpost in relation 
 to the Anglo-American colonies caused it to become 
 the scene of the most desperate fighting in the cam- 
 paigns of 1835 and 1836 including the defense of 
 
 ^ Adaes on the eastern border of the province enjoyed the dis- 
 tinction for a brief season. 
 
68 TEXAS 
 
 the Alamo, the superlatively dramatic episode of all 
 the history of America. It remains the most inter- 
 esting city in Texas, if not, indeed, in the whole 
 Southwest. In and around it are to be seen the 
 ruins of five notable missions, and in spite of its 
 modern and progressive aspects there is much to 
 remind one of what it has been. Not on account of 
 these facts, however, is a sketch of its beginnings 
 demanded here, but because its settlement was one 
 of the most important features of the making of 
 Texas. 
 
 It will be well to brush away at the outset the 
 tissue of legends concerning the origin of San An- 
 tonio, which date it back into the last decade of the 
 seventeenth century. They are without the support 
 of any trustworthy evidence. The settlement was 
 begun in 1718, but the accounts of the Saint-Denis 
 expedition contain some interesting references to 
 what was doubtless the site of it. One of these is 
 to the effect that when Saint-Denis and his com- 
 panions were on their way from the country of the 
 Asinais to the Presidio del Rio Grande, they crossed 
 the San Antonio River at an Indian village, and 
 he remarked the fitness of the place for a presidio. 
 Another, speaking in less uncertain terms, says 
 that, when the party led to the Tejas country by 
 Captain Domingo Ramon in 1716 was marching 
 inward, it encamped on one occasion at some springs 
 to which was given the name San Pedro, and Cap- 
 tain Ramon observed that it was a good place to 
 build a city. The presidio was there within two 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 69 
 
 years, but the city did not come for about a dozen 
 more. 
 
 The early history of San Antonio is a study hav- 
 ing special interest and attraction on account of the 
 peculiar nature of the settlement. Almost from its 
 founding it was a combination of presidio, mission, 
 and villa, the mission having the usual jaueblo. Or 
 perhaps it would better be called an aggregation of 
 the three ; for they were not really combined, but 
 there were, of course, necessarily close relations 
 among them. That they did not always get on well 
 together is evident enough from the facts stated in 
 the previous chapter.^ The settlements at Nacog- 
 doches and Goliad also contained at different times 
 all these three elements, but they do not present so 
 perfect a case of the parallel development of the 
 three in juxtaposition. 
 
 At San Antonio the presidio and the mission 
 came together. After the establishment of the 
 eastern group of missions in 1716-17, as the out- 
 come of the Saint-Denis expedition. Commandant 
 Ramon and the padres kept calling for more set- 
 tlers, until finally the call was answered by Martin 
 de Alarcon, who had been appointed governor of 
 Coahuila, and later of Texas also, that he might 
 look after its colonization. He had been directed 
 to take fifty soldiers, a number of carpenters, black- 
 smiths, and masons, and some cattle and supplies 
 and push on the work of settlement in Texas. The 
 artisans were to have annual salaries. The purpose 
 ^ See p. 64. 
 
70 TEXAS 
 
 in bringing them, as expressed in the documents 
 relative to the period, was to instruct the Indians 
 and insure the settlement of the country. Alarcon 
 entered the province and set himself to his task 
 early in 1718. He founded the presidio of San 
 Antonio de Bejar on the San Antonio River, prob- 
 ably near the Indian village whose favorable situa- 
 tion had been noted by Saint-Denis. At the same 
 time he established under the shelter of the pre- 
 sidio the mission of San Antonio de Valero in 
 charge of Padre Olivares. This foundation is 
 scarcely to be regarded as a new mission, but rather 
 as a transfer of the one named San Francisco Solano 
 on the Rio Grande, which Olivares had assisted in 
 founding in the year 1700, and at which he had 
 subsequently worked. The Rio Grande mission was 
 now abandoned, and the Indians were moved — at 
 least so far as it could be effected — to the new 
 establishment on the San Antonio. 
 
 The mission of San Antonio de Valero was soon 
 reenforced by several others. In 1720 the mission 
 of San Jose de Aguayo was founded near by, and in 
 1722 that of San Xavier de Mxera. In 1729 the 
 presidio of Texas, the defense of the three missions 
 controlled by the Franciscans of Quer^taro in the 
 eastei'n group,^ was abandoned, and in 1731 these 
 missions were transferred to the less exposed loca- 
 tion at San Antonio. Their names before the re- 
 moval were San Francisco de los Neches, La Purf- 
 sima Concepcion de los Asinais, and San Joseph de 
 ^ See p. 86. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 71 
 
 los Nazones ; but the facts that there was already 
 one San Jos6 at B^jar and that their distinctive 
 appellations, which were those of the Indian tribes 
 they had served, were no longer applicable, caused 
 the change of the three names respectively to San 
 Francisco de la Espada, La Purisima Concepcion de 
 Acuiia, and San Juan Capistrano. In this connec- 
 tion it should be remembered that San Francisco 
 de los Neches was the reestablished San Francisco 
 de los Tejas, and that its history, therefore, dates 
 back to the very beginnings of Texas. 
 
 What is now known as the Alamo stands front- 
 ing on the Alamo Plaza in one of the busiest parts 
 of the modern city. It is said to have been begun 
 in 1744. It appears to have been the chapel of 
 Mission San Antonio de Valero. The ruins as 
 they now exist cover only a small part of the 
 grounds of the original mission. That the name 
 Alamo, which was applied to the whole group of 
 buildings, superseded the regular ecclesiastical de- 
 signation was doubtless due to their occupation by 
 a company of Mexican troops known as that of the 
 Alamo of Parras.^ 
 
 To the military and ecclesiastical establishments 
 already fixed between the San Antonio and the San 
 Pedro was added in 1731 a civil settlement known 
 as the villa of San Fernando. This measure had 
 been recommended by the Marques de Aguayo. 
 
 ^ The word alamo is Spanish for Cottonwood, and a popular but 
 mistaken explanation of the name of the building attributes it to 
 the number of Cottonwood trees that once stood near by. 
 
72 TEXAS 
 
 The necessary colonists were obtained mainly from 
 the Canary Islands. A royal decree of 1722 had 
 provided that four hundred families from the Ca- 
 naries should be brought to Texas as settlers, but 
 none had come ; so another decree issued early in 
 1729 directed that every vessel leaving the islands 
 for Havana should bring ten or twelve families to 
 be sent to Texas. The next year fifteen or six- 
 teen families, comprising fifty odd persons in all, 
 were actually brought over. Instead, however, of 
 having them transported from Havana to Texas by 
 the comparatively direct and easy route via Espir- 
 itu Santo, they were sent in by way of Vera Cruz, 
 and had to make the wearisome march overland 
 from Guantitlan, near the city of Mexico, to their 
 prospective location. A contemporary critic com- 
 plains that the bringing in of the few families in- 
 volved great trouble and expense. 
 
 The government paid the whole cost of the trip 
 and provided for the maintenance of each settler 
 for one year after reaching the appointed spot. 
 The decrees of the viceroy provided for the wel- 
 fare of the newcomers as a father would look after 
 his children, going into endless detail. The gov- 
 ernor was directed to furnish them with stock and 
 to teach them to look after the same, and the most 
 minute instructions were given as to the plan of 
 the villa, the size of the lots, the position of the 
 houses, etc. It is likely that the settlers them- 
 selves knew but little of what was ordered by the 
 decrees. At any rate, they failed to take advan- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 73 
 
 tage of some of them. It was provided that they 
 and their descendants should all be hidalgos, but 
 they do not seem to have made much of the honor ; 
 and, further, their settlement was to have the proud 
 title of " ciudad," or city, but of this also they 
 were deprived. It became in the records the 
 " villa " of San Fernando. 
 
 The Canary Islanders were not the only settlers 
 of the villa. There were a number of people liv- 
 ing around the presidio when they came, and these, 
 together with some families of Tlascalan Indians, 
 helj)ed to swell the population of the new town. 
 Unfortunately they also helped to make a thor- 
 oughly incompatible social mixture, and the dis- 
 cord of their complaint rang to heaven. The real 
 " first settlers," who were there already without 
 cost to the king and by virtue of their own efforts 
 and expense, could not harmonize with the upstart 
 hidalgos from the Canaries. 
 
 To cap the climax of dissension and disorgan- 
 ization there was a constant triangular quarrel of 
 villa, presidio, and mission. The nature of their 
 differences has already been touched upon.^ How 
 their trifling and childish misconduct annoyed the 
 intelligent inspectors sent out by the viceroy from 
 time to time is sufficiently evident from the scoring 
 they got in the reports. 
 
 In the course of time the original friction seems 
 to have disappeared to a large extent. The old 
 and new settlers learned to live more peaceably 
 
 ^ See p. 64. 
 
74 TEXAS 
 
 together, and in 1793 one member of the discord- 
 ant trinity disappeared. The Franciscans at San 
 Antonio de Valero had been gradually ceasing 
 their mission work for lack of material, and in the 
 year mentioned they surrendered the pueblo of 
 which they had been in charge to the parish of 
 San Fernando. The four neighboring missions 
 survived several years longer, either through their 
 temporary escape from the general secularizing 
 decree of 1794, or through their continuance in 
 the condition of parishes ; but they had, in fact, 
 always stood practically apart from the corporate 
 life of the settlement, on which their fortunes had 
 little effect. The modern city includes the ground 
 on which all three of the original elements stood, 
 and it promises to expand ere long over the ruins 
 of the nearest of the neighboring missions ; but 
 there seems little reason to fear that the spirit of 
 commercialism will ever dare to demand for its 
 ewn uses the room they occupy. 
 
 The name the settlement was to bear remained 
 long in doubt. That of San Fernando was applied 
 only to the villa as distinguished from the presidio 
 and the mission ; but as the dwellers in and around 
 them gradually merged into one community, the 
 names Bexar ^ and San Antonio struggled with 
 each other, and the latter finally prevailed. 
 
 1 Or B^jar, 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 
 
 From 1716, when the eastern group of mis- 
 sions was reestablished by Ramon, till 1762, when 
 France surrendered western Louisiana to Spain, 
 the Spanish and French stood facing each other at 
 the northeast corner of Texas in close proximity. 
 There had been no adjustment of their conflicting 
 claims, and the frontiers on both sides had been 
 pushed forward by actual occupation till they were 
 about to meet. From the mission of Adaes to 
 the French fort previously established among the 
 Natchitoches Indians on Red River was only seven 
 leagues. The situation was a constant menace, 
 which soon came to fulfillment in open hostilities. 
 
 After the death of Louis XIV., in 1715, the 
 cordial relations which had existed between France 
 and Spain were interrupted by the regency of the 
 duke of Orleans. This lasted until 1723, when 
 the young Louis XV. assumed the government 
 himself, and the hostility then developed continued 
 for some years thereafter. Orleans, to forestall 
 any effort that might be made by the Boui-bon 
 Philip V. of Spain to assert his hereditary claims 
 to the French throne in case of the death of Louis, 
 
76 TEXAS 
 
 departed from the traditional policy of his nation 
 and formed an alliance against Philip with England, 
 Holland, and the Emperor. In 1719 a French 
 army invaded Spain, and the outbreak of the war 
 was the signal for like movements in the colonies. 
 In May of that year the French attacked Pensa- 
 cola, and in June the Spanish soldiers and mission- 
 aries of Adaes and San Francisco fled to Be jar, 
 leaving their establishments to be plundered and 
 destroyed by the Indians. 
 
 The Spanish documents indicate that the flight 
 was due to an attack made on Adaes by a large 
 confederacy of Indians organized and led by Saint- 
 Denis, but this cannot be true. Indeed, there was 
 probably no attack at all. The ruling authorities 
 in Louisiana did not wish the missionaries to be 
 driven away, and regarded their departure as a 
 most untoward occurrence. Bienville made ag- 
 gressive utterances now and then, but the Com- 
 pany of the Indies that had succeeded Crozat in 
 the proprietorship of the French colony pursued 
 the policy already adojited of keeping the peace 
 and nursing the intercolonial trade. The policy 
 of the company was Saint-Denis's also, and he 
 could have had no part in any attack on the mis- 
 sions. If they were attacked at all, it was by 
 Commandant Blondel of the post at Natchitoches. 
 He was upbraided by La Harpe for having driven 
 away the missionaries in opposition to the purposes 
 of the company, and was reminded that it was im- 
 portant to have the Spanish settled near the French 
 
FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 77 
 
 posts for the sake of trade and of the cattle they 
 furnished ; that, moreover, the missionaries could 
 give no offense, and that they had served as cures 
 at the French fort. And Blondel replied that he 
 had gone to Adaes only to save the mission from 
 the Indians, who would not have failed to take 
 advantage of the outbreak of the Franco-Spanish 
 war to destroy it ; but the padres, not knowing his 
 intentions, had fled precipitately. Blondel did not 
 add the fact that Bienville had ordered him to at- 
 tack Adaes, which might not have excused him to the 
 company. La Harpe then dictated to him a letter 
 to the friars, containing a most humble apology. It 
 explained why he had gone to Adaes, and stated that 
 he had taken possession of their sacred vessels to 
 save them from profanation, but that he would re- 
 store them when requested. Finally he begged the 
 missionaries to return, promising them all possible 
 help. Whether this letter ever reached its destina- 
 tion does not appear, but it found its way into print. 
 The occasion brought into prominence a man of 
 the kind that, if they had been sufficiently numer- 
 ous, might have saved for Spain its hold upon 
 America. This was the Marques de San Miguel 
 de Aguayo. He offered his person and property 
 for the war against the French and was appointed 
 governor of Nueva Estremadura and Nuevas Filipi- 
 nas, or Coahuila and Texas. He then raised and 
 equipped a force of five hundred dragoons ^ and two 
 
 ^ In the old sense of soldiers armed and trained to fight either 
 on horseback or on foot. 
 
78 TEXAS 
 
 companies of cavalry, and in May, 1721, he set out 
 to recover the ground from which the Spanish had 
 fled. How willing- the French were to have them 
 come back, he could scarcely have known. 
 
 Before this Spain had been forced to bow to 
 the will of her enemies, and in 1720 the war with 
 France had closed. Aguayo went, therefore, with 
 instructions to confine himself to the recovery of 
 the province of Texas and putting it in a defensible 
 state, and not to make war on the French. 
 
 The task was easily accomplished. Saint-Denis 
 met Aguayo on the Neches and welcomed him. 
 The Indians gladly received the Spanish, for the 
 business of gift-giving was likely to be more active 
 if the French met with continued competition ; and 
 the old missions were soon reestablished. The dis- 
 tinctive feature of Aguayo's work was the strength- 
 ening of the military defenses of the province. In 
 addition to restoring the presidio of Texas, he added 
 another that stood near Adaes over ajjainst the 
 French fort at Natchitoches and at the most ex- 
 posed point of the eastern group. This new fort 
 he called Pilar, and into it he put one hundred men. 
 On his return to the west early in 1722, he changed 
 the location of the Bejar presidio to a more satis- 
 factory spot, and thereafter he established another 
 at La Bahia,^ on the site of Fort St. Louis, so as to 
 command the only way for ships into Texas then 
 known and used. There he left ninety men. 
 
 The French reply was only a little ineffectual 
 
 ^ Subsequently moved to the San Antonio River. 
 
FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 79 
 
 grumbling and an equally ineffectual attempt to 
 gain a foothold on the Texas coast at Espivitu 
 Santo Bay. Bienville protested against the forti- 
 fication of Adaes, or Pilar, in a letter already men- 
 tioned,^ and argued, with a certain want of either 
 logic or geographical knowledge, that the flight of 
 the superior from Adaes in 1719, before the coming 
 of Blondel, was an acknowledgment that Red River 
 belonged to the French. Going on, Bienville de- 
 clared his intention to oppose, in the interests of 
 his king, this military establishment until he had 
 express orders to allow it. In a report to the 
 French minister of the marine, made a few days 
 later, he explained the state of things on the Texas 
 border and said, in such a way as to suggest that 
 he needed inside information as to colonial policy 
 in Louisiana, tha,t the intention of the Company of 
 the Indies was to oppose the return of the Spanish, 
 either to the Adaes, whence he had driven them in 
 1719, or to the Asinais, and that it had committed 
 the enterprise to Saint-Denis, who had flattered 
 himself that he could secure the help of the Indians. 
 Accordingly, said Bienville, he had issued Saint- 
 Denis orders, which that official did not see fit to fol- 
 low, because he thought the interests of the colony 
 demanded that the Spanish be left among the 
 Asinais for the sake of their cattle and money ; and 
 Saint-Denis had gone so far as to assure the Span- 
 ish commandant that he had nothing to fear from 
 the Indians. On the other hand, this same double- 
 1 Page 47. 
 
80 TEXAS 
 
 dealing Frenchman had told Bienville that he had 
 the word of honor of the commandant not to estab- 
 lish himself at Adaes. Bienville concluded by say- 
 ing that he could do nothing more than to reenforce 
 the garrison at Natchitoches, which had only fifty 
 men ; but that he had issued orders to Saint-Denis 
 to stir np the Indians and get them to refuse the 
 Spanish anything in the way of provisions and to 
 intercept the supplies that might come to them from 
 the Asinais establishment. 
 
 Verily the lot of Bienville was hard. With 
 Beelzebub directing him at one elbow and Mam- 
 mon at the other and the imps uncontrollable, he 
 must often have wished himself either a larger or a 
 smaller devil in this French Inferno. It is impos- 
 sible not to sympathize with him. He played the 
 hero in Louisiana for the sake of France and his 
 king, only to see his own high aspirations crushed 
 by a combination of self-willed and self-seeking 
 utilitarians ; but history will pass its verdict both 
 on him and them. 
 
 The expedition to Espiritu Santo Bay was made 
 by La Harpe in 1721. It was conducted without 
 energy, and had no substantial results. The rea- 
 son assigned for its failure was the unfriendliness 
 of the Indians. 
 
 The Spanish remained at Adaes, and the illicit 
 trade throve and prospered ; and there was only 
 one other time when the question of the Franco- 
 Spanish border excited any special attention. In 
 this case tlie trouble lasted for some years ; and 
 
FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 81 
 
 though the French gave the original occasion, the 
 course of it was confined almost entirely to the Span- 
 ish. In its later aspects, it became a personal affair 
 between two officials, which dragged itself out till 
 it became tiresome even to the Spanish chroniclers. 
 In 1734 Captain Manuel de Sandoval became 
 governor of Texas ; and because of the fact that 
 the Apaches iu the west were much more trouble- 
 some, and apparently more dangerous, than the 
 French on the border, he took up his residence at 
 Bejar, this arrangement being approved by the 
 viceroy. He seems to have been active and efficient 
 in the discharge of his duties ; but in some way he 
 incurred the hostility of the captain of the presidio 
 and the settlers of the villa, and they agitated vari- 
 ous charges against him. That which they found 
 most effective for their purposes was that he had 
 neglected his duty in allowing French aggressions in 
 the east. This charge was based on a very insig- 
 nificant fact. Up to the year 1735 the French fort 
 at Natchitoches had been located on what in times 
 of high water was an island ; but the adjacent 
 houses, fields, etc., extended westward to Arroyo 
 Hondo and a point called La Gran Montana, half 
 way to Adaes. In the year named, on account of 
 the overflows to which the locality of the fort was 
 subject and for other reasons, it was moved a gun- 
 shot or more westward to a house previously occu- 
 pied by a Frenchman, where the erection of new 
 fortifications was beq;un. There was nothin"- in this 
 to arouse the Spanish ; and in view of the fact 
 
82 TEXAS 
 
 that it was practically througli French permission 
 that they were settled in that country at all, their 
 subsequent conduct appears almost amusing. 
 
 Ensign Joseph Gonzalez, the commandant at 
 Adaes, immediately reported the facts to Sandoval, 
 who opposed the removal, and a correspondence with 
 Saint-Denis, then commandant at Natchitoches, be- 
 gan, which lasted through nearly a year. The gist 
 of it is sufficiently contained in the first letter from 
 Gonzalez to Saint-Denis, the reply, and a letter from 
 Saint-Denis to Sandoval. Gonzalez said that he had 
 informed his superiors of the contemplated removal, 
 and had been directed to pray the French to keep 
 within the limits always conceded to France ; that 
 he must demand that they stop the work they had 
 begun, and that he did demand it, for the first time, 
 in the name of his king. Saint-Denis did not wait 
 for three times and out, but announced at once, 
 with sententious brevity, " for the first, the second, 
 and the third time," that he was obeying orders 
 and would continue to obey them. To Sandoval he 
 wrote, as if with less impatience, that the French 
 were the first discoverers of Texas ; that the French 
 settlements west of Red River were there at the 
 time of Aguayo's entrada^ and that neither the 
 marquis nor his successors objected to them ; that 
 in 1718 Ramon was furnished with supplies from 
 Natchitoches ; that the Spanish owed their subse- 
 quent occupation of Adaes and the founding of their 
 missions to Saint-Denis himself ; that the French 
 represented the Natchitoches, who possessed lands 
 
FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 83 
 
 on both sides of Eed River, without objection from 
 the Adaes, whose claim the Spanish had inherited ; 
 that there was no reason why the Spanish shoukl 
 appropriate all the undivided seven leagues between 
 the two forts ; and, finally, that he was acting under 
 superior orders and could not desist, that if he were 
 attacked with arms he would defend himself with 
 them, and that the consequences would rest on him 
 that was to blame. This was a dignified and con- 
 vincing answer. Saint-Denis might not have scored 
 with it on all points before an international tribunal, 
 but it is the best resume of the controversy that the 
 documents afford. And it seems to have settled 
 the matter so far as the French were concerned. 
 The discussion of it thenceforth is relegated to the 
 Spanish. 
 
 Little more needs to be said concerning this epi- 
 sode. In 1736 Sandoval was succeeded as governor 
 by Don Carlos de Franquis, who immediately began 
 an attack on him, using especially the charge as to 
 the removal of the French fort. The attack soon 
 degenerated into a persecution, and before it was 
 over Franquis had to be silenced by a viceregal 
 order. In the course of it, Sandoval was subjected 
 to various outrages ; his papers were seized, he was 
 imprisoned and put in the stocks, and a heavy fine 
 was imposed upon him. At length, however, he 
 succeeded in shaking off his relentless foe, and it is 
 to be hoped that he had no more such experiences. 
 The records, at least, disclose none. 
 
 For a while during the period of this trouble 
 
84 TEXAS 
 
 there was an unusual strictness on the border. All 
 the intercourse with the French was suspended, and 
 business in that quarter must have become very- 
 dull. But this was only temporary. By and by 
 the old illicit commerce was resumed and went on 
 as actively as ever. It could hardly be called 
 smuggling, for that would suggest a degree of con- 
 cealment that was doubtless wanting. It seems to 
 have become the prevailing occupation on the 
 border, and to have attracted all settlers, including 
 both officials and padres. 
 
 As to the matter of limits, it gave no further 
 trouble, except for a momentary protest of the 
 French governor against the establishment of a new 
 Spanish presidio at Orcoquisac on the Trinity, about 
 1756, and in 1762 it was put entirely out of sight 
 for the time by the surrender of western Louisiana 
 to Spain. But with the Louisiana Purchase there 
 was a resurrection of it, which in its proper place 
 must claim special attention. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 
 
 It is sad to follow the course o£ breaking fortune 
 or of social and political decay, or even of that long 
 drawn out existence in which survival is the out- 
 come of a mild environment rather than of fitness. 
 This, however, is a duty that the historian of Span- 
 ish colonial enterprise cannot avoid ; and his task is 
 rendered more unpleasant by the fact that much of 
 the energy whose workings he must trace was born 
 of the noblest impulses of humanity. In the "evil 
 dreams " lent by Nature, from which we do not yet 
 seem prepared to wake, the race is to the swift and 
 the battle to the strong ; and if there is one cry that 
 rings from every page of history and biography, it 
 is that weakness and incapacity are punished more 
 than actual misdeed. It will not be so forever, 
 and that it now is serves only to show how far our 
 practice lags behind our ideal of justice. 
 
 For more than a century of almost undisturbed 
 possession Spain failed to people Texas, or even to 
 Christianize its Indians. The missions were multi- 
 plied, but with all the devotion of their ministry 
 they were ineffective. For the Apache and Co- 
 manche of the west they were impossible, and 
 
86 TEXAS 
 
 among the gentler and more easily domesticated 
 Indians of the east they could claim little genuine 
 success. Even had the soldiers not done so much 
 to alienate the Indians and paralyze the efforts of 
 the missionaries, the difficulties of the work must 
 have been too great to overcome. The method of 
 confining the natives, accustomed to a free and 
 wandering life, in pueblos in a condition much akin 
 to slavery, and forcing them through a tiresome 
 round of formal services and of manual labor, was 
 hardly calculated to make them love either Christ 
 or the Spaniards. They held together while the 
 gifts were sufficiently abundant, but when these 
 gave out they ran away, and the soldiers were little 
 inclined to take the trouble either to hold or to 
 recapture them. 
 
 Almost from the beginning of the work in Texas 
 there seem to have been some among the Spanish 
 who distrusted the system of colonizing by means 
 of missions and presidios, and it was not long until 
 there were very positive and outspoken objections 
 to it. In 1727-8, General Pedro Rivera made a 
 round of inspection among the establishments in 
 Texas. He seems to have found them all in bad 
 condition, and he recommended that the presidio 
 of Texas ^ should be suppressed, and that the num- 
 ber of soldiers in the other three belonging to the 
 province should be reduced nearly one half. In 
 1729 this was done, and at once there ensued a hot 
 controversy over the matter. The missionaries pro- 
 ^ Or Dolores, as the documents sometimes call it. 
 
THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 87 
 
 tested vehemently, the governor backed them, and 
 Rivera replied. Not being able to secure the resto- 
 ration of the presidio of Texas, which they claimed 
 ought to have been strengthened rather than sup- 
 pressed, the Queretaran friars obtained leave to 
 move their three missions immediately under its 
 protection from the east to Bcjar. This change 
 was made in 1731, but the quarrel went on. Re- 
 peated inspections by military officials resulted, 
 almost as a matter of course, in reports and recom- 
 mendations adverse to the friars, and in further 
 contraction of missionary effort. So far as this 
 policy was based on a recognition of the futility of 
 attempting to civilize the Indians by force, it may 
 be regarded as wise ; but one cannot avoid sympa- 
 thizing with the missionaries as against the soldiers. 
 Their views appear sounder, and their allegations 
 more truthful. The provocations they had to en- 
 dure from the vicious presidials and mission guards, 
 who systematically mistreated the Indians, must 
 have been enough to destroy all their patience ; 
 and it seems strange, in fact, that they held on as 
 faithfully as they did. 
 
 One of the arguments used against the system 
 of colonizing by missions and presidios was that 
 experience had proved the results to be wholly 
 incommensurate with the cost. The auditor Alta- 
 mira, writing in 1744, asserted that the total ex- 
 pense to the royal treasury of the colonizing work 
 in Texas had been three million pesos, and that the 
 annual cost of keeping up the establishments was 
 
88 TEXAS 
 
 then sixty-three thousand, but that there were fewer 
 settlers than in 1722. In his opinion the treasury- 
 would never be relieved from the burden — not to 
 speak of getting a revenue from the province — by 
 means of the three presidios in Texas. They had 
 been located with too little regard to the attraction 
 of settlers. Altamira suggested the plan of using 
 the money spent on the presidios to pay the expenses, 
 for eight or ten years at the outset, of colonists who 
 would undertake to protect themselves. In this 
 way he thought Texas could be made at length a 
 revenue-producing province, but his f)lan does not 
 seem to have had any consideration. 
 
 The courage and persistence of the friars were 
 not diminished by opposition or ill treatment, and 
 when the Lipan Apaches asked for a mission in 
 1745, they were disposed to try it ; but the murder 
 of one of their number by the Indians caused the 
 postponement of the enterprise for several years. 
 In 1744 they had got permission to establish three 
 missions along the river San Xavier, on the west- 
 ern frontier of the traversed region ; and by means 
 of unaccustomed heljD from a military inspector they 
 had succeeded in having this frontier strengthened 
 soon after by the addition of a presidio with a gar- 
 rison of fifty men. But Indian converts were hard 
 to gather, the soldiers were unmanageable, and the 
 work did not prosper. This led the president of 
 the missions to propose a scheme somewhat like 
 that of Altamira already mentioned, and which re- 
 ceived just as little consideration. Finallj^ when 
 
THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 89 
 
 the establishment of the San Saba mission was in 
 view and it was proposed to transfer the San Xavier 
 Indians to San Antonio, they all ran away, and the 
 new foundations were abandoned. 
 
 The Apache mission project was realized in 1757. 
 The government founded among them on the San 
 Saba River a presidio named San Luis de Amaril- 
 las, with a force of one hundred men, and the mis- 
 sion, which was located a league and a half away, 
 was established at the expense of an enthusiastic 
 supporter of the Franciscans, Pedro Romero de 
 Terreros. He had gone so far as to offer to pay 
 all the cost of as many as twenty missions for three 
 years, but the drain on his estate was never required. 
 He did not have to pay the expenses of even one 
 very long. The Apaches (Lipans) were at war 
 with the Comanches, and had accepted the mission 
 for the sake of Spanish help. But, as might have 
 been expected, it was not long before the Coman- 
 ches came in search of the new establishments. 
 They were said to be two thousand strong ; and 
 while they did not attack the presidio, they massa- 
 cred all the inmates of the mission, except two or 
 three that escaped. 
 
 The mission had been an evident failure from 
 the time of its establishment. The Apaches re- 
 fused to form a pueblo for it, at first excusing 
 themselves under various pretenses, and finally say- 
 ing openly, that while they wished to be friends 
 with the Spanish, they preferred their wandering 
 life. Still it had been argued that the erection of 
 
90 TEXAS 
 
 the presidio should go on, because its abandonment 
 might be regarded by the Indians as indicative of 
 discouragement and cowardice, and cause them to 
 despise the Spanish arms. So the post had been 
 held, aud the unhappy padres had remained to 
 meet their fate. 
 
 This raid provoked a retaliatory expedition 
 against the Comanches, which was organized on a 
 scale rather extensive for the colonizers of Texas. 
 The force consisted of five hundred Spanish and a 
 number of Apaches. They marched into the Co- 
 manche country, and easily found their enemies ; 
 but these were, according to Spanish reports, six 
 thousand strong, and they were shut up in a fort 
 over which waved a French banner.^ One must 
 suppose that the Spaniards had lost that fiery cour- 
 age and appetite for the slaughter of savages which 
 their chroniclers attribute to the followers of Cortes 
 and De Soto ; for when the Indians sallied forth 
 to the attack in military order and armed, not with 
 the usual bow and arrow, but with musket, sabre, 
 and lance, the invaders fled with great precipitancy. 
 And shaming still more the traditions of the con- 
 qidstadores, they left their baggage and six pieces 
 of artillery in possession of the Comanches. Such 
 was the end of the costly and boasted expedition 
 that was to humble the pride of the Indian foe. 
 
 Thenceforth the missionary activity rapidly sub- 
 sided, and no other colonizing impulse was substi- 
 tuted. The reports and recommendations of the 
 ^ This must not be taken as proving French complicity. 
 
THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 91 
 
 successive inspectors serve as degree marks to in- 
 dicate the decline of the colony. In 1767 the 
 Marques de Rubi made an official visit of inspection 
 to the Texas establishments and reported them to 
 be generally in bad condition. One noteworthy 
 recommendation he made was that the Apaches be 
 trusted no longer ; that the idea of dealing with 
 them by means of missions should be given up, and 
 that they should be forced into subjection by using 
 if necessary the Comanches against them ; and that 
 those of them who were captured should be carried 
 not to mission pueblos, but to the interior of 
 Mexico, and that the tribe should be dissolved. 
 
 In the same year, 1767, two new missions that 
 had been founded for the Apaches on the upj>er 
 San Antonio were abandoned, and after the visit 
 of Rubi both governor and viceroy found it hard 
 to keep either the missionaries or the settlers in 
 the province. The changes made as the outcome 
 of the visit did not render the task less difficult. 
 In 1772 Pilar and Orcoquisac, the two presidios 
 of the east, under whose protection the Zacatecan 
 friars had kept up their missions after the Quere- 
 tarans had removed their three to Bejar, were sup- 
 pressed, and that of San Luis at San Saba was 
 moved into Coahuila. Thereupon the Zacatecans 
 also had to retreat west. This gave the district 
 from which the province took its name and in 
 which its earliest Spanish settlements were located, 
 the country of the Tejas Indians, back to the na- 
 tives. The frontier of actual occuj)ation receded 
 
92 TEXAS 
 
 to Bejar and La Bahia ; and but for the attach- 
 ment of some eastern settlers to their accustomed 
 locality, the Spanish hold on it might have been 
 completely broken. A few, however, of the refu- 
 gees longed for their old haunts, and by and by 
 they went back, led by Antonio Gil y Barbo, and 
 formed on the Trinity a settlement to which they 
 gave the name Bucareli. About 1778 they moved 
 to the neighborhood of the old mission of Guada- 
 lupe founded by Ramon in 1716, and there they 
 built for their protection the Old Stone Fort, whose 
 recent demolition has been already noted.^ 
 
 Meanwhile the Queretarans had given up their 
 missions to the Zacatecans and retired from Texas 
 altogether. Then in 1778 came a new inspector, 
 General Croix, the general commandant of the 
 north Mexican States, which had just before been 
 organized into what were called the Provincias 
 Internas. He recommended the conc^tration of 
 all the establishments at Bejar. The only thing 
 that would have been left for another inspector to 
 recommend would have been complete withdrawal 
 from the province ; but for some reason the recom- 
 mendations of Croix were not considered. 
 
 Even the reports of the friars themselves could 
 not make a good showing for the Texas work. 
 Padre Morfi, who was along with Inspector Croix 
 in 1778, said that the establishments at Bejar had 
 cost the king eighty thousand pesos and would not 
 sell for eighty. The statistics, as well as they can 
 
 ^ See p. 61. 
 
THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 93 
 
 yet be put together, indicate that there were two 
 thousand to twenty-five hundred Indians attached 
 to the missions in 1762, four hundred and fifty to 
 five hundred in 1785, and about the same number 
 in 1793. The character of the Indios reducidos 
 seems meanwhile to have failed more rapidly than 
 their numbers, and towards the last they were in 
 the most wretched condition from nearly every 
 point of view. At length, in 1794, came the order 
 for the secularization of the missions, and the pro- 
 cess began at once, though it was not complete for 
 some years. The support from the royal treasurj' 
 was withdrawn, and the mission lands were dis- 
 tributed among the Indians, who were turned over 
 to the ministration of the regular, or secular 
 clergy. 
 
 The expiring flicker of missionary energy came 
 with the founding of Refugio, below La Bahia, to- 
 wards the coast, in 1791. Twenty years later sev- 
 eral of the missions had still a few Indians round 
 them, but in 1812 they were finally suppressed and 
 the Indians dispersed by the Spanish government. 
 
 One generalization should be made in passing. 
 With the French on their eastern border the Span- 
 ish had practically no trouble. The danger from 
 that quarter was just enough to stimulate them to 
 take possession of Texas, in which they were as- 
 sisted rather than hindered by the French. The 
 real trouble they had was with the Indians. It was 
 among those right around Bejar and in the eastern 
 districts that their mission work succeeded best. 
 
94 TEXAS . 
 
 But the San Antonio group of settlements was con- 
 tinually in peril from the Apaches, whom no mis- 
 sion could affect. It was B^jar, and not Adaes, that 
 required strengthening, and soldiers or determined 
 settlers were needed more than priests. There was 
 also great clanger from the Comanches, but this 
 was not realized till after the ill-starred attempt to 
 Christianize the Apaches. When Spain lost Texas, 
 along with Mexico, it at least got rid of some seri- 
 ous trouble. 
 
 As the declining tendency of the Spanish gov- 
 ernment in the northern and remoter provinces of 
 Mexico became more manifest, an effort was made 
 to check it by revising the organization. In 1776 
 these provinces, which were called the Provincias 
 Internas, were put in charge of a general command- 
 ant with almost complete palatine authority and 
 directly responsible to the court at Madrid. Gen- 
 eral Croix, who made the inspection of 1778, was 
 the first to hold the place. In 1785 the authority 
 of the viceroy was again extended over these pro- 
 vinces, and they were divided into an eastern, a 
 central, and a western group, each with its own 
 military commandant. In 1787 they were formed 
 into two groups, the eastern and the western. In 
 1793 they were again consolidated under a govern- 
 ment indejoendent of the viceroy, except for two or 
 three provinces that were restored to his jurisdic- 
 tion. Finally, by an order of 1804, carried out in 
 1812, the old arrangement of an eastern and a 
 western district was restored. 
 
'Of. /OS 
 
 Cfr 
 
 ■J v^ 
 
 HE LAS 
 
 \ 
 
 PaOYiMCIAS ISTEHHAS 
 
 BE 
 
 for foi /(js /oif 
 
 ^ 
 
 ]\I;ip No. 2. Tlic K.istcni Int.'inal Piovinccs of Mexico, sli 
 (From a tracing of an original ni tlie Arcliivei 
 
"" ''" 'f 9\ 97 gC ^^ 
 
 loniularios of t.lie Spanish Province of Texas, 
 fliciallj- promulgated ni 1816.) 
 
THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 95 
 
 These changes remind one strongly of those 
 made in the Roman Empire as its dissolution 
 approached. They were, however, less rigorous 
 and systematic than those of the Eoman emperors. 
 There was a want of complete and definite reor- 
 ganization with each change extending to all de- 
 partments of the government. The failure in this 
 respect left some jurisdictions divided while others 
 were not, and the result was the intricate and hope- 
 lessly confused system that has already been de- 
 scribed.^ 
 
 The weakening of the Spanish hold in Texas was 
 but the prelude to its giving way. With the revo- 
 lutionary movement that freed the South American 
 republics and Mexico — and Texas along with it, 
 of course — from Spain, there is no reason to speak 
 at length here. In its Mexican aspect, this revo- 
 lution began with the rising of Hidalgo in 1810. 
 It was caused by various grievances of the Mexi- 
 cans, one of the most important being the law 
 which gave native Spaniards superior privileges in 
 Mexico to the people of that country themselves, 
 even to those born of Spanish parents. The work 
 begun by Hidalgo was carried on after his death 
 by Morelos, and, when he in turn had been cap- 
 tured and executed, by a niimber of less promi- 
 nent leaders, until it was apparently stamped out 
 in 1817. But the revolutionists were only driven 
 into holes and corners and forced to keep quiet for 
 two or three years. Then they became, all at once, 
 
 ^ See p. 63. 
 
96 TEXAS 
 
 as bold and active as ever. The signal for this 
 new outbreak was the news of the Spanish revolu- 
 tion of 1820. This time the movement was suc- 
 cessful, and in 1821 Mexico became an independent 
 nation. 
 
 In Texas the operation of this revolutionary ac- 
 tivity was to invite filibusters into the province. 
 The first wave of the revolution had attracted to 
 that quarter the most important of the filibuster- 
 ing expeditions from the United States, and the 
 last efforts of the insurrectionists, before the tem- 
 porary suppression in 1817, had some diversion in 
 their favor created by another such invasion. This 
 summary will show sufficiently, for the present, the 
 connection of Texas with the movement. But the 
 effects of the separation from Spain were of much 
 consequence ; it dovibtless facilitated the Anglo- 
 American colonization and simplified the revolu- 
 tion of 1836 materially. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 
 
 The severance from Spain was a great improve- 
 ment. It was of incalculable advantage to Mexico 
 itself, which has since attained a development of 
 resources and a degree of civilization that could 
 not possibly have come to it as a Spanish colony. 
 As for Texas, the change enabled it to gather 
 strength more easily for its own self-assertion when 
 the time should come. It had endured the yoke 
 of Spain, with almost passive acquiescence, for 
 nearly a hundred years ; but with Mexico it had 
 patience for no more than fifteen. It was, how- 
 ever, a very different Texas with which Mexico 
 had to deal. During these fifteen years the mur- 
 mur of quarrels among presidial, missionary, and 
 vecino and of the appeals for help, which was 
 heard by the viceroy but rarely and by the king 
 almost never, changed to the clamor of those who 
 were accustomed to enforce their rights and in case 
 of necessity to help themselves. 
 
 Meanwhile the Mexican leaders, unused to such 
 bad political manners, and not understanding the 
 people whom the ill fortune of Mexico had brought 
 within its boundaries, gave no great heed to Texas, 
 
98 TEXAS 
 
 but went on with their petty game of putting down 
 one and setting up another, until it becomes almost 
 impossible to follow. Iturbide, the chief agent in 
 freeing Mexico from Spain, soon threw off his 
 sheep's clothing of liberator and established him- 
 self as emperor, but he paid the price of the 
 ambitious for his brief season of authority. After 
 a confused struggle the republicans succeeded in 
 expelling him from Mexico in 1823, and on his 
 return the next year he was captured and shot. 
 
 On the expulsion of Iturbide a provisional gov- 
 ernment was set up which lasted for about a year 
 and a half ; but the confusion continued, — in fact 
 it has prevailed nearly the whole time since, until 
 the firm, strong hand of Diaz has suppressed it, — 
 and the hurly-burly of rising and falling heroes 
 of the moment, the storm of vituperation, and the 
 melee of actual fighting grew fairly indescribable. 
 Out of it emerged in 1824 a nominal republic, the 
 form of which was patterned mainly after that of 
 the United States ; but the essence of It shows 
 clearly the indelible leopard spots of Spain. Its 
 constitution, which became the standard about 
 which the Mexican Liberals afterwards rallied, was 
 fashioned partly on the model of that framed at 
 Philadelphia in 1787, and partly In imitation of the 
 one given to Spain in 1812. It certainly illustrates 
 in a high degree the revolutionary progress towards 
 the establishment of human rights which had been 
 made since 1789, but it serves also to mark the in- 
 completeness of the process. While it destroyed 
 
MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 99 
 
 many landmarks of hoary privilege and time-hon- 
 ored abuse, it established the Roman Catholic reli- 
 gion, forbidding the exercise of any other, and it 
 could not go the length of adopting what was then 
 specially reverenced in England and the United 
 States as the great bulwark of individual freedom 
 
 — trial by jury. 
 
 Practically the Mexican Republic was centralized 
 from its origin. Unlike the colonies of Great 
 Britain in America, which had no common superior 
 except in the mother country, the Mexican provinces 
 had been subject from the time of the conquest to 
 a local central authority that was clothed with sub- 
 stantially all the power of the Spanish crown. It 
 had been their ordinary experience to be neglected 
 and left to guard their own interests as best they 
 could ; but this had not begotten in them any desire 
 for local self-government, nor any real conception 
 of manly self-dependence. It was, in fact, between 
 two failures of the Spanish government, the one to 
 take care of them, and the other to teach them to 
 care for themselves, that the prosperity of the colo- 
 nies fell to the ground. 
 
 What genuine republicanism there was in Mexico 
 
 — and there was no little — was drawn by and by 
 into a struggle against centralism, which the pseudo- 
 republicans and would-be tyrants were seeking to 
 promote for their own purposes. Of this latter 
 class the most conspicuous example was Santa 
 Anna, who after obtaining general support as the 
 champion of popular rights began a movement to 
 
100 TEXAS 
 
 overthrow the constitution of 1824 and set liiinself 
 up as supreme despot. Tlie Texas Revolution was 
 only a whirlpool on the outer edge of the resulting 
 cyclone ; but into this whirlpool the " Napoleon of 
 the West " was drawn, and by it he was over- 
 whelmed, just as success was apparently crowning 
 his efforts. 
 
 This rapid survey has carried the reader forward 
 over ground that must now be covered more slowly 
 and with more strongly focussed attention. 
 
 In accordance with what might have been ex- 
 pected from the really centralized status of Mexico 
 at the outset, the general government, not seeming 
 to think of itself at all as formed by the aggregation 
 of the provinces, provided, in the acta constitutlva 
 of 1824,^ for their erection into states. One of 
 these states was composed of Nuevo Leon, Coa- 
 huila, and Texas. Soon afterwards Nuevo Leon 
 was made a separate state ; but Texas, in spite of 
 all its efforts, remained a dependency of Coahuila 
 until the revolution begun in 1835. 
 
 Some of the new states were a little slow in get- 
 ting on their feet. That of Coahuila and Texas 
 had a congress assembled at Saltillo in August, 
 1824, but it did not adopt a constitution for itself 
 till 1827. This constitution provided that, while 
 the sovereignty of the state was in the people com- 
 
 ^ A provisional constitution promnlgated January 21, 1824. The 
 constitution of 1824 was put into effect one provision after another 
 as they were framed, and the instrument was promulgated in its 
 entirety without popular ratification, October 4. 
 
MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 101 
 
 posing it, they were not to exercise that sovereignty 
 except as the constitution provided. Such was the 
 extraordinary principle on which was oi'ganized this 
 tribe of Young-Men- Afraid-of-Themselves ! 
 
 By the constitution of 1827 the state of Coahuila 
 and Texas was divided into three departments : 
 Saltillo, Monclova, and Texas ; and afterwards 
 Parras was cut off from Saltillo and made a fourth. 
 The congress of the state was to have twelve mem- 
 bers, the apportionment of Texas being two. These 
 congressmen were to be chosen not by popular 
 vote, but by electors. Roman Catholicism was to be 
 the only religion tolerated, children born of slaves 
 were to be free, and the introduction of slaves into 
 the state was to cease within six months from the 
 time the constitution should be published. The 
 governor, who was chosen by popular vote, was to 
 appoint the head official, or political chief, in each 
 department. 
 
 The new " Federal Republic " of Mexico moved 
 off on its career under the constitution of 182-4 with 
 Guadalupe Victoria and Nicolas Bravo respectively 
 as president and vice-president. Soon afterwards 
 the working of its politics was greatly complicated 
 by invoking the agency of secret societies. For 
 this purpose Free Masonry was used. Immediately 
 after the overthrow of Iturbide the republicans in 
 favor of centralization were enrolled, for the most 
 part, in Scottish rite lodges, which went zealously 
 into politics. As an offset to these was organized 
 about 1825 a new Masonic political party of federal 
 
102 TEXAS 
 
 and more purely democratic principles, whose ad- 
 herents were formed into lodges of the Yorkish 
 rite. These rapidly obtained the upper hand of the 
 £Jscoceses, as the Scottish rite Masons were called, 
 whose leaders began to desert them in large num- 
 bers and go over to the Yorhinos ; but among 
 those who held on to the Escoceses was Santa 
 Anna, as well as Vice-President Bravo. In 1827 
 the Escoceses began to call themselves by the new 
 name of Novenarios, because of a plan of gather- 
 ing recruits for their party by nines which they had 
 adopted ; and late in the same year, in anticipation 
 of a Yorhino movement to destroy their order, they 
 issued a manifesto demanding the suppression of 
 secret societies, stricter adherence to the constitu- 
 tion, and the dismissal of the existing ministry and 
 the United States minister Poinsett, who were iden- 
 tified with the Yorhinos. An abortive effort fol- 
 lowed to support this declaration with arms, and 
 the sequel was the banishment of the leaders of the 
 Escoceses^ Bravo among them, and the practical 
 ruin of the party, 
 
 A new presidential election came on in September, 
 1828, and Gomez Pedraza was elected president 
 and Anastasio Bustamante vice-president ; but the 
 partisans of Vicente Guerrero, the defeated candi- 
 date for president, attempted an uprising under 
 Santa Anna at Perote. It was a weak effort, and 
 Santa Anna with all his force was about to be cap- 
 tured, when an insurrection against the ministry in 
 the citv of Mexico drew away the government troops 
 
MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 103 
 
 and saved him. The result of this outbreak in the 
 city was the flight of Pedraza, and about a month 
 later Guerrero was elected to succeed Victoria ; 
 and when the term of the latter ended on April 1, 
 1829, Guerrero was duly installed. 
 
 All parties were now too far away from their 
 constitutional moorings for any semblance of orderly 
 government. Under the existing circumstances it 
 was impossible for any one but a man of prudence 
 and decision to rule the country, and Guerrero had 
 neither of these qualities. One success that he en- 
 joyed ought, with wise management, to have given 
 him all the prestige needed for his work. In the 
 summer of 1829 the Spanish sent an expedition to 
 reconquer Mexico, which captured Tampico and set 
 the whole nation in great fear. Guerrero was 
 invested with dictatorial powers, but the Spanish 
 force was defeated by his generals Santa Anna and 
 Terdn. The universal rejoicing seemed for the mo- 
 ment to indicate that the troubles of the president 
 were over, but they had only begun. 
 
 In the course of this affair Guerrero had taken 
 a step which deserves notice because of its special 
 bearing on Texas. He had been induced by one 
 of his supporters, Torn el, to issue a decree on Sep- 
 tember 15, 1829, abolishing slavery. Tornel, in a 
 book of his published later, stated that the aim of 
 this was to erect a barrier against further immigra- 
 tion from the United States, the consequences of 
 which the Mexican leaders were then beginning to 
 foresee and to dread very much. The decree had 
 
104 TEXAS 
 
 no effect in Mexico south of the Rio Grande, where 
 slavery under the name hardly existed at all ; and 
 as to how it affected Texas, the discussion will come 
 more conveniently farther along. 
 
 In the decree conferring dictatorial powers on 
 Guerrero at the time of the Spanish invasion, the 
 ambitious and dissembling Bustamante found the 
 means to overthrow his chief and possess himself 
 of the presidency. Assuming the role, which is 
 always open to the demagogue, of preserver of the 
 constitution and liberator of the people, in Decem- 
 ber, 1829, he stirred up an insurrection against 
 Guerrero, who weakly abandoned the capital and 
 left the way open for Bustamante to claim and 
 exercise the presidential authority. February 14, 
 1831, the unfortunate real president was captured 
 and shot. During the interval Santa Anna and 
 others had held out for him a while, but finally sub- 
 mitted to Bustamante. In Mexican history, how- 
 ever, Guerrero has been placed among the enshrined 
 heroes of the Republic. 
 
 For a time it looked as if the country were tired 
 of revolution, and Bustamante would be allowed to 
 govern it in peace, but in 1832 everything was boil- 
 ing again. In January of that year the troops at 
 Vera Cruz demanded the dismissal of the ministry, 
 and invited Santa Anna to lead them in enforcing 
 the demand. Then followed a bloody campaign 
 between the two sides lasting nearly through the 
 year, and being brought to an end in November 
 by an agreement according to which Pedraza was 
 
MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 105 
 
 to fill out the remnant of his unexpired term. 
 Through all this series of kaleidoscopic changes it 
 was somehow remembered that he had once been 
 elected to serve four years dating from April 1, 
 1829. 
 
 While Bustamante was in power there was 
 passed another decree affecting the interests of 
 Texas. It was that of April 6, 1830, which for- 
 bade further entry into the frontier states of Mex- 
 ico of colonists from adjacent foreign countries. 
 This decree was due to the initiative of Lucas Ala- 
 man, secretary of relations. ^ It may be regarded as 
 the first cause of serious trouble leading towards 
 the Texas Revolution. It was also under Busta- 
 mante, during the troubles of 1832, that Texas was 
 first drawn into the current of Mexican revolution- 
 ary politics. 
 
 April 1, 1833, the administration of Pedraza 
 ended, and he was succeeded by Santa Anna as 
 president, with Gomez Farias as vice-president. 
 For the next three years the history of Mexico is 
 even more confused than in the previous foui-, and 
 it is marked by a peculiar mixture of tragedy and 
 comedy. The comedy consisted in the repeated 
 vain efforts of Santa Anna to sacrifice Farias on 
 the altar of reform, while he himself was seeking 
 his opportunity as the champion of its enemies. 
 The tragedy lay in his success at last, and in his 
 driving Mexico through blood and fire uncon- 
 sciously to her own humiliation. 
 
 ^ That is, of interior and exterior, or home and foreign rela- 
 tions. 
 
106 TEXAS 
 
 The new administration opened with loud calls 
 from its supporters for reforms that should sub- 
 ordinate the military and ecclesiastical to the civil 
 authority. Santa Anna stayed away from the capi- 
 tal with the deliberate intention, it was claimed, of 
 avoiding the opposition that such reforms would be 
 likely to provoke, and left the initiation of the work 
 to Farias. In about six weeks, when the agitation 
 was getting warm, he assumed his office ; but a 
 few days later he marched off to put down some 
 revolutionists and left Farias again in charge. 
 Then Santa Anna was captured — doubtless accord- 
 ing to a prearranged scheme — by his own troops, 
 who became revolutionists for the moment, and was 
 proclaimed dictator in spite of himself. Thereupon 
 the leaders nearly all ran away from the capital to 
 join him, and a rising occurred in the city ; but 
 Farias got together a handful of militia and put 
 down the disturbance. His force grew rapidly, 
 and Santa Anna saw that the farce had turned 
 into a fiasco. He had to escape and try another 
 plan. 
 
 For a few days Santa Anna was in the discharge 
 of his presidential duties again, and then he under- 
 took another campaign against the insurgents, who 
 this time were forced to capitulate. He next played 
 the president a few days more, and then in Decem- 
 ber, 1833, he retired — for his health's sake, as he 
 claimed — to his estate, where he remained some 
 four months. 
 
 In April, 1834, he judged the time was ripe, so 
 
MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 107 
 
 he proceeded to the capital and took final charge 
 of the government. The reaction against reform 
 had developed into a strong movement in favor of 
 religion, privilege, and centralization. It led to a 
 declaration in May, 1834, by the force stationed at 
 Cuernavaca, of principles in accord with this move- 
 ment, and a call for Santa Anna to lead in enfor- 
 cing them. He accepted the call and ruled as dic- 
 tator till January, 1835, when he retired again to 
 his estate, leaving one of his henchmen, General 
 Barragan, as president ad interim. Meanwhile he 
 had called a congress. 
 
 During his active work as dictator, Santa Anna 
 had dissolved the national congress, as well as those 
 of the states, and after his retirement the congress 
 he had called kept up the work of centralization. 
 In October, 1835, it decreed the abolition of the 
 federal system and enacted a statute for the pro- 
 visional organization of a completely centralized 
 government, the states being turned into depart- 
 ments. 
 
 Against this overthrow of the constitution of 
 1824 Texas alone held out. The two states of 
 Zacatecas and Coahuila-Texas had resisted the 
 earlier centralizing measures of the national gov- 
 ernment ; but in April the legislature of Coahuila 
 and Texas adjourned to escape dissolution by the 
 soldiers of General Cos, and in May, 1835, the re- 
 sistance of Zacatecas was crushed by Santa Anna 
 in a bloody battle. It was only in Texas that con- 
 tumelious resistance continued, but that far-away 
 
108 TEXAS 
 
 section had to wait a little for its chastisement on 
 the convenience of Santa Anna. By and by he 
 came and saw, but did not conquer. On the Texas 
 stone was broken the would-be arbiter of the des- 
 tinies of Mexico. 
 
 Among the other troubles of Barragan, the presi- 
 dent ad interim^ was an attempt made by General 
 Jose Antonio Meji'a to overthrow the existing 
 regime with the help of a shipload of people whom 
 he had brought from New Orleans to Tampico, 
 most of whom afterwards claimed — though with 
 some evidence to the contrary — that they thought 
 they were simply emigrants bound for Texas. The 
 expedition was a disastrous failure, and it deserves 
 notice here only because it has some significance 
 for the history of Texas, which will appear far- 
 ther on. 
 
 This general, and perhaps in some degrees tedi- 
 ous, survey of the history of Mexico has been given 
 in order to make clear the genesis of the revolution 
 of 1836. The most essential cause of this revolu- 
 tion was doubtless in the conflict between two in- 
 harmonious varieties of civilization, independently 
 of any accident of Mexican policy ; but the occa- 
 sion for it — a fact which too many writers on the 
 subject have failed to explain — was a movement 
 that began with the national government of Mexico 
 and spread triumphantly until it reached the north- 
 eastern frontier. There it was interrupted by com- 
 ing upon a sad patch of new cloth in the old gar- 
 
MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 109 
 
 meut, a Texas of which neither Frenchman nor 
 Spaniard in the earlier days had ever dreamed. 
 
 It now becomes necessary to explain how this new 
 Texas took the place of that with which we have 
 hitherto, except for a few references, been deal- 
 ing. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 
 
 During the century in which Spain enjoyed the 
 opportunity to colonize Texas, only to prove its in- 
 capacity for the work, had gradually risen the storm 
 that was to sweep the Mexican successors of the 
 Spaniard from that land. But it first gathered, as 
 it were, behind the mountain. Want of Sj^anish 
 strength and energy at the begiiming had suffered 
 the stronger French to intrude themselves between 
 Mexico and the Enoflish on the Atlantic coast. 
 This intrusion, however, can be regarded only in 
 the light of an advantage to Spain in its efforts at 
 colonial expansion ; for while France strove with 
 one hand to keep back the English, with the other 
 she beckoned the Spanish on to the Sabine. 
 
 Time removed the French buffer, and the danger 
 became at once apparent. After 1763 England 
 and Spain were face to face at the great central 
 river ; and if France had not been able to keep her 
 old enemies from breaking over the Alleghanies, it 
 was abundantly evident that Spain could not pre- 
 vent them from crossing the Mississippi. There 
 was another turn or two of the wheel, and the 
 boundary was at the Sabine ; and one or two more 
 and it had reached the Rio Grande. 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 111 
 
 In front of the steadily advancing mass of Anglo- 
 Americans went the scouts and flying columns. 
 First were the adventurers who pushed forward 
 singly or in bands to spy out and perchance in some 
 measure to enjoy the land, and then followed the 
 hordes of more steady-going colonists, seeking for 
 themselves new homes under better economic condi- 
 tions. This last was just the kind of a movement 
 that Altamira had wished to promote on the part of 
 the Spanish in 1744, but he addressed an unappre- 
 . ciative government. It was the certain herald of 
 a revolution more disastrous to Mexico than the 
 worst of its selfish politicians would consciously 
 have risked. 
 
 When the Anglo-Americans first entered Texas 
 the records do not disclose. There is proof of their 
 presence as scattered settlers, especially in the 
 eastern part, considerably before the end of the 
 eighteenth century, but how or when they came 
 there seems to be nothing to show. The first re- 
 corded Anglo-American entry is Nolan's expedition, 
 which took place during the years 1799-1801. 
 
 Just why Nolan invaded Texas is not known 
 with absolute certainty, for the evidence relative to 
 it is not entirely free from suspicion. He was a 
 jirotege of General James Wilkinson, commander- 
 in-chief of the United States army, and Wilkinson, 
 though himself secretly a pensioner of Spain, was 
 ready to further any enterprise that might be di- 
 rected against Louisiana or Mexico. These facts 
 suggest that Nolan may have had his cue from 
 
112 TEXAS 
 
 Wilkinson. It has been surmised that President 
 Jefferson had a hand in the matter. If so, he must 
 have used Wilkinson's agency. The best support 
 for inferences like this lies in the fact that a report 
 on Texas, such as Nolan might have been able to 
 make if he had returned alive, would have been quite 
 useful either to Jefferson or to Wilkinson ; and the 
 relations of Wilkinson with Jefferson on the one 
 hand and Nolan on the other were such as might 
 have been easily used to secure it. 
 
 There is, however, considerable source material 
 bearing on the purposes of the expedition. Accord- 
 ing to the story of Ellis Bean, who was a member 
 of the party, Nolan had been carrying on for some 
 years a trade — illicit, of course — with the Spanish 
 in San Antonio, and simply wished to go into that 
 country again ; the implication being that it was 
 for trading purposes. The archives of Mexico, as 
 the pertinent documents they contain are summa- 
 rized by a writer in the " Texas Almanac " for 1868, 
 show the following facts relative to the aims of 
 Nolan : — 
 
 In July, 1797, he obtained a passport from the 
 governor of Louisiana to go to Texas for the pur- 
 pose of buying horses for a Louisiana regiment. He 
 proceeded to San Antonio, from which place he sent 
 a request to General Commandant de Nava at Chi- 
 huahua for leave to buy the horses. He got per- 
 mission and bought about thirteen hundred, which 
 he pastured for a while on Trinity River and then 
 took to Louisiana. But in 1799 a new governor of 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 113 
 
 Louisiana sent a letter through the hands of the 
 viceroy to de Nava suggesting that foreigners enter- 
 ing the Spanish dominions be arrested, because he 
 had understood that some Americans meant to come 
 in to cultivate relations with the Indians and stir 
 up a revolution. He asked that Nolan should be 
 closely watched. Later in the year 1799 the same 
 governor sent de Nava an official letter recommend- 
 ing that no American be allowed to examine the 
 country, and stating that Nolan was a dangerous 
 man and a sacrilegious hypocrite who had deceived 
 the previous governor to get a passport. He said 
 it was of importance to secure and make way with 
 him finally ; that he was commissioned by Wilkin- 
 son to make maps of the country and persuade the 
 friendly Indians to rebel against the Spanish. 
 Accordingly, in August, 1800, de Nava ordered the 
 arrest of Nolan in case he should ever return. In 
 the following October came information from a 
 Spanish official in Louisiana that Nolan was organ- 
 izing a crowd of thirty or forty men to enter Texas 
 under the pretext of hunting wild horses, and that 
 a protest had been made to the authorities at 
 Natchez, but that they would probably not inter- 
 fere. In December the same official sent a volun- 
 tary statement made to him by a man named 
 Richards who had deserted Nolan on learning his 
 purpose. Richards said that Nolan had explained 
 to him his plan as being to build a fort near the 
 settlements of the Caddo Indians, and from that 
 base to explore the country, hunt for mines, and, 
 
114 TEXAS 
 
 after getting horses enough, to go to Islas Negras 
 and Kentucky. There they would be joined by 
 many others, and by that time Nolan would be au- 
 thorized to conquer Texas. 
 
 Putting all the facts together, it appears a proba- 
 ble conclusion that Nolan must have had some such 
 purpose as that attributed to him by Richards in 
 entering Texas. He could not have failed to under- 
 stand that the number of men he carried would be 
 regarded as too great for any peaceable enterj^rise, 
 and that it would excite some counter effort of the 
 Spanish authorities. He must have contemplated 
 resistance with arms to these authorities from the 
 outset, but he doubtless relied on help from the 
 Indians to make that resistance effectual. 
 
 The expedition set out from Natchez in October, 
 1800. Just before it started, the United States 
 authorities, on complaint of the Spanish consul, 
 made an investigation ; but Nolan's passport pre- 
 vented any interference with him. Then the consul 
 wrote to the Spanish commandant at Washita to 
 arrest the party, and a Spanish force of fifty actually 
 intercepted the little baud of twenty-one, but for 
 some reason did not try to stop it. Nolan and his 
 men passed on ; and after losing three of their 
 number by desertion, they penetrated Texas to the 
 Brazos, where they camped and gathered some 
 three hundred wild horses. Then they went to a 
 Comanche village on the south fork of Red River, 
 where they spent a month. After getting back to 
 their camp they were attacked, March 21, 1801, by 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 115 
 
 a force of one hundred men that had been sent from 
 Nacogdoches to find them ; and after a fight lasting 
 about three hours, in which Nolan was killed and 
 three men wounded, the little band was captured. 
 
 The scene of this conflict was somewhere near 
 the site of the present city of Waco. Those be- 
 longing to the party at the time were fourteen 
 Anglo-Americans, one Louisiana Creole, seven 
 Spaniards or Mexicans, and two negroes. Only 
 eleven of the Anglo-Americans, besides Nolan, and 
 the Creole and one Mexican took part in the fight- 
 ing. Three of the eleven referred to escaped soon 
 after the capture. All the other persons were 
 tried, and the judge, in January, 1804, ordered 
 their release ; but the general commandant of the 
 Internal Provinces objected, and the matter was 
 referred to the king. His reply, made in February, 
 1807, was that one out of each five — to be chosen 
 by lot — of those who had engaged in the fighting 
 was to be hanged. He was providing for the ex- 
 ecution of two, since ten of the class mentioned 
 had been reported to him ; but meanwhile one of 
 the ten had died, and the Mexican authorities de- 
 cided that the execution of one would satisfy the 
 decree. The lot fell on Ephraim Blackburn, who 
 — strangely enough — was a Quaker, but was con- 
 verted and baptized a Catholic before he died. He 
 was hanged at Chihuahua, November 11, 1807. 
 Spanish justice, whatever might be said of its 
 quality, could scarcely be accused in this instance 
 of undue haste. 
 
116 TEXAS 
 
 The king's decree provided also that the remain- 
 der of the prisoners should undergo hard labor for 
 ten years, and they were sent in fulfillment of the 
 sentence to various remote penal settlements. Only 
 one of them appears in subsequent history, that 
 one being Ellis Bean. 
 
 No other Anglo-American expedition penetrated 
 Texas for about a dozen years. During this inter- 
 val the Spanish authorities in Mexico were thrown 
 into a considerable fever of excitement by reports 
 of the coming of Burr. It seems likely that he 
 really meant to come ; but whether this was the 
 port towards which his Buena Esjyeranza was 
 directed or not, it suffered a premature shipwreck 
 on the breakers of intrigue and Wilkinsonian 
 treachery. There will be more to say of this ex- 
 pedition in the next chapter, but for the present it 
 may be dismissed. 
 
 The next and most formidable of all the Anglo- 
 American invasions was that led by the Mexican 
 refugee, Bernardo Gutierrez, and an ex-lieutenant 
 of the United States army, Augustus Magee. 
 This took on the aspect of a genuine filibustering 
 expedition. At almost every point of contact of 
 United States and Spanish territory there was fric- 
 tion which had been growing for many years, and 
 Kentucky and Tennessee and the whole South- 
 west were full of men ready and anxious for any 
 desperate undertaking hostile to Spain. Many of 
 them were specially interested in Texas, and they 
 were generally willing to assist Mexico in striking 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 117 
 
 a blow for independence. So when the favorable 
 moment came it was not difficult to find among 
 them volunteers to cross the border and mingle in 
 the quarrels of a people whom they did not under- 
 stand, and for whom they had little real sympathy. 
 
 The opportunity followed the rising of Hidalgo. 
 In 1811 Gutierrez had fled from Mexico with a 
 commission from him as lieutenant-colonel in the 
 insurgent army and envoy to the United States. 
 At Washington he accomplished nothing, and he 
 soon returned southwest as far as Natchitoches, 
 which, now that the boundary had passed to the 
 west side of Louisiana, was again opposite the 
 most salient point of the Spanish frontier. Here 
 he enlisted the cooperation of Magee, who resigned 
 his commission in the United States army in order 
 that he might be free to act. A nucleus for the 
 invading force was organized from the adventurers 
 of the Neutral Ground,^ who gathered at a con- 
 venient rendezvous in their own territory to the 
 number of one hundred and fifty-eight. At the 
 head of this band, Gutierrez crossed the border in 
 August and drove the Spanish troops from Nacog- 
 doches. 
 
 The Spanish had due notice of the organization 
 and advance of the invaders, but they were not 
 prepared to resist. The commandant at Nacog- 
 doches reported that he had gone to the Sabine to 
 meet Gutierrez, but had been outflanked and forced 
 to retreat, and that in retiring he had detached at 
 1 See p. 130. 
 
118 TEXAS 
 
 the Attoyac, for the purpose of watching the en- 
 emy, twenty men, who had been surprised and all 
 captured but one. He said further that, when he 
 gave notice of the approach of the enemy, the cit- 
 izens showed no disposition to assist in repelling 
 them. On the contrary, they seemed happy, while 
 the troops showed neither spirit nor desire to fight, 
 but became demoralized and fled precipitately to 
 " Spanish Bluff," as the Anglo-Americans called 
 the Spanish fort at the crossing of the Trinity, with- 
 out even keeping together. The Anglo-Americans 
 followed, and again the Spanish withdrew, abandon- 
 ing by this retreat the whole of east Texas. 
 
 During this time Magee had not been with Gu- 
 tierrez, but had been busy recruiting and sending 
 forward reenforcements. Before leaving Nacog- 
 doches, the force numbered near five hundred, and 
 at Spanish Bluff it had risen to about eight hun- 
 dred. At this point an organization was effected. 
 Gutierrez, as the proper representative of the Mexi- 
 can revolutionists, whom the invaders were to rally 
 and from whom they expected to gather strength 
 for their purposes, was made commander-in-chief, 
 with Magee, who was the real leader, nominally 
 second in rank. Under him were five able sub- 
 ordinates : Major Kemper, and Captains Lockett, 
 Perry, Ross, and Gaines. 
 
 In October the filibusters pushed on to La 
 Bahia, which was garrisoned by Salcedo, the gov- 
 ernor of Texas, with fifteen hundred men. He 
 marched out with nearly all his force to meet the 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 119 
 
 enemy at the Guadalupe River, but they crossed 
 the river at another point and easily captured La 
 Bahia, securing much booty. There they were be- 
 sieged by Salcedo for about four months. In the 
 course of the siege he suffered great losses, but 
 accomplished nothing ; and early in 1813 he gave 
 it up and allowed the Anglo-Americans and their 
 auxiliaries to move on towards Bejar. But while 
 they were at La Bahia, Magee, who had been di- 
 recting their operations, died, — one story intimates 
 by his own hand, — and his functions devolved on 
 Kemper. Before the march towards B^jar began, 
 several hundred additional men, partly recruits 
 from Nacogdoches and partly Indian allies, were 
 added to the army. 
 
 In March the hostile forces met near San An- 
 tonio, in the battle of Rosillo, and the Spanish, 
 whose numbers have been variously estimated at 
 from nine hundred to twenty-five hundred, were 
 beaten with great loss. Two days later the city 
 was surrendered, and every man of the victors had 
 something in the way of spoils. 
 
 Then followed one of those horrible events that 
 have been all too common in the wars fought by 
 Indians or by the Spanish. The Anglo-Americans 
 must be relieved of any imputation of complicity, 
 active or passive, in the affair, and thus of all 
 responsibility for it except that which comes of 
 their entering such an alliance. Gutierrez, who 
 had been in nominal command of the invading 
 army but without any real authority till it entered 
 
120 TEXAS 
 
 B(3Jar, now that lie was on his native heath began 
 to take much u^jon himself. Stating to the army 
 that he thought it safest to send Salcedo and his 
 staff to New Orleans till the war was over, he 
 started them to Matagorda Bay under a guard 
 commanded by one Captain Delgado ; but as soon 
 as the party was well out of sight of San Antonio 
 this Mexican brute and his men relieved them- 
 selves of the necessity for the tiresome trip by 
 beheading their helpless prisoners, to the number 
 of fourteen, with their dull camp-knives. The 
 Anglo-American officers had Delgado arrested and 
 tried for the murder, but he threw the responsibil- 
 ity on Gutierrez, who was thereupon deposed.^ The 
 best of these men, who had been brought to Texas 
 by their own reckless love of adventure and will- 
 ingness to help an enslaved people, now began to 
 understand the possibilities of their enterprise, and 
 refused to follow it any farther. Sick of the busi- 
 ness, many of them, including Kemper, Lockett, 
 and Ross, returned to the States, leaving it to be 
 pursued to the end by such of their countiymen as 
 had the stomach for it. 
 
 The end soon came. In June the insurgents 
 annihilated one army of more than fifteen hundred 
 men that had been sent against them ; but in July, 
 when their numbers had grown to upwards of three 
 thousand, including about eight hundred and fifty 
 
 ^ Delgado soug-ht. to excuse liis deed by claiming' that it was in 
 reprisal for the unjustifiable and inhuman execution of his father 
 by Salcedo, and that it was done by permission of Gutierrez. 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 121 
 
 Anglo-Americans, they were disastrously beaten 
 by a force of about two thousand royalists. This, 
 however, was only after a desperate battle of four 
 hours in which the Mexican republicans ran away 
 at the outset, leaving the Anglo-Americans and 
 Indians to fight alone. Only ninety-three of the 
 contingent from the United States got back to 
 Natchitoches. 
 
 The subsequent conduct of the royalists, or 
 gacTiupines^ as the native Mexicans contemptu- 
 ously called them, was a fit sequel to the murder of 
 Salcedo and his companions. In winding up the 
 battle they slaughtered the fugitives and the cap- 
 tured. At San Antonio they repeated the Black 
 Hole horror by imprisoning, one August night, 
 three hundred men in a single house, so closely 
 that eighteen of them died from suffocation ; and 
 they imprisoned also five hundred women belong- 
 ing to rej)ublican households, whom they forced to 
 cook for them. Finally a body of them swept east- 
 ward to Nacogdoches, murdering, plundering, and 
 destroying. After a few days there was little left 
 to show for the feeble colonizing work of a century. 
 The settlement at Spanish Bluff was entirely de- 
 stroyed. The republicans of Nacogdoches took 
 refuge in Louisiana. How many of them returned, 
 and when, is not yet shown ; but the town could 
 hardly have escaped at least temporary depopula- 
 tion. 
 
 The final warlike invasion of Texas by Anglo- 
 Americans was that led by James Long, a merchant 
 
122 TEXAS 
 
 of Natchez, who had been an officer in the United 
 States army, and had married a niece of General 
 Wilkinson. The expedition was organized at 
 Natchez, and seems to have been inspired by a 
 feeling of disappointment at the surrender in 1819 
 by the United States government of its claims to 
 Texas. It was the outcome of a public meeting at 
 which a company of volunteei'S for the enterprise 
 was raised, the command being first declined by 
 General Adair of Kentucky and then accepted by 
 Long. While the intention of its promoters was 
 to secure, so far as it could be made available, the 
 help of the Mexican republicans in Texas, they 
 perhaps thought less of interfei'ing in the national 
 affairs of Mexico than Magee and his followers 
 had planned, and meant to confine their attention 
 more exclusively to eastern Texas. 
 
 After some perfunctory efforts by the authorities 
 to prevent the departure of Long's men, they left 
 Natchez in June, 1819, seventy-five strong. By 
 the time they reached Nacogdoches the force had 
 grown to three hundred. There they organized a 
 provisional government headed by a council, of 
 which Gutierrez was a member, and it declared 
 Texas to be an independent republic. It organized 
 a sort of administrative system, the principal fea- 
 ture of which was an arrangement to dispose of the 
 public lands in such a way as to raise revenue and 
 attract immigrants. It is probable that this feature 
 of their plan lay nearer the heart of it, and throws 
 more light on their motives than any other. When 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 123 
 
 this had been done, five of the leaders were sent 
 out with small detachments to establish themselves 
 at different points along the Trinity and Brazos. 
 
 The new republic was but short-lived. Long 
 went to Galveston Island to enlist the cooperation 
 of Lafitte, who had headquarters there at the time ; 
 but in this he failed, and while he was gone the 
 Spanish troops broke up his posts and captured or 
 scattered his men. He escaped to Louisiana and, 
 after carrying his family to Natchitoches, went to 
 Bolivar Point, on the Texas coast, where he estab- 
 lished the remnant of his men in a fort, pending 
 the renewal of operations. The opportunity for 
 this came with the new revolutionary outbreak of 
 1821. Long had meanwhile formed a connection 
 with the Mexican Liberal leaders, Trespalacios and 
 Milam, and his next thrust was at the heart of 
 Texas. He penetrated to La Bahia, which he cap- 
 tured on October 4, 1821 ; but he was soon com- 
 pelled to surrender with a part of his men. The 
 complexion of their raid as undertaken in support 
 of the risings against Spain gave them favor with 
 the triumphant revolutionists, and they were well 
 treated. Soon afterwards, however, Long was, for 
 some reason never yet made quite clear, shot and 
 killed by a Mexican soldier. After having been 
 detained for some time in the city of Mexico, his 
 men were set at liberty through the good offices of 
 the United States government, exercised through 
 its agent Poinsett. 
 
 This was the last of the filibustering invasions. 
 
124 TEXAS 
 
 The main reason for them disappeared when it be- 
 came possible to enter Texas peaceably. But the 
 province was left in a sad way. To the eastward 
 of San Antonio nearly all signs of civilization that 
 remained after the destructive work of 1813 were 
 now swept away. All the intruders were driven 
 out, and the country was laid waste. Even at San 
 Antonio it became very difficult to obtain supplies. 
 What was left of Nacogdoches by the breaking up 
 of Long's republic was almost swept away by the 
 revolution of 1821. A glimpse of it in that year 
 shows that the Mexican settlers had disappeared — 
 doubtless being simply scattered to less dangerous 
 localities — and the population consisted of only a 
 handful of American squatters, who had perhaps 
 filtered in from the Neutral Ground.^ An estimate 
 in 1820 puts the whole population of the province, 
 exclusive of Indians, at not more than four thou- 
 sand. Such was the miserable witness of the craft 
 of Saint-Denis, the patriotic work of Aguayo, the 
 brave and patient self-sacrifice of the missionaries, 
 and the vast expenditure of treasure and blood in 
 the vain effort to plant Spanish civilization in Texas. 
 1 See p. 130. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE FKINGES OF TEXAS DURING THE DECAY OP 
 SPANISH RULE 
 
 During the first two decades of the nineteenth 
 century, while Spain was making her last desperate 
 efforts to retain her hold in America, and the in- 
 vaders from beyond the Sabine were engaged in the 
 futile endeavors that have been described to over- 
 throw the Spanish dominion in Texas, the borders 
 of the province on three sides were in a constant 
 state of irritation. To the west were the peren- 
 nially troublesome Apaches and Comanches ; to the 
 northeast were the hardly less annoying adven- 
 turers of the Neutral Ground ; while along the coast 
 pirates and intruders of various kinds found their 
 way in without opposition, or fixed themselves and 
 remained at will. 
 
 Of the Indian depredations of this period there 
 has been written no systematic account. The mate- 
 rials for it will no doubt be found in the Bexar 
 Archives, now in possession of the University of 
 Texas, when they are properly explored ; but 
 this will probably be the work of many years. 
 Enough is known, however, to warrant the state- 
 ment that the Apaches and Comanches were the 
 
126 TEXAS 
 
 scourge of the western frontier under both Span- 
 ish and Mexican rule. The following statement 
 by the historian Kennedy, resting mainly on the 
 authority of Edward's " History of Texas," will 
 serve as a picture of conditions in that quarter, 
 during the time referred to : — 
 
 In the destruction of the Missions, the Comanches 
 were the principal agents. Encouraged by the passive 
 submission of the Mexicans of mixed blood, they carried 
 their insolence so far as to ride into Bexar, and alight 
 in the public square, leaving their horses to be caught 
 and pastured by the obsequious soldiers of the garrison, 
 on pain of chastisement. To raise a contribution, they 
 would enter the town with a drove of Mexican horses, 
 stolen by themselves, and, under pretense of having res- 
 cued the Cahallada from hostile Indians, would exact 
 a reward for their honesty. They openly carried off 
 herds of cattle and horses from the settlements east of 
 the Rio Grande, sparing the lives of the herdsmen, not 
 from motives of humanity, but because they deemed it 
 impolitic to kill those who were so useful in raising 
 horses and mules for the benefit of the Comanches. 
 
 The bad condition of the northeastern frontier in 
 the latter years of the Spanish domination was due 
 to a compromise made in fixing a provisional bound- 
 ary line between Louisiana and Texas. The reader 
 will recall previous disputes over this line. In the 
 investigations in the Spanish courts which took 
 place during the trial of Sandoval in 1738, conclu- 
 sions were reached which were in harmony with the 
 French claim that the line was properly at Arroyo 
 
THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 127 
 
 Hondo, a tributary of Red River crossing the road 
 from Natchitoches to Adaes slightly east of the 
 middle point. It will be remembered that there 
 was little trouble with the French about this border. 
 In 1762, when western Louisiana passed to Spain, 
 it seemed as if the importance of the limit was for- 
 ever gone ; but the retrocession of that province to 
 France in 1800, and its sale to the United States 
 in 1803, brought the old question to new life. 
 
 The exchange of neighbors was in no wise to the 
 advantage of Spain. It is true that under Napoleon 
 France might have proved worse than the United 
 States ; for the records show that when he sold 
 Louisiana he had already taken steps to appropri- 
 ate Texas. But the danger lying in that quarter 
 was never realized. The French claims passed 
 with Louisiana to its new possessors, and Napoleon 
 turned his attention elsewhere. 
 
 An American humorist once delivered himself of 
 a bit of wisdom in terms somewhat like this : ' If 
 you wish a mule to stay in a field, put him in the 
 one next to it.' The Anglo-American mule was 
 now in the next field. Taking a large backward 
 view from the present, one feels impressed that it 
 was an unnecessary piece of by-play to dispute over 
 the location of a fence that stood so little in the 
 way, but it was in the usual line of detail in such 
 cases. 
 
 The United States, having secured Louisiana, at 
 once set up large claims in Texas. The main ob- 
 ject, however, in doing so appears to have been to 
 
128 TEXAS 
 
 gain advantage in bargaining for the Floridas, 
 which were then desired much more anxiously than 
 the southwestern territory. In April, 1804, Charles 
 Pinckney, minister to Spain, and IMonroe, envoy 
 extraordinary, were instructed to offer the Spanish 
 government a proposition which involved the re- 
 cognition of the country between the Sabine and the 
 Colorado as a neutral ground. In July the instruc- 
 tions were so modified that the neutral ground was 
 to be located, if possible, between the Colorado and 
 the Rio Grande. The aggressiveness manifested in 
 these propositions and the continued drifting into 
 Texas of intruders from the United States alarmed 
 the Spanish, and led to some display of defensive 
 energy. In addition to a considerable body of col- 
 onists that were sent in at the time, a large number 
 of troops were dispatched to Texas. At the be- 
 ginning of 1806 there were about fifteen hundred 
 soldiers in the province. 
 
 The strengthening of the Spanish forces in Texas 
 led the United States to take iDrecautionary mea- 
 sures against their use east of the Sabine. The 
 officer in charge at Natchitoches was instructed to 
 see that they did not cross, and he thereupon asked 
 the commandant at Nacogdoches for assurance that 
 they would not, but was refused. Meanwhile En- 
 sign Gonzales, who seems to have been no more 
 successful as a frontier defender than his namesake 
 of seventy years before, had been sent with twenty 
 men to occupy Adaes and had been expelled by a 
 detachment of sixty sent from Natchitoches. 
 
THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 129 
 
 This insult to Spain and rumors of Burr's con- 
 templated invasion of Mexico drew the Spanish 
 troops to the frontier. In the summer of 1806 
 some thirteen hundred of them crossed the Sabine 
 and advanced to near Natchitoches. Colonel Gush- 
 ing, then commanding at that post, demanded 
 their withdrawal ; but Herrera, the Spanish general, 
 replied that he was there under orders to defend 
 the territory for the king. Governor Claiborne of 
 Louisiana and General Wilkinson, commander-in- 
 chief of the United States army, went to Natchi- 
 toches ; the troops there were reenforced ; and the 
 demand for the withdrawal of the Spanish was 
 emphatically repeated in a letter from Wilkinson 
 to Governor Cordero of Texas, who was at Nacog- 
 doches, and who referred the letter to General 
 Commandant Salcedo at Chihuahua. Pending an 
 answer, for some reason Herrera fell back to the 
 west side of the Sabine. Wilkinson followed him, 
 and the two armies were soon face to face on oppo- 
 site banks of the river. But the menace in the 
 situation was not realized. The Burr conspiracy, 
 of whose progress Wilkinson was well informed, 
 was then rapidly approaching its denouement, and 
 the general seems to have concluded that he must 
 go to Natchez to make a parade of thwarting the 
 man with whom he had been in collusion. For this 
 purpose he patched up a hurried agreement relative 
 to the boundary, to which Herrera was induced to 
 agree, no doubt by picturing to him the necessity 
 for checking Burr in the interests of Mexico. Both 
 
130 TEXAS 
 
 generals assumed authority in the case which their 
 respective governments under ordinary circum- 
 stances would never have conceded ; but the stress 
 of the moment was such that their work was allowed 
 to stand, and the miserable condition in which they 
 left the border continued for thirteen years. 
 
 The treaty agreed to by Wilkinson and Herrera 
 provided that the neutral ground, which played so 
 important a part in the earlier negotiations of the 
 United States with Spain, and which was proposed 
 first for the eastern half of Texas and then for the 
 western half, including everything to the Rio 
 Grande, should lie between the Sabine and the 
 Arroyo Hondo, the original western limit of the 
 French actual occupation. 
 
 Thus shrunken in its extent and moved far to 
 the east from where the United States had last 
 expressed a willingness to locate it, the Neutral 
 Ground became fixed in position and definite in its 
 limits on the east and west, but impossible to define 
 on the north or south. Neither of the nations be- 
 tween whose territories it stood exercised direct 
 jurisdiction over it, and it became the refuge of 
 all sorts of lawless and desperate men. They 
 united themselves in a kind of buccaneer organiza- 
 tion and found employment in robbing traders. 
 The authorities on both sides took measures against 
 them ; they were tortured and driven off and had 
 their houses burned ; but nothing could exterminate 
 them. Finally, however, in the boundary read- 
 justment accompanying the Florida purchase in 
 
THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 131 
 
 1819, the Neutral Ground fell within the limits of 
 Louisiana and disappeared, and with it the band of 
 robbers it had sheltered. 
 
 Subsequent to the Gutierrez-Magee expedition, 
 the Gulf coast became hardly less troublesome than 
 the eastern border. It was almost an ideal place 
 for pirates, with its long, bare islands, its river 
 mouths so difficult of access, and its dangerous, low- 
 lying shore. For the filibuster, if he could secure 
 the services of a pilot that knew how to make land 
 safely, it was in some respects a better way in than 
 the Old San Antonio Road from Natchitoches, 
 especially for him whose plans went beyond the 
 revolutionizing of eastern Texas and contemplated 
 beginning with a blow at San Antonio or some still 
 more southerly Mexican stronghold. Naturally 
 enough, therefore, as the Gulf commerce grew and 
 the revolutionary movement in Mexico went on in 
 its fitful and uncertain course, the coast, like the 
 Neutral Ground, attracted a swarm of adventurers. 
 
 Of this motley crowd, gathered from all nations, 
 Galveston Island, opposite the bay at the mouth of 
 the Trinity, became the special rendezvous. This 
 locality suited their purpose much better, doubtless, 
 than any in the neighborhood of Espiritu Santo 
 Bay, the old Spanish harbor, which was near the 
 post of La Bahia, with San Antonio not very far 
 away, and thus too much exposed to attack ; while 
 Galveston Bay was as good a harbor, and was not 
 in easy striking distance of any Spanish presidio. 
 The occupation of the island began in 1816, when 
 
132 TEXAS 
 
 Louis de Aury, acting in conjunction with the Mex- 
 ican insurgents, set up an organized government 
 there, with the usual departments, representing 
 the republicans. This establishment was intended 
 to promote the revolution in Mexico, especially by 
 plundering Spanish commerce. Among the crowd 
 attracted thither was Caj)tain Perry, who was among 
 the few that escaped after the defeat of the revolu- 
 tionists at San Antonio in 1813, and who brought 
 one hundred men. In a short time the force on the 
 island swelled to four hundred — twice as many as 
 the aggregate of Spanish troops in Texas. The 
 principal occupations of this parasitic crowd were — 
 to put it plainly — slave trading and piracy, and it 
 is said that many citizens of the United States sent 
 vessels to share as privateers in the golden harvest. 
 In November, 1816, came to the island General 
 Javier Mina, a Spaniard who had distinguished 
 himself as a guerrilla chief during the Peninsular 
 War, with a force of more than two hundred men 
 and with magnificent plans for a filibustering ex- 
 pedition into the interior of Mexico. He gained 
 Perry over to his views, and there was a contest for 
 the supremacy in which serious results, and perhaps 
 the overthrow of the new government, were pre- 
 vented only by the conciliatory policy of Aury. In 
 April, 1817, the whole party, after destroying the 
 " government buildings " on the island, embarked 
 for the invasion ; but Aury, who had no heart for 
 the enterprise, after landing Mina and Perry at 
 Soto la Marina in Tamaulipas, sailed away and left 
 
THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 133 
 
 them to carry it out alone. It proved a disastrous 
 failure. Perry soon detached himself with fifty 
 men and made his way back to La Bahia in Texas. 
 Drawn away from an attack on the presidio by a 
 superior force of royalists sent to intercept his party, 
 he avoided capture and ended his share in a battle 
 which the failure of his ammunition was turning 
 against him by shootiug himself through the head. 
 Mina penetrated far into the interior of Mexico and 
 sustained himself for some time in a brilliant cam- 
 paign, but was finally captured by the Spanish 
 troops and shot by vice-regal orders. 
 
 After leaving Mina at Soto, Aury first stopped 
 for a short time near the old Spanish harbor, 
 Espfritu Santo, and then returned to Galveston 
 Island. But he found it in possession of Lafitte ; 
 so he left to share in an attack on the Floridas, 
 taking what remained of his government with him. 
 
 Jean Lafitte simply stepped into Aury's place 
 and adopted his methods, but with more selfish 
 purposes of his own. While he may not have been 
 exactly bred to the art of piracy, he had served a 
 long apprenticeship therein, and had now attained 
 the experience and skill of a past master. He had 
 begun his work in the Gulf about 1810 at the island 
 of Barataria on the coast west of the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, where the pirates driven from the West 
 Indies by the English had taken refuge. They are 
 said to have worked in collusion with merchants in 
 New Orleans. Jean Lafitte and his brother had 
 been at first agents in disposing of spoils, which by 
 
134 TEXAS 
 
 and by they had taken the lead in gathering. The 
 Baratarians had become so troublesome that the 
 United States government had been forced to break 
 up their establishment in September, 1814. Just 
 before this Lafitte had refused the offer of a cap- 
 taincy in the British navy, and had then tendered 
 his services to the governor of Louisiana. In De- 
 cember following he and his men had been received 
 into Jackson's army, and immediately afterwards 
 they had played an effective part in the battle of 
 New Orleans. The movements of Lafitte during 
 the next two years have not been traced ; but in 
 April, 1817, he had taken advantage of Aury's 
 abandonment of Galveston Island to establish him- 
 self there. 
 
 There he remained about four years. He claimed 
 that it was only Spanish vessels he attacked ; and it 
 is said that he justified himself by the statement that 
 outrages he had once suffered from a Spanish sea 
 captain had led him to declare eternal war on Spain. 
 The story may be true, but his men at least showed 
 a degree of impartiality in their piratical enterprise. 
 It was, in fact, their willingness to make prizes of 
 United States vessels as well as others that has- 
 tened their downfall. 
 
 Lafitte, like Aury, organized a government with 
 departments having heads, at any rate, even if not 
 a very full corjjs of clerks. For convenience' sake 
 in preying upon Spanish commerce, they swore al- 
 legiance to the then moribund republican govern- 
 ment of Mexico, but with no intention of seeking 
 
THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 135 
 
 to galvanize it into new life. There was at least a 
 sense in which Lafitte gave strict attention to his 
 own business, and he soon had round him again all 
 that could come of the thousand men who had been 
 dispersed from Barataria, with good substitutes for 
 such of them as were missing. He built fortifica- 
 tions on the site of the present city of Galveston, 
 and a flourishing town known as Campeachy grew 
 round them, much to the detriment of the commerce 
 of the Gulf. But in 1821, after certain attacks on 
 United States ships had drawn the attention of the 
 authorities at Washington to his work, they sent 
 an expedition to the island with orders to break up 
 the pirates' nest. Lafitte made no resistance, but 
 accepted the orders and abandoned the place to a 
 season of rest, after which it was destined for the 
 uses of a new civilization. 
 
 One other ephemeral coast enterprise of this 
 period remains to be noticed. It was led by Gen- 
 erals Lallemand and Rigault, who had served in 
 the armies of Napoleon. They had come with a 
 French colony to the United States, and in March, 
 
 1817, they received a grant of land in Alabama. 
 The settlement did not prosper there, and they con- 
 ceived the plan of moving to Texas. In March, 
 
 1818, after sending to the Spanish government a 
 rather impudent request for permission, to which 
 no attention was paid, Lallemand sailed from New 
 Orleans to Texas with one hundred and twenty 
 colonists. He established his settlement on Trinity 
 River some twelve miles inland, giving it the restful 
 
136 . TEXAS 
 
 name of Champ d'Asile. Shortly after their arri- 
 val the intruders issued a brave pronunciamento, in 
 which they asserted their natural right to the un- 
 used land, and their intention to hold it by force if 
 they should be attacked ; but as soon as the Spanish 
 came to oust them they retired to Galveston without 
 striking a blow. Possibly they had their revenge 
 on the Spaniard from the decks of Lafitte's vessels, 
 but this is only a conjecture. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 Austin's colony 
 
 In modern times men are beginning to under- 
 stand better than formerly the significance of the 
 function of the pioneer, and to give him a higher 
 degree of credit. The military hero, and especially 
 he that takes the lead in moments of national peril, 
 playing his more dramatic part with the eyes of his 
 countrymen fixed upon him, will never fail of his 
 due meed of glory ; but he that plants in the wil- 
 derness, " in labours more abundant " and " in 
 deaths oft," the germ of a new civilization, is but 
 rarely remembered as he should be. Others enter 
 into his work and reap where he has sown with little 
 thought of what they owe him for their opportunity, 
 and the contemporaneous historian, voicing the im- 
 mature judgment of his time, too often gives him 
 but an obscure place in its annals. 
 
 This has been in some degree true of the Austins, 
 father and son. It is only of late that the world, 
 with the results before its eyes, has begun to realize 
 what they accomplished. If they themselves, upon 
 the threshold of their undertaking, could have 
 looked forward to the revolution of 1836, annexa- 
 tion, the Mexican war, the acquisitions made by 
 
138 TEXAS 
 
 the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the marvel- 
 ous development of Texas and California, they must 
 have been staggered by the consequences that were 
 to flow from their enterprise. Yet this chain of 
 events has followed, "as the night the day," the 
 work planned and begun by Moses Austin and car- 
 ried out by his son Stephen. 
 
 Moses Austin was a native of Durham, Conn. 
 He was trained for the mercantile profession and 
 became a partner in a large Philadelphia import- 
 ing house. In that city be married Miss Maria 
 Brown of Morris County, N. J. Soon afterwards 
 his firm established a branch in Richmond, Va., and 
 he moved thither. In a few years he moved again, 
 this time to Wythe County, in southwestern Vir- 
 ginia, where he became the manager of some lead 
 mines belonging to his company. It is said that he 
 established at the mines and in Richmond the first 
 manufactory of shot and sheet lead in the United 
 States, and that a brother of his sent out the first 
 sealing vessel that ever visited the northwestern 
 coast of America and went thence to India. 
 
 The mines were not productive according to his 
 expectations ; and having heard favorable reports 
 from " Upper Louisiana," or specifically the coun- 
 try that is now known as Missouri, he set out in 
 1796 on a prospecting trip to that section. Travel- 
 ing over the " Wilderness Road " from Cumberland 
 
 o 
 
 Gap northwestwardly across Kentucky to Louis- 
 ville, he next turned west to make his way to Kas- 
 kaskia, which was then the most important town on 
 
AUSTIN'S COLONY 139 
 
 the east side of the upper Mississippi. Vincennes 
 was the only settlement lying on his route. For 
 nearly a week his party was lost in the snow-covered 
 waste between that place and the Mississippi ; but 
 finally, just before being driven to the extremity of 
 eating their horses, they reached a small village 
 near the river. 
 
 The outcome of this visit to the West was an- 
 other change of residence. Austin obtained a 
 grant of land, with some lead mines thereon, in 
 what is now Washington County, Missouri. There 
 he built up a pioneer settlement, which, in spite 
 of attacks from the Indians, grew and flourished. 
 When he went into the new country he had to 
 sacrifice a prejudice common to Anglo-Americans 
 in consenting to become a Spanish citizen ; but it 
 was not long until, with no change of residence 
 this time, he found himself again settled in the 
 United States. The Louisiana Purchase had ex- 
 tended the western frontier of the North American 
 Republic to the Rockies. But while the change 
 must have been gratifying to him personally, it 
 was one that his colony had no share in effecting. 
 The settlement seems to have " growed," like 
 Topsy, with perhaps as little consciousness of the 
 weight of Spanish authority before the change 
 of government as after. Austin gave attention to 
 his mining business, and prospered to the point of 
 growing rich ; but the failure of the Bank of St. 
 Louis, in which he was a large stockholder, swept 
 away his fortune, and he was ready for a new ven- 
 ture. 
 
140 TEXAS 
 
 The opportunity came, as it seemed to him, with 
 the treaty of 1819, which left Texas in the hands 
 of Spain and gave validity to Spanish grants of 
 land that might be made within the limits of that 
 province. He proposed to his son Stephen, then 
 twenty-six years of age, the establishment of a 
 colony in Texas, and after mature deliberation 
 they undertook it. In April, 1819, to facilitate the 
 plan, Stephen went south to establish a farm at 
 Long Prairie on Red River that might serve as a 
 basis for colonizing operations, but for some reason 
 the farm was soon abandoned. Most of the years 
 1819 and 1820 he spent in Arkansas Territory, 
 of which he was appointed circuit judge. During 
 his stay in the Territory he located a grant of land, 
 on which his brother-in-law, James Bryan, subse- 
 quently laid off the town of Little Rock. In the 
 summer of 1820 he met Moses Austin at Little 
 Rock, and it was agreed that the father should go 
 to San Antonio to open the way for the proposed 
 colony, while the son should go to New Orleans to 
 gather immigrants. 
 
 Accordingly in the fall of 1820 Moses Austin 
 made on horseback the tiresome journey of more 
 than eight hundred miles from the Missouri settle- 
 ment to San Antonio, through an almost totally 
 uninhabited wilderness. It seemed at first as if 
 his patience and trouble must go for nought. Gov- 
 ernor Martinez of Texas belonged to the class of 
 native Spaniards who were quite unpopular in 
 Mexico, and he was a personal enemy of General 
 
AUSTIN'S COLONY 141 
 
 Commandant Arredondo, who he feared would 
 take advantage of any misstep of his to ruin him. 
 This official had given him instructions to keep out 
 all foreigners, and especially Anglo-Americans, 
 He therefore refused to listen to Austin or to go 
 into the question of his having previously been a 
 Spanish citizen, and angrily ordered him to leave 
 the province at once. There* was nothing to be 
 done but to obey. Austin was about to start back, 
 but he chanced to meet just then the Baron de 
 Bastrop, a German in the Spanish service, whom 
 he had known before, and who now interposed in 
 his behalf. The order for immediate departure 
 was suspended, the colonization scheme was ex- 
 jjlained to the governor, and he and the ayunta- 
 miento of San Antonio joined in approving the 
 petition of Austin to the authorities of the Eastern 
 Internal Provinces to be allowed to bring into 
 Texas three hundred settlers from the United 
 States. 
 
 Before the answer could reach San Antonio, 
 Austin left for home. In crossing Texas to Natchi- 
 toches, whence he traveled by water to Missouri, 
 he suffered such hardships that his health was per- 
 manently impaired ; and in the summer following 
 his retui'n he died, soon after learning that his 
 petition had been granted. 
 
 The work left incomplete by Moses Austin now 
 fell to Stephen, who prosecuted it under many 
 difficulties and discouragements, but with tireless 
 energy and unfaltering courage. He was well 
 
142 TEXAS 
 
 fitted for it, both by nature and by training. The 
 qualifications and instincts of the pioneer he had 
 inherited from his father ; while the large respon- 
 sibilities previously laid upon him and the share 
 he had already taken in this enterprise constituted 
 excellent special preparation for the duty of push- 
 ing it to execution. From 1813, when he had but 
 barely attained the estate of manhood, until 1819, 
 he had been a member of the territorial legislature 
 of Missouri. Then he had gone to Arkansas to 
 assist in making arrangements to plant the Texas 
 colony, and in the interval while the plans were 
 being matured he had, as already stated, served as 
 territorial circuit judge. While his father was 
 busy with the task of getting the grant from the 
 Mexican authorities, he was in New Orleans mak- 
 ing arrangements to collect and send on the party 
 of immigrants. There he succeeded in obtaining 
 the cooi3eration of Joseph Hawkins, a prominent 
 lawyer of the city. 
 
 When Austin heard that the petition to estab- 
 lish the colony had been granted and that Spanish 
 commissioners had come to Nacogdoches with the 
 news, he decided to proceed thither himself. In 
 June, 1821, he set out from New Orleans with two 
 or three companions, and at Natchitoches he found 
 Commissioners Erasmo Seguin and Juan Martin 
 Veramendi, with several other Spaniards, waiting 
 for his father, who — as neither he nor the com- 
 missioners then knew — had died about ten days 
 before. After remaining a few days in Natchi- 
 
AUSTIN'S COLONY 143 
 
 toches, he started to enter Texas with a party of 
 nearly a dozen men. A report of the death of his 
 father overtook him just before he reached the 
 Sabine and caused him to return to Natchitoches 
 to obtain more certain information ; but having 
 stopped there just long enough to ascertain that the 
 letters he expected had been forwarded, he followed 
 on after the party he had left and soon overtook it. 
 Then he learned that the report was undoubtedly 
 true. Nevertheless he pushed on with the party 
 to Nacogdoches and thence to San Antonio, where 
 he arrived August 12, just in time to witness the 
 rejoicing occasioned by the news of the independ- 
 ence of Mexico. 
 
 Austin carried the news of his father's death at 
 once to Governor Martinez and told him that he 
 wished to be recognized as the empresario (con- 
 tractor) himself and to carry out the contract. 
 Martinez extended to him the desired recognition 
 and gave him permission to explore the country 
 along the Colorado and select such a location for 
 his colony as he might think best. At the request 
 of the governor, Austin furnished, in writing, a 
 sketch of his plan, according to which each head 
 of a family was to have six hundred and forty 
 acres for himself, besides three hundred and twenty 
 for his wife, one hundred and sixty for each child, 
 and eighty for each slave. Single men twenty-one 
 years of age were to have six hundred and forty 
 acres each. Martinez gave him authority to pro- 
 mise land to his colonists in this proportion, and to 
 
144 TEXAS 
 
 take charge of the local government of the colony 
 till it should be otherwise provided for. Austin 
 then looked over the country and selected a loca- 
 tion for his settlers along the lower course of the 
 Brazos and the Colorado rivers. 
 
 He next addressed himself energetically to the 
 task of putting the colony on the ground. On his 
 return to Louisiana he advertised the facts already 
 stated, with the addition that each settler would be 
 required to pay the empresario twelve and a half 
 cents jjer acre for his land. The object of this was 
 to create a fund to be used in j)aying the expenses 
 of the enterprise, and to some extent in remuner- 
 ating Austin himself for his services in connection 
 therewith. The plan of levying this contribution 
 was explained to Martinez beforehand, and he 
 stated that he saw nothing improper in it if dis- 
 tinct notice of it were given to every colonist pre- 
 vious to his immigration, but he would not venture 
 an opinion as to how the superior authorities might 
 view the matter. 
 
 The first party of settlers was conducted by 
 Austin to the lower Brazos in December, 1821. 
 They went in by the overland route. Before leav- 
 ing New Orleans he had arranged for the send- 
 ing of supplies and additional immigrants by a 
 schooner, the Lively, which he was to meet at the 
 mouth of the Colorado. The vessel came, but the 
 landing was made at the mouth of the Brazos. This 
 was possibly because of a mistake as to the identity 
 of the river. The Lively passed on along the coast, 
 
AUSTIN'S COLONY 145 
 
 and probably reached the Colorado, but not till 
 Austin had grown weary of waiting and had left 
 the appointed rendezvous. The same vessel brought 
 a second cargo to Texas in 1822 and was wrecked 
 on the coast. In the fall of that year one shipload 
 of supplies was landed at the mouth of the Colo- 
 rado, but it was destroyed by the Karankawa In- 
 dians, who added to their mischief the slaughter of 
 four men. The immigrants brought by the Lively 
 on her first voyage moved up the Brazos and formed 
 a settlement, but in the course of the next year 
 nearly all of them returned to the United States. 
 
 The new settlers had many sufferings and dan- 
 gers to undergo, especially in the first two years. 
 The failure of supplies and the bad quality of the 
 game they killed — the mast having failed — put 
 them to great extremity; and the outrages of the 
 Indians, whom they were then too weak to punish 
 or to overawe, made their life almost a burden. 
 
 It was particularly unfortunate that Austin had 
 to leave the colony for more than a year just at 
 this, the most trying, period of its existence. 
 When he went to San Antonio in March, 1822, to 
 rejDort to the governor, he was informed that he 
 must go to Mexico to get his grant confirmed and 
 receive instructions concerning the colony. There 
 was nothing to be done but go, so he left Josiah H. 
 Bell in charge of the settlement, and set out on his 
 ride of twelve hundred miles through a country in 
 which law and order were at that time hardly 
 known. From Monterey to the city of Mexico he 
 
146 TEXAS 
 
 had but one companion. By good fortune he got 
 through safely. 
 
 It was better fortune still that enabled him, dur- 
 ing the most turbulent year of the revolution, when 
 confusion reigned supreme in Mexico and no man 
 knew what a day would bring forth, to cany the 
 business on which he was bent to a satisfactory con- 
 elusion. It was then that his fitness for the task 
 he had undertaken became especially apparent. 
 When the circumstances required delay he waited 
 patiently, but when opportunity came he worked 
 with all his energy. Under the provisional regency 
 that ruled in the period immediately succeeding in- 
 dependence, his case was referred to the Mexican 
 congress, and a general colonization law was under 
 discussion in that body, when it was superseded by a 
 junta instituyente or legislative committee, selected 
 from the members of the congress by the emperor 
 Iturbide. This committee took up the subject and 
 passed a general colonization law, which was pro- 
 mulgated in January, 1823. Austin had sought to 
 have his own colony dealt with by special legis- 
 lation ; but various persons, among them General 
 Wilkinson and Hayden Edwards, on whom we 
 shall come again by and by, wei-e then in the city 
 soliciting grants of the same nature, and for this 
 reason the congress had insisted on a general law. 
 
 Shortly after the passage of the law, Austin 
 obtained, especially through the favor of the deputy 
 minister of foreign and internal affairs, Andreas 
 Quintana, an imperial decree confirming his grant. 
 
AUSTIN'S COLONY 147 
 
 He was just on the point of starting back to Texas 
 in March, with his hard-won prize, when another 
 turn of the revolutionary wheel flung Iturbide from 
 his seat, and everything had to be done over again. 
 The matter was again referred to congress, which 
 in April suspended the general law, but passed 
 Austin's case on to the executive triumvirate then 
 at the head of the government, and two or three 
 days later the grant was again confirmed. Thus it 
 will be seen that Austin finally gained his point in 
 obtaining his grant by special act and not by virtue 
 of any general law. But when the grant was 
 shaped by the decree issued just previous to the 
 fall of Iturbide, it had been made to conform to 
 the general law then in force. This law provided 
 that each colonist who was to engage in agriculture 
 should have a labor, or somewhat less than two 
 hundred acres, and each who was to follow stock- 
 raising should have a sitio, or square league, con- 
 taining about forty -four hundred acres ; while those 
 who meant to do both might have the aggregate 
 allotment of a sitio and labor. The empresario 
 was to have fifteen sitios and two labors for each 
 two hundred families he should introduce. It is 
 rather amusing to observe that the grant approved 
 in conformity with the law first denies the author- 
 ity of Austin to offer immigrants the amounts 
 agreed upon with Governor Martinez in 1821, and 
 then proceeds to apportion to each colonist what 
 must have averaged more than twice as much. 
 A few provisions of the grant to Austin deserve 
 
148 TEXAS 
 
 special attention. The colonists were to furnish 
 evidence that they were Roman Catholic, — or 
 should agree to become such, — and that they were 
 of steady habits. Much has been made by some 
 of the failure to conform to the spirit of this pro- 
 vision as affecting Austin's integrity ; but it in- 
 volved no false certificate or misrepresentation on 
 his part, though the immigrants themselves cared 
 little for the deceit they practiced. The writer has 
 been able to find no evidence to support the charge 
 that Moses Austin represented himself in Mexico 
 " as the leader of a company of Roman Catholics 
 who had suffered persecution in the United States, 
 for their religion's sake." ^ The actual working of 
 the clause requiring the colonists to be Catholics 
 can hardly have been misunderstood on either side. 
 They seem to have compromised the matter by giv- 
 ing up their own Protestant practices for a time, 
 and by allowing the ministrations of the jolly Irish 
 priest who went his rounds among them to cele- 
 brate marriages, christenings, etc. If any one is 
 to be blamed, a heavy share must fall on the zeal- 
 ous ministers who, after a time, began to organize 
 Protestant worship in the colony. As to Stephen 
 Austin himself, what he suffered later in trying to 
 hold his wayward settlers true to their obligations 
 to the government from which their privileges were 
 obtained is a sufficient answer to any charge touch- 
 ing his own good faith. 
 
 ^ See Jay's Review of the Mexican War, 11 ; Burgess's Tiie 
 Middle Period, 291. 
 
AUSTIN'S COLONY 149 
 
 The final decree confirming the grant gave Austin 
 authority, under direct responsibility to the gov- 
 ernor of Texas, and the general commandant of the 
 Eastern Internal Provinces, to organize the colo- 
 nists into a body of militia commanded by himself, 
 to administer justice, and to preserve good order 
 and tranquillity. Accordingly, on his way back to 
 Texas he laid the subject before the general com- 
 mandant at Monterey, asking for special instruc- 
 tions. To refer seems at that time to have been 
 the great labor-saving device of the inert and unin- 
 ventive Mexican officials. The commandant turned 
 the question over to the provincial deputation of 
 the nascent state of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and 
 Texas, then in session at Monterey. The outcome 
 was that the deputation gave Austin the rank of 
 lieutenant-colonel, but left him substantially with- 
 out instructions, saying that his powers under the 
 decree of the general government were ample. 
 
 Austin got back to his colony in August, 1823, 
 and found it almost broken up. Many of the im- 
 migrants had returned, and the recruits that should 
 have come in had stopped at Nacogdoches and in 
 the eastern settlements. But he went bravely to 
 work, and the tide soon set in once more. No 
 limits had been assigned for the colony, and the 
 settlers chose their lands, with the old Germanic 
 instinct of robust self-dependence, " as fountain, or 
 plain, or grove attracted them." The result was 
 that they were scattered from the Lavaca to the 
 San Jacinto, and from the Old San Antonio Road 
 
150 TEXAS 
 
 to the coast. San Felipe de Austin, on the lower 
 Brazos,^ became the capital of the settlement and 
 the great centre of Anglo-American interests in 
 Texas until the revolution of 1836. 
 
 The failure of the authorities to provide in detail 
 for the government of the colony threw the whole 
 work of organizing and directing it on Austin him- 
 self. He took up the burden without shrinking 
 and carried it for five years, when he was relieved 
 of it by the organization of an ayiintamiento. Dur- 
 ing this period he had many difficulties to over- 
 come. The charge of twelve and a half cents per 
 acre for the land, which had been agreed to at the 
 outset, and which was his only means of reimburse- 
 ment for the heavy expense to which the issuance 
 and registration of the land titles, and the various 
 public enterprises he had to undertake subjected 
 him, raised such complaint among the colonists 
 after a time that the political chief at B^jar impru- 
 dently interfered to abolish it, and substitute a 
 fixed schedule of fees for a title amounting to only 
 about one third as much per sitio, of which a 
 part was finally given to Austin. Though he was 
 backed to the fullest extent by the Mexican gov- 
 ernment, his authority was questioned by some of 
 the settlers. The special grants, too, which he w^as 
 authorized to make, and did make to some, became 
 the basis for charges of discrimination and the 
 
 ^ Sometimes referred to in the records as Austin, but not to be 
 confused witli the city of that name on the Colorado, which was 
 built for the capital of the Republic. 
 
AUSTIN'S COLONY 151 
 
 cause of much discontent. Finally the bad char- 
 acters whom he had sought to keep out of the 
 colony, and was forced to expel when they entered 
 it, enforcing his decisions against them by corporal 
 punishment when it became necessary, gave him 
 no little trouble. But by the exercise of much 
 patience, tact, and prudence he got through it all 
 with a surprisingly small degree of friction. It 
 cost him, however, a great expenditure of vital 
 energy, the best evidence of which lies in the fact 
 that when the responsibility was lifted from his 
 shoulders, in 1828, his health was, as he put it, 
 " perceptibly declining." It is more than likely 
 that this strain ujjon him assisted materially in 
 shortening his life, but it was part of the price paid 
 for what is enjoyed by the Texan to-day. 
 
 Of course the crossing of the Sabine wrought no 
 change in the character of the Anglo-Americans. 
 They were, like any band of men gathered by their 
 own choice to participate in such an enterprise, the 
 hardiest and most adventurous among the law-abid- 
 ing element of their kind, being especially difficult 
 to govern by any method which they did not them- 
 selves approve. They kept their own institutions, 
 slavery included ; and this they did with the greater 
 freedom because the centres of superior govern- 
 mental authority and power were far away, and the 
 forces emanating therefrom were too weak at such 
 a distance either to lead or to drive the Texas set- 
 tlers along the Mexican way. Free speech, popular 
 elections, and practical self-government became the 
 
152 TEXAS 
 
 rule in Austin's colony from the beginning. The 
 merest tyro in history or political science should 
 have been able to see in the situation the essential 
 elements of a revolution. 
 
 It is beyond the scope of this work to follow the 
 history of the colony in detail. After the first two 
 years of its weakness and peril it took deep root 
 and grew and flourished. The work was done, and 
 the result that was to come was thenceforth inevi- 
 table. The help lent by other enipresarios only 
 served to insure its early consummation. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 
 
 The concession to Moses Austin was the signal 
 for numerous applications to the Mexican govern- 
 ment for others. It has been noted that when 
 Stephen F. Austin was in Mexico in 1822, trying 
 to secure a confirmation of his grant, several per- 
 sons were there at the same time seeking permis- 
 sion to undertake enterprises similar to that which 
 he had already put under way. Their efforts were 
 made vain for the time by the suspension, in April, 
 1823, of the general colonization law that they had 
 succeeded in obtaining from the Iturbide rdgime. 
 The suspension, however, was to last only until 
 congress could deal with the subject further. 
 
 This was done by a new general law passed on 
 the 18th of August, 1824. The previous law had 
 framed a system that was to be administered 
 directly by the imperial government then in exist- 
 ence. For this government the overthrow of Itur- 
 bide had substituted what the anti-imperialists 
 intended for a federal republic. It proved, as the 
 account of it already given shows, a sadly abortive 
 affair ; but it was conducted with a degree of re- 
 spect to federal principles for a time. The new law, 
 
154 TEXAS 
 
 therefore, simply laid down certain general provi- 
 sions, and then relegated the subject to the states 
 for legislation in conformity therewith. These pro- 
 visions excluded from colonization a border strip ten 
 leagues wide along the coast and twenty along the 
 boundary of any adjacent foreign nation, required 
 preference to be given Mexican citizens in the dis- 
 tribution of land, limited the amount of land that 
 might be held by any one individual, and forbade 
 any tax on immigration for four years from the pub- 
 lication of the law, or any prohibition, before the 
 year 1840, of the entry of colonists, " unless impe- 
 rious circumstances should require it, with respect 
 to the individuals of a particular nation." This 
 reservation, in view of the prohibition made by the 
 decree of April 6, 1830, is especially significant. 
 
 In accordance with the terms of this enactment, 
 the state of Coahuila and Texas passed a coloniza- 
 tion law for itself March 24, 1825. The law in- 
 vited the entry of immigrants and guaranteed them 
 security of person and property and the right to en- 
 gage in any calling they might choose. They were 
 required to bring certificates from the authorities of 
 the places whence they came that they were Chris- 
 tians and of good character. Empresar'ios were to 
 have five sitios and five lahoi'S of land for each 
 hundred families they should bring in up to eight 
 hundred. The colonists were to be exempt for ten 
 years from all taxes or duties, except in case of 
 hostile invasion. Finally, convicts were to be sent 
 to Texas to work on the roads or in the service of 
 
THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 155 
 
 individuals ; and at the expiration of their terms 
 they might begin life anew as colonists, sharing in 
 the allotments of land, if they could obtain the cer- 
 tificates of the civil authorities that they had ren- 
 dered themselves fit for such a privilege. 
 
 Now came the opportunity of those who had 
 been waiting so eagerly to enter the rich new field. 
 They began to take advantage of it immediately. 
 Two large grants were made in less than a month 
 after the passage of the law, and within the next 
 seven years dozens of them were secured by men 
 who proposed to bring in many thousand families. 
 Austin himself obtained three additional conces- 
 sions, and in conjunction with a partner, Samuel 
 M. Williams, still another. During this period, 
 the whole map of Texas was plastered over, from 
 the Sabine to the Nueces, with the claims of the 
 emp7'esarios^ as if it had been a gold mining re- 
 gion and they prospectors. Ere long it was diffi- 
 cult to find room for another. 
 
 This, however, must not be taken as implying 
 that there was a flood of immigration, or that the 
 empresarios were accomplishing what they had un- 
 dertaken. One might suppose, from the energy they 
 showed in rushing after grants, that Texas would 
 soon be swarming with a new population, but it 
 was not so. Texas, even with the boundaries about 
 which there has never been a question, is a wide- 
 reaching territory, and many people are required 
 to make a show on its surface. Most of the con- 
 tracts came to nothing, and very few of them can 
 
156 TEXAS 
 
 be said to have been carried out with any degree 
 of success. The most important of these few were 
 De Witt's, lying to the west of Austin's, in the 
 interior, and having for its principal settlement 
 Gonzales ; De Leon's, to the southwest of Austin's, 
 adjacent to the coast, with Victoria as its capital ; 
 Edwards's, the chief town and capital of which 
 was Nacogdoches ; Robertson's, lying northwest 
 from Austin's, above the Old San Antonio Road ; 
 and McMullen and McGloin's, extending from the 
 ten league coast reserve along the Nueces and Frio 
 towards the northwest. De Leon's colony was set- 
 tled by Mexicans ; while McMullen and McGloin's 
 was Irish, and its cajjital was, of course, named 
 San Patricio, or St. Patrick. The effect of the 
 whole movement was to bring in many immigrants 
 besides those who came to Austin's colony, and 
 with the general current floated in large numbers 
 of families, as well as individuals, attached to no 
 particular grant, at any rate until after their entry. 
 The country below the Old San Antonio Road, 
 including that covered by Austin's colony and 
 eastward to the Sabine, filled up with comparative 
 rapidity. In 1827 an estimate probably quite near 
 the truth put the aggregate population of Texas, 
 exclusive of Indians, at ten thousand, while similar 
 estimates for 1830 made the number nearly twenty 
 thousand, or about five times as many as in 1821. 
 Evidently the Anglo-Americans were about to fur- 
 nish a solution for the problem of peopling Texas 
 with which the Spanish had struggled so long in 
 vain ; but it was not a solution in Sjjanish terms. 
 
THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 157 
 
 One point, to prevent misunderstanding, should 
 have a little further emphasis. The immigration 
 that was procured and directed by Austin himself 
 is not to be regarded, previous to the revolution of 
 1836, as a stream that was joined successively by 
 others to form a flood in which it was itself merged 
 and lost. It must be remembered that, many as 
 the other empresarios were, they brought in rela- 
 tively few settlers ; and that, up to the revolution, 
 Austin's colony was the predominant element of 
 Anglo-American Texas, and he the foremost figure 
 among the colonists. Nevertheless, the movement 
 had so far widened that it was no longer wholly his 
 own. 
 
 It was not long, however, before a few of the 
 Mexican leaders began to wake to the significance 
 of this movement, and to understand the menace 
 that lay therein. During the earlier days of the 
 Mexican republic, in the first glow of triumphant 
 independence and good feeling towards a people 
 who had gone through a like struggle and who 
 sympathized with Mexico in her own, the dangers 
 of inviting Anglo-American colonists to enter 
 Texas were lost sight of. But these pleasant rela- 
 tions were gradually clouded by the working of 
 antipathetic tendencies and divergent interests. 
 Repeated efforts to obtain by purchase either the 
 whole or a part of Texas showed that the United 
 States was not content with the line of 1819, and 
 was not free fi-om a certain itching to secure' 
 possession, in some way, of the land which had so 
 
158 TEXAS 
 
 attracted the empresarios. This excited the fears 
 of the Mexican government and, along with other 
 causes, led it to parallel the liberal policy of the 
 state of Coahuila and Texas in making many grants 
 with one of restriction in measuring out the privi- 
 leges incident thereto. The historian Alaman says 
 that orders were issued in 1826 and 1827 to refuse 
 admission to colonists from neighboring nations — 
 by which was meant the United States — and to 
 limit empresarios to the numbers stated in their 
 concessions, and in 1828 a law was passed forbid- 
 ding the colonization of Anglo-Americans near the 
 eastern boundary line ; but all without effect. 
 
 In 1829 Guerrero, who was then exercising dic- 
 tatorial powers, issued as his own decree an order 
 abolishing slavery, which had failed to become a 
 law of congress through the opposition of the 
 senate. This measure affected Texas alone, since 
 there were almost no slaves other than peons in 
 Mexico, and the intention of its main promoter, 
 Tornel, was to check immigration from the United 
 States ; but Austin, though he was personally much 
 opposed to slavery, made such energetic represen- 
 tations concerning the mischievous results that 
 were to be expected from the decree, that Texas 
 was exempted from its operation. The colonists 
 had already begun to take steps to evade the pro- 
 visions against slavery in the constitution of Coa- 
 huila and Texas by making contracts with their 
 slaves which converted them into peons, but there 
 was little necessity for such caution. The Mex- 
 
THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 159 
 
 leans were theoretically much in favor of human 
 liberty ; practically, however, they cared little whe- 
 ther the Texans had slaves or not. If the Mexi- 
 can leaders generally were in accord with Tornel in 
 wishing to set up a barrier against the United 
 States, the government was too weak or too timid 
 to execute their measure. 
 
 Finally, on April 6, 1830, the Mexican congress, 
 following the initiative of Alaman, secretary of for- 
 eign and internal relations, passed a law forbidding 
 further colonization in the border states of Mexico 
 by nations adjacent. Or importation of slaves ; sus- 
 pending contracts unfulfilled ; and requiring pass- 
 ports from Mexican consular agents for entry along 
 the northern frontier. This law, though it was in 
 general terms, affected only Texas ; and from its 
 passage can be traced the growth of discontent in 
 that department leading to the revolution of 1836. 
 
 The message of initiative sent to congress by 
 Alaman on which the decree was based is highly 
 interesting to read. While it is marked by a pre- 
 judice that leads him to some misstatement of facts, 
 and by little comprehension of the remedies that it 
 would be safe to try for the evils he had to enumer- 
 ate, it shows that he was much beyond his country- 
 men in his clear perception of the risk that Mexico 
 was incurring by its carelessness. He speaks bit- 
 terly of the insidious aggressions of the Anglo- 
 Americans, saying that they begin by introducing 
 themselves into the country they covet under the 
 pretext of business or colonization, and, when they 
 
160 TEXAS 
 
 have become the dominant part of the population, 
 proceed to set up unfounded claims and raise dis- 
 turbances, and finally, either by diplomacy or vio- 
 lence, obtain possession. He says that they have 
 been using such methods in Texas, — with the collu- 
 sion of the state government, he charges in effect, 
 — and that if General Teran had not chanced to 
 make an official visit to the northern frontier in 
 1827, and had not observed arid reported what was 
 going on, Mexico would already have lost Texas 
 without knowing how. The plea of ignorance pre- 
 vious to Teran's report here set up must not be 
 taken too seriously. If it were true, while it would 
 not justify any unprovoked interference in Mexican 
 affairs from without, it would go far towards ac- 
 counting in itself for the loss of Texas. But there 
 is abundant evidence that it was not true. The worst 
 aspect of the case consists in the fact that the Mex- 
 ican officials were well informed of the mischief 
 going on in Texas, but did really nothing to prevent 
 it. Alaman was doubtless right as to the danger of 
 allowing continued free entry to the Anglo-Ameri- 
 cans ; how to keep them out, however, was another 
 question. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE FREDONIAN WAR 
 
 Hard upon the opening of the general empresario 
 movement began the trouble with the immigrants 
 which it was sure to bring. This broke out at the 
 spot where conditions were most mature for it, i. e. 
 on the eastern frontier at the Nacogdoches settle- 
 ment. The disturbance amounted to little in itself. 
 Its main signijBcance lies in the fact that it was 
 a danger signal. The Mexican authorities may 
 well have congratulated themselves that it came to 
 nothing worse. But for the conservatism and good 
 faith to Mexico of Austin and his colonists, it would, 
 in all probability, have hurried forward the Texas 
 revolution ten years and annexation twenty. What 
 mighty changes such a happening would have 
 wrought in the history of the United States it is 
 easy to see, but impossible here to discuss. 
 
 Probably the reader has already divined why 
 conditions were maturest for such trouble at Nacog- 
 doches. This place was a remote and almost com- 
 pletely isolated centre of Mexican authority. It 
 was the one Spanish settlement surviving on the 
 northeastern frontier, and was completely overrun 
 by intruders. B^jar and La Bahia, the other two 
 
162 TEXAS 
 
 Spanish — or Mexican — settlements, were not 
 reached by the advancing flow of immigration from 
 the east till after the revolution of 1836. At one 
 time Nacogdoches had a population of nearly a 
 thousand, which was for the most part Mexican, 
 It has already been stated that the effect of the 
 Gutierrez-Magee and the Long expeditions, together 
 with the fears awakened by the revolution of 1821, 
 was almost to destroy the settlement. The Mexi- 
 cans especially fled, leaving their houses and lands 
 to the enjoyment of a handful of more daring Anglo- 
 Americans, most of whom were probably refugees 
 from the old Neutral Ground. Soon they recovered 
 their courage, and gradually they returned to the 
 town ; but it was no easy matter to regain possession 
 of their homes. That they should make the at- 
 tempt, and that they should have the sympathy of 
 the Mexican authorities of the state, was only to be 
 expected ; on the other hand, one might anticipate 
 that the men who had entered upon the abandoned 
 property, and who had, some of them at least, ac- 
 quired claims that would in these days be consid- 
 ered good both in law and in equity, would not give 
 np without a struggle. Satisfactory adjudication 
 would have been difficult, even if the parties had 
 been friendly and desirous of coming to terms ; but 
 as they were not, the case was hopeless. It was so 
 much the worse in that, while the state government 
 was with the Mexicans, the Anglo-Americans could 
 count on a degree of sympathy and perhaps of ac- 
 tive support from a multitude of their kind who 
 
THE FREDONIAN WAR 163 
 
 were living along the frontier near at hand. Mea- 
 suring strength with strength, as the two sides might 
 have been marshaled for the issue at arms, the re- 
 sult was doubtful till the balance was thrown by 
 Austin's colony in favor of the constituted authori- 
 ties. 
 
 One fact that served to aggravate the situation 
 at Nacogdoches was that there was near by a band 
 of Indians — mostly Cherokees recently come from 
 the United States — who were discontented with 
 the Mexican government because of its failure to 
 give them what they doubtless believed they had 
 been promised, a large grant of land in full sover- 
 eignty. 
 
 Such was the condition of things on the eastern 
 frontier when Hayden Edwards obtained, in April, 
 1825, a concession for the colonizing of an extensive 
 territory in that quarter, including Nacogdoches. 
 It should be kept in mind that this grant was ob- 
 tained from the state of Coahuila and Texas, and 
 not, like Austin's, from the national government in 
 Mexico. Nor were the powers given Edwards as 
 extensive as those conferred on Austin. He was to 
 respect the titles of original owners, — meaning, of 
 course, the Mexican refugees, — to keep bad char- 
 acters out of his colony, to use Spanish in official 
 documents and when the settlements were made to 
 establish schools for the study of the language, and 
 to make suitable provision for the exercise of the 
 Catholic religion. As to his powers, it was pro- 
 vided only that he should raise the militia according 
 
164 TEXAS 
 
 to law, and be its head till some other arrangement 
 should be made. Outside of the conditions enu- 
 merated in the grant, he was to be governed by the 
 constitution and laws of the nation and the state. 
 When he had introduced as many as one hundred 
 families, the government was to send a commis- 
 sioner, who should put them in possession of their 
 lands. 
 
 This grant gave Edwards no authority to pass 
 on the claims of previous settlers, but he undertook 
 to do so, and was soon deep in trouble. Part of it 
 seems to have been with the settlers to the east of 
 the San Jacinto — and thus within the limits of his 
 grant — who had already secured titles as members 
 of Austin's colony. He also asked of his colonists 
 a certain sum per acre, as Austin had done. The 
 claimants who had been dispossessed by Edwards 
 formed a party of opposition to him, led by James 
 Gaines and his brothei--in-law, Samuel Norris, the 
 alcalde of Nacogdoches, and the antagonism in- 
 creased from day to day. The enemies of Edwards 
 began to send complaints to the political chief at 
 Bejar,^ and the empresaino replied in his own de- 
 fense ; but before the matter came to a decisive 
 issue he went away to the United States, leaving 
 his brother, Benjamin W. Edwards, meanwhile in 
 charge of the colony. The complaints concerning 
 the management were continued, and Benjamin 
 Edwards wrote the governor a letter that was in- 
 tended as a justification ; but it seems to have been 
 
 ^ The executive of the department of Texas. 
 
THE FREDONIAN WAR 165 
 
 taken as disrespectful, and the reply consisted in 
 the withdrawal of the grant to Edwards. The ex- 
 planation given by the political chief was that this 
 was done because of the improper exactions of the 
 empresario from the colonists. 
 
 This was very exasperating ; for, besides destroy- 
 ing the hopes that the Edwardses had centred in 
 this undertaking, it involved great pecuniary loss 
 and injury to them. Hayden Edwards had acted 
 very unwisely in assuming powers not conceded in 
 his contract, and more unwisely still in threatening 
 those who refused to obey his demands with rig- 
 orous treatment which he was not empowered to 
 inflict; all of which Austin had told him bluntly 
 in a very frank letter of pi'otest written before the 
 grant was annulled. On the other hand, the con- 
 duct of Gaines and Norris was such as Anglo- 
 Americans could hardly have been expected to 
 endure peaceably. The empresario would have 
 found it difficult, under the circumstances affecting 
 his grant, to avoid trouble, even if he had shown 
 the utmost prudence ; but his want of caution, not 
 to say his improprieties, lay on him heavy respon- 
 sibility for the result. By the time the grant was 
 annulled, the whole affair was so confused that one 
 grows weary of seeking to locate the blame just 
 where it should be. Suffice it to say that the Ed- 
 wards brothers invoked the remedy of revolution. 
 
 On December 16, 1826, Benjamin Edwards, at 
 the head of fifteen men, rode into Nacogdoches 
 antl proclaimed an independent republic, which they 
 
166 TEXAS 
 
 named Fredonia. They took possession of the Old 
 Stone Fort and organized a so-called government. 
 The next step was to make an offensive treaty 
 against Mexico with the Indians, with whom they 
 agreed to share the territory of Texas. The In- 
 dians were to have all north of a line drawn west 
 to the Rio Grande from Sandy Spring, not far 
 from Nacogdoches ; while the white revolutionists 
 were to have all lying south of the line. Then the 
 Fredonians sent letters to the various Anglo-Amer- 
 ican settlements and tried to incite their inhabitants 
 to join the insurrection. A number of such letters 
 were written by Benjamin Edwards to prominent 
 men in Austin's colony. An appeal to the citizens 
 of the United States also went to Natchitoches, 
 but it was sent by a faithless emissary, who gave 
 an unfavorable report of the affair, and advised 
 against participation in it. 
 
 The rising, however, met with little encourage- 
 ment. It was only in Edwards's colony that there 
 appeared just then to be any occasion for it, and 
 the general mass of Anglo-Americans had little 
 interest in the quarrels of the local factions at 
 Nacogdoches. In Austin's colony there had been 
 up to this time no serious friction with the Mexican 
 authorities, and the sentiment of gratitude and lo}^- 
 alty towards Mexico in that quarter was strong. 
 Had Austin been moved less by this feeling than 
 he was, it would have been easy for him, looking at 
 the matter from a business standpoint, to see that 
 the Fredonian outbreak threatened ruin to the 
 
THE FREDONIAN WAR 167 
 
 work of the empresarios. Farther than this, the 
 Fredonians were in alliance with the Indians, whom 
 he and his colonists had good reason to dread. His 
 mind, therefore, was quickly made up. He took 
 strong ground against the insurrection, using all 
 his influence to suppress it, and sending a consid- 
 erable detachment of militia from his colony with 
 the Mexican troops who marched to put it down. 
 
 First, however, a commission of three prominent 
 men was sent from Austin's colony to Nacogdoches 
 to gather such information as could be had concern- 
 ing the trouble, and to make an effort at concilia- 
 tion. They conferred with the leaders both of the 
 white and the Indian insurgents, and urged them 
 to take advantage of the amnesty which had been 
 offered by the Mexican authorities ; but the Fre- 
 donians replied that they would accept nothing short 
 of independence, with limits at the Sabine and the 
 Rio Grande, and that they regarded the Mexican 
 government as " corrupt, base, and faithless." The 
 committee reported, in addition to what has been 
 stated, that the settlers in the neighborhood of Na- 
 cogdoches, on the Trinity and Neches rivers and 
 Aes Bayou, were loyal to the government, though 
 some of them were playing the hypocrite till help 
 should arrive. 
 
 The stand taken by Austin's colony was fatal to 
 the embryo republic. Had there been any hope for 
 it before, none was left after this development, and 
 its collapse was only a question of time. 
 
 The insurrection was not suppressed until there 
 
168 TEXAS 
 
 had been some actual fighting — significant mainly 
 as the first violent clash between the Mexicans and 
 the colonists whose coming they had invited. On 
 January 4, 1827, Norris gathered fifty to seventy 
 men, a few Americans among them, and went to 
 Nacogdoches to capture the Fredonian garrison. 
 It was said that he had expressed an intention of 
 hanging them all, but they had to be beaten first. 
 There had been a considerable number of them, per- 
 haps as many as two hundred, gathered in the town 
 at one time ; but most of them had gone to their 
 homes, and when Norris approached there were only 
 eleven whites remaining. These were joined at the 
 moment by nine Indians, and without hesitation 
 they charged fiercely upon Norris and his men, who 
 soon fled. The Fredonians had one man wounded, 
 while of the other party one was killed and several 
 more or less hurt. This was the one " battle " of 
 the " war." Shortly afterwards a force of three 
 hundred Mexicans, accompanied by a contingent 
 from Austin's colony, reached Nacogdoches only to 
 find it abandoned by the insurgents, and the Fre- 
 donian republic already dissolved. Austin solicited 
 kind treatment for the prisoners — a few had been 
 captured by the government troops on the march 
 towards the town — and, contrary to Mexican cus- 
 tom, they were released. 
 
 The insignificance of the actual results of the 
 Fredonian rising should not lead to underestimation 
 of its potency for mischief. It was ruined by its 
 prematureness, but it was not as entirely quixotic 
 
THE FREDONIAN WAR 169 
 
 as some have judged it. The Edwards brothers 
 must have known a good deal about frontier condi- 
 tions, and they doubtless made deliberate calcula- 
 tions as to their chances of success. Their mistake 
 lay in resting too heavily on the principle that blood 
 is thicker than water, and in failing to consider 
 sufficiently either the economic influences at work 
 against a general revolution at the time, or the 
 loyalty to Mexico among the colonists, which had 
 not then been destroyed by suspicion and misgov- 
 ernment on one side and resentment and insubordi- 
 nation on the other. If the Fredonian republic 
 could have obtained general support among the 
 colonists, or could have stood upon its feet long 
 enough to attract a crowd of adherents like that 
 which filled the Neutral Ground or gathered around 
 Lafitte on Galveston Island, it might never have 
 been suppressed. Indeed, it probably never would 
 have been. In such a case, there are three or four 
 different turns that the history of Texas might have 
 taken. Let him that is fond of such problems work 
 out this one. If the Persians had won at Marathon 
 the Greek civilization might have been destroyed in 
 the blossom, and if Charles Martel had been beaten 
 at Tours Europe might have become Mohammedan 
 — so it is said ; but neither of these weighty might- 
 have-beens was. Nor is the world conscious of what 
 it escaped when Fredonia fell still-born from the 
 womb of destiny. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 MEXICAN MISEULE AND COLONIAL INSUBOEDINA- 
 TION 
 
 The Fredonian insurrection failed because the 
 time was not ripe. But it was ripening fast, and. 
 the United States government was doing much to 
 hasten the process. While the liberal policy of 
 Mexico was holding Texas open to immigration, 
 and the Anglo-Americans were pouring in under 
 the various empresarios, the authorities at Wash- 
 ington were, as already stated, making continuous 
 efforts to push the boundary westward towards the 
 Rio Grande. From 1825 on, the offers made to 
 Mexico, while never received with favor, were re- 
 peated most persistently and with most unhappy 
 effect. In 1827, one million dollars was offered for 
 the Rio Grande boundary and half as much for 
 that of the Colorado. Mexico replied by making 
 the adoption of the line of 1819, agreed upon with 
 Spain, the price of any commercial treaty at all, 
 and in 1828 that point was yielded by the United 
 States. Nevertheless the offers continued, and the 
 anxiety manifested to possess Texas bred in the 
 minds of the Mexican leaders intense suspicion 
 of some sinister design, which was easily extended 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 171 
 
 from the United States government to the Anglo- 
 American colonists themselves. 
 
 Another ground of suspicion towards the colo- 
 nists, it is said, was their comparative immunity 
 from Indian attacks. For two or three years after 
 the founding of Austin's colony, in the time of its 
 weakness, it had suffered greatly from the Indians ; 
 but as soon as it was felt safe a policy of vigorous 
 reprisal and chastisement was adopted, which 
 quickly put an end to the trouble. At Bejar, how- 
 ever, the depredations of the savages and the insults 
 to the Mexicans were continued as before. This 
 led the authorities in Mexico to suspect the colo- 
 nists — falsely, of course — of some agreement with 
 the Indians. 
 
 If, in addition to the fear of an aggressive design 
 on the part of the United States, and of a secret 
 understanding between the colonists and the In- 
 dians, the reader will consider the Fredonian out- 
 break, with its sudden revelation of the possibilities 
 on the northeastern frontier, he will be in a posi- 
 tion to appreciate the feeling of uneasiness relative 
 to Texas that was growing on the Mexican govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It was out of the suspicion whose origin has been 
 explained that the trouble with the colonists arose. 
 The feeling led to repressive legislation, couched in 
 evasive terms though aimed directly at the Anglo- 
 Americans, which appeared bold and decisive, but 
 which was either receded from on the appearance 
 of opposition, or ineffectively enforced ; the inevi- 
 
172 TEXAS 
 
 table result being to inspire among the Texans first 
 resentment, and then contempt. Moreover the 
 continuous revolutionary state of Mexico itself kept 
 the attention of its people fixed always on national 
 affairs, and made the little share that Texas got 
 exceedingly irregular and fitful. The policy of 
 the colonists was, in accordance with the advice of 
 Austin, to keep as clear as possible of the party 
 strife that was so constant and fierce beyond the 
 Rio Grande ; but whenever the side that happened 
 for the moment to be in power attempted to use 
 stringent methods in dealing with the Texans, it was 
 but natural that they should be identified with the 
 other, and to some extent active in its support. 
 Finally, their resistance to the local administration 
 set up by the victorious Centralists, and more 
 broadly to the whole policy of centralization, drew 
 on them the vengeance of Santa Anna, precipitated 
 the last appeal to arms, and carried the revolution 
 in Texas to a decisive issue. 
 
 The first measure of the Mexican government 
 that aroused general opposition among the Anglo- 
 Americans was Guerrero's decree of September 15, 
 1829, abolishing slavery throughout Mexico. The 
 nature and purposes of this decree have been 
 explained farther back. There were in Texas 
 upwards of a thousand slaves that would have been 
 free if the decree had been carried into execution. 
 From the Texas standpoint, it was an uncalled for 
 and grievously tyrannical measure. To Austin him- 
 self, it would perhaps have appeared differently, 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 173 
 
 but for the ruin he felt certain it would bring upon 
 his work. His earnest protest secured from the 
 political chief of the department a suspension of 
 the decree until a rehearing could be had from the 
 president. A representation dwelling on the guar- 
 antees under which the colonists were invited to 
 enter Texas was sent by the political chief to the 
 governor of the state to be passed on to President 
 Guerrero. The governor added a plea of his own 
 in transmitting it, in which he emphasized especially 
 the mischievous effect that the decree would have 
 on the prosperity of the colonies. Guerrero re- 
 ceived the remonstrances favorably. There was 
 probably but little real interest in the subject on 
 the part either of himself or his advisers, and his 
 administration was already full of troubles ; it 
 must, therefore, have been easy for him to conclude 
 that it was better to surrender a point of the Liberal 
 propaganda than to create a serious additional diffi- 
 culty for bis government. In answer to the repre- 
 sentations of the political chief and the governor, 
 he issued a declaration, on December 2, 1829, that 
 the department of Texas was excepted from the 
 operation of the decree of September 15. Thus 
 the evil day was postponed for a season. 
 
 The next cause of friction was the decree of 
 April 6, 1830. This decree contained provisions, 
 based upon the initiative of Secretary Alaman, for 
 the use of certain revenues to sustain the integrity 
 of the Mexican territory ; for the appointment of 
 commissioners to establish colonies of Mexicans 
 
174 TEXAS 
 
 and of other nations in the frontier states, and to 
 look after the execution of the laws concerning 
 those colonies ; for the sending of convicts to the 
 colonies to work on the fortifications, roads, etc., 
 with the privilege of becoming colonists themselves 
 at the end of their term ; and for stopping the entry 
 of foreigners on the northern frontier without pass- 
 ports from Mexican agents, the introduction of 
 slaves, and the settlement of colonists from countries 
 bounding Mexico in the states adjacent to the line 
 of division. It was backed up by a definite scheme 
 for its enforcement. General Teran was sent to 
 Texas for the purpose, with two battalions of regu- 
 lar infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and quite a 
 considerable body of presidials and militia under 
 his command. A dozen or more military posts 
 were established, with garrisons made up largely 
 of the lowest class of soldiery, and the entry of 
 settlers and the issuance of land titles were stopped 
 in all the colonies except Austin's, De Leon's, and 
 De Witt's. Immigrants just arrived were ordered 
 out of the counti-y, and those on their way in were 
 turned back at the frontier ; and some of those who 
 came to Texas at the time have left interesting 
 stories of how they entered by stealing around Na- 
 cogdoches, in spite of the decree. It was, in fact, 
 impossible to discover the immigrant who broke in 
 illegally, and it may be questioned whether the law 
 was really effectual ; but it did check immigration 
 and irritate the colonists. 
 
 The presence of the military reminded the Tex- 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 175 
 
 aus that the freedom — or perhaps it should be 
 called the license — they had hitherto enjoyed was 
 now to be permitted no longer. The soldiers, while 
 having a wholesome fear of the Anglo-Americans 
 around tliem, were sometimes aggressive and inso- 
 lent ; but their insults were never taken by the 
 colonists in any lamblike spirit. It was especially 
 unfortunate that John Davis Bradburn, a Ken- 
 tuckian of most arbitrary and tyrannical dispo- 
 sition, who had gone to Mexico with Mina and 
 remained in that coimtry, was left by Teran in 
 command at Anahuac at the head of Galveston 
 Bay. This post guarded one of the most impor- 
 tant waterways into Austin's colony, and it was 
 important that the collection of duties there should 
 be attended with the least possible friction. The 
 matter was of the greater consequence for the 
 reason that the period of six years in which free 
 entry of supplies for the colony had been allowed 
 by Austin's contract had lately expired, and it 
 was a delicate matter to collect duties from people 
 who had grown accustomed to having their goods 
 free. The situation was not improved by an order 
 closing all Texas ports except Anahuac ; the pro- 
 tests and threats of the people, however, caused 
 Brazoria also to be left open. 
 
 Teran made things worse by interfering with the 
 state's administration of colonial affairs. In 1831 
 the state government sent Francisco Madero and 
 Jose Maria Carbajal, respectively as commissioner 
 and surveyor, to issue titles to the settlers on the 
 
176 TEXAS 
 
 Trinity. They did so, and in the course of their 
 official duty established the new town of Liberty on 
 the river a short distance above Anahuac. Teran 
 thereupon ordered Bradburn to arrest them for 
 violating the decree of April 6, 1830. They were 
 thrown into prison, and Bradburn dissolved the 
 ayuntamiento of Liberty, established one at Ana- 
 huac, and undertook to give lands to the settlers 
 himself. 
 
 In June, 1832, the explosion for which all this 
 was but the preparation came. By that time the 
 less conservative element among the colonists be- 
 came incapable. of further self-restraint. Vessels 
 loaded with goods had begun to pass in and out at 
 the mouth of the Brazos, with armed men on board 
 and others on shore in cooperation, without any 
 pretense of stopping to pay duties. In May, 1832, 
 Bradburn had put under martial law the ten league 
 strip along the coast, originally reserved from 
 colonization but opened later to settlers brought in 
 by Austin, and shortly afterwards he arrested Wil- 
 liam B. Travis and some other prominent men of 
 the colony for alleged insubordinate behavior and 
 imprisoned them closely. The colonists now rose 
 and marched in force on Anahuac under the com- 
 mand of Frank W. Johnson. John Austin, — no 
 relative of Stephen, unless very distant, — who had 
 brought a contingent from Brazoria, was sent back 
 home to get some cannon that were there and bring 
 them by water to Anahuac for use in capturing 
 Bradburn's fort. But Colonel Ugartechea, who 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 177 
 
 was in command at Velasco at the mouth of the 
 Brazos, refused to let the schooner bearing the guns 
 j^ass out unmolested, and it became necessary to 
 attack that post. It was accordingly assaulted, both 
 from the river and by land. There were about 
 one hundred and twenty-five Mexican troops and 
 one hundred and twelve of the colonists. After a 
 desperate defense, in which Ugartechea gave the 
 amplest proof of his own courage, and his men suf- 
 fered greatly from the accurate rifle-shooting of 
 the Texans, Velasco was taken on June 27. 
 
 During the interval, Colonel Piedras, who was in 
 command at Nacogdoches, had gone with a few men 
 to investigate the troubles at Anahuac ; but he was 
 intercepted by the Texans and induced to promise 
 that he would have Bradburn removed and Travis 
 and his companions released. This was done, and 
 the trouble in that quarter was over for the time. 
 Soon after, the troops at Anahuac marched away 
 to take part in the campaigns then in progress in 
 Mexico. Bradburn himself escaped in disguise to 
 Louisiana. 
 
 In the course of the rising against Bradburn, the 
 colonists had bethought themselves of the desira- 
 bility of having some excuse to make to the Mexican 
 authorities for this disturbance. It was not diffi- 
 cult to find one so much in line with their own 
 motives and principles as to be a most excellent 
 cover, and to make it puzzling, in fact, to decide 
 whether they were not perfectly sincere in adopting 
 it. Their scheme was to declare in favor of Santa 
 
178 TEXAS 
 
 Anna, who had, in January, 1832, begun a struggle 
 against the tyrannical Bustamante government, and 
 who was then posing as the special champion of the 
 constitution and the laws of Mexico. They had 
 had reason enough to desire the overthrow of Bus- 
 tamante ; and enough, on the face of the matter, to 
 suj^port Santa Anna. So, while they were gathered 
 at Turtle Bayou near Anahuac, in the course of the 
 operations against this place, they defined their 
 attitude in what were known as the Turtle Bayou 
 resolutions. It was a happy thought, and the reso- 
 lutions soon served them a good purpose. 
 
 The reports of the rising that had been carried 
 to Mexico had led to the belief there that the Tex- 
 ans were seeking to transfer their allegiance to the 
 United States. Soon after it was over. Colonel 
 Jose Antonio Mejia appeared on the coast with a 
 large force for the purpose of stopping the move- 
 ment. Mejia was of the Santa Anna party, but 
 he had concluded a truce with the leader of the 
 Bustamante troops against whom he was operating, 
 in order that he might avert tliis danger to their 
 common country. He brought with him Stephen 
 F. Austin, who was returning to Texas from his 
 work as a member of the state legislature, and 
 whose absence at the time of the outbreak probably 
 explains its occurrence. But Mejia was soon con- 
 vinced of the loyalty of Texas. He was received 
 with great ceremony at Brazoria and immediately 
 presented with the blessed resolutions. Nothing 
 further was needed to prove to him that the con- 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 179 
 
 duct of the Texans had been entirely Innocent and 
 l^raiseworthy. But to give him a more complete 
 understanding of their views, a gathering of the 
 aytintamientos of the colony passed a series of reso- 
 lutions In favor of the party of Santa Anna and 
 Insisting upon the preservation of the constitution 
 and the rights of the state. Copies of these resolu- 
 tions were ordered to be sent to Colonel Mejia and 
 the political chief, that they might be forwarded to 
 Santa Anna and the governor. A similar expres- 
 sion was sought from De Witt's colonists, but they 
 respectfully requested that they be considered as 
 neutral In reference to the quarrels of the national 
 parties. 
 
 Meji'a spent a short time in the colony doing what 
 missionary work he could for Santa Anna and then 
 returned to Mexico. In a little while the desire of 
 the troops to join in the struggle that was going on 
 beyond the Rio Grande became too strong to resist. 
 At one post after another they declared in favor 
 of Santa Anna and marched away to swell his army 
 in the south. By and by the only garrison left 
 among the Anglo-Americans was that at Nacog- 
 doches under Piedras. This officer was unpopular 
 with the merchants of the town because he sought 
 to monopolize for himself the profits of the trade 
 with New Orleans. There seemed no good reason 
 to the colonists why the man that had Incurred 
 their dislike should be allowed to stand alone in 
 opposition to the general movement. They rose 
 against him to the number of about three hundred 
 
180 TEXAS 
 
 and attacked his company. He had three hundred 
 and fifty men in the Old Stone Fort, but they were 
 soon forced to leave it and retreat from the town. 
 Before they had gone far, they declared in favor of 
 Santa Anna and delivered Piedras to the colonists 
 a prisoner. They then were allowed to pass on to 
 Mexico. The last of Teran's cohorts was gone, 
 and the frontier was once more left to take care of 
 itself. 
 
 That year the name of Santa Anna was much 
 glorified in Texas, and the colonists sang fulsome 
 praises of his character and work, which four years 
 later it must have sickened them to recall. 
 
 The disturbances of 1832 and the general unset- 
 tled condition of colonial affairs led to the call of a 
 convention of the people of Texas. The call for it 
 was issued August 22, 1832, by Horatio Chriesman 
 and John Austin, respectively first and second al- 
 calde of the municipality of Austin, or the San Fe- 
 lipe district, and the convention met at San Felipe 
 October 1. There were upwards of fifty delegates 
 present, and they constituted a general representa- 
 tion of the department, the one notable municipality 
 unrepresented being Bejar. The subjects specially 
 named in the call in response to which the body had 
 assembled were the misrepresentation of the Texans 
 as seeking independence of Mexico, and the depre- 
 dations of the Indians ; but the enumeration made 
 by John Austin, in calling the convention to order, 
 included only the first of these two, and in addition 
 the eleventh article of the decree of April 6, 1830, 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 181 
 
 — or the provision forbidding immigration from 
 the United States, — the land matters of the east- 
 ern part of Austin's colony, and the tariff. Stephen 
 F. Austin was elected president of the convention, 
 and Frank W. Johnson secretary. All these sub- 
 jects and several others were taken under consider- 
 ation, and various petitions to the national and 
 the state government were adopted, among them 
 being one for the free introduction for three years 
 of various articles specially needed in the colonies ; 
 another disclaiming in most positive terms any 
 desire for independence of Mexico, but protesting 
 energetically against the eleventh article of the de- 
 cree of April 6, 1830, and earnestly praying for its 
 repeal ; a third asking for a separate state govern- 
 ment for Texas ; a fourth asking for a grant of land 
 from the state to be put at the disposal of the peo- 
 ple of Texas for use in promoting education ; and a 
 fifth praying the state to issue land titles to the set- 
 tlers between the San Jacinto and the Sabine and 
 to establish new ayuntamientos in that quarter. 
 The convention provided for the management of 
 the custom-houses, whose functions had ceased when 
 the troops left Texas, until the general government 
 could take charge of them again, but it declined to 
 interfere with the schedule of duties. It adopted 
 an address to the ayuntainiento of Nacogdoches 
 requesting that body to look into the claims of the 
 Indians settled near there and assure them that 
 the colonists did not mean to interfere with their 
 lands. It appointed a central committee of safety 
 
182 TEXAS 
 
 and correspondence at San Felipe, which was 
 charged with the duty of looking after colonial in- 
 terests in general, promoting closer union among 
 the colonists, and warning them of the approach of 
 danger. This committee was given power to call a 
 convention of the Texas people whenever it thought 
 necessary, and it had sub-committees in the various 
 districts of the department. The convention also 
 elaborated a plan for a general militia organization, 
 and elected Wily Martin of San Felipe brigadier- 
 general. Finally, William H. Wharton was chosen 
 to carry the memorials of the convention to the state 
 and general governments, and arrangements were 
 made to raise by private subscription two thousand 
 dollars to pay his expenses. The central committee 
 at San Felipe afterwards appointed Rafael Man- 
 chola of Goliad a co-delegate. 
 
 The meaning of all this is plain. The colonists 
 intended to discharge their obligations to Mexico 
 in the most loyal spirit ; but they meant to keep 
 on the lookout for any encroachment, and to be 
 ready to resist it to the uttermost. 
 
 By the help of information gathered from other 
 sources the journal of the convention can be in- 
 structively read between the lines. It shows traces 
 of the beginning of a factional division in Austin's 
 colony growing out of opposition to Austin's 
 policy, organized and led by William PI. Wharton, 
 who had come to the colony from Tennessee in 
 1826. The general spirit of the policy of Whar- 
 ton seems to have been in favor of less conciliation 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 183 
 
 and more self-assertion in dealing with Mexico. 
 He was a candidate for the presidency of the 
 convention against Austin, and had the support 
 of nearly one third of the delegates. Austin ap- 
 pears from this time forward until the revolution 
 was actually under way to have been more or 
 less driven by a current of radicalism which he 
 could not control. It is evident that a majority of 
 the colonists thought his policy too conservative. 
 Though his prominence as founder of the colony, 
 together with their personal respect for and con- 
 fidence in him, led them to look to him and put 
 him forward as their leader still, they now and then 
 broke away from his guidance and adopted mea- 
 sures to which he was opposed. Such a measure 
 was the presentation of the memorial in favor of 
 statehood for Texas. But he had sufficient self- 
 restraint to bow to the will of the majority, even 
 when it was against his own judgment. It was the 
 irony of fate that he was sometimes forced to lend 
 himself as the only effective instrument to the ac- 
 complishment of that which he personally dis- 
 approved. He may have been at times too sensible 
 of colonial obligations to Mexico, but to him belongs 
 the great honor of giving the revolution clear 
 moral defensibility. 
 
 Neither Wharton nor Manchola went to Mexico. 
 The convention provoked a storm of disapproval 
 from the Mexican authorities. The ayiuitamiento 
 of Bdjar wrote to that of San Felipe expressing 
 sympathy with the objects of tlie movement, but 
 
184 TEXAS 
 
 declaring it illegal and ill-timed. The political 
 chief and the governor wrote official letters con- 
 demning it strongly, and Santa Anna advised that 
 General Filisola should be sent to Texas with 
 troops sufficient to take care of Mexican interests. 
 Austin replied to the political chief defending the 
 convention with outspoken frankness. Finally, after 
 a little expenditure of time, paper, and ink, the 
 Mexicans turned again to their old civil strife, and 
 Texas was left to itself once more. 
 
 But the revolutionary impulse was gathering 
 strength in Texas, and it could no longer be 
 stopped. All that winter the discussion went on, 
 with the radicals gaining more and more the upper 
 hand, and meanwhile the party of Santa Anna 
 triumphed in the city of Mexico. In December 
 Bustamante was driven from his office, which was 
 filled by Pedraza from then till April 1, 1833. 
 On January 19 Santa Anna was elected president 
 to succeed Pedraza. Now it seemed as if the oppor- 
 tunity of the colonists had come. The central 
 committee at San Felipe called another conven- 
 tion to meet there April 1. Austin and Wharton 
 were again candidates for the presidency of the 
 convention, and the drift of changing opinion 
 appears in the fact that this time Wharton was 
 elected. The convention petitioned for the repeal 
 of the eleventh article of the decree of April 6, 
 1880, for the modification of the tariff, and certain 
 other things ; but its main work lay in drafting a 
 state constitution for Texas, which was offered for 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 185 
 
 approval to the national government. This consti- 
 tution was framed by a committee having for its 
 chairman Sam Houston, who had just appeared 
 in Texas for the first time. Stephen F. Austin, 
 James B. Miller of San Felipe, and Erasmo Seguin 
 of B^jar were appointed commissioners to present 
 the proj)Osed constitution to the authorities in 
 Mexico and urge the petition of the Texans. 
 Austin alone went. Though the object of the mis- 
 sion was contrary to his judgment, he was the only 
 man in the colony that had enough influence with 
 the Mexican government and sufficient knowledge 
 of the Spanish language and of colonial affairs to be 
 available for the purpose, and with magnanimous 
 self-sacrifice he undertook the task. He went to 
 Mexico, paying his own expenses, and in spite of 
 the devastation cholera was then working in the 
 city, labored for six months trying to accomplish 
 his object ; but he was forced to leave in Decem- 
 ber, 1833, with the matter still unsettled. While 
 he was in Mexico, however, he had written a letter 
 seeking to induce the people of Bejar to join the 
 movement that he expected to see in Texas during 
 the fall of 1833 for the organization of an efficient 
 local government. After his departure Acting- 
 President Farias received information of this fact, 
 and immediately dispatched after Austin an order 
 for his arrest. It took place at Saltillo, and the 
 unfortunate prisoner was carried back to Mexico 
 and detained there for a year and a half, a con- 
 siderable part of the time in close confinement in- 
 
186 TEXAS 
 
 comunicado. It is not hard to understand his 
 outburst in the journal he kept during this period : 
 " Philanthropy is but another name for trouble." 
 Finally in the summer of 1835, when it appeared 
 likely that his restraining influence in Texas would 
 be of value to Santa Anna, he was released under 
 an amnesty and allowed to return home. 
 
 Meanwhile Santa Anna was concerning himself 
 mainly with the work of centralizing the national 
 government and making himself absolute, but he 
 found time in October, 1834, to hold a meeting of 
 some of his civil and military officials, with Austin 
 present, to consider Texas affairs. After hearing 
 the representations of Austin, he promised that he 
 would repeal the eleventh article of the decree of 
 April 6, 1830, unless mature consideration devel- 
 oped objections to such a course, but he decided 
 that Texas could not be separated from Coahuila, 
 and that four thousand men should be sent to 
 Bejar to pi-otect the coast and frontier. 
 
 Disturbances in Coahuila contributed to keep 
 politics from becoming too monotonous in the north 
 during the interval. There was a contest between 
 Monclova and Saltillo for the seat of government 
 which lasted nearly two years, and was terminated 
 in favor of Monclova by the arbitration of Santa 
 Anna in December, 1834 ; but the quarrel was 
 renewed the next yeai*, and, when it was evident 
 that the legislature of the state was about to be 
 expelled by national troops, that body forestalled 
 such action by adjourning shie die, April 21, 1835. 
 
MEXICAN MISRULE 187 
 
 Governor Viesca attempted to move the capital to 
 B^jar, but the archives were captured, and the 
 effort failed. Santa Anna now broke up the exist- 
 ing government entirely, and put an appointee of 
 his own in the office of governor. 
 
 During the years 1833 and 1834 the legislature 
 had shown itself liberal enough towards the colo- 
 nists. It had divided Texas into the three depart- 
 ments of Bejar, the Brazos, and Nacogdoches, had 
 provided for the use of English in public commu- 
 nications and records and the organization of a ju- 
 dicial system with trial by jury, and had passed a 
 number of measures greatly desired by the colo- 
 nists. But in 1835, when Texas seemed to be on the 
 point of breaking away, large bodies of its vacant 
 land were sold by virtue of legislative enactment 
 for almost nothing — conduct sorely displeasing to 
 the general government, as well as to Texas itself. 
 
 By this time the excitement in Texas was run- 
 ning high. A war party grew up among the colo- 
 nists which, in spite of the disposition evinced by 
 the large majority of the Texans to make no hostile 
 demonstration till they were more directly attacked, 
 was difficult to manage or restrain. Some show of 
 violence was to be expected, and ere long it came. 
 In January, 1835, the Mexican authorities had un- 
 dertaken to resume the collection of duties in Texas, 
 and Captain Antonio Tenorio was sent with a hand- 
 ful of troops to support the collector at Anahuac. 
 He had already had some trouble in discharging the 
 duties of his office, when the news came of Santa 
 
188 TEXAS 
 
 Anna's usurpation in Coahuila. A general meeting 
 of the colonists in the department of the Brazos 
 held at San Felipe to consider the crisis decided in 
 favor of non-interference ; but the war party held 
 another meeting and resolved to assert themselves. 
 A small band of them organized under the lead of 
 William B. Travis, marched to Anahuac, and on 
 June 30 expelled Tenorio and his men, starting 
 them off towards Bejar. The step was generally 
 condemned, but events marched so rapidly that the 
 aggressive aspect of it was soon forgotten. 
 
 Rumors of the coming of Mexican troops and 
 of evil designs against Texas now spread every- 
 where, and the excitement became still more 
 intense. Mexican Liberals like Zavala, taking 
 refuge in Texas from the despotism of Santa Anna, 
 heljjed to fan the flame. Meetings of the colonists 
 were held all over Anglo-American Texas, and the 
 discussion was fierce. One more act of violence 
 served to cap the climax. After the expulsion of 
 Tenorio, the Mexican schooner Correo, commanded 
 by one Thompson, was sent to Anahuac to look after 
 the collection of duties. Thompson committed 
 various outrages, and finally caj)tured a United 
 States trading vessel on the Texas coast; where- 
 upon a Texas vessel captured the Correo in turn 
 and sent Thompson along with it to New Orleans 
 to be tried for piracy. The issue with Santa Anna 
 had now passed the stage of conciliation, and there 
 was nothing left but for the colonists to organize 
 for self-defense. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION OF 1824 
 
 Like the American Revolution, that in Texas 
 was well under way before the colonists were will- 
 ing to take the decisive step of declaring themselves 
 independent. The revolution passes, therefore, 
 through two main phases : at first it was a struggle 
 for the constitutional principles on which the Mex- 
 ican Federal Republic had been organized ; and, 
 when this failed because of the complete triumph 
 of Santa Anna in the Mexican states up to the Rio 
 Grande, it became necessarily a struggle for inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 If the advice of the more radical Texan leaders 
 had been followed, the final issue would have been 
 precipitated at the outset. Henry Smith, political 
 chief of the department of the Brazos, and later 
 head of the war party, urged in a circular issued in 
 October, 1834, that Texas organize a state govern- 
 ment for itself at once ; but a reply opposing such 
 a course was issued by the central committee at San 
 Felipe over the signatures of six of its seven mem- 
 bers. The seventh was W. B. Travis, whose atti- 
 tude was consistent throughout. It is impossible 
 for one to read the contemporaneous expressions 
 
190 TEXAS 
 
 of opinion and feeling among the Texans without 
 being impressed by the patience and forbearance of 
 the great majority of the colonists. This was due 
 largely, no doubt, to the influence of Austin himself; 
 and just at this time the fact that he was a hostage, 
 as it were, for the good behavior of the colonists 
 counted for no little in restraining rash measures. 
 So when Austin returned to Texas in Septem- 
 ber, 1835, there was general anxiety to know his 
 views as to the existing situation. The war party 
 had been thus far, except for the expulsion of Te- 
 norio, — which had been soundly reproved, — and 
 the capture of the Correo, — which could hardly 
 be denied approbation, — kept well in check. The 
 drift of action by various public meetings of the 
 colonists held during the summer had been, with 
 few exceptions, peaceful and conciliatory. On the 
 other hand, a dispatch for Tenorio had fallen into 
 the hands of the war party a few days before he 
 was expelled, and it bore information that the 
 national troops recently victorious in Zacatecas 
 would soon be upon the Texans. In addition to 
 this, orders had been received in Texas in August 
 to arrest Zavala and the leaders of the war party, 
 and deliver them to the authorities. No one dared 
 to try it, but the unwise policy of Mexico was burn- 
 ing the bridges behind in the march of aggression. 
 There were calls in various quarters for a general 
 consultation. The decisive step, however, was taken 
 and the revolution started with authoritative sanc- 
 tion, so to speak, when Austin gave his judgment 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 191 
 
 and advice to the people of Texas, at a large meet- 
 ing held to welcome him at Brazoria on Septem- 
 ber 8. He expressed himself in plain and positive 
 terms in favor of a general consultation and the 
 maintenance of the constitutional rights of Texas. 
 The consultation had already been proposed for 
 October 15 by the municipality of Columbia, and 
 Austin's speech was all that was needed to secure 
 general and hearty acquiescence. 
 
 Of course it was well understood that war was 
 imminent, and the preparation for it went forward 
 energetically. The local committees of safety 
 worked actively, and volunteer companies were 
 organized in all quarters. Fortunately every man 
 had the weapon he needed in his rifle, adapted to 
 hunting and Indian fighting alike, and little further 
 equipment was required. 
 
 Before the consultation could meet, the outbreak 
 of hostilities had occurred. The people of Gon- 
 zales had a cannon which had been put in their 
 hands four years before to use against the Indians. 
 Colonel Ugartechea, who was commanding at Be- 
 jar, demanded that it be given up. The demand 
 was refused, and Ugartechea sent a lieutenant with 
 perhaps one hundred men to take it. This detach- 
 ment was prevented from crossing the Guadalupe 
 River to enter the town by the removal of the ferry- 
 boat, and by misleading statements of the citizens, 
 until a force of Texas volunteers could be assem- 
 bled. The Mexicans then moved a few miles away, 
 and the Texans marched after and engaged them 
 on October 2 and put them to flight. 
 
192 TEXAS 
 
 The Texans followed up the victory at Gonzales 
 with an energetic campaign against the frontier 
 posts held by the Mexicans. Early during the 
 month of October a band of men less than fifty in 
 number, hastily organized near Matagorda to drive 
 away some Mexicans who were committing outrages 
 at Victoria, surprised and captured Goliad or 
 La Bahia, obtaining possession of a considerable 
 amount of money and arms. About the middle of 
 the month a body of three hundred and fifty vol- 
 unteers under Stephen F. Austin advanced from 
 Gonzales against Bejar. Meanwhile General Cos 
 had reached that place with reenforcements to the 
 number of five hundred. Early in November a 
 detachment of about forty Texans, sent from Go- 
 liad, captured the post of Lipantitlan on the 
 Nueces above San Patricio ; but the prisoners taken 
 were released on promising not to bear arms against 
 Texas, and no attempt was made to hold the place 
 permanently. 
 
 The reduction of Bejar cost a campaign of nearly 
 two months. October 28 a detachment of about 
 one hundred men under Colonel James Bowie and 
 Captain J. W. Fannin defeated a much larger force 
 of Mexicans near Mission Concepcion. A council 
 of war was then held to consider the question of 
 storming Bejar ; but owing to the strength of the 
 fortifications and the want of artillery to breach 
 them, it was decided not to make the attempt. On 
 November 25 Austin, who had been appointed by 
 the consultation, then in session at San Felipe, 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 193 
 
 jointly with Branch T. Archer and William H. 
 Wharton, to go on a mission to the United States, 
 turned over his command to Colonel Edward Burle- 
 son and left to undertake his new duties. Previous 
 to this the Texan army had received considerable 
 reenforcements, among them being two companies 
 from New Orleans and one from Mississippi, but 
 there was much disorganization in the ranks, and 
 men were leaving constantly. The vain siege was 
 continued until December 4, when it appeared to 
 be about to end in disorder ; but Benjamin R. 
 Milam, acting by Burleson's authority and taking 
 advantage of a moment of enthusiasm among the 
 men, made a sudden ringing call for volunteers to 
 follow him in an assault on the city, and the hesi- 
 tation was at an end. On the morning of the 5th 
 the Texans began fighting their way in from house 
 to house with the most desperate courage and de- 
 termination. On the 9th the fighting was stopped 
 by negotiations for a surrender, and on the 11th 
 the capitulation was signed. Cos and his officers 
 gave their parole not to resist further the strug- 
 gle for the constitution of 1824. He was to take 
 a guard of regular infantry and cavalry and con- 
 vey the convict soldiers, of which his army was 
 largely composed, beyond the Rio Grande. The 
 men, except the convicts, were left in possession of 
 their arms and effects with permission to remain or 
 to go whither they chose. On December 14 Cos 
 marched away with a few more than eleven hundred 
 men, leaving some two hundred who preferred to 
 
194 TEXAS 
 
 stay. The losses in tliis affair were for the Tex- 
 an s two killed — Milam being one of them — and 
 twenty-six wounded, and for the Mexicans alto- 
 gether probably one hundred and fifty. 
 
 The capture of Cos at Bejar had left not a man 
 in arms against the Texans north of the Rio Grande. 
 If the Anglo-Americans were sincere in the decla- 
 ration that their purpose was simply to restore the 
 constitution of 1824 and in the promise which we 
 shall see a little further on they had made to coop- 
 erate with the Mexican Liberals, the next step would 
 naturally be to carry the war into the interior of 
 Mexico and undertake the overthrow of the Central- 
 ists throughout the republic. In conformity with 
 this idea of the object of the revolution and proper 
 management of the campaign, an expedition against 
 Matamoras was planned. But at this point differ- 
 ences which had already begun to show themselves 
 among the Texans in council and in the field began 
 to work with such mischievous influence and 
 strength that operations both offensive and defen- 
 sive were almost paralyzed. The truth is that the 
 disasters which marked the campaign of 1836 up to 
 the very moment of the victory at San Jacinto were 
 only the legitimate result of the cross-purposes and 
 counter-efforts in Texas during the previous fall and 
 winter. 
 
 While the siege of Bejar was in progress, the 
 consultation gathered for the appointed meeting. 
 Owing to the absence of many delegates who were 
 with the army, there was no quorum. The members 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 195 
 
 present were also anxious to take part in the fight- 
 ing ; so, after a temporary organization on October 
 16, the body adjourned till the next day, and then 
 till November 1. It was not able to effect a per- 
 manent organization till November 3, and it re- 
 mained in session twelve days. In his speech before 
 proceeding to business the president, Branch T. 
 Archer, declared that he did not view the struggle 
 in which they were engaged as that of " Texas bat- 
 tling alone for her rights and liberties," but that 
 he felt they had undertaken " the work of laying 
 the cornerstone of liberty in the great Mexican 
 Republic." A committee of twelve, one from each 
 municipality, — i. e. each locally organized district, 
 — was appointed to draw up a declaration defin- 
 ing the attitude of the Texans. The chairman of 
 this committee was J. A. Wharton of Columbia, 
 brother of W. H. Wharton, who was with the army 
 at Bejar. On the 4th Wharton reported for the 
 committee ; but the declaration, which has not been 
 preserved,^ must have been too radical to suit the 
 majority, for a debate followed as to whether it 
 should be in favor of independence for Texas, or 
 of the principles of the constitution of 1824. Sam 
 Houston, who seems to have left Texas soon after 
 the convention of 1833 and to have returned just 
 previous to the consultation, and who was a delegate 
 from Nacogdoches, offered a resolution instructing 
 
 ^ Since this statement was written, a document wliicli may be 
 the declaration has been discovered among the arcliives in the 
 state Capitol, but it has not yet been positively identified. 
 
196 TEXAS 
 
 the committee to declare in favor of the constitution 
 of 1824, but the opposition of Wharton caused him 
 to withdraw it. On the 6th the decisive question 
 was put, and fifteen votes were in favor of declaring 
 absolute independence, while thirty-three favored 
 declaring for the constitution of 1824. The oppo- 
 sition of Wharton prevented the entry of the ayes 
 and noes in the journal, but the votes of the most 
 prominent membei's can be determined with a fair 
 degree of certainty. 
 
 The report of Wharton's committee was reformed 
 to agree with the will of the majoi*ity, and on the 
 7th the declaration was adopted. It asserted that 
 the Texans had taken up arms " in defense of the 
 republican principles of the federal constitution of 
 Mexico, of eighteen and twenty-four ; " that they 
 were " no longer morally or civilly bound by the 
 compact of union," but that out of generosity and 
 sympathy they offered help to those Mexican states 
 that would make a stand against military despotism ; 
 that they claimed the right to govern themselves 
 independently or as they might think best while the 
 disorganization of the fedei-al government contin- 
 ued, but that they would remain faithful to Mexico 
 while it was governed by the constitution of 1824 ; 
 and tliat they would receive as citizens and reward 
 with land all who came to their help in this strug- 
 gle. The word " republican " was inserted before 
 " principles " in the first section by amendment 
 just on the eve of adoption. This declaration, 
 made consciously and after mature deliberation, 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 197 
 
 was conciliatory beyond what could have been rea- 
 sonably expected ; and the failure of Mexico to 
 meet it with any sort of concession, though none 
 was to be looked for except through the overthrow 
 of Santa Anna, justifies the revolution fully. It 
 was likewise the extreme and menacing persistence 
 of the Mexican Centralists and the inability of 
 prostrate Liberalism to rise again at the call of its 
 champion that drove Texas from this halfway house 
 of the constitution of 1824 to the final lodge of 
 independence. That the declaration was perhaps 
 dictated in considerable measure by expediency 
 does not alter the case. It was at least no repeti- 
 tion of the Turtle Bayou resolutions. The time 
 for temporizing or extenuating was past, and the 
 policy avowed by the Texans was that which they 
 were at the moment resolved to pursue. 
 
 Having thus defined the object of the Texans 
 in taking up arms, the consultation proceeded to 
 organize a provisional government. The scheme 
 adopted was double, one part providing for a civil 
 and the other for a military organization ; and both 
 of them were triumphs of potential confusion and 
 conflict of authority. The civil government was 
 to consist of a governor and lieutenant-governor 
 elected by the consultation, and a council made up 
 of one member from each municipality elected by 
 its delegates. The governor and council had ill- 
 defined and practically coordinate powers, those of 
 the council being mainly legislative but partly 
 appointive and advisory, and there was no provi- 
 
198 TEXAS 
 
 sion against deadlocks. It would have been diffi- 
 cult to frame an instrument less adapted to the 
 emergency. The plan for the military organiza- 
 tion was, if possible, even worse. It provided for 
 a regular army of eleven hundred and twenty men 
 to serve for two years, or for the war, and a militia 
 made up of all able-bodied men in Texas. The 
 regulars were to be headed by a major-genei-al, 
 who was to be commander-in-chief of all the forces 
 called into public service during the war. He was 
 to be ajDpointed by the consultation, commissioned 
 by the governor, and subject to the orders of the 
 governor and council. In the field the regular 
 army was to be subject to the rules, regulations, 
 and discipline of that of the United States, so far 
 as applicable to Texas conditions. But on the day 
 before its adjournment the consultation took action 
 by which it expressly denied the provisional gov- 
 ernment any control over the volunteer army be- 
 fore Be jar. 
 
 In the election of officers for the provisional 
 government, Henry Smith, who had been one of 
 the most radical, first of the war party and later 
 of the independence party, was elected governor, 
 receiving thirty-one votes, as against twenty-two 
 cast for Stephen F. Austin. James W. Robinson 
 was elected lieutenant-governor, and Sam Houston 
 major-general of the armies of Texas ; and Branch 
 T. Archer, William H. Wharton, and Stephen F. 
 Austin were appointed commissioners to the United 
 States. 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 199 
 
 Having completed the organization of the provi- 
 sional government and commended to it the pro- 
 posed expedition against Matamoras, the consul- 
 tation adjourned to meet March 1, 1836, unless 
 sooner called together by the governor and council. 
 
 It was but a short time till friction was devel- 
 oped between the governor and council, which 
 grew at length into a violent and unseemly quar- 
 rel. The first steps towards it bore a rather ridic- 
 ulous aspect. The plan of the provisional govern- 
 ment as adopted by the consultation did not confer 
 on the governor the veto power ; but the council 
 in passing an ordinance to govern the methods of 
 legislation made provision for the exercise of this 
 power and thus assumed that he was to have it. 
 The governor vetoed this ordinance itself, but 
 thenceforth exercised the power it seemed to con- 
 cede, and there was no protest except where his 
 negative was invoked against the appointments of 
 the council. Vetoes soon came thick and fast, and 
 the council might have had reason to repent its 
 concession but for the little difficulty there was in 
 securing a two thirds majority to override them. 
 The fundamental difference between the governor 
 and council was that it was in favor of carrying 
 out the policy adopted by the consultation in its 
 pronunciamento of November 7, and thus cooper- 
 ating with the Mexican Liberals in restoring the 
 constitution of 1824 ; while he wished absolute 
 independence and was opposed to any dealing with 
 the Mexicans. But opposition extended to many 
 
200 TEXAS 
 
 matters of detail, such as the method of drawing 
 on the treasury, the appointment of certain offi- 
 cials, and the question of allowing Mexican Liberals 
 resident in Texas to vote for members of the con- 
 vention that it was desired to call. 
 
 The most serious difference, however, was con- 
 cerning the Matamoras expedition. After the fall 
 of Bdjar there was a general feeling that such an 
 enterprise would be feasible and expedient. About 
 the middle of December Smith himself was so far 
 influenced by this feeling that he ordered General 
 Sam Houston to appoint Colonel Bowie to lead the 
 expedition, and the appointment was made ; but 
 for some reason Bowie did not go. A few days 
 later the governor received a letter from Frank W. 
 Johnson, who had succeeded Burleson in command 
 of the volunteer army, asking, because of the 
 threatening aspect of affairs beyond the Rio 
 Grande, for help to strengthen the frontier out- 
 posts. The letter was referred to the council, and 
 in a report thereon made December 25 the com- 
 mittee on military affairs, after presenting various 
 considerations in favor of immediate active opera- 
 tions against Matamoras, recommended the concen- 
 tration of the troops on the frontier. The council 
 laid the report on the table for the time ; but 
 Houston wrote the governor, in relation to it, pro- 
 testing against being ordered away from his central 
 position at San Felipe to an outpost, where he said 
 a subordinate could " discharge every duty." On 
 January 3 Johnson, who had come to San Felipe 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 201 
 
 for the purpose, reported that he had ah*eady 
 ordered the expedition under authority of an offi- 
 cial letter directed to his predecessor in the com- 
 mand of the volunteers, General Burleson, and 
 that the troops had chosen him to lead it. He 
 asked the council to ratify the plan, and it did so 
 promptly, taking steps to provide for cooperation 
 by sea. On the 6th, however, for reasons given in 
 a letter not preserved, he withdrew from the affair ; 
 but on the 7th he changed his mind again and 
 informed the council that he would go. Mean- 
 while Fannin had been authorized to lead the ex- 
 pedition. The council now restored Johnson's 
 authority, without taking away Fannin's. On the 
 8th Fannin published a call for volunteers, who 
 were to rendezvous at San Patricio between the 
 24th and the 27th. On the 10th Johnson issued 
 a proclamation, also calling for volunteers, and 
 stating that the " whole of the volunteer army of 
 Texas " was expected to advance from San Patri- 
 cio between the 25th and the 30th. Houston com- 
 plained that he was being superseded, and Gov- 
 ernor Smith, who was in sympathy with him, saw 
 that something must now be done by the major- 
 general himself. So the governor gave him orders 
 to go to the frontier. 
 
 The quarrel between the governor and council 
 now reached its culmination. This was brought 
 on by a report that was made to Houston by Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Neill, in command at Be jar, and 
 forwarded to the governor, in a letter dated Jan- 
 
202 TEXAS 
 
 uary 6. It stated that tlie volunteers on leaving 
 for Matamoras had taken all available supplies 
 and left the men at the post destitute of actual 
 necessities. Smith was utterly beside himself, and 
 on January 10, with the fever of his rage hot 
 within him, he penned an intemperate message to 
 the council, calling some of its members whom he 
 did not name " Judases," " scoundrels," and " par- 
 ricides," and using expressions towards them that 
 were still more offensive. He concluded by in- 
 forming them that the body was adjourned until 
 March 1, unless it should be convened by procla- 
 mation at an earlier date, and that he would con- 
 tinue to do his duty as commander-in-chief of the 
 army and navy and as chief executive. 
 
 The council made a severe and dignified reply, 
 in which it characterized the message as " unwor- 
 thy of, and disgraceful to the office whence it em- 
 anated, and as an outrageous libel on the body to 
 whom it is addressed." It followed this up with 
 a series of resolutions ordering the governor " to 
 cease the functions of his office and to be held to 
 answer to the Genei'al Council" on an impeach- 
 ment to be preferred against him by that body, 
 and recognizing Lieutenant-Governor Robinson as 
 acting governor. An exculpatory address was 
 issued to the people of Texas by the council, and 
 charges and specifications against the governor 
 were made out and he was furnished with a copy. 
 He was informed that he might, if he preferred, 
 answer to the convention that was to meet in 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 203 
 
 March. On the 12th Smith sent the council 
 another message which, though rather offensive in 
 its demands, was intended to be conciliatory ; but 
 the council replied that the time for compromise 
 and conciliation was past. On the 13th he sent a 
 communication stating, among other things, that 
 he held himself ready to answer his impeachment 
 before the convention. On the same day the 
 council passed a resolution directing the secretary 
 of the governor, Charles B. Stewart, who was also 
 recording clerk of the council, to communicate offi- 
 cially with Robinson instead of Smith, and to hold 
 the archives of the executive office subject to the 
 order of Robinson. On the 14th it adopted a reso- 
 lution requesting Governor Smith to deliver to its 
 j^resident the public correspondence and documents 
 then in his hands or to be received by him. On 
 the 16th Stewart was suspended from office and 
 fined twenty -five hundred dollars for contempt of 
 the council in not obeying the resolution of the 
 13th. On February 3 Smith sent the council a 
 demand for certain " executive papers," threaten- 
 ing in case of non-compliance to order the arrest 
 of the members and their transmission to B^jar to 
 be tried by martial law. When the convention 
 met, both sides presented statements concerning 
 the quarrel ; but that body replied simply by ask- 
 ing for the documents in possession of both, and 
 refused to go farther into the affair. Thus ended 
 an episode as ridiculous as it was disgraceful. 
 But it was also supremely mischievous ; for it 
 
204 TEXAS 
 
 ruined the campaign so well begun by tlie capture 
 of Bejar and almost paralyzed the defense of Texas. 
 The Matamoras expedition was broken up, but the 
 isolated frontier outposts were neither abandoned, 
 nor were they adequately defended. What the 
 result of a little more energy directed that way 
 would have been remains among the untried issues. 
 There are some who believe that it would have been 
 effective only in dividing and weakening the Texan 
 forces ; but others are of the opinion that if the 
 invading Mexicans had been met on the frontier 
 line with the whole strength of Texas, and with 
 the spirit afterwards displayed at the Alamo, they 
 would never have reached the Anglo-American set- 
 tlements at all. However that may be, with Smith 
 and Houston pulling one way and the council, to 
 gether with Johnson, Fannin, and a crowd of minor 
 leaders, the other, the outcome was at least tempo- 
 rarily disastrous. 
 
 In response to appeals for reenforceraents from 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Neill in command of the Alamo, 
 General Plouston dispatched Colonel Bowie with a 
 small force, instructing Neill to demolish the fortifi- 
 cations at Bejar and carry off the artillery. Neill, 
 however, was without teams to bring away the guns, 
 so he did not obey the order. Governor Smith sent 
 Travis also, with the men in his detachment. Soon 
 afterwards Neill left for home, because of ill health, 
 leaving Travis at the head of the troops. The latter 
 claimed command of the regulars and the volunteer 
 cavalry, while Bowie was at the head of the other 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 205 
 
 volunteers. The little garrison numbered only 
 about one hundred and fifty, all told, and Santa 
 Anna was soon upon it with an army several thou- 
 sand strong. 
 
 At Refugio Houston succeeded in persuading 
 most of Johnson's men to leave him, and soon after- 
 wards they joined his own forces. Johnson and 
 Doctor Grant, another one of the leaders who had 
 brought contingents for the expedition, went on to 
 San Patricio with less than one hundred men. A 
 little later the two detachments were separated, and 
 first Johnson's party and then Grant's was slaugh- 
 tered by the Mexicans almost to a man. Johnson 
 himself, by the rarest good fortune, escaped. 
 
 Fannin marched to Goliad, where he had over 
 four hundred men. On his way thither he had 
 been elected to command the force. More than 
 once he declared himself ready to serve under Hous- 
 ton if the latter could only be persuaded to lead the 
 expedition against Matamoras ; but the commander- 
 in-chief had gone to the east under a commission 
 from the governor to negotiate a treaty with the 
 Indians, and Fannin had to act for himself. It was 
 by this time known that the Mexicans were invad- 
 ing Texas in force, and he awaited them in the 
 Goliad fortress. About the middle of March he 
 received orders from Houston, who had meanwhile 
 resumed his functions as commander-in-chief to 
 blow up the fortress and fall back to Victoria ; but 
 he had sent out two parties respectively under Cap- 
 tain King and Lieutenant-Colonel Ward, and he 
 
206 TEXAS 
 
 waited three or four days to hear from them. No 
 news came, and March 19 he started on his re- 
 treat. He had gone but a few miles when his force 
 was surrounded by Mexicans, and a fight ensued 
 which lasted till night came on. The next morn- 
 ing, seeing himself helpless, Fannin surrendered, 
 as the survivors among his own men said, with 
 the agreement that they should be treated as prison- 
 ers of war ; but Urrea, the Mexican commander, 
 claimed that it was at discretion. In a few days 
 Ward's men, who had been captured soon after 
 Fannin's, were added to the body of prisoners, but 
 King's had been almost completely massacred. 
 March 27 the prisoners to the number of three 
 hundred and seventy-one were marched out under 
 guard and shot down like cattle in the shambles, 
 though in the confusion of the slaughter, twenty- 
 seven of them were fortunate enough to escape. To 
 give this infernal deed the little palliation that can 
 be found for it, one must remember that Fannin's 
 troops were mainly from the United States, and 
 from the Mexican standpoint were filibusters ; but 
 this fact will scarcely serve to check the reader's 
 indignation. 
 
 From the Alamo Travis made repeated calls for 
 help, avowing his determination never to give up 
 the place. On the morning of March 1 thirty-two 
 men from Gonzales made their way through the 
 beleaguering Mexicans into the fort, thus swelling 
 the number of its doomed inmates to one hundred 
 and eighty-three. As the defense of the Alamo is 
 
^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 r 
 
 
[Fwsimil, <.//*« Travis Ullcr] 
 
 
V ^ 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 207 
 
 the most heroic event in American history, so, as 
 the writer of this vohime believes, is the letter in 
 which Travis announced the opening of the siege 
 the most heroic document among American histori- 
 cal records. Therefore to the printed copy which 
 follows is added a reproduction in which the letter 
 appears, as nearly as possible, just as it left the 
 hand that penned it : — 
 
 COMMANDANCY OF THE AlAMO, 
 
 Bkjab, Feb'y 24th 1836. 
 To the People of Texas and all Americans in the world. 
 
 Fellow citizens and compatriots — I am besieged, by 
 a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. 
 I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannon- 
 ade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy 
 has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the 
 garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. 
 I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and 
 our flag still waves proudly from the walls. / shall 
 never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the 
 name of Liberty, of patriotism and eveiy thing dear to 
 the American character, to come to our aid with all dis- 
 patch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and 
 will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four 
 or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined 
 to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a sol- 
 dier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and 
 that of his country. Victory or Death. 
 
 William Barret Travis, 
 Lt. Col. comdt. 
 
 P. S. The Lord is on our side. When the enemy 
 appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. Wo 
 
208 TEXAS 
 
 have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels 
 and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves. 
 
 Travis. 
 
 Men are often overawed by the storms they con- 
 jure up themselves. It was not so with Travis. 
 He had done more, perhaps, than any other man to 
 precipitate the revolution, but he faced its concen- 
 trated fury with unwavering courage to the last. 
 Even in the simple " shall " of his sentence of self- 
 devotion, whose propriety of diction has been much 
 impeached, thei^e is a calm bow to destiny not yet 
 unveiled that no strenuous " will " could equal in 
 its significance. 
 
 The Alamo was besieged from February 23 to 
 March 6, when it was taken by storm. In the 
 early morning the Mexicans, assaulting it simultane- 
 ously at three different points, swarmed in through 
 the breaches and over the walls. A desperate hand- 
 to-hand struggle followed, and all but about a half- 
 dozen of the Texans died fighting. Four or five 
 were found after the assault hiding in the rooms of 
 the Alamo, and a Mexican officer begged that their 
 lives might be spared ; but Santa Anna ordered 
 their immediate execution, and they were shot at 
 once. One or two others made desjDerate but un- 
 successful efforts to escape, one of them being cap- 
 tured under a bridge a half hour later and forth- 
 with put to death. Not a man of the garrison was 
 left alive. The only survivors were three women, 
 including Mrs. Almerion Dickinson, the wife of a 
 
STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 209 
 
 lieutenant belonging to the garrison, the baby 
 daughter of Mrs. Dickinson, one other child, and a 
 negro boy. The Mexican loss has never been fully 
 ascertained ; but an estimate by a cool and care- 
 ful writer, who based it largely on information 
 from those who took part in the assault, places the 
 number of killed and wounded at about five hun- 
 dred. 
 
 The fourth act of the revolutionary tragedy was 
 now over, and the drama hastened rapidly to a 
 conclusion. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 
 
 The convention met according to the call of the 
 council on March 1, 1836, at the town of Wash- 
 ington on the Brazos. It remained in session only 
 seventeen days, but during this time it did notable 
 work. Its most important act was to bring into 
 existence the Republic of Texas, and to give a new 
 direction to the war with Mexico. 
 
 In organizing the convention, Richard Ellis, from 
 Pecan Point on Red River, was elected president, 
 and H. S. Kimble secretary. Concerning the mem- 
 bership, it is worthy of note that very few of them 
 had served as delegates to the consultation or the 
 two conventions that had marked the earlier efforts 
 of the colonists to obtain peaceable redress for 
 their grievances. This fact itself helps to show how 
 the conservatives, who had hitherto been trusted 
 and followed, were now losing their hold. Stephen 
 F. Austin was in the United States in the discharge 
 of his duty as commissioner, but Sam Houston was 
 present as a delegate from Refugio. Two promi- 
 nent members of the council who claimed to have 
 been elected had tlieir seats contested. On account 
 of the contradictory evidence, and the want of time 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 211 
 
 for a new election, an effort was made to have all 
 the claimants seated ; but it failed, and the seats in 
 both cases went to the contestants. 
 
 That the convention would declare Texas inde- 
 pendent was a foregone conclusion. It had become 
 clear that there was no longer any middle ground 
 to take. Whoever may have been to blame for it, 
 the policy of cooperating with the Mexican Liberals 
 had failed ; or perhaps it would be more accurate 
 to say, had been thwarted. There was no longer 
 any hope of keeping the war out of Texas, and it 
 was even while the convention sat that the tragedy 
 of the Alamo was enacted and the defense of the 
 frontier broke down. The Anglo-Americans were 
 at length thrown upon their own resources and the 
 help of their friends in the United States. Every 
 reason, both of right and expediency, now called 
 for a declaration of independence, and even the 
 most cautious and scrupulous of the colonists began 
 to consider it as the only alternative. Austin him- 
 self, who to the last was keenly sensible of his 
 obligation to Mexico, and whose moral stature and 
 want of fitness for revolutionary leadership were 
 made equally conspicuous by the crisis, was won 
 over. The change in his views seems to have taken 
 place at the time of his passage to the United States 
 in the winter of 1835. In letters written fi'om 
 New Orleans on January 7, 1836, he declared that 
 he had become convinced and was in favor of an 
 immediate declaration. The growth of this convic- 
 tion was due apparently to the state of public sen- 
 
212 TEXAS 
 
 timent in New Orleans, which demanded absolute 
 separation from Mexico as the condition for aid for 
 Texas. 
 
 Public opinion in Texas, however, was the deter- 
 mining factor with the convention. As already- 
 intimated, the feeling had, in the first two months 
 of 1836, become practically unanimous. The growth 
 of it had been vigorous and steady for months be- 
 fore ; and though it had not been powerful enough 
 to control the consultation or the council, it had 
 furnished in a high degree, no doubt, the opposing 
 strength that defeated the execution of their mea- 
 sures. Incident to the social and j)olitical organ- 
 ization of the Texas then existing was a strong 
 sense of local independence, and at the same time 
 a great deal of impatience in the separate communi- 
 ties over the want of a united and consistent policy 
 in the face of imminent invasion. This impatience 
 broke forth at Goliad, December 20, 1835, in a 
 declai'ation signed by ninety-one citizens, which 
 anticipated the act of the convention. How the 
 sijrners regarded the situation of Texas at the time 
 is best stated in the words of the instrument itself. 
 
 It says that — 
 
 They [the signers] have seen the enthusiasm and the 
 heroic toils of an army bartered for a capitulation, humili- 
 ating in itself, and repugnant in tlie extreme to the pride 
 and honor of the most lenient, and no sooner framed 
 than evaded or insultingly violated. 
 
 They have seen their camp thronged, but too fre- 
 quently, with those who were more anxious to be served 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 213 
 
 by, than to serve their country — with men more desir- 
 ous of being honored with command than capable of 
 commanding. 
 
 They have seen the energies, the prowess, and the 
 achievements of a band worthy to have stood by Wash- 
 ington and receive command, and worthy to participate 
 of the inheritance of the sons of such a Father, frittered, 
 dissipated, and evaporated away for the want of that 
 energy, union, and decision in council, which, though it 
 must emanate from the many, can only be exercised effi- 
 ciently when concentrated in a single arm. 
 
 They have seen the busy aspirants for office running 
 from the field to the council hall, and from this back 
 to the camp, seeking emolument and not service, and 
 swarming like hungry flies around the body politic. 
 
 They have seen the deliberations of the council and 
 the volition of the camp distracted and paralyzed by the 
 interference of an influence anti-patriotic in itself, and 
 too intimately interwoven with the paralyzing policy of 
 the past, to admit the hope of relief from its incor- 
 poration with that which can alone avert the evils of the 
 present crisis, and place the affairs of the country beyond 
 the reach of an immediate reaction. 
 
 They have witnessed these evils with bitter regrets, 
 with swollen hearts, and indignant bosoms. 
 
 The document concludes by declaring tlie inde- 
 pendence of Texas, and the signers express them- 
 selves as " relying with our entire confidence upon 
 the cooperation of our fellow citizens." By the 
 end of the next two months all Texas was of the 
 same mind. 
 
 So the first work of the convention, after it had 
 
214 TEXAS 
 
 organized, was to appoint a committee to draft 
 a declaration of independence. The next day, 
 March 2, the committee reported, and the report 
 was unanimously adopted. The declaration charged 
 that the Mexican government had broken faith 
 with the colonists by failing to secure them " that 
 constitutional liberty and republican government, 
 to which they had been habituated ; " had " sacri- 
 ficed [their] welfare to the state of Coahuila ; " 
 had unjustly imprisoned Austin ; had refused to 
 secure trial by jury ; had " failed to establish any 
 public system of education ; " had rendered the 
 military superior to the civil power ; had dissolved 
 the state government by force of arms ; had sought 
 to arrest Texas citizens and carry them to the 
 interior for trial ; had made piratical attacks on 
 Texas commerce ; had denied the Texans freedom 
 of conscience ; had commanded them to give up 
 their arms ; had invaded their country by land and 
 sea ; had excited the Indians against them ; and 
 " had continually exhibited every characteristic of 
 a weak, corrupt, and tyrannical government." 
 Against one or two of these allegations Mexico 
 might have had some defense ; but the indictment 
 was essentially true and proper, and fully justified 
 the assertion of independence. 
 
 The convention then addressed itself to the task 
 of framing a constitution. The instrument that 
 was the outcome of their labors was copied in many 
 of its features from the Constitution of the United 
 States, but of course it was necessarily adapted to 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 215 
 
 a single state, and not a federal union. It required 
 congress to introduce by statute the common law, 
 with such modifications as might seem called for, 
 as early as practicable, and provided that the same 
 system should be the rule of decision in all criminal 
 cases. Ministers of the gospel and priests were 
 made ineligible to the presidency or to congress. 
 It was made the duty of congress to provide by 
 law, as soon as circumstances would permit, a gen- 
 eral system of education. Persons refusing to par- 
 ticipate in the war or aiding the enemy were to lose 
 their rights of citizenship and their land ; heads 
 of families were to have each a league and lahor 
 — in all about forty-six hundred acres — and each 
 single man over seventeen years of age one third 
 of a league ; and certain acts of the legislature of 
 Coahuila and Texas passed in the years 1834 
 and 1835, under which enormous amounts of land 
 in Texas had been improperly disposed of, were 
 nullified. 
 
 As to slavery, the constitution provided that 
 persons of color who had been slaves before their 
 immisfration to Texas should remain such. Con- 
 gress was forbidden to pass any law to prevent 
 immigrants from bringing their slaves with them, 
 or to emancipate slaves ; nor was any person to be 
 allowed to free his slaves, except by consent of con- 
 gress, unless he first sent them beyond the limits of 
 the Republic. Free negroes were not to be allowed 
 to live in Texas without the consent of congress, 
 and the African slave trade, or the introduction of 
 
216 TEXAS 
 
 negroes except from the United States, was prohib- 
 ited and declared piracy. 
 
 This establishment of slavery in Texas was no- 
 thing more nor less than was to have been expected. 
 To judge the act by the prevailing standards of a 
 subsequent age and to condemn it is substantially 
 to condemn the way that nature has of woi-kiug 
 out its own processes. To the student with gen- 
 uine historical insight, who takes men as he finds 
 them and seeks an explanation of every movement 
 in a searching analysis of the forces that lie be- 
 hind it, such reprobation has little significance 
 except as a mark of progress. It easily leads to a 
 complete misunderstanding of the past. It would 
 be idle to suppose that the colonists, the great 
 majority of whom were from slaveholding States, 
 and many of whom had brought their slaves to 
 Texas with them, would not have legalized slavery 
 in framing a constitution. A still greater error 
 has been committed by some in accepting the view 
 that the colonization of Texas and the revolution 
 was the work of the " slavocracy." Naturally 
 enough, the movement resulted in a wide extension 
 of the slaveholding area ; but the idea that it was 
 consciously inaugurated and carried out with that 
 object in view is too palpably mistaken to be worth 
 discussion. 
 
 Towards the end of the session, the committee 
 on naval afPairs, in reporting on a communication 
 from the collector of customs at Velasco relative 
 to the smuggling in of a cargo of slaves by Mon- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 217 
 
 roe Edwards, made the following expressions con- 
 cerning the slave trade : — 
 
 Your committee feel bound to give it as their opinion, 
 that the introduction of African Negroes, is in contra- 
 vention of the existing Treaties between most nations, 
 and the existing laws of this land. And your commit- 
 tee have no hesitancy in stating their views and belief 
 of the extreme impolicy of either covertly or directly 
 countenancing a traffic, which has called forth the indig- 
 nant condemnation of nearly the whole civilized world. 
 It is to that civilized world that we now, in our present 
 struggle look for sympathy, and hojje from that sympa- 
 thy to extract assistance. . . . 
 
 Your committee therefore respectfully suggest that, 
 as a nation just ushered into existence, it most eminently 
 becomes our duty and pohcy to adapt our measures to 
 the genius and spirit of the age. We must be governed 
 by the opinions of others — we must so regulate our in- 
 fant steps as to deserve the kind and watchful solicitude 
 of older nations. But while advocating the broad and 
 abstract principle of justice, let us not by taking a retro- 
 spective view, of a doubtful and exciting question, inter- 
 fere with or violate the just rights of our citizens. 
 
 What the committee said appears to have struck 
 the convention as worth saying, for an order was 
 passed immediately for the printing of one thou- 
 sand copies of the report. How these were to be 
 distributed is not shown by the journal, but it is 
 not improbable that a search in the public archives 
 of European nations would bring to light a number 
 of them. 
 
 In the course of its labors the convention 
 
218 TEXAS 
 
 adopted various emergency measures for the reliei 
 of general or special grievances and for the con- 
 duct of the war ; and finally, on the day before its 
 adjournment, it provided for the organization of a 
 provisional government vested with all the powers 
 given to congress by the constitution, except for 
 legislative and judicial acts. The officers were to 
 be a president, vice-president, attorney-general, and 
 secretaries of state, war, the navy, and the treasury. 
 They were all to be elected by the convention, and 
 a majority of them was to determine any question 
 as to the extent of their powers. The president 
 was to appoint, with the advice and consent of his 
 cabinet, all officers in public service during the 
 existence of the provisional government ; and that 
 government was specially empowered to borrow 
 one million dollars and pledge the faith and credit 
 of the Republic for its payment, to appropriate the 
 available funds to the defense of the country, and 
 to make treaties with and send commissioners to 
 any foreign power. David G. Burnet was chosen 
 president, and Lorenzo de Zavala vice-president. 
 
 All this work was done in the midst of alarms. 
 The two letters sent out by Travis, respectively on 
 i^'ebruary 23 and 24, had spread the news of the 
 investment of the Alamo, and the convention 
 began its labors with great anxiety for the fate of 
 the little garrison and of the settlements which its 
 capture would lay open to invasion. March 4 
 Sam Houston was appointed commander-in-chief 
 of all the Texas troops, regulars, volunteers, and 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 219 
 
 militia. He was to be subject to the general orders 
 of the government de facto ^ pending the election of 
 a president in accordance with the constitution. 
 The day on which this action was taken was Fri- 
 day, and the convention adjourned that afternoon 
 until the following Monday to give time for the 
 work of the committees ; but on Sunday, March 6, 
 it was assembled to hear the reading of the letter 
 sent out by Travis on March 3 — the last before 
 the assault. Houston made a speech relative to his 
 previous course as commander-in-chief, thanked the 
 convention for his reappointment, and left to join 
 the little force that was gathering at Gonzales. It 
 was in the early morning of the same day, as will 
 be remembered, that the storming of the Alamo 
 had taken place, but the news did not reach the 
 convention till the afternoon of the 15th. 
 
 Shortly after his departure from Washington, 
 General Houston had sent orders to Fannin at 
 Goliad to march immediately to Cibolo Creek, east 
 of Bejar, to effect a junction with the troops under 
 himself, the plan being for the united force to 
 march to the relief of Travis and his men ; but on 
 reaching Gonzales he found in circulation a rumor 
 that the Alamo had fallen, and he sent further 
 orders to Fannin directing him to fall back to Vic- 
 toria as soon as practicable. The results of Fan- 
 nin's tardy efforts to obey this order have already 
 been described. 
 
 Houston's arrival at Gonzales was on March 11. 
 He found there three hundred and seventy-four 
 
220 TEXAS 
 
 men — trustworthy enough as fighters, but practi- 
 cally without military training. On the 13th Mrs. 
 Dickinson arrived with certain information of the 
 fall of the Alamo and the advance of the Mexi- 
 cans. A retreat was ordered at once, but before 
 Gonzales was finally abandoned, it was burned to 
 the ground. 
 
 Texas is crossed by a number of rivers flowing 
 southeastward, which constituted the best available 
 lines of defense against the invader. Gonzales, 
 then the western outpost of Anglo-American settle- 
 ment, is situated .on the Guadalupe, about sixty 
 miles east of Bejar. The retreat of the Texans 
 which began at this river continued, with various 
 deflections and pauses, for nearly six weeks, grad- 
 ually converging towards the coast, and finally 
 coming to an end on the San Jacinto, not far from 
 the eastern border of the settlements. 
 
 This retreat of course left the settlements de- 
 fenseless. Under almost any circumstances the 
 prospect of being overrun by an invading army 
 would arouse great uneasiness in a community 
 from which the men have been drained away by 
 the exigencies of war ; but the sickening dread 
 that would be inspired by the approach of an army 
 whose reputation had gone before it in such stories 
 as those of Goliad and the Alamo must be left to 
 the imagination. Every human being that could 
 go fled eastward towards the Sabine at once, taking 
 whatever it was possible to carry away on brief 
 notice and with little means of transportation, and 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 221 
 
 the river crossings were soon choked with a throng 
 of terror-stricken fugitives. While the intense 
 apprehension was the worst that the general crowd 
 had to endure, there was no small degree of phy- 
 sical suffering and distress. Children born in a 
 wayside hut or a thicket surrounded by Mexican 
 soldiery became living reminders of the horrors of 
 that flight. 
 
 During this time the men who had gathered to 
 the army under Houston were growing constantly 
 more desperate and insubordinate. From the time 
 the retreat began from the Guadalupe until it was 
 renewed at the Colorado his force grew, until it 
 amounted to perhaps fifteen hundred ; ^ but as soon 
 as he began to fall back from the Colorado to the 
 Brazos, the men commenced leaving rapidly. 
 When he reached the Brazos, two companies, one 
 under Mosely Baker and the other under Wily 
 Martin, refused to go farther, and had to be left 
 behind. Baker's company rejoined the main body 
 after it left the Brazos ; but a detachment of two 
 or three hundred, consisting of the sick and ineffi- 
 cient with some guards, was left behind near Harris- 
 burg just previous to the battle of San Jacinto, and 
 the number engaged in the battle was only about 
 eight hundred. 
 
 It is not strange, in fact, that the army melted in 
 
 ^ There has been much controversy as to the actual number. 
 Houston afterwards put it at only seven hundred ; but the esti- 
 mates of half a dozen or more of his officers vary from thirteen 
 hundred and sixty to eighteen hundred. 
 
222 TEXAS 
 
 such fashion. Houston kept his plans to himself ; 
 and, though the men were eager to fight, no one 
 knew when or where the retreat might be expected 
 to end. They were crazed by the uncertainty and 
 suspense concerning their families, of whose peril 
 they were well aware, but of whose fortunes they 
 knew little ; and in view of their imperfect organi- 
 zation and the want of military discipline among 
 them, the wonder is that, under such circumstances, 
 enough of them held together to finish the campaign. 
 The fact that they did is the best evidence of 
 Houston's fitness for leadership. 
 
 The retreat from Gonzales began on the even- 
 ing of March 13, and the Colorado was reached 
 at Burnham's Crossing, near the present site of La 
 Grange, on the afternoon of the 17th. At that 
 place a halt of two days was made, after which the 
 army passed down the east bank of the river to 
 Beason's Ford, near where the town of Columbus 
 now stands. There it remained until March 26, 
 when Houston ordered a retreat to the Brazos. 
 Meanwhile the Mexican general Sesma had been 
 dispatched by Santa Anna after the Texans. He 
 had made his way direct towards Beason's Ford, and 
 had reached the west bank of the river soon after 
 Houston had put himself in the way on the other. 
 Sesma arrived with only a little over seven hundred 
 men, and the Texans were eager for a fight. Military 
 critics would probably agree that this was the best 
 opi^ortunity of the campaign. The Mexican force 
 in Texas was considerable, but it was in widely 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 223 
 
 separated divisions. One under General Andrade 
 had been left at B^jar, one under Colonel Amat was 
 coming by way of Gonzales to join Sesma, one 
 under General Gaona was on the march from B^'jar 
 towards Nacogdoches, — being then west of Bastrop 
 on the Colorado, — and another under General 
 Urrea was at Victoria. There was nothing to pre- 
 vent the possible concentration of all these against 
 the one small army under Houston except a prompt 
 and decisive blow, such as might have been struck 
 on the Colorado. Neither could it have been diffi- 
 cult to foresee the demoralization among the troops 
 and the people at large that further retreat must 
 bring:. But Houston seems to have underestimated 
 the desperate fighting spirit in his men, and to 
 have been overcautious about matching them with 
 regulars. He fell back to San Felipe on the Bra- 
 zos, and thence up the river about a day's march 
 to " Groce's," near where has since grown up the 
 town of Hempstead. It was at San Felipe that 
 Wily Martin and Mosely Baker refused to retreat 
 farther, and Baker was left to defend the crossing 
 there, while Martin was sent to guard that at Fort 
 Bend, lower down. 
 
 At Groce's Houston stopped for two weeks, 
 which he endeavored to employ in the better organ- 
 ization of his army ; but his efforts towards the 
 development of discipline and espi'it de corps were 
 ineffective by reason of the feverish impatience and 
 anxiety among the men. During the interval Santa 
 Anna had taken command of Sesma's division on 
 
224 TEXAS 
 
 the Colorado, and had led it straight to the Brazos 
 at San Felipe. There he was checked for several 
 days by Baker's company, but he finally effected a 
 crossing at Fort Bend. He then hurried to Harris- 
 burg and thence to New Washington on Galveston 
 Bay, with the aim of capturing President Burnet 
 and his cabinet. Failing in this, he returned to 
 the San Jacinto River, and there at last, on April 
 20, he came upon the Texans. 
 
 While Houston lay inactive at Groce's, — not 
 having revealed his plans, — with Santa Anna 
 pressing forward and the uneasiness becoming- 
 hourly more intense, the provisional government put 
 its hand into the affair. A meeting of the cabinet 
 was held, and it was decided that Rusk, the secre- 
 tary of war, should go to the army and seek to 
 bring on a battle. President Burnet wrote a sharp 
 letter to Houston telling him that the enemy was 
 laughing him to scorn, that the country expected 
 him to fight, and that he must do so. 
 
 April 14 the Texan army left Groce's. The 
 march was first along a route but slightly south of 
 east that might have been followed if the destination 
 had been Nacogdoches, and some have claimed that 
 Houston meant to go in that direction, but the evi- 
 dence seems to show that he was aiming at Harris- 
 bui-g from the outset. Only a few miles had been 
 covered when a turn almost due south down the 
 Harrisburg road made it apparent that the retreat 
 had changed to an advance. What was left of 
 Harrisburg — it having been burned by the Mexi- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 225 
 
 cans — was reached on the 18th. Here the sick 
 and inefficient were left with the baggage under a 
 guard of seventy-five men, and the army proceeded 
 down Buffalo Bayou towards the San Jacinto River. 
 On the morning of the 20th the Mexicans came in 
 sight, on their march back from New Washington. 
 
 During; the remainder of the 20th and until the 
 afternoon of the 21st the opposing forces were 
 encamped facing each other, the Texans along the 
 right bank of Buffalo Bayou, and the Mexicans on 
 the edge of a prairie stretching from the bayou 
 southward. On the 20th a skirmish was brought 
 on by an attempt to capture a piece of artillery 
 from the Mexicans, but it led to nothing more seri- 
 ous than the wounding of two Texans — one of 
 them mortally — and two Mexicans. On the morn- 
 ing of the 21st Cos joined Santa Anna with a reen- 
 forcement of about four hundred men. At noon 
 on that day a council of war was held by Houston, 
 and it was decided to defer attack till the next 
 moi'ning ; but the men were still anxious to fight 
 at once, and when their disposition had been ascer- 
 tained through the officers, he gave the necessary 
 order. 
 
 Nothing further was needed to end the uncer- 
 tainty and suspense. What followed was no battle, 
 but a rout. The Mexicans were taken by surprise ; 
 and though some of their officers behaved coura- 
 geously enough, the troops made little resistance. 
 The Texans charged to the war-cry, " Remember 
 the Alamo ! " The pent-up fury and the despera- 
 
226 TEXAS 
 
 tion they had been nursing through the memorable 
 six weeks of the retreat beginning at Gonzales came 
 out in one wild burst which did not need a second. 
 Their onset was irresistible, and their vengeance 
 terrible. They lost only two killed and twenty- 
 three wounded, but the scattered and flying Mexi- 
 cans were shot down like wild beasts, until most of 
 them were finally gathered in one body near night- 
 fall and formally surrendered by Colonel Almonte. 
 Houston reported six hundred and thirty of them 
 killed, two hundred and eight wounded, and seven 
 hundred and thirty captured.^ Not more than three 
 or four dozen of Santa Anna's army escaped. 
 
 Santa Anna himself was captured the next day. 
 Pending negotiations with the provisional govern- 
 ment he agreed to order Urrea, who had moved 
 forward and taken Brazoria, to retreat to Victoria, 
 and the other divisions to Bejar. At Velasco, on 
 May 14, he signed two treaties, one open and one 
 secret, by which he agreed to cease hostilities 
 against Texas, to send the Mexican troops out of 
 the country, and to do what he could to secure the 
 recognition of the independence of Texas with 
 boundaries not to reach beyond the Rio Grande. 
 General Filisola, who had succeeded Santa Anna 
 as commander-in-chief of the Mexican forces, rati- 
 fied the treaty on May 14, and a few days later the 
 last of the invaders had left Texas. 
 
 ^ It seems that the wounded were counted also among' the pris- 
 oners, and that the aggregate should be only thirteen hundred and 
 sixty. 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 227 
 
 While this campaign was in progress, General 
 Gaines, who was in command of the United States 
 troops at Fort Jesup near Natchitoches, moved up 
 to the Sabine with a large force, and would doubt- 
 less have crossed into Texas if he had been able 
 to find occasion ; but the Indians were too quiet to 
 justify the step, and it was therefore not taken. 
 
 The victory of San Jacinto was followed by a 
 general outburst of rejoicing among the Texans. 
 It was regarded as a great deliverance, and the 
 anniversary of the battle became, in disregard of 
 that of independence, the special holiday of the 
 Republic. Of late years, however, the claims of 
 Independence Day — March 2 — have been recog- 
 nized, and it is gradually becoming the great red 
 letter day of the Texas calendar. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 
 
 Texas can scarcely be said to have had an envi- 
 able experience in its essay at independent self- 
 government. During the ten years through which 
 the effort lasted, the young Republic, with small 
 available resources and smaller credit, lived a hand- 
 to-mouth existence and was constantly threatened 
 with bankruptcy. The trouble was heightened by 
 the workinof of the clause in its constitution which 
 made the president ineligible for a second succeed- 
 ing term. The result of this was a see-saw policy, 
 each administration reversing, to a greater or less 
 extent, that of the one previous, and neutralizing 
 its work. Every successive attempt to place the 
 financial affairs of the government on a satisfac- 
 tory basis was a failure, till the wise and stern 
 economy of Houston's second term began to give 
 relief. But during this period the new common- 
 wealth was rapidly acquiring population, wealth, 
 and political experience ; and had it continued to 
 stand alone, it would likely soon have become a 
 commanding figure in its role of nationality. At 
 any rate, the fair-minded critic will not regard its 
 infant stumblings too severely. 
 
HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 229 
 
 A general election to ratify the constitution and 
 to elect officials for the government thereunder was 
 held in September, 1836. The ratification was 
 unanimous. Houston, Austin, and Henry Smith 
 were candidates for the presidency ; but the de- 
 liverance wrought for Texas by the battle of San 
 Jacinto had silenced the complaints against the 
 commander-in-chief and made him a popular idol, 
 while the obligations of the Anglo-Americans to 
 Austin were for the moment forgotten. Houston 
 was therefore swept into the presidential chair by 
 a wave of enthusiasm similar to that which had 
 given him the victory in the field. He received 
 over five thousand votes, while Smith had not quite 
 seven hundred and fifty, and Austin less than six 
 hundred. Lamar was elected vice-president ; and 
 the new president, anxious that the fierce party 
 strife which had divided the Texans hitherto should 
 now be made to cease if possible, sought to harmon- 
 ize the factions by appointing Austin secretary of 
 state, and Smith secretary of the treasury. 
 
 At the same election two important questions 
 were submitted to the people : whether congress 
 should have power to amend the constitution, and 
 whether annexation to the United States was de- 
 sired. There were only two hundred and twenty- 
 three votes in favor of congressional constitution 
 mending, and only ninety-one against annexation. 
 In this way the Texans announced at the outset 
 their jealousy of the delegation of sovereign powers, 
 and their clear perception of their true interest and 
 destiny. 
 
230 TEXAS 
 
 Soon after the election congress met and organ- 
 ized the government as adequately as, under the 
 circumstances, it could be done. A seal and stand- 
 ard were adopted, the first being little different 
 from the present official seal of the State, while the 
 second bore a single golden star on an azure ground ; 
 but in 1839 the flag was changed to the familiar 
 three bar arrangement, the blue vertical next the 
 staff and bearing one white star, and the red and 
 white of the same size as the blue but horizontal, 
 with the white uppermost. The special feature of 
 the judiciary was that the supreme court was made 
 up of a chief justice and the judges of the district 
 courts, four in number, sitting in banc. 
 
 In organizing the new local government the three 
 departments of B^jar, the Brazos, and Nacogdoches, 
 into which Texas had been divided under Mexican 
 rule, were neglected and disappeared ; while the 
 Mexican municipalities became the counties of the 
 Republic. 
 
 One of the early measures of congress was the 
 increase of the navy. Early in 1836 the Republic 
 had purchased four vessels, which had been em- 
 ployed in patrolling the coast and cutting off the 
 supplies of the Mexicans during Santa Anna's 
 invasion, and had proved themselves quite useful. 
 The Texas government made provision at once for 
 the purchase of additional ships, but they were not 
 delivered until 1839. Long before this the original 
 four were gone, — one sold, one captured, and two 
 wrecked ; and for two years Texas was practically 
 
HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 231 
 
 without a navy. From 1839 on, the new squadron 
 was put now at one kind of service, now at another^ 
 its most important operations being on the coast of 
 Yucatan, which was then in revolt against the cen- 
 tral government of Mexico. At length the failure 
 of Commodore Moore, who was in command of the 
 fleet, to obey an order of President Houston's led 
 to a heated controversy between the president and 
 the commodore. In the course of it the Texas 
 congress passed a secret act authorizing the sale of 
 the vessels ; but general opposition among the peo- 
 ple prevented the execution of the measure, and 
 about a year later the act was repealed. The 
 Republic held on to its valued treasures of the 
 marine till annexation, when they were passed 
 over to the United States and became a part of its 
 navy. 
 
 Of course the army had to be kept up also, for 
 another Mexican invasion might come at any time. 
 Nearly all of the men who had fought under Hous- 
 ton at San Jacinto were settlers, well established 
 in Texas when the revolution began. There were 
 few of these that cared to remain in service when 
 the immediate danger was past, and if they alone 
 had been available it might have been difficult to 
 keep any considerable force in arms at all. But 
 volunteers from the United States poured in, and 
 the army soon rose to more than two thousand. It 
 was a turbulent and troublesome body. When the 
 government appointed General Lamar to take com- 
 mand of it in the summer of 1836, the opposition 
 
232 TEXAS 
 
 of the men forced liim to retire. Because of this 
 insubordination, and in order to save expense, 
 President Houston wisely furloughed about three 
 fourths of them, and the remainder were put in 
 charge of one thoroughly fit to command, — Albert 
 Sidney Johnston ; but his appointment cost him an 
 annoying wound received in a duel with his prede- 
 cessor, General Felix Huston. The experiences, 
 however, of the government were gradually teach- 
 ing it ; and it soon began to manifest an apprecia- 
 tion of the fact that the most useful branch of its 
 military service was the corps of Indian fighters 
 known as rangers. 
 
 This body of troops was organized during the re- 
 volutionary period, and it is still in existence. For 
 defense against the Indians, the rangers were espe- 
 cially fitted, and their efficiency for such purposes 
 has been tested over and over again. When the 
 revolution took place, the Indians were still scat- 
 tered through the country occujiied by the whites, 
 and their depredations and outrages were almost 
 constant. This was true during the whole period 
 of the Republic, but gradually the savages disap- 
 peared from the interior and the troubles became 
 confined to the frontiers. There, and especially 
 along the northwestern, western, and southwestern 
 borders, they have continued until within compara- 
 tively recent years ; for the expansion of settlement 
 in those directions has encountered the resistance 
 of the fierce and strong Comanches and Apaches. 
 Early in 1839, in order to protect the exposed dis- 
 
HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 233 
 
 tricts, the ranger force was greatly strengthened, 
 and the result fully justified the policy. 
 
 Houston's policy in dealing with the Indians was 
 friendly and conciliatory, while that of Lamar was 
 hostile and strenuous ; but neither could keep them 
 at peace. The conduct of the whites towards them 
 was in general, from the Indian standpoint, highly 
 aggressive and provoked constant retaliation. The 
 Mexicans contributed to the trouble by seeking to 
 incite the Indians to insurrection. In 1838 about 
 three hundred of the Mexican settlers near Nacoo-- 
 doches were joined by as many Indians in a rising 
 which looked very dangerous for a time ; but before 
 any mischief was done the insurgents dispersed to 
 their homes. Their leader, Vicente Cordova, was 
 said to be acting under a commission from the 
 Mexican general Filisola. In 1839 one Manuel 
 riores, who had made himself conspicuous by try- 
 ing to stir up the Caddo Indians against the Tex- 
 ans on the eve of the invasion of Santa Anna in 
 1836, was commissioned as Mexican agent among 
 the Texas Indians by General Canalizo, and was 
 furnished with an elaborate set of instructions to 
 friendly chiefs ; but the rashness of Flores brought 
 his enterprise to an untimely — or timely — end. 
 While he was on his way through the country some- 
 where near San Antonio (B^jar) with a few com- 
 panions, they murdered several persons ; whereupon 
 they were pursued, Flores was killed, and corre- 
 spondence revealing the scheme was captured. 
 
 The most important tribe within the settled area 
 
234 TEXAS 
 
 was that of the Cherokees. These had settled near 
 Nacogdoches on lands granted them by the Spanish 
 authorities, but over which they never enjoyed sov- 
 ereignty. They had a little share in the Fredonian 
 war. When the revolution came on, there was 
 much fear that they would take part with the Mexi- 
 cans, and a commission consisting of Sam Houston, 
 John Forbes, and John Cameron was appointed by 
 Governor Smith to effect a treaty with them. This 
 was done early in 1836, but the senate afterwards 
 refused to confirm the treaty. In the summer of 
 1839, in consequence of the uneasiness produced by 
 the revelations of Flores's mission and similar facts, 
 and of murders charged to the Cherokees, the gov- 
 ernment decided to expel them. A considerable 
 force was sent against them, and, after a battle in 
 which they lost about one hundred killed and 
 wounded, they were driven out. 
 
 The next year came serious trouble with the Co- 
 manches. In February of that year, 1840, twelve 
 of their chiefs met commissioners of the Republic 
 in San Antonio to consider a treaty of peace. The 
 Indians refused to surrender a number of white 
 prisoners known to be in their hands, and a com- 
 pany of soldiers was marched into the council cham- 
 ber, and the chiefs were informed that they would 
 be held until the captives were released. A fight 
 ensued at once in which the chiefs, who were armed, 
 were all killed, and a large number of Indians be- 
 sides. In revenge the Indians burnt the town of 
 Linnville, and raided the country round that place 
 
HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 235 
 
 and Victoria, killing twenty-one persons ; but on 
 their retreat they encountered a body of Texans, 
 and were defeated and pursued many miles with 
 heavy loss. A little later a force of about one 
 hundred men under Colonel John Moore pene- 
 ti'ated to the village of the Comanches and killed 
 one hundred and twenty-eight of them and captured 
 thirty-two. 
 
 But the most serious matter that occupied the 
 attention of the Republic was the living problem. 
 If not rich nor altogether provident, the Texans 
 were at least big-hearted, and they set up their 
 national household on a very liberal scale. The 
 president's salary was fixed at ten thousand dollars 
 per year, with those of other officials in projDortion. 
 The available resources of the government, how- 
 ever, were small, and the receipts were inadequate 
 to meet expenses. There was neither much wealth 
 nor much trade to tax, and if the volume of foreign 
 traffic had been far greater than it was, Texas could 
 hardly have been expected to lay a heavy tariff on 
 it. The ordinary means of raising or anticipating 
 revenue were rapidly exhausted. Land scrip and 
 bonds were put on the market in quantities as large 
 as it would bear, and promissory notes of the gov- 
 ernment were issued to an extent which necessity 
 alone could justify. 
 
 At the close of Houston's first administration, 
 at the end of 1838, the total indebtedness of the 
 Republic was nearly two million dollars, and its 
 securities were already suffering marked deprecia- 
 
236 TEXAS 
 
 tion. By the end of Lamar's administration, in 
 December, 1841, the debt had risen to nearly seven 
 and a half millions, while the market value of the 
 obligations had fallen to twenty cents or less on the 
 dollar. The severe economy and retrenchment of 
 Houston's second term, 1841-1844, put the finances 
 in much better condition ; but order was not fairly 
 restored until the payment of ten million dollars 
 to Texas by the United States on account of claims 
 surrendered in the Compromise of 1850. 
 
 The principal dependence of Texas for revenue 
 was the public domain. This, however, was so vast 
 in its extent that a genuine flood of immigration 
 would have been required to develop its potential 
 value. Then, too, the liberal policy of the govern- 
 ment in granting lands so freely to its citizens, espe- 
 cially those who had become such previous to the 
 revolution, necessarily impaired to some extent the 
 demand for what it had to sell. The extensive 
 fraudulent traffic in certificates and claims that pre- 
 vailed made the matter worse. It was a genuine 
 harvest time for the speculator. Large bodies of 
 land that now have enormous actual value were 
 then secured, sometimes legally and sometimes ille- 
 gally, for almost nothing. The management of its 
 public domain by the Republic and State of Texas 
 is a subject that tempts the writer on. It cannot be 
 treated adequately in outline, but demands a whole 
 book for itself. There has doubtless been preemi- 
 nent wisdom in the liberality shown in grants to 
 actual settlers, and in the use of the land for educa- 
 
 \ 
 
HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 237 
 
 tional purposes ; but, on the other hand, the policy- 
 pursued has offered many opportunities for private 
 gain at public cost. 
 
 The fraudulent land traffic became the occasion, 
 in east Texas, of a local quarrel known as that of 
 the Regulators and Moderators, which began in 
 1842 and ran through some years. It assumed at 
 one time the proportions of a civil war, and Presi- 
 dent Houston had to send five hundred men to 
 suppress it. It was not very difficult to induce the 
 forces of the two factions to disperse, but the pri- 
 vate feuds born of the affair continued long there- 
 after. 
 
 It is in the educational policy of Texas that the 
 promise and hopefulness of its civilization have been 
 specially manifest. In the convention of 1832 a 
 committee, of which Luke Lessassier of San Felipe 
 was chairman, presented a report recommending a 
 petition to the state government of Coahuila and 
 Texas for a grant of land to Texas " as the foun- 
 dation of a fund for the future encouragement of 
 Primary Schools." A motion to lay the report 
 on the table indefinitely was beaten by a vote of 
 seventeen to thirty-four, and it was then adopted, 
 apparently without opposition. The State did not 
 make the grant, of course, and it is likely that the 
 writer of the declaration of independence, adopted 
 March 2, 1836, had the petition in mind when he 
 formulated that famous clause in the indictment 
 against Mexico which affirmed that " It had failed 
 to establish any public system of education^ although 
 
238 TEXAS 
 
 possessed of almost boundless resources (the pub- 
 lic domain), and although it is an axiom in politi- 
 cal science, that unless a people are educated and 
 enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of 
 civil liberty or the capacity for self-government." 
 Evidence is now coming to light to show that the 
 Mexican government had made some efforts along 
 the line in which the Texans charged it with fail- 
 ure ; nevertheless, it had failed, and this utterance 
 is notable as showing that the Texans did not 
 regard the subject with indifference. Further evi- 
 dence of the fact is found in the constitution shaped 
 by the same body as that which formulated the 
 declaration. This constitution required congress 
 to provide as early as possible for a system of 
 public education. 
 
 To President Lamar it is that Texas owes the 
 actual provision for the system. In response to a 
 recommendation in his message to the third con- 
 gress of the Republic, an act was passed early in 
 1839 granting three leagues of land to each county 
 for the support of an academy and fifty leagues for 
 the " establishment and endowment " of two uni- 
 versities. The work thus begun has been pushed 
 forward and widened, until the outcome has been 
 the existing public school system of the State with 
 the University of Texas at its head. 
 
 The real significance of such expressions and 
 acts by the Texans, and the light they throw on the 
 nature of the social forces that have been at work 
 in the making of Texas, may be better appreciated 
 
HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 239 
 
 when it is remembered that the Republic was the 
 isolated far-away southern outpost of sentiment 
 in favor of public education. Unfortunately, the 
 Civil War set back the fruition of the sentiment 
 several decades, and it is only a short while that the 
 State has had an effective system of public schools 
 at work ; but the traditions of Texas have pointed 
 toward such a result from the very beginnings of 
 the revolution. Considering all the conditions 
 under which the educational policy of President 
 Lamar was conceived and embodied in legislative 
 enactments, there is no finer appeal to the noblest 
 aspirations of a people in history. 
 
 The confidence of the Texan s of the Republic 
 in the future of their country is apparent in their 
 location of its capital. At the time of the revo- 
 lution the larger part of the population was settled 
 below the Old San Antonio Road, between that and 
 the coast. The first congress chose Houston, which 
 had been laid out in 1836 on Buffalo Bayou in the 
 settled region, as the seat of government till 1840. 
 But in January, 1839, a bill was passed providing 
 for the appointment of commissioners to locate the 
 permanent capital, which was to be between the 
 Trinity and Colorado rivers above the Old San 
 Antonio Road. The commissioners laid out a town 
 on the north bank of the Colorado at what was then 
 almost the extreme northwest frontier, but which 
 is southeast of the geographical centre of the 
 existing Texas, and of its centre of population as 
 well. The new town was named Austin, and the 
 
240 TEXAS 
 
 choice of a site for it was a wise anticipation of 
 growth which the event has fully justified. Presi- 
 dent Houston, however, claimed that it was too 
 much exposed to Mexican attack to be a safe place 
 for the capital ; and in 1842, after the Vasquez raid 
 on San Antonio,^ he called a special session of con- 
 gress in Houston. The people of Austin were very 
 indignant, and determined that they would not sur- 
 render the archives. A company sent by President 
 Houston succeeded in getting three wagon-loads of 
 matter, but it was followed and forced to bring the 
 books and papers back to Austin, where they were 
 thenceforth kept. The subsequent sessions of the 
 congress of the Republic were held at Washington 
 on the Brazos ; but the archives would not go to 
 the government, and the government had finally to 
 return to the archives. The convention to consider 
 the subject of annexation met in Austin, which 
 remained the actual seat of government from that 
 time on. 
 
 1 See p. 246. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 
 
 It can scarcely be said that the new Republic 
 bowed itself into the family of nations with great 
 eclat, yet there was evidently a general feeling that 
 its advent was a matter of the gravest importance. 
 For the rest of the world, there were involved in 
 recognizing it, and especially in the establishment 
 of any connection with it, various perplexing prob- 
 lems. Such action would be sure to affect the 
 relations of the country taking it with Mexico on 
 the one hand and the United States on the other. 
 There was an opportunity for England or France 
 to acquire great increase of influence in America 
 by dealing skillfully with Texas, but the chance 
 carried with it the danger of complications that 
 might prove serious. The essential alternatives 
 presented to the United States were either to 
 acquire Texas, or to risk the possibility of its 
 becoming a dangerous instrument of European 
 powers. But the worst feature of the case, for 
 England and for the United States in particular, 
 was that in any attempt to settle upon a policy the 
 irritating question of slavery always thrust itself 
 forward. 
 
242 TEXAS 
 
 As to Mexico, the revolution had already accom- 
 plished the severance of Texas from that country, 
 and there was not the remotest likelihood of restor- 
 ing Mexican sovereignty over the Republic, either 
 peaceably or by force. Of course it was also idle 
 to talk of restoring friendly relations with Texas 
 while the memory of Goliad and the Alamo was so 
 fresh in the minds of the Anglo-Americans. Their 
 vengeance was not satisfied by the slaughter at 
 San Jacinto. It was only the resolute and coura- 
 geous attitude of President Burnet, backed by the 
 firm support of General Houston, that saved Santa 
 Anna from that vengeance and allowed him to leave 
 the country unharmed. Feeling among the Mexi- 
 cans was hardly less intense. It was impossible for 
 them to accord respectful treatment to the commis- 
 sioners that came to Matamoras in the summer 
 of 1836 with a passport from General Filisola to 
 execute certain provisions of the treaty of Velasco. 
 Under such conditions negotiations were useless, 
 not to say impracticable. 
 
 To dream of reconquering Texas was still more 
 vain. This, however, the Mexican government re- 
 fused to admit. It promptly repudiated the treaty 
 of Velasco ; and though it was unable to initiate 
 any effective further attacks on Texas, it kept up a 
 series of threats, intrigues with the Indians, and 
 petty raids, whose main result was to nourish an 
 intense irritation among the people at whom they 
 were directed. The treaty was not executed, and 
 the impotent hostilities continued. 
 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 243 
 
 The situation might have been worse if the set- 
 tled areas of the two countries had been actually- 
 contiguous ; but, as a matter of fact, they were 
 separated from each other by an uninhabited strip 
 spreading northeastward from the Rio Grande and 
 varying in width from about one hundred and 
 twenty miles at the coast to over six hundred at its 
 upper end. This was not easy for hostile armies 
 to cross, and it interfered greatly with retaliatory 
 raiding. In December, 1836, the congress of Texas 
 defined the boundary of the Republic on that side 
 as extending from the mouth of the Rio Grande 
 to its source, and thus including this strip; but 
 neither government established actual jurisdiction 
 over the whole of it. For the time, it did good 
 service to both Texans and Mexicans in keeping 
 them apart. 
 
 Rumors sent out by the commissioners at Mata- 
 moras, in the summer of 1836, of another Mexican 
 invasion caused great alarm in Texas, but it was 
 not attempted. There was really nothing to fear. 
 The central government of Mexico was then too 
 busy at home to think of measuring arms again 
 with its redoubtable northern enemy. But a coun- 
 ter expedition against Matamoras was planned by 
 the Texans, and a considerable body of troops was 
 gathered at San Patricio in preparation for it. 
 For want of a navy, however, to cooperate by sea, 
 the plan was given up. 
 
 For about three years after the campaign ending 
 at San Jacinto, there was no interchange of hostil- 
 
244 TEXAS 
 
 ities between Texas and Mexico worth mention, 
 but in 1839 a number of Texans were tempted to 
 cooperate with the Mexican Federalists in a move- 
 ment to establish a north Mexican confederation. 
 The Federalists first sought to enlist the help of the 
 Texas government by making, through their leader. 
 General Anaya, certain promises — including prob- 
 ably the recognition of the independence of Texas, 
 in case of the Federalist success — on condition 
 that they should be allowed to transport muni- 
 tions of war through the territory of the Republic 
 and recruit their forces therein. The proposition 
 was rejected ; but a large number of Texans were 
 induced to assist the Federalists against the Cen- 
 tralists in northern Mexico in two campaigns, one 
 in the latter part of 1839, and one in the summer 
 and fall of 1840. Partly through the incapacity 
 of the Mexican leaders and partly through their 
 treachery, both were ineffectual. 
 
 The next year an attempt was made to assert 
 the jurisdiction of Texas over the country east of 
 the upper Rio Grande to which it had laid claim 
 in December, 1836. It took shape in an enter- 
 prise whose name might easily be anticipated — 
 the Santa F6 expedition. Santa F^, the capital of 
 New Mexico, was the one important Mexican set- 
 tlement east of the Rio Grande in its upper valley, 
 and to get control of it would be practically making 
 good the claims of Texas in that quarter. To be 
 sure it was nearly one thousand miles from Austin 
 on an air line, and much farther by any route it 
 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 245 
 
 ■would be practicable to follow, with hundreds of 
 miles of desert to cross in any case ; but President 
 Lamar favored the project, and the disbanding of 
 the regular army in 1841, because of no appropri- 
 ation for it, provided the necessary material for 
 the organization of a force. Congress refused to 
 pass a bill authorizing the expedition, but the pre- 
 sident gave it his approval and sent an official 
 communication to the authorities at Santa Fe in 
 furtherance of its object. He left to them the 
 decision as to whether they should acknowledge 
 the authority of Texas or not, but expressed a 
 desire that there might be a friendly commerce 
 established in any event. In accordance with 
 these expressions, the troops were ordered to be 
 careful, in seeking to establish this authority, not 
 to use force. 
 
 The expedition ended most unfortunately. The 
 force numbered two hundred and seventy, and the 
 march was begun near Austin in June. As the 
 party neared Santa Fe at the end of August, the 
 weak and starving condition of the men induced 
 the commander. General Hugh McLeod, to sepa- 
 rate it into two divisions, and send the one includ- 
 ing those who were strongest in advance, while 
 the other followed slowly. A little more than two 
 weeks later the foremost division was met by a 
 force from Santa F^, and was induced by treach- 
 erous misrepresentations on the part of one of its 
 own number to surrender ; and soon afterwards 
 the remaining body, which was in no condition to 
 
246 TEXAS 
 
 do otherwise, also yielded itself on the promise of 
 good treatment. The prisoners were all marched 
 off to Mexico at once and closely confined. In 
 the spring of the following year the foreign min- 
 isters in the city of Mexico secured the release of 
 such of them as could prove themselves citizens of 
 the United States or of European nations ; and in 
 the summer the others also were released, with one 
 exception. This was the unfortunate Jose Antonio 
 Navarro of San Antonio, long known and disliked 
 by Santa Anna, who was again president of Mex- 
 ico. Navarro was kept in prison or under surveil- 
 lance for nearly three years longer, when he at last 
 managed to escape. 
 
 If the opinion of Kendall, member and historian 
 of the expedition, is correct, the Mexicans at Santa 
 Fe would have been generally willing to exchange 
 governments ; but Governor Armijo of New Mex- 
 ico, who was unwilling to give up the petty absolu- 
 tism he was enjoying, aroused resistance to the 
 Texans and defeated their purpose by misrepre- 
 senting it. 
 
 At last the Mexicans decided to take their turn 
 at the game. On the 5th of March, 1842, General 
 Vasquez with a force of five hundred men made a 
 dash at San Antonio and captured the city, which 
 he held two days. On the same day a small party 
 of Mexicans occupied Refugio, and two days ear- 
 lier another detachment had taken Goliad. These 
 raids aroused great excitement in Texas, and in 
 ten days there were thirty-five hundred troops in 
 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 247 
 
 camp at San Antonio or marching thither. The 
 Mexicans had in the mean time hurried back 
 across the Rio Grande. The Texans were anxious 
 to follow, but they were not equipped for a cam- 
 paign in an enemy's country, and President Hous- 
 ton informed the commanding general, Somervell, 
 that such a campaign could not be undertaken in 
 less than four months. This roused some talk of 
 an immediate expedition without the sanction of 
 the president, which led him to issue a proclama- 
 tion asserting the national character of the war 
 and the impropriety of such a movement. Gen- 
 eral Somervell, on reaching the army on March 18, 
 found the troops so insubordinate that he sought 
 to turn over the command to the leader they pre- 
 ferred. General Burleson ; but Burleson disbanded 
 them. He could not refrain, however, from pub- 
 lishing a protest against Houston's opposition to 
 the invasion of Mexico. 
 
 After a short interval came further raids. In 
 July about seven hundred Mexicans attacked a 
 body of some two hundred Texans on the Nueces, 
 but were beaten off. In September General Woll 
 led another attack on San Antonio. He had about 
 a thousand men, and again the city was taken, but 
 not without a fight this time. Twelve Mexicans 
 were killed and twenty-nine wounded before the 
 defense was overcome. There was no effort on the 
 part of the invaders to reestablish themselves per- 
 manently in the old town. Woll stayed only long 
 enough to be drawn into an engagement with a force 
 
248 TEXAS 
 
 of a little over two hundred Texans that had come 
 hastily from Gonzales to meet him, in which he lost 
 nearly one hundred killed and wounded ; but by an 
 unfortunate mischance he was allowed to strike a 
 severe blow in return. A company of fifty-three 
 men from Fayette County under Captain Nicholas 
 Dawson that was coming up to reenforce the Tex- 
 ans was surrounded by the Mexicans, who, while 
 keeping out of rifle range, mowed them down with 
 grapeshot. Only fifteen of them escaped death, 
 and five of these were wounded. Within two days 
 after this fight Woll left San Antonio. He had 
 come on the 11th of September, and his retreat 
 began on the 20th. 
 
 Again Texas was in a flame of excitement and 
 angrer. President Houston issued a call for volun- 
 teers to rendezvous at San Antonio preparatory to 
 an invasion of Mexico. But he ordered General 
 Somervell, who was then at Matagorda, to take 
 command, while the troops were clamorous for 
 Burleson. At Columbus on the Colorado, Somer- 
 vell came on a body of two or three hundred men 
 who were awaiting Burleson, and he disbanded them 
 and went back to Matagorda himself. On receiving 
 further orders, which were Sent him October 13, he 
 proceeded to San Antonio, where he found about 
 twelve hundred men in several different camps, 
 poorly equipped, discontented, and disorganized. 
 His own want of enthusiasm for an invasion of 
 Mexico was evident, and the force dwindled greatly 
 before a start was made. Finally, however, the 
 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 249 
 
 inarch was begun November 18. The number of 
 the men was then seven hundred and fifty. At 
 Laredo two hundred of these abandoned the expe- 
 dition. Somervell marched thence down the left 
 bank of the Rio Grande till he came opposite the 
 Mexican town of Guerrero. There he crossed over, 
 but soon crossed back and issued an order to return 
 to Gonzales and disband. Six captains with their 
 companies refused to obey the order, notwithstand- 
 ing which Somervell himself went back with about 
 two hundred men, leaving something more than 
 three hundred to continue the campaign they had 
 declined to abandon. 
 
 Those who were left behind organized by electing 
 Colonel William S. Fisher to lead them. They 
 then pushed on down the river to the town of Mier 
 on the right bank, where they got into an engage- 
 ment with a force of Mexicans six or seven times as 
 large as their own. After inflicting great loss on 
 their enemies they were finally induced to surrender. 
 The number thus made prisoners was nearly two 
 hundred and fifty. These were started to march 
 by way of Matamoras to the city of Mexico. At 
 the hacienda del Salado, about one hundred miles 
 beyond Saltillo, they secured arms by a desperate 
 rush, freed themselves from their guards, and 
 started back to Texas. But after proceeding some 
 distance along the roads they unfortunately took to 
 the mountains, where hunger and thirst soon drove 
 them to despair ; and as soon as they were overtaken 
 they gave themselves up without resistance. They 
 
250 TEXAS 
 
 were at once placed in irons and marched back to 
 the hacienda del Salado, where they were forced to 
 cast lots for the selection of one tenth of their num- 
 ber to be executed. The seventeen victims on whom 
 the lot fell were seated upon a log, blindfolded, and 
 shot to death. Most of the survivors were impris- 
 oned in castle Perote. Some of them died there, 
 a few led by General Tom Green escaped, and the 
 rest to the number of one hundred and seven were 
 released by Santa Anna in 1844. 
 
 A proposition to Santa Anna emanating from one 
 of the Perote prisoners created for a moment a con- 
 siderable stir. This man was James W. Robinson, 
 who had been lieutenant-governor of Texas in 1835, 
 and who, after Governor Smith had been deposed 
 by the council, claimed the title of acting governor. 
 The proposition included a plan for a reunion of 
 Texas with Mexico. Robinson was released and 
 sent as a commissioner to present the plan to the 
 Texans. They gave it no consideration, but Rob- 
 inson obtained his liberty. 
 
 One other blow was aimed at Mexico by Texas, 
 but it was warded off by the United States. In the 
 spring of 1843 Colonel Jacob Snively, by authority 
 of the government of the Republic, organized an 
 expedition to intercept a party of Mexican traders 
 returning from Missouri to Santa Fe. Snively 
 camped with one hundred and eighty men on the 
 right bank of the Arkansas River some distance 
 below the crossing of the Santa Fd trail and waited 
 for the traders ; but before they came, after he had 
 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 251 
 
 engaged and defeated some Mexican troops who 
 had come to guard them, his own force was sepa- 
 rated by disagreement into two parties, and one of 
 them started home, leaving him with only about one 
 hundred men. When the traders arrived, they were 
 under the protection of about two hundred United 
 States cavalry led by Captain Philip S. Cooke. 
 Captain Cooke gave Snively the rather remarkable 
 information that he was on United States territory, 
 and followed up his statement by taking from the 
 Texans all their guns except ten, which he left 
 them for protection against the Indians. In accord- 
 an(3e with an offer he made them, about fifty of 
 the men went back to Missouri with his command 
 and made their way home from there. The others 
 hurried on and joined the division that had previ- 
 ously started back to Texas. The United States 
 afterwards made reparation for this ill-judged act 
 of Captain Cooke to the extent, at least, of paying 
 for the guns he took. 
 
 In the summer of 1843 Texas and Mexico were 
 brought by the mediation of England into sufficient 
 accord to agree to a cessation of hostilities until 
 commissioners from the two nations could meet and 
 arrange for an armistice pending negotiations for 
 peace. The commissioners met and agreed to the 
 armistice, but the president refused to ratify the 
 agreement because it referred to Texas as still a 
 part of Mexico, and in June, 1844, Santa Anna 
 sent notice to the Texas government that hostilities 
 were resumed. In point of fact, the further hostile 
 
252 TEXAS 
 
 activity of Mexico consisted in massing troops on 
 the Rio Grande and making preparation for the 
 war that was threatened with the United States. 
 
 The independence of Texas was no longer really 
 in question. It had been recognized by the United 
 States in March, 1837. France extended her re- 
 cognition in 1839, Holland and Belgium in 1840, 
 and Great Britain in 1842. As to the possibility 
 of its reconquest and loss of the national status it 
 had gained, that was too slight to be taken seriously 
 into account at all. 
 
 It might naturally be supposed that the relations 
 of the Republic with England and France would be 
 quite cordial, and for the most part they were so ; 
 but a personal quarrel between the French minister 
 and an Austin hotel-keeper caused a breach with 
 the latter country lasting over a year or two. Of 
 course the radical antislavery element in England, 
 as well as in the United States, had little favor for 
 Texas. 
 
 The question of relations with the United States, 
 however, was one of much greater importance ; but 
 those relations, while clearly tending to one inev- 
 itable result, ran a somewhat fitful and uncertain 
 course. Commissioners were sent by President 
 Burnet to Washington soon after the battle of San 
 Jacinto to secure recognition, proffer annexation, 
 and solicit the good offices of the government in 
 dealing with Mexico. The only outcome of their 
 efforts was the passage of resolutions by the two 
 houses of Congress in favor of recognizing the iude- 
 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 253 
 
 pendence of Texas when she proved herself cer- 
 tainly capable of sustaining it, and the appointment 
 by President Jackson of an agent to visit that coun- 
 try and report on its condition. This agent, Henry 
 M. Morfit, made a report that was none too enthu- 
 siastic, and Jackson transmitted it to Congress on 
 December 21, 1836, accompanied by a message 
 recommending the delay of recognition ; but, as 
 already stated, favorable action was taken in about 
 two months from the date of the message. 
 
 Meanwhile the favor of the administration of 
 President Jackson for Texas had led it to strain 
 its relations of neutrality with Mexico. General 
 Gaines, who was placed in command of the United 
 States troops on the southwestern border of Louisi- 
 ana early in 1836, and who continued in that office 
 till after the middle of October the same year, was 
 ordered to prevent any crossing of the border by 
 either side ; and if in his judgment it should be 
 necessary, he was to anticipate a hostile movement 
 of the Indians by going into Texas as far as Nacog- 
 doches. It was in accordance with these instruc- 
 tions that he was encamped with a considerable 
 force on the left bank of the Sabine when the battle 
 of San Jacinto ended the Mexican advance.^ He 
 did not enter Texas, because he did not consider 
 that the circumstances under which he was to do 
 so then existed. But in July, on heaving reports 
 that led him to believe an Indian rising near the 
 border was likely to occur, and that a Mexican 
 1 See p. 227. 
 
254 TEXAS 
 
 army was about to invade Texas, he sent a detach- 
 ment that occupied Nacogdoches and remained there 
 some time. 
 
 For this act the United States government has 
 been much criticised. The critics, however, have 
 most of them refused to consider both sides of the 
 question. There is not space to discuss it here ; 
 but he that is willing to see the strictly technical 
 application of international law yield to the urgent 
 demands of humanity will be very slow to condemn 
 the instructions or the act. What the criticism 
 would have been if the instructions to Gaines had 
 been such as to prevent him from advancing to 
 protect the mass of women and children who fled 
 before the Mexican invasion in March and April, 
 1836, from the Indian attack that was then feared, 
 can hardly be imagined ; and the government may 
 well have been pleased to incur what it did rather 
 than this. 
 
 The relations of Texas with the United States, 
 however, turned mainly on the question of annexa- 
 tion, and this will be considered in the next chap- 
 ter. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT 
 
 The vote of the Texans in September, 1836, on 
 the question of annexation was practically unani- 
 mous ; but, tempting as the offer was, it involved too 
 many complications for the United States govern- 
 ment to accept it at once. The gravest of these con- 
 sisted in the vast expansion of slave territory that 
 the acquisition of Texas would bring and the new life 
 it would give to slavery in the United States. The 
 overture came at a time when the issue between the 
 defenders of this institution and its enemies was just 
 beginning to be fierce and irreconcilable. The es- 
 tablishment of William Lloyd Garrison's " Libera- 
 tor," the Nat Turner insurrection in Virginia, and 
 the inception of the abolition movement coming in 
 quick succession in the early '30's were partly symp- 
 toms and partly causes of the growing intensity of 
 feeling on the subject. This feeling, so ominous of 
 sectional division and of civil war, was showing 
 itself in Congress. At the very time when Texas 
 was in the agony of revolution, a struggle between 
 the national representatives of the slaveholding 
 States and those who spoke for the growing spirit 
 of abolition was taking place in the capitol at 
 
256 • TEXAS 
 
 Washington. The ground of the contest was 
 shifted from slavery itself to the right of petition, 
 and in the clamors of the dispute that followed, the 
 voice of slaveholding Texas offering annexation was 
 listened to by one party with hesitation and by the 
 other with scorn. The friendship of Jackson could 
 do no more than secure recognition for the new 
 republic, and Van Buren was too wary to commit 
 himself to the policy of annexing it. Not until John 
 Tyler sat in the seat made vacant by the death of 
 William Henry Harrison did the auspicious moment 
 come for a new effort at the consummation of the 
 measure. 
 
 Early in tlie year 1843 the Texas government 
 intimated to that of the United States that overtures 
 for annexation would be favorably received. The 
 news that the subject was being agitated at Wash- 
 ington produced no little uneasiness both in England 
 and in Mexico. In order to avert if possible the 
 acquisition of Texas by the United States, the Brit- 
 ish charges d'affaires in Texas and in Mexico 
 worked hard to bring about peace between the two 
 countries ; but the pride of Mexico still prevented 
 her from accepting the armistice, and the vain 
 negotiations were, as already indicated, followed by 
 a declaration of renewed hostilities in June, 1844. 
 While the negotiations were in progress, in August, 
 1843, the Mexican government defined its own atti- 
 tude concerning annexation by announcing that it 
 would regard an act of the United States Congress 
 to that effect as a declaration of war against Mex- 
 
ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 257 
 
 ico. This threat was of small consequence except 
 in so far as it went to justify the aggressive attitude 
 of the United States in the war that actually came 
 a little later. But the part that Great Britain might 
 be playing in the affairs of Texas was a matter of 
 much greater importance ; and the fear of a possi- 
 ble danger to American interests growing out of 
 the relations between those two countries gradually 
 disseminated itself throughout the Union, and gave 
 a powerful impulse to the policy of accepting the 
 gift of Texas proffered by its own people. 
 
 The announcement of the Texas government that 
 it was still not averse to annexation if the United 
 States would reopen the question led to quiet over- 
 tures from President Tyler, which were followed up 
 until they resulted in a treaty to that end. This 
 treaty was laid before the Senate in April, 1844. 
 Had it been fathered by a President less unfortu- 
 nate in his political relations than Tyler, it might 
 have been ratified ; but with the solid opposition 
 of the Whigs, now completely alienated from him, 
 and only partial support from the Democrats, over 
 whom he had triumphed in his election, it was de- 
 feated by the decisive vote of thirty-five against 
 and only sixteen for it. The consummation that 
 the President wished so devoutly was for the time 
 deferred. 
 
 But he had only to wait ; the gods were with 
 him — Jupiter and Minerva, said some, while others 
 averred that it was only Mars and Mercury, but at 
 any rate the strongest. He had forced the question 
 
258 TEXAS 
 
 on the politicians in such a way that it became the 
 principal issue in the next campaign. True it was 
 not presented without complications; but taking 
 into consideration all facts that might account for 
 the result as not expressive of the popular will 
 towards Texas, — the unfortunate explanations of 
 Clay, the defection of the abolitionists from the 
 Whigs in New York, and what not, — there seems 
 little room to doubt that the election really turned 
 upon it. The Democrats won, and the matter was 
 practically settled. The platform of the victorious 
 party had declared unequivocally for annexation ; 
 its candidate, Polk, had stood firmly and consist- 
 ently thereon; and when the votes had been counted, 
 the acquisition of Texas was only a question of 
 method and of time. 
 
 Of a very short time, it proved ; but if the friends 
 of annexation had not changed their method, the 
 result would have been deferred much longer. It 
 would have had to wait, in fact, on the slow and 
 uncertain process of change in the composition of 
 the senate, and would probably have not come at 
 all. It was clear that no treaty in accordance with 
 the Democratic policy could command a two thirds 
 vote of that body ; but the triumphant Democracy 
 was both fearful and impatient of delay. So the ex- 
 pedient of making the offer to Texas by a joint reso- 
 lution of the two houses of Congress was adopted. 
 There was strong opposition to this method among 
 the senators as unconstitutional, and as involving 
 a breach of senatorial prerogative ; but their objec- 
 
ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 259 
 
 tlons were at last sufficiently overcome to secure a 
 vote for the resolution of twenty-seven to twenty- 
 five. The House adopted it as it came from the 
 Senate by a vote of nearly two thirds. This was on 
 February 28. The next day President Tyler signed 
 the resolution and thus anticipated Polk in the fruit 
 of his victory. 
 
 The final decision now devolved on Texas. What 
 that decision would be must have appeared, to one 
 not entirely familiar with the undercurrents of con- 
 temporary Texas politics, as dangerously uncertain. 
 It seemed as though the cautious delay of the 
 United States government in accepting the Repub- 
 lic's gift of itself might involve the complete loss of 
 it. President Anson Jones, who succeeded Houston 
 in December, 1844, was considered at the time as 
 opposed to annexation, and in his inaugural address 
 he avoided all reference to the subject, nor did 
 the ninth congress of the Republic, whose regular 
 session ended February 3, 1845, take any action 
 relative thereto. But the passage of the joint reso- 
 lution of the United States congress put a different 
 face on the matter. A proclamation was issued by 
 President Jones on May 5 calling a convention to 
 pass on the offer, and a special session of the Texas 
 congress to do the same and also ratify the call. 
 
 The president, however, provided two strings for 
 the Texas bow. A revolution in Mexico had driven 
 Santa Anna again from power and placed the gov- 
 ernment in the hands of the Federalist general Jose 
 Joaquin Herrera. In March, 1845, Ashbel Smith, 
 
260 TEXAS 
 
 the Texas secretary of state, signed the prelimina- 
 ries of a treaty of peace by which Mexico would 
 recognize the independence of Texas if that Repub- 
 lic would pledge itself against annexation. The 
 treaty was agreed to by the Mexican government in 
 May, and on June 4 President Jones issued a pro- 
 clamation announcing the cessation of hostilities. 
 Now the congress, which was to meet June 16, 
 had a pair of alternatives ready for its consideration. 
 It could either have peace with Mexico and forego 
 annexation, or it could have annexation and war. 
 
 The choice was easy, and it was soon made. On 
 June 21 the senate unanimously rejected the treaty 
 with Mexico. .June 23 both houses voted, also 
 unanimously, in favor of annexation. July 4 the 
 convention called for the purpose met and passed 
 an ordinance to that effect. It is said that Richard 
 Bache, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin, who was 
 a delegate from Galveston, voted against the ordi- 
 nance, but his name appears in the list of those who 
 signed it. The ordinance, together with a constitu- 
 tion framed by the convention, was submitted to 
 the people, and on October 13 both were ratified 
 by a vote that was also nearly unanimous. What- 
 ever uncertainty and hesitation in dealing with the 
 subject there may have been in the United States, 
 Texas knew her own mind, and expressed it with 
 unmistakable emphasis. 
 
 It is worthy of note in passing that according 
 to the terms of the resolution by which the United 
 States made the offer, Texas was to retain possession 
 
ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 261 
 
 of its public lands. Thus the State enjoyed the 
 oj)j)ortunity and was put to the necessity of organiz- 
 ing a system and shaping a policy of management 
 for the vast domain yet remaining in the hands of 
 its government ; and no feature of its history is 
 more instructive and more interesting than the 
 development of this policy. 
 
 The annexation of Texas without the exclusion 
 of slavery was a severe blow to the radical aboli- 
 tionists, who advocated the impracticable policy of 
 destroying the institution at once, and it was by no 
 means to the liking of the conservative and grow- 
 ing class, who wished to stop the spread of what 
 they regarded as the social and economic plague 
 spot of the nation. These constituted at the time 
 a secure majority of the votes of the United States. 
 But it was clear that Texas could not be had ex- 
 cept as a slave State. Imperious and overwhelm- 
 ing natural influences determined this. Among 
 those, however, who would have barred slavery, if 
 they coiild, with an iron wall in its existing limits, 
 there were enough who saw the supreme importance 
 of acquiring Texas to turn the scale in favor of 
 accepting it, slavery and all. 
 
 As to the war between the United States and 
 Mexico which followed hard upon annexation, that 
 lies mainly beyond the province of this work ; but 
 one of the questions connected with it concerned 
 Texas especially, and it demands some attention 
 here. This is the question relative to the proper 
 boundaries of the Republic. On the threshold of 
 
262 TEXAS 
 
 the discussion, it may be well to say that the too 
 common explanation of the Mexican war as the 
 outcome of a boundary dispute is superficial and 
 misleading. It may be conceded that the attitude 
 of President Polk was more aggressive than that of 
 a chief magistrate backed by the power of a strong 
 nation should have been towards one relatively so 
 weak ; but even if chivalry could be expected to con- 
 trol the conduct of governments that are in actually 
 hostile relations, — which it cannot, — it does not 
 follow by any means that the war was, in the essence 
 of the matter, over a disputed boundary. The 
 Mexican congress had asserted that annexation 
 would be regarded as a declaration of war by the 
 United States, and this assertion had never been 
 withdrawn, but had been followed up by the sever- 
 ance of diplomatic relations — the natural prelimi- 
 nary to war. That Mexico was not strong enough 
 to make her threats really dangerous has nothing 
 to do with the technical asjjects of the question. 
 As to its moral aspects, if the President deserves 
 any criticism for preci^Ditating the conflict, — and 
 the writer does not think him beyond it, — this is 
 not because the conduct of Mexico, either in diplo- 
 macy or war, had until then been such as to chal- 
 lenge the courtesy or forbearance of other nations. 
 Concerning the boundary, it must be said that 
 Texas as a province or political division of Mexico 
 did not touch the Rio Grande at any point. The 
 line that divided it from the state of Tamaullpas, 
 next the Gulf, was the Nueces. It was separated 
 
ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 2G3 
 
 from Coahuila, further inland, by the Medina, some 
 eighteen miles southwest of San Antonio. Its com- 
 mon boundaries with Chihuahua and New Mexico 
 to the west and northwest were still more remote 
 from the Rio Grande. Even if it be assumed — 
 which can hardly be considered as proved — that 
 the Louisiana Purchase included Texas with its 
 western boundary at that river, this gave the Dis- 
 ti-ict. Department, or Republic no claim to such a 
 limit after the treaty of 1819. According to the 
 treaty of Velasco made with Santa Anna while he 
 was a prisoner, the Mexican army was to retire 
 beyond that river, and the limits of Texas were 
 not to be fixed west of it ; but the obligation of 
 such a treaty has been much impugned. It was 
 agreed to by Filisola, Santa Anna's successor in 
 command, who still had a considerable force under 
 him, and whose ratification should have meant 
 something ; but it was repudiated by the Mexi- 
 can government. The act of the Texas congress 
 passed December 19, 1836, by which it marked 
 out its own limits as at the Rio Grande from 
 its mouth to its source, was in fact no more than a 
 claim to be made good by force. Texas had failed, 
 however, to establish its jurisdiction over such 
 Mexican settlements as lay along that river on its 
 hither side. Therefore President Polk was hardly 
 correct in stating in his message to Congress after 
 Taylor's report of the first skirmish — which took 
 place on the north bank of the Rio Grande near 
 its mouth — that the blood of citizens of the United 
 
264 TEXAS 
 
 States had been shed " on our own soil." But to 
 grant that he was mistaken on this point is by no 
 means the final word as to the ethics of the war. 
 
 The conflict could have but one result. Mexico, 
 torn by internal dissension as usual, was unable to 
 gather her strength for a defensive effort, and she 
 was soon overrun. The war cost her not only the 
 strip claimed by Texas between its old provincial 
 boundaries and the Rio Grande, but all the northern 
 part of her dominion, a belt of about ten degrees 
 in width running west from Texas and the line of 
 1819. Such was the penalty which she paid by the 
 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 for the pride 
 and want of wisdom which prevented her from fore- 
 stalling the conflict with an aggressive and power- 
 ful neighbor by timely concessions. That she was 
 nominally paid for the territory she lost did little 
 to moderate the bitterness of the compulsion. 
 
 The limits of Texas, however, were not yet finally 
 determined. Those which it had laid out for itself 
 by the act of December 19, 1836, — the line of 
 1819 on the east and north, and on the southwest 
 and west the Rio Grande from its mouth to its 
 source and thence north to latitude 42°, — had been 
 accepted by President Polk and made the basis of 
 his policy at the opening of the war with Mexico, 
 but a convention of the people of New Mexico in 
 October, 1848, adopted an antislavery petition to 
 Congress, in which it protested against the recogni- 
 tion of the Texas claim. The question of the lim- 
 its of Texas became inseparably bound up with the 
 
ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 265 
 
 struggle over the expansion of slavery, which was 
 just about to enter its acute and hopeless stage. 
 Several other questions related in different ways to 
 the same general subject were pressing for answers, 
 and they were gathered in a group and disposed of 
 all together — though in separate bills — by what 
 is known as the Compromise of 1850. 
 
 This adjustment cut off about one third of what 
 the Republic had claimed by the statute defining 
 its boundaries. The excised territory included 
 parts now lying in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kan- 
 sas, Colorado, and Wyoming. The northern limit 
 given to the State of Texas was the line of the 
 Missouri Compromise. It was anticipated, when 
 the struggle over annexation occurred, that Texas 
 would be cut into several States in order to pre- 
 serve the balance in the United States senate be- 
 tween the slavery and antislavery interests, and the 
 joint resolution of the congress at Washington by 
 which the offer was made provided that none lying 
 north of the line referred to should be allowed to 
 legalize slavery. Had the occasion to create these 
 new States ever arisen, it would probably have 
 brought serious trouble ; but the march of events 
 was too rapid for any such contingency. With 
 the uncertain future then in view, and the heated 
 state of popular feeling that required constant and 
 difficult compromise, it was perhaps a wise precau- 
 tion that cut off the part from which slavery would 
 have been excluded on organizing it for separate 
 statehood. 
 
266 TEXAS 
 
 The claims of New Mexico were satisfied by giv- 
 ing it the district included between the Rio Grande, 
 the line of 32° north, and that of 103° west. This 
 takes in the capital of the Territory and consider- 
 ably more than half its area as its boundaries have 
 been finally established. 
 
 In payment for this contraction of the boundaries 
 she claimed, and in consideration of ceding to the 
 general government her shij)s, forts, custom-houses 
 with the revenue therefrom, etc., Texas was to re- 
 ceive from the United States ten millions of five 
 per cent, bonds, half of which were reserved until 
 the holders of Texas bonds should file with the 
 United States government releases from all obli- 
 gations on account of their claims. The first five 
 millions was paid in 1852. In 1855 the half that 
 had been reserved by the national government, 
 together with two million seven hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars appropriated to reimburse the 
 State for expenditures for frontier defense, was 
 divided among the holders of Texas obligations 
 who presented them at the Treasury in Washing- 
 ton and signed a release of all claims against the 
 United States. This gave the creditors of Texas 
 about eighty cents on the dollar for the various cer- 
 tificates of indebtedness they held. The Texas 
 legislature had already scaled the debt much more 
 severely, but not all classes of obligations in the 
 same proportion. The act of the United States 
 congress provided that the proposed distribution 
 of the seven million seven hundred and fifty thou- 
 
ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 267 
 
 sand should be ratified by the Texas legislature 
 before going into effect. The governor of Texas 
 first submitted the proposition to the people of the 
 State, who rejected it ; but the legislature, which 
 still did not feel itself precluded from taking up 
 the subject, was more compliant and approved 
 the plan. In the distribution the State received 
 about three hundred thousand dollars which it had 
 already paid on its debt, and the effect of these 
 indemnities was to put it in most healthy financial 
 condition. 
 
 One more adjustment fixed the boundaries of 
 Texas as they now exist, and that was the pre- 
 cise determination of the line of 1819. The line 
 as agreed upon by the United States and Spain 
 was to run up the Sabine River from its mouth 
 to thirty-two degrees north, thence north to Red 
 River, thence west to the hundredth meridian, etc. 
 But Red River has two branches, which join some 
 distance east of the meridian named, and there 
 was a question as to which was the main stream. 
 Texas claimed the north fork ; and until the mat- 
 ter was finally adjudicated, exercised jurisdiction 
 in fact over the district included between the 
 meridian and the two forks, which was known as 
 Greer County. In 1896, however, a decree of the 
 supreme court of the United States fixed the bound- 
 ary of Texas at the south fork, and the State in 
 this way lost one of its finest counties. 
 
 Yet, while Texas has never relished the loss of 
 Greer County, the State can scarcely be regarded 
 
268 TEXAS 
 
 as undersized. No other in the Union can ap- 
 proach it in extent of territory. It is also true, 
 in a general sense, that the poorest parts of it are 
 those which have been acquired by the most doubt- 
 ful claims. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 STATEHOOD 
 
 For the relinquishment of independence Texas 
 was not without compensation. Her revenue from 
 customs had passed to the United States, but along 
 with it had gone the burden of the diplomatic and 
 military establishments incident to nationality. 
 The payment to Texas provided for by the Com- 
 promise of 1850 was partly in the nature of indem- 
 nity for the loss incurred by the transfer of the 
 duties ; and this, it has been seen, was the main 
 element in bringing order to the finances of the 
 State. The expenditures of the Republic for mili- 
 tary purposes had been quite small for some years 
 previous to annexation, but how long they could 
 have remained so if the independent status had con- 
 tinued is exceedingly doubtful. The greatest gain, 
 however, lay in getting rid of the question of foreign 
 relations. Delicate and serious as this question 
 was for the great powers in their dealings with the 
 Republic, it was infinitely more so for the Repub- 
 lic in dealing with them. Now it was definitely 
 settled that Texas should be neither the catspaw 
 nor the protege of England or of France ; tliat 
 she should not be called on to sustain her dignity 
 
270 TEXAS 
 
 against overwhelming physical odds ; and that she 
 need not humble herself to obtain the favor of her 
 old enemy Mexico while the asperities engendered 
 by the revolution were yet so fresh. So much of 
 the diplomatic problem as remained was relegated 
 for solution to the government at Washington. 
 What the result was in the case of Mexico has been 
 seen, and it was certainly unfortunate ; but the 
 responsibility does not belong to Texas. 
 
 Prosperity soon visited the State. Its abundant 
 natural resources began to make themselves appar- 
 ent. Immigration flowed in, and wealth began to 
 increase with leaps and bounds prophetic of the 
 extraordinary industrial development of later days. 
 In 1836 the total Anglo-American population of 
 the Republic was probably less than thirty thou- 
 sand. In 1847, when the first census of the State 
 was taken, the white population was, in round 
 numbers, one hundred thousand, and the number 
 of slaves was thirty-five thousand. The total pop- 
 ulation in 1850 was about two hundred thousand, 
 and in 1860 about three times as many. The total 
 value of property assessed in 1856 was one hun- 
 dred and sixty-one million dollars, and in 1857 it 
 was one hundred and eighty-three millions. For 
 the six years from 1852 to 1858 nearly all the taxes 
 collected in the State were given to the counties 
 for local use, the expenses of the state government 
 being paid meanwhile out of the indemnity re- 
 ceived from the United States. 
 
 In the ""reat stream of immijrration that flowed 
 
STATEHOOD 271 
 
 into Texas during the fifteen years of statehood 
 previous to the Civil War, as well as during the 
 ten years of the Republic, there came a few whose 
 coming was due to the fact that they had com- 
 mitted some offense against the law. It is scarcely 
 worth while to say that there were not enough of 
 this class to determine the character of the popu- 
 lation in any given locality ; but extravagant sto- 
 ries were told about them, and jokes concerning 
 them were circulated in Texas, and on the outside 
 the stories and jokes were taken quite seriously. 
 In this way the reputation of the State suffered no 
 little, and very unjustly. As a matter of fact it 
 would be hard to find a case in which the reign of 
 law has been so quickly and so firmly established 
 in the midst of frontier conditions. 
 
 It was possible for the United States to protect 
 the State from invasion, but Texas had an enemy 
 that was practically within her gates, with whom it 
 was much more difficult to deal. This was the 
 Indian. The tribes inside the limits of the State 
 on the north were friendly, but those of the Indian 
 Territory made frequent raids into the covmtry 
 south of Red River, and were very troublesome. 
 Of course the most annoying Indians, now as of 
 old, were the Comanches, along the western fron- 
 tier, who liked especially to kill and scalp Mexi- 
 cans, but were willing on occasion to accept a Texas 
 victim. The interior was protected with tolerable 
 effectiveness from their ravages by the advance 
 line of settlements, yet at no little cost to the settle- 
 
272 TEXAS 
 
 ments themselves. They were the bare hand with 
 which the deadly blows of savagery must be received 
 and warded off. The State employed its ranger 
 force to good advantage, but it is difficult to pre- 
 vent or anticipate an Indian raid, and the line of 
 exposure was several hundred miles in length. 
 
 The circumstances invited the application of the 
 system of colonizing the Indian on reservations. 
 The State granted the necessary lands, and in 1855 
 two colonies were established on reservations sit- 
 uated the one on the upper course of the Brazos 
 River, and the other on one of its tributaries 
 known as Clear Fork. At the Brazos agency were 
 gathered about eight hundred Indians of various 
 tribes who had long been in contact with the 
 whites, and whose original locations were now 
 within the settled districts, while on the Clear 
 Fork, considerably further west, were placed about 
 three hundred Comanches. The colonies appear, 
 from the reports of the agents, to have prospered 
 beyond reasonable anticipation. The Indians on 
 the reservations, who in 1858 amounted in all to 
 nearly fifteen hundred, were said to be rapidly 
 acquiring the arts of civilized life. A number of 
 them were enlisted in the ranger service and had 
 made themselves very useful. It seemed for a 
 time that the amount expended by the United 
 States government on these Indians, which reached 
 about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 
 four years, would be well repaid in tangible good 
 results. 
 
STATEHOOD 273 
 
 But unfortunately there were on tlie reserva- 
 tions a few who could not give up the habit of 
 horse-stealing and plundering, and who broke away 
 from time to time and joined with roving Indians, 
 and sometimes white men, in committing depreda- 
 tions. This greatly exasperated the settlers in the 
 neighborhood, who had at best too little patience 
 with the Indians, and they soon began to insist 
 that none of them should leave the reservations at 
 all. In December, 1858, a party from the Brazos 
 reservation which was encamped beyond its limits 
 on the river was surprised by a band of whites and 
 nearly all killed or wounded. The other Indians 
 were much angered by this event and declared 
 their intention to be avenged. The whites made 
 counter threats and organized and armed them- 
 selves in anticipation of an outbreak of hostilities. 
 Finally in 1859 the situation became so serious 
 that the Indians were moved across Red River into 
 the Territory. From this time on, the depreda- 
 tions along the northern frontier became specially 
 frequent and troublesome. 
 
 Towards the Mexicans remaining within the 
 limits of the Republic the feeling of the Texans 
 was scarcely better than towards the Indians. 
 They were charged with various crimes and wrong- 
 doing, such as stealing horses and exercising a 
 mischievous influence among the slaves. In 1856 
 a conspiracy among the negroes of Colorado County 
 to rise, massacre their owners, and make their way 
 to Mexico was discovered, and the participants 
 
274 TEXAS 
 
 were severely punished, two being whipped to 
 death and three hanged ; and the Mexicans in that 
 county, who were said to be generally implicated, 
 were driven out, as were also those in Matagorda 
 County. In another notable instance race animos- 
 ity was reenforced by industrial competition in 
 such a way as to bring about a series of outrages 
 known as the " Cart War." This was in 1857. In 
 that year the Texas teamsters who were engaged 
 in carrying freight from the coast to San Antonio, 
 irritated by the success of the Mexican cartmen in 
 drawing all the business with their profit-killing 
 rates, began to attack the trains of their unfor- 
 tunate rivals, kill the drivers, and sometimes even 
 carry off the valuable freight. This was kept up 
 until the Mexican minister at Washington ad- 
 dressed a remonstrance to the United States gov- 
 ernment, saying that seventy-five of the cartmen 
 had been killed, and many others driven from their 
 homes. Governor Pease sent a special message to 
 the legislature recommending remedial measures ; 
 and the matter was taken up by the senate, but 
 was not pushed to a conclusion. At length, how- 
 ever, when the outrages that had been perpetrated 
 on the cartmen were extended to the citizens of the 
 counties where they had occurred, the evil found a 
 very effective remedy. The citizens began to hang 
 the perpetrators, and the mischief was soon stopped. 
 Shortly after this a reign of terror was inaugu- 
 rated on the lower Rio Grande, from Laredo to 
 Brownsville, by the Mexican, Juan Cortina. He 
 
STATEHOOD 275 
 
 began his career by combining with his business 
 of stockman that of cattle-stealer and bandit. In 
 1859, in order to increase his following, he began 
 to represent himself as the avenger of the wrongs 
 of the native Mexicans, and he had about him at 
 one time five or six hundred of them. In Septem- 
 ber, 1859, he and his men took temporary posses- 
 sion of Brownsville and killed a peace officer and 
 several other citizens who became involved in 
 resistance to them. Within the next two months 
 two successive expeditions were sent against him, 
 but both retreated without accomplishing anything. 
 In December, however, he was attacked by a com- 
 bined force of United States regulars and Texas 
 rangers amounting to about three hundred, and 
 was defeated and driven into Tamaulipas. 
 
 Such disorders were natural to a new and still 
 unadjusted social organization including diverse 
 and antagonistic elements. There were, however, 
 other activities and tendencies prevailing in the life 
 of the State that were full of promise. One of 
 these appeared in the gradual development of a 
 system of free public education. The provisions 
 of the constitution of 1836 concerning education 
 and the act of January, 1839, in accordance there- 
 with have already been mentioned. This act was 
 followed up by another in February, 1840, provid- 
 ing for a board of school commissioners with power 
 to organize school districts, inspect schools, give 
 certificates to teachers, etc. The educational pro- 
 visions of the first constitution of the State, adopted 
 
276 TEXAS 
 
 in 1845, showed a distinct improvement over those 
 of the constitution of 1836 in substituting for the 
 general and indefinite terms of the latter an 
 explicit and positive mandate to the legislature to 
 " establish free schools throughout the State, and 
 . . . furnish means for their support by taxation 
 on property." By the same provisions, one tenth 
 of the annual revenue of the State from taxation 
 vs^as set aside as a perpetual free school fund, which 
 was never to be diverted to other uses, and which, 
 until the legislature should provide for the estab- 
 lishment of the schools, was to remain charged 
 against the State. The alienation of lands granted 
 for educational purposes to counties or other politi- 
 cal divisions in the State was also forbidden. 
 
 The full significance of this feature of the con- 
 stitution of 1845 could hardly have been understood 
 at the time, but he that now looks back upon it in 
 the light of subsequent history can scarcely fail to 
 see in it a landmark of progress. It was a prophecy 
 of good that until then had come to no State so far 
 south. It was the announcement that, in spite of 
 the social and industrial evils of slavery, Texas was 
 to set her face towards the rising sun. 
 
 The disordered condition of the State's affairs 
 and the absorption of public interest by the urgent 
 demands for settlement of boundary and financial 
 questions operated to prevent action in obedience 
 to the constitution of 1845 for nearly ten years. 
 But the Compromise of 1850 and the readjusting 
 act of the legislature in 1852 brought a little 
 
STATEHOOD 277 
 
 breathing-spell and a period of relative quiet, in 
 which there soon came a revival of interest in pub- 
 lic education. This expressed itself in the act of 
 January 31, 1854. The act of 1854 was an elabo- 
 ration and an improvement of that of 1840. It 
 set aside as a permanent educational fund two mil- 
 lion dollars of the five per cent, bonds received 
 from the United States, and provided that the in- 
 terest thereon should be distributed among the 
 counties in proportion to the number of free white 
 children between six and sixteen years of age. It 
 required the division of the counties into school 
 districts, in each of which the people must pro- 
 vide a good and properly furnished school-building 
 before they could obtain their share of the public 
 money. This money was to be expended only in 
 payment of the teachers, and the balance due, over 
 and above the amount of the public fund, was to 
 be paid by the patrons of the school, each contribut- 
 ing in proportion to the number of pupils he sent 
 and the time they were in actual attendance. 
 
 While this law was crude and imperfect, it offered 
 a good working basis for the development of a sys- 
 tem of public instruction, and during the next few 
 years there was considerable progress along that 
 line. The main trouble was that the available 
 fund was too small, and that it left too much de- 
 pendent on the uncertain contingency of private 
 cooperation. In 1860 there were in existence, 
 under the provisions of this law, about twelve hun- 
 dred semi-public schools ; but only about one fifth 
 
278 TEXAS 
 
 of the cost of their maintenance was met by public 
 funds. The day of the free school proper in Texas 
 had not yet come. 
 
 But the healthy strength of the sentiment in 
 favor of public education is perhaps most strik- 
 ingly manifest in the measures looking toward the 
 establishment of a state university. The act of 
 1839, by which fifty leagues of land were appro- 
 priated for the purpose of establishing two colleges 
 or universities has already been mentioned. No 
 doubt the reason that two were provided for was 
 that it was considered necessary to have one in the 
 eastern part and one in the western. It was, how- 
 ever, subsequently claimed that the intention of the 
 law was to provide one institution of higher edu- 
 cation for men, and another for women. What- 
 ever may have been intended, the idea of having 
 two such colleges or universities was abandoned 
 for that ©f one, which was on its organization made 
 coeducational. The act of February 11, 1858, was 
 a more definite step towards realizing the plan of 
 a state university. This provided for the creation 
 of an endowment for an institution of higher learn- 
 ing by setting apart for the purpose one hundred 
 thousand dollars of the United States bonds in the 
 treasury, and every tenth of the alternate sections 
 of land reserved by the State in the grants to rail- 
 roads made in pursuance of the statute of January 
 30, 1854. The statute referred to granted sixteen 
 sections of land for each mile of railroad to be built 
 thereafter in the State, the land to be surveyed in 
 
STATEHOOD 279 
 
 solid blocks, and alternate sections to be reserved 
 by the State. The act of 1858 provided also for 
 the organization of the university, but this was pre- 
 vented by the approach and outbreak of the Civil 
 War. 
 
 In politics Texas was rather slow in adapting 
 itself to party alignment on national issues. Rela- 
 tive to the questions growing out of the Mexican 
 war and to most of those involved in the Compro- 
 mise of 1850, there could be, in the nature of the 
 case, but one party in the State. The contests 
 were, therefore, of a personal nature, and the elec- 
 tions decided between men rather than policies. 
 So long as this was true, the sympathies and antip- 
 athies of the revolutionary and republican periods 
 were constantly revived and emphasized. They 
 were thus prolonged beyond their natural term, and 
 served greatly to intensify and usually to embitter 
 personal and political relations. As late as 1859 
 General Houston thought it worth while to reply 
 on the floor of the United States senate to what 
 he regarded as criticisms on his management of the 
 campaign of 183G, which had just been published in 
 Texas, and by this means to invite further acrimo- 
 nious attacks upon himself. But gradually the 
 momentous questions of national policy claimed the 
 attention of the Texans, and parties began to form. 
 For this movement also the ground was cleared by 
 the Compromise of 1850 and the financial readjust- 
 ment of 1852. Excitement over national issues 
 began to appear in Texas during the struggle in 
 
280 TEXAS 
 
 congress over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which was 
 favored by Senator Rusk and opposed by Senator 
 Houston. Houston's opposition to the bill cost 
 him, for the time, much of his popularity in Texas ; 
 but he was never the man to bow before a politi- 
 cal storm. The first strong wave, however, from 
 the centres of national politics that swept over 
 Texas was that of Know-nothingism. In 1855 the 
 Know-nothing party elected one of the two con- 
 gressmen from Texas and also cast a surprisingly 
 large vote for its candidate for governor, but the 
 existence of the party was as brief in the Southwest 
 as in other parts of the Union. By 1857 Texas 
 was so Democratic that Hardin R. Runnels, the can- 
 didate of that party, was able to beat Sam Hous- 
 ton, who was supported by the elements opposed 
 to it, for governor by a majority of about nine 
 thousand in a total vote of only a little over fifty- 
 five thousand. This was the Texas vote of censure 
 on Houston for his attitude towards the Kansas- 
 Nebraska bill ; but the State could not withdraw 
 its favor permanently from the man to whom it 
 owed so much, and two years later he turned the 
 tables by running as an independent for the same 
 office and beating Runnels, who was again the can- 
 didate of the Democracy, in nearly the same pro- 
 portion. The result, however, was not due simply 
 to the revival of Houston's popularity. The more 
 radical Democratic leaders favored the reestablish- 
 ment of the slave trade, to which Texas was strongly 
 opposed ; and while their views were not adopted 
 
STATEHOOD 281 
 
 by the party, their utterances cost it many a vote. 
 Around Houston, on the other hand, rallied the 
 conservative element, with its dislike of extreme 
 policies, its love of the Union, and its instinctive 
 dread of civil war. This must be considered in 
 accounting for the change of nearly ten thousand 
 voters from the alignment of 1857. The State had 
 again passed censure, but this time it was on the 
 fire-eating section of the Democracy. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 CIVIL WAE AND RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 If that country only is happy whose annals are 
 uninteresting, happiness is not for Texas. Her 
 people have never sunk into the inert obedience to 
 circumstances that takes the life out of history. 
 They have usually been impulsive, but never pas- 
 sive. The thoughtful historian, however, will not 
 accept the principle of the aphorism. Intense ex- 
 perience and forceful reaction are the price of char- 
 acter, as well in the collective as in the individual 
 life. Texas has had her share of such experience ; 
 and the reaction, whether rightly directed or not, 
 has always been strong. Her most hopeful traits 
 are abounding energy and vitality. Where these 
 exist, knowledge comes, and wisdom follows in due 
 time. But it is folly to judge the conduct of states 
 by the standards of personal morality, or to expect of 
 a commonwealth the intelligent utilitarianism that 
 should be manifest in the better coordinated and 
 controlled life of the individual. In public action 
 the immediate working of the economic, the racial, 
 or the traditional motive is necessarily more evident 
 than in the behavior of the private citizen ; nor is 
 it worth while to look for fine ethical influences 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 283 
 
 behind constitutions, statutes, or party platforms. 
 While these influences grow and strengthen with 
 the progress of civilization, we have unfortunately 
 not yet come to where they usually determine poli- 
 tics. 
 
 This is said, not simply by the way, but in ex- 
 planation of what is to follow. It gives the point 
 of view from which alone the conduct of Texas 
 during the period now to be taken up can be under- 
 stood. The same " ordinance of nature " which 
 Daniel Webster claimed had excluded slavery from 
 New Mexico had fixed it upon Texas. Then, too, 
 eagerly as the people of Texas had turned from 
 Mexico to merge again with those of their own blood 
 and institutions in the United States, and warmly 
 as they loved the Union, out of their political ex- 
 perience and traditions they had inherited a still 
 stronger sentiment of particular attachment to the 
 State. It was, therefore, but natural that they 
 should be drawn into the general current of seces- 
 sion which swept through the Southern States in 
 the early '60's. 
 
 So it proved, in spite of certain appearances to 
 the contrary as the crisis approached. The election 
 of Houston in 1859 was, in a considerable measure, 
 a victory for the conservative Union-loving element 
 over the more radical portion of the Democracy. 
 But already the course of events, throughout the 
 United States, was passing beyond the control of 
 the leaders. Efforts to enforce the Fugitive Slave 
 Law and resistance thereto, together with the John 
 
284 TEXAS 
 
 Brown raid, had so exasperated the people both 
 North and South that it was now impossible to 
 calm their rising passion or to compromise further. 
 The election of Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 
 brought the culmination of sectional differences. 
 South Carolina led the way in seceding from the 
 Union, December 20, 1860, and within a little over 
 a month Georgia and all the Gulf States to the east 
 of Texas followed the example. 
 
 Meanwhile Governor Houston, like Daniel Web- 
 ster in the days when the operation of the Compro- 
 mise of 1850 — especially the Fugitive Slave Law — 
 was rousing furious agitation among his constitu- 
 ents, had centred all his strength in the vain effort 
 to allay the feelings of his people and divert them 
 from their object. With a more aggressive way 
 and less of facile persuasiveness than Webster, he 
 was still a man of powerful influence on the plat- 
 form, and he might have accomplished anything 
 less than the impossible ; but this was the task, in 
 fact, that he had now set himself, and it is no won- 
 der that he failed. In Texas almost the entire vote 
 in the presidential election of 1860 was divided 
 between Breckinridge and Bell. The conservatives 
 and opposers of secession rallied to the support of 
 Bell, and what Houston could do for them was done. 
 He was outspoken in his condemnation of the dis- 
 unionists and his claim that the success of Lincoln 
 would not justify secession. The utterances of the 
 Breckinridge men were exactly to the contrary on 
 both points. The issue was fairly made, and the 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 285 
 
 result was a crushing defeat for the conservatives. 
 The Breckinridge electors received more than forty- 
 seven thousand votes, while those for Bell had only 
 a little over fifteen thousand. Houston no longer 
 had Texas at his back. 
 
 Nevertheless he did not despair. In spite of re- 
 peated and urgent petitions and requests that poured 
 in upon him, he refused to convene the legislature 
 to call a convention until a number of political 
 leaders had taken the extra-legal step of issuing the 
 call. This was done on December 3, 1860, and the 
 time appointed for the convention was January 28, 
 1861. December 7 Houston issued a proclamation 
 calling an extra session of the legislature to meet 
 January 21. Meanwhile, in pursuance of a joint 
 resolution passed by the legislature February 16, 
 1858, growing out of the Kansas troubles and pro- 
 viding for a call by Texas under certain contin- 
 gencies of a convention of the Southern States for 
 the preservation of their equal rights, he had sent 
 a circular letter to the governor of those States pro- 
 posing such a convention. The letter seems to have 
 been neglected ; at any rate, there was apparently 
 no action in response to it. This proposition, as 
 well as the call for the extra session of the legis- 
 lature, was doubtless intended to avert or forestall 
 the much dreaded act of secession. 
 
 But the tide was now too strong to turn or check. 
 The legislature met on the day appointed, and the 
 governor laid before it an earnest and strong mes- 
 sage deploring the election of Lincoln, but reiterat- 
 
286 TEXAS 
 
 ing his belief that it did not demand secession ; 
 recalling the obligations that Texas had incurred to 
 the " border States " ^ during the revolution ; favor- 
 ing cooperation with the other States of the South 
 and the submission of any final measure to a popu- 
 lar vote ; and urging caution and moderation. The 
 views and most of the suggestions of the governor 
 met with little favor. The legislature immediately 
 repealed the joint resolution of February 16, 1858, 
 under which he had acted in proposing a convention 
 of the Southern States for cooperation in preserving 
 their equal rights in the Union. Then by a large 
 majority it recognized the convention that had been 
 called to meet January 28 as empowered to act for 
 the people, requiring only that its action should be 
 submitted to them. 
 
 The convention met in accordance with the call, 
 organized with Judge O. M. Roberts as chairman, 
 and established at once official communication with 
 the governor through a committee. He assured 
 the convention of his obedience to the will of the 
 people, asserting that as of old he was with his 
 country. On February 1 an ordinance of secession 
 was passed by a vote of one hundred and sixty-six 
 to seven. The ordinance was to be voted on by 
 the people February 23. The convention, antici- 
 pating popular ratification of the ordinance, pro- 
 vided for the election of delegates from Texas to 
 join with those of the other seceding States in es- 
 
 ^ That is, those slave States that were adjacent to the free 
 States. 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 287 
 
 tablishing a provisional confederate government at 
 Montgomery, and for the appointment of a commit- 
 tee of safety. After a short session it adjoui'ned 
 to meet again on March 2, by which time it was 
 expected that the result of the popular vote would 
 be known. 
 
 At the appointed time the convention reassem- 
 bled, and on March 4, the day of Lincoln's inau- 
 guration, it counted the vote — over forty-four thou- 
 sand in favor of secession, and a few more than 
 thirteen thousand against it. 
 
 The State had broken finally away from Hous- 
 ton's lead, but during the canvass he had put him- 
 self on record in public utterances that came as 
 from the tongue of a prophet. In a speech at 
 Galveston a few days before the election, he stood 
 in the presence of a crowd to whom few others 
 could safely have spoken as he did, and, deprecat- 
 ing the resistless impulse that was hurrying them 
 on to secession, he prophesied for the South ulti- 
 mate defeat. At the same time he declared his 
 sympathy for the State and his determination to 
 stand by it, " right or wrong." A few weeks later 
 his last act of opposition to the policy which was 
 approved by the people and on which the leaders 
 were now determined cost him his official life. On 
 being summoned to appear before the convention 
 on March 16 and publicly take an oath of office by 
 which he must swear allegiance to the Confederate 
 States, he refused, and challenged the right of the 
 convention to exist after it had performed the f unc- 
 
288 . TEXAS 
 
 tion of submitting the ordinance of secession to the 
 people. Thereupon it declared the governorship 
 vacant and directed the lieutenant-governor, Ed- 
 ward Clark, to assume the duties of the office till 
 the next election. An effort was made by Hous- 
 ton's friends in the legislature to secure interfer- 
 ence in his favor by that body, but it failed. He 
 then retired to his home in Huntsville, where he 
 remained till his death in 1863. 
 
 The war was soon under way ; but, fortunately 
 for Texas, that State never became the scene of 
 active military operations. The Texans poured 
 forth to join the Confederate armies, and some of 
 their organizations, such as Hood's brigade and 
 the Terry rangers, won proud eminence on many a 
 bloody field ; but their record was made in other 
 States. The committee of safety provided for by 
 the convention organized the defense of Texas, 
 appointing Colonel Ben McCuUoch to take charge 
 of the post at San Antonio, Colonel Henry E. Mc- 
 CuUoch to command the forces on the northwestern 
 frontier, and Colonel John S. Ford to command 
 those on the Rio Grande. It also sent commis- 
 sioners to confer with General Twiggs, who was in 
 command of the Federal troops in Texas, relative 
 to the surrender of his men and of the property of 
 the national government in his charge. Twiggs 
 was a Southern man and a sympathizer with seces- 
 sion. He promised to surrender after a show of 
 force had been made, and so he did. The troops 
 were to be allowed to leave the State, taking their 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 289 
 
 arms. The property and munitions of war given 
 up amounted in value to twelve hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 This advantage was followed up by an effort to 
 secure control of New Mexico. In the summer of 
 1861 the Confederates under Lieutenant-Colonel 
 John R. Baylor obtained a lodgment on the Rio 
 Grande in the southern part of the Territory and 
 captured seven hundred Federals who marched 
 against them. Early the next year the campaign 
 in that quarter was renewed by General Sibley of 
 the Confederate army, who defeated the Federals 
 under General Canby at Val Verde. The Con- 
 federates then pushed on and occupied Albuquer- 
 que and Santa F^ ; but their advance was checked 
 at Apache Canon near Santa F^, and after that 
 they gradually retired. They abandoned the Terri- 
 tory finally in July, 1862. 
 
 The defense of the Texas borders was sufficiently 
 effective to keep the Federal troops from penetrat- 
 ing into the State until the war was over. In the 
 fall and winter of 1862 Galveston was in their 
 possession for nearly three months ; but at the end 
 of that time it was recaptured, and thenceforth it 
 remained in the hands of the Confederates. In 
 September, 1863, the Federal general Banks tried 
 to break in by way of Sabine Pass, but his effort 
 ended in a disastrous defeat. In the fall and win- 
 ter of 1863-1864 he got possession of almost the 
 entire coast line except at Galveston and the mouth 
 of the Brazos, but he held it for only a short time. 
 
290 TEXAS 
 
 Finally, In March, 1864, he made, in co(3peration 
 with General Steele, an attempt to advance up Red 
 River and capture Shreveport and enter Texas 
 that way, but a decisive defeat at Sabine Cross 
 Roads ^ drove Banks back to Alexandria and Steele 
 to Little* Rock. There was no fighting in the in- 
 terior of Texas during the whole period of the war, 
 but it is a fact worth noting by the curious that 
 the last engagement between the Federal and the 
 Confederate forces took place at Palmito near Palo 
 Alto on the Rio Grande, May 13, 1865.^ The num- 
 ber of men engaged was only a few hundred on 
 each side, but the fighting was energetic, and the 
 casualties relatively numerous. The Federals were 
 forced to retreat ; the results, however, were of no 
 importance. It was simply the final sword-thrust 
 of the dying Confederacy. 
 
 Texas suffered little by the war except for the 
 drain upon the strength of its citizenship and upon 
 its material resources, and the latter were recruited 
 in ways not possible for the other Confederate 
 States. It was the only one of them that was not 
 overrun by invasion. Crops were planted and 
 gathered while the conflict was in progress, and 
 business went on with a degree of security and reg- 
 ularity that prevailed nowhere else in the South. 
 The line of the Rio Grande was the one border of 
 
 1 The battle is known in Texas as that of Mansfiehl. 
 
 ^ The place was almost the exact spot where the Mexican war 
 began. The time was more than a mouth after the surrender at 
 Appomattox. 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 291 
 
 the Confederacy that could be neither blockaded 
 nor controlled by Northern armies. It was more 
 or less infested by robbers, and there were one or 
 two raids up the river by the Federal troops in the 
 course of the war, but there was no effective inter- 
 ference with the commerce back and forth across 
 the river. As much of the cotton raised in Texas 
 as could escape the State and Confederate tax- 
 gatherers might pass out through the wide gap 
 freely, and a great deal did go that way ; but the 
 means of transportation were so inadequate and 
 costly that the trade was greatly handicapped. On 
 the whole, Texas saw little of the worst actualities 
 of the war as they appeared in the States where 
 the hostile armies met and struggled, and when it 
 was over she was soon ready to begin anew the 
 march of intellectual and material progress. 
 
 But before the energies of the Texans could be 
 fairly turned again to the industrial and educa- 
 tional affairs from which they had been diverted 
 by the war, there was set a task for them which 
 it required all their strength and patience to ac- 
 complish. This was to save the State from the 
 mischievous effects of the congressional policy of 
 reconstruction. It would no doubt be as much a 
 mistake to question the sincerity of those who 
 were responsible for the policy as it would be to 
 impute bad motives to the Southern people in 
 seceding ; yet it will now be denied by few that 
 the majority in Congress acted with undue haste 
 and with too little appreciation of real conditions 
 
292 TEXAS 
 
 in the South. Naturally there was considerable 
 friction between the emancipated slaves and their 
 old masters, nor was it to be expected that they 
 would always show mutual forbearance in dealing 
 with each other. There were grave problems con- 
 cerning the adjustment of their i-elations, which 
 still exist and clamor for solution ; but the solution, 
 if it come at all, must come from the people of the 
 South themselves. The efforts of others, however 
 well meant, have served in general only to add com- 
 plications. This fact has been sharply driven in 
 upon the national intellect and conscience by the 
 experiences of the reconstruction epoch. 
 
 The first organization of the Texas government 
 took place under President Johnson's plan of re- 
 construction. On June 17, 1865, the President 
 appointed A. J. Hamilton provisional governor. 
 Hamilton had been prominent in the politics of the 
 State before the war ; had been a member of Con- 
 gress when secession took place and had refused 
 to resign ; and had been a brigadier-general in 
 the Federal army and military governor of Texas 
 by appointment of President Lincoln in 1862. 
 Towards the end of July, 1865, he arrived in 
 Texas and began his work. Meanwhile, on June 
 19, General Gordon Granger, of the United States 
 army, had taken military possession of the State, 
 and had issued a proclamation declaring all acts 
 of its government subsequent to secession illegal, 
 and the negroes free. Governor Hamilton issued 
 a proclamation to the negroes, who had now been 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 293 
 
 released from slavery by the thirteenth amendment 
 to the United States constitution, informing them 
 that the government could give them nothing, and 
 advising them to go to work for themselves. He 
 then called a convention to provide for the reor- 
 ganization of the government. Those who had 
 supported the Confederacy qualified as voters at 
 the election of delegates by taking the oath of alle- 
 giance to the United States government. 
 
 The convention adopted ^the constitution in force 
 in the State before secession, with amendments 
 made necessary by the outcome of the war, recog- 
 nizing the abolition of slavery, renouncing the 
 right of secession, conferring certain civil rights 
 on freedmen, repudiating the debt incurred by the 
 State in waging the war, and assuming the tax that 
 had been levied by the United States government 
 on Texas from the time the State had seceded. 
 The revised constitution was submitted to the peo- 
 ple and ratified by them, and on the same day was 
 held a general election in which J. W. Throck- 
 morton, one of the seven who had voted against 
 the secession ordinance of 1861, was elected gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 The new government bent its energies at once to 
 the restoration of order and the improvement, so 
 far as lay in its power, of the general condition of 
 the State. This was no easy task. While the 
 feeling left in Texas by the war was perhaps less 
 bitter than in the States that had suffered more, it 
 was sufficiently intense, for the time, to be danger- 
 
294 TEXAS 
 
 ous for an unpopular official, or for the man whose 
 duty required him to execute an unpopular law. 
 Nevertheless, though the Texans were too strong in 
 their convictions and too stalwart in character to 
 yield with docile readiness to the painful process of 
 social and political readjustment, they had too much 
 good sense and self-control to continue the vain 
 struggle when a better day was already in sight. 
 It was therefore unfortunate that their work was 
 interfered with by a further test of their capacity 
 for endurance ; but so it happened. 
 
 Congress refused to accept the results attained 
 under the presidential plan of reconstruction, and 
 decided that the work must be done over according 
 to its acts of March 2, March 23, and July 19, 1867. 
 These acts provided for a new reorganization of 
 the governments of the Southern States in which 
 the negroes should participate, but those who had 
 taken an official oath to support the constitution 
 of the United States, and had afterwards engaged 
 in the war of secession, should have no share. The 
 legislatures of the reorganized governments were 
 to adopt the fourteenth amendment to the consti- 
 tution of the United States, which had been pro- 
 posed by Congress, and had already been rejected 
 by most of the Southern States. Until the new 
 governments were formed and approved by Con- 
 gress, the South was to be under military rule. It 
 was divided into five districts, one of which was 
 composed of Louisiana and Texas, and the general 
 in charfre of this district was Sheridan. 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 295 
 
 General Sheridan at once inaugurated a severe 
 and radical policy in crushing out the alleged dis- 
 loyalty in the State. Governor Throckmorton was 
 removed as an " impediment to reconstruction," 
 and the great body of state and local officials 
 gradually shared his fate, their places being taken 
 by men who were expected to be strenuous in 
 carrying out the congressional policy. The result 
 was that the government fell into the hands of a 
 few men, who were out of sympathy with the great 
 mass of intelligent and influential citizens. They 
 had the almighty support of the United States 
 troops, together with such backing as could be 
 given them by the mass of negroes, a number of 
 whites who became Republicans for money's sake, 
 and some others — in the main excellent men — 
 who were Republicans by conviction. What the 
 working of such a government would be can easily 
 be imagined. But even the outlines of the picture 
 would be incomplete without some notice of the 
 irritation produced by the interference of the offi- 
 cials of the Freedman's Bureau on behalf of the 
 negroes against the whites. This, to the Northern 
 man who saw the situation from a distance and 
 understood neither the Southern white nor the 
 negro, may have appeared necessary to protect the 
 blacks ; but its practical working was to cut them 
 off from their old masters, on whom they must ulti- 
 mately depend for employment. 
 
 The work of congressional reconstruction covered 
 about three years. In 1868 a new convention was 
 
296 TEXAS 
 
 elected in accordance with the terms of the act of 
 Congress. It shaped a constitution which was sub- 
 mitted to the people and adopted in November, 
 1869. At the same time state officers and con- 
 gressmen were elected. At its session beginning 
 February 8, 1870, the legislature ratified the thir- 
 teenth and fourteenth amendments, and elected 
 United States senators. On March 30 Texas was 
 " readmitted " to the Union, and on the 31st her 
 senators and representatives took their seats. The 
 troops which were distributed through the State 
 were withdrawn, and the bitter trial of reconstruc- 
 tion was over. 
 
 The government which the congressional policy 
 had entailed upon the people of Texas was one for 
 which they had little love. At the election that 
 took place in November, 1872, the Democrats 
 secured control of the legislature and filled all the 
 seats belonging to the State in congress ; but the 
 governor, E. J. Davis, had been chosen for a four 
 years' term. In December, 1873, Democratic vic- 
 tory at the polls made Richard Coke governor ; 
 Davis, however, disputed the constitutionality of 
 the law under which the election had been held 
 and refused to surrender the government. Both 
 sides were backed by military force, and it looked 
 for a time as if the dispute must end in bloodshed ; 
 but on the refusal of President Grant to support 
 Davis with troops, the opposition dissolved early 
 in January, 1874, and Coke and the various offi- 
 cers of his administration were installed without 
 
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 297 
 
 farther trouble. In 1876 a new constitution was 
 adopted in place of that formed under the recon- 
 struction act, and the State had finally rid itself, 
 so far as it could, of whatever might remind it of 
 the darkest period in its history. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 
 
 Rid of the incubus of slavery, and witli her gov- 
 ernment again in the hands of her own people, 
 Texas received a new progressive impulse that has 
 seemed to grow and strengthen with each succeed- 
 ing year. It would appear as if the industrial and 
 moral energies of the State were emancipated along 
 with the slaves, and the record of its development 
 during the last quarter of a century has been really 
 wonderful. In population, in wealth, in educa- 
 tion, and in general culture, the increase has been 
 equally striking. The grain of Anglo-American 
 mustard seed planted in the far Southwest has 
 grown to a stately tree, in which many of the best 
 ideas and impulses of the whole outer world have 
 come to nest. 
 
 This is no idle boast, but the statement of a fact. 
 The greatness of Texas lies not so much in its vast 
 extent of territory and its abundance of natural 
 resources as in the character of its people, which is 
 a composite — with the good predominant — of 
 qualities peculiar to many lands, whence the citizen- 
 ship of the State has been recruited. 
 
 As to the territorial extent of Texas, there is 
 
THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 299 
 
 undoubtedly a degree of instructiveness in the com- 
 parisons which its patriotic citizens so often make 
 by superposing it as a measure on other political 
 divisions of America or Europe and thus empha- 
 sizing its enormous area and showing how small 
 New England or even Old England or France 
 appears relative thereto ; but such comparisons 
 suggest to the economist and the historian of real 
 insight facts that are far more important. Of 
 much greater significance than mere reach of sur- 
 face is the extreme productiveness and widely vary- 
 ing adaptability of the land. These constitute the 
 natural basis for a complex and highly developed 
 civilization ; and they promise for Texas, in spite 
 of the swift advance of industrial centralization that 
 exploits every gift of nature for the benefit of dis- 
 tant commercial centres, a preeminence of strength 
 and influence that is as yet scarcely foreshadowed. 
 In its agricultural resources Texas can hardly be 
 said to have a rival. In a wide belt extending into 
 the State from the north for the greater part of its 
 length is one of the finest bodies of tillable land 
 that are to be found in the world, the soil being 
 black, deep, and exceedingly rich. The staple 
 crops grown thereon are Indian corn and cotton ; 
 and the yield, when climatic conditions are not too 
 unfavorable, is in overflowing abundance. Equally 
 productive are the river bottoms eastward from this 
 belt. On the lower course of the Brazos much 
 sugar is produced. Stretching along the Gulf coast 
 is an almost level plain from fifty to one hundred 
 
300 TEXAS 
 
 miles in width which is specially adapted to the 
 growth of vegetables and fruit, and in the north- 
 eastern end of it the production of rice is becoming 
 very extensive ; while in the sandy or red soils of 
 eastern Texas appears an even greater fitness for 
 the cultivation of many varieties of fruit. 
 
 Certain facts indicated by the Twelfth Census 
 bring into strong relief the importance of the agri- 
 cultural interests of Texas. The statistical tables 
 show that in 1899 this State produced more than 
 twice as much cotton, which is its staple crop, as 
 any other, and more than one fourth of the entire 
 crop of the United States. The value of the Texas 
 product for that year was nearly one hundred mil- 
 lion dollars. There were in 1899 only four States 
 of the Union that surpassed Texas in the gross 
 value of their agricultural produce, and it seems 
 well assured that these four must soon be out- 
 stripped in the unequal race. 
 
 While Texas is thus far mainly an agricultural 
 State, and while it will perhaps be such for some 
 years hence, it is not for tilling the soil alone that 
 nature has given it advantages. The southwestern 
 and western parts of it are too dry for agriculture 
 without irrigation, but they afford excellent pas- 
 turage for large herds of cattle. East Texas 
 has immense forests of pine and other valuable 
 timber. The mining interests of the State are 
 already of considerable importance, but there seems 
 good reason to believe that hardly a beginning 
 has been made in the development of its mineral 
 
THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 301 
 
 resources. The precious metals have been found in 
 paying quantities in the central mineral region of 
 the State and in the Trans-Pecos district. In the 
 former and in eastern Texas are fine deposits of 
 iron ore. Many thousand square miles of the terri- 
 tory of the State are underlaid with coal and lignite 
 beds, and at Beaumont and Corsicana are highly 
 valuable oil wells. 
 
 As to the Texas cattle industry, again the statis- 
 tics afford the clearest light. In the value of its 
 domestic animals in the year 1900, this State was 
 far ahead of all others except Iowa, which surpassed 
 it slightly, but was evidently about to be overtaken. 
 In the value of its neat cattle, Texas was already 
 well in the lead of all the other States. 
 
 In manufactures, the State of Texas is yet far 
 behind, and in fact it can scarcely be said to have 
 even entered the race. During the decade from 
 1890 to 1900 it did no more than to rise from the 
 twenty-fourth place among the States and Territo- 
 ries, with an annual product of about seventy mil- 
 lions in value, to the twenty-third, with a product 
 valued at nearly one hundred and twenty millions. 
 But while there are certain obstacles to the devel- 
 opment of manufacturing industries in Texas, as 
 for example in the wi '^^of skilled labor and the 
 ancient difficulty in prot. icing iron of getting the 
 fuel and the ore together, it seems impossible, when 
 one takes into consideration the abundance and 
 variety of raw materials and the generally favor- 
 able conditions in other respects for manufacturing 
 
302 TEXAS 
 
 in the State, that it should not soon forge ahead 
 along this line, as it is doing so rapidly in others. 
 This has been prevented hitherto, in large measure, 
 by the scarcity of capital in the Southwest, and the 
 ease of profitable investments without the risk at- 
 tendant upon the establishment of new industries. 
 But the available capital in this State is increasing, 
 and rates of interest are falling so rapidly that 
 unemployed money must soon be driven towards 
 manufacturing channels. There seems to be at 
 present a strong drift towards the development of 
 textile industries in Texas, and it is likely that the 
 first great impulse will come from that direction, 
 just as it has in other States of the South. 
 
 From whatever quarter it may come, however, 
 the impulse will be welcome. It is to be hoped that 
 Texas is meanwhile acquiring the rightness and 
 strength of habit that will enable her to deal success- 
 fully with the grave political and social problems of 
 a more complex industrial system, but the delay 
 should not be over-long. The mere art of money- 
 making is undoubtedly too much sought after by 
 this generation. Education and exi^erience must 
 gradually give to the genius of American civiliza- 
 tion a healthier view of the significance and uses of 
 life which shall regard wealth less as an end and 
 more as a means than now ; but wealth must re- 
 main, as society is at present organized, the most 
 abounding source of individual and national influ- 
 ence. From this standpoint, it is a less important 
 fact, in measuring the relative advantages of the 
 
THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 303 
 
 largest and smallest States in the Union, that 
 Rhode Island has as many senators at Washington 
 as Texas, than that the income per capita of her 
 population from agriculture and manufactures com- 
 bined is over four hundred and forty dollars per 
 annum, while that of the people of Texas is less 
 than one hundred and twenty. 
 
 One standard by which the progress of a people 
 may be measured with substantially fair results is 
 the means of intercommunication. A few state- 
 ments will suffice to show the advantages that Texas 
 now has in this respect, and how they have come. 
 Railroad building in the State began in 1852 with 
 the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railroad, 
 which was started west from the town of Harris- 
 burg in that year, and which was the germ of the 
 great Sunset system of to-day. The next road was 
 the Galveston and Red River, begun at Houston 
 in 1853 with the plan of crossing the State towards 
 the north. The name of this road was changed in 
 1856 to the Houston and Texas Central. The com- 
 ing of the Civil War practically stopped railroad 
 building, nor did it begin again actively till near 
 the close of the reconstruction period. In 1870 
 the State had in operation only about five hundred 
 miles of railway, or about one mile for every five 
 hundred and forty square miles of territory ; but 
 from that time forward the mileage increased with 
 extraordinary rapidity. The Houston and Texas 
 Central was pushed northwards across the State, 
 with branches diverging in various directions, the 
 
304 TEXAS 
 
 Texas Pacific westward across the northern portion 
 from the eastern boundary to El Paso ; the Inter- 
 national and Great Northern southwestward from 
 the connections afforded by the Texas Pacific at 
 Longview to Laredo on the Mexican border, whence 
 the Mexican National soon afforded passage to the 
 city of Mexico ; and the Galveston, Harrisburg, 
 and San Antonio, which was simply a new name for 
 the old Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado line, 
 west through San Antonio to the Mexican border 
 at Eagle Pass, whence connection with the city of 
 Mexico was supplied by the Mexican International, 
 and northwestward up the Rio Grande to El Paso, 
 whence the Southern Pacific opened the way to 
 California. In 1876 the lines in operation in the 
 State aggregated two thousand miles, or about one 
 to one hundred and thirty-two square miles of the 
 State's surface. In 1890 the figures had so changed 
 that the aggregate mileage reached more than 
 eighty-seven hundred, while the ratio was a little 
 over one to thirty-two. The corresponding figures 
 for the State of Massachusetts the same year are a 
 little above two thousand, and something over one 
 to four. In 1900 the total mileage in Texas was 
 soraethinjj over ten thousand. Illinois and Penn- 
 sylvania had each a little more. The ratio of miles 
 of railway to square miles of area in Texas had 
 risen to one to about twenty-six, while in Massa- 
 chusetts it was almost the same as in 1890. 
 
 Though the average income per capita of the 
 Texans is far less than that of the people in many 
 
THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 305 
 
 other States, Texas is growing rich fast. In ap- 
 proximate figures, the value of the property in the 
 State, as assessed for taxation, in 1850 was fifty 
 millions ; in 1860 it was three hundred millions ; 
 in 1870 one hundred and seventy millions ; in 
 1880 three hundred and eleven millions ; in 1890 
 seven hundred and eighty-two millions ; while in 
 1902 it was one thousand and seventeen millions. 
 
 Men are worth more than money. Whatever 
 the wealth or natural resources of a State may 
 be, it is the people who, in the last analysis, are its 
 most essential and interesting element. A few 
 facts concerning the make-up and antecedents of 
 the people of Texas may go a good way towards 
 explaining the Texan character. This is the one 
 Southern State that has really grown by immigra- 
 tion. The white population of Texas at the out- 
 break of the Revolution was something over twenty 
 thousand. Morfit, the agent sent by Jackson in 
 1836, estimated the number of Anglo-Americans 
 at thirty thousand. From the time when the figures 
 of the United States census become available, the 
 population at the end of each successive decade is, 
 in round numbers, as follows : in 1850 two hundred 
 and twelve thousand ; in 1860 six hundred and four 
 thousand ; in 1870 eight hundred and eighteen 
 thousand ; in 1880 sixteen hundred thousand ; in 
 1890 nearly two and a quarter millions; in 1900 
 three million and fifty thousand. 
 
 While the larger part of the immigration to Texas 
 has come from the States of the South further east 
 
306 TEXAS 
 
 and northeast, much of it has been from other parts 
 of the world. It has by no means obeyed the rule 
 of following parallels. There are few States, in 
 fact, whose people are so cosmopolitan. Of its 
 three million and fifty thousand inhabitants in 
 1900, about fifteen hundred thousand were native 
 whites, and about five hundred thousand native 
 negroes. The number of whites not born in the 
 State was something over nine hundred thousand, 
 of whom about twenty thousand were from the 
 North Atlantic States, one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand from the South Atlantic, one hundred and 
 twenty thousand from the North Central, five hun- 
 dred and thirty thousand from the South Central 
 other than Texas itself, and six thousand from 
 the Western. Ten thousand were born under the 
 United States flag in no specified State or Territory. 
 The foreign population was one hundred and eighty 
 thousand, of whom about seventy thousand were 
 from Mexico, fifty thousand from Germany, nine 
 thousand from Bohemia, eight thousand from Eng- 
 land, seven thousand from Austria, six thousand 
 from Ireland, four thousand from Italy, four thou- 
 sand from Sweden, two thousand from France. 
 The number of Mexicans and Germans born in the 
 State, and thus classed as natives, is also very large. 
 This summarized and general analysis will sufiice 
 to show how numerous and how diverse are the 
 elements of the population of Texas. 
 
 Much in the Texan type of character is to be 
 explained by the process of natural selection which 
 
THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 307 
 
 worked in determining the kind of people carried 
 thither by the earlier movement of the Anglo- 
 Americans towards that section. They were just 
 such as would undertake, of their own will, pioneer 
 work in a country not yet won either from nature 
 or from the Indians, where there was much to dare 
 and much to undergo. There were no gold mines 
 to tempt them, nor any prospect of suddenly ac- 
 quiring great riches. The motive was simply that 
 of bettering their condition, and of securing a 
 chance, perhaps, to become wealthy as the land they 
 were given should increase in value. The induce- 
 ments were not such as to attract adventurers, and 
 there were few of these that came. The colonists 
 were mainly poor in worldly goods, but they were 
 brave, hardy, and self-reliant. With the develop- 
 ment, however, of the Republic and the State, as 
 the conditions became more settled and the risks 
 grew less and opportunities more abundant, another 
 class was drawn toward Texas. This was composed 
 of shrewd and keen-sighted men of business, watch- 
 ful for every chance and ready to improve it to the 
 utmost, and especially fit for the development of 
 the commercial interests of any section. It is these 
 especially who have accumulated capital, have built 
 the cities, and have taken the lead in the great 
 industrial enterprises of the State. 
 
 Upon the Texas individuality has been left also 
 the stamp of the remarkable experiences that have 
 gone to make up the history of the Republic and 
 the State. Were there not remaininjj in Texas the 
 
308 TEXAS 
 
 descendants of those who died in the Alamo, or of 
 those who followed Houston in the retreat before 
 the Mexicans in 1836, and who finally turned upon 
 them with destructive energy at San Jacinto, the 
 traditions of the revolution could still hardly fail 
 to raise the standard of manhood of the people 
 whose inheritance they have become. The indom- 
 itable energy of the colonists in defense of their 
 rights as they understood them, their seK-assertion 
 and self-devotion, have undoubtedly left a residuum 
 of influence that is still manifest in the great mass 
 of Texans ; nor is it difficult to see in the Texas 
 character surviving traces of the strenuous self- 
 repression and the fierce antipathies of the days of 
 reconstruction that time alone will remove. Yet 
 the people of Texas, boastful as they may be at 
 times, have never been touched by the leaven of the 
 Pharisee. 
 
 On the whole, the best outcome of Texas history 
 and the best illustration of the Texas spirit lie in 
 the educational and eleemosynary systems of the 
 State, and the chapter and this book may be fitly 
 closed with a few words concerning them. Pari 
 passu with the growth of population and of wealth 
 in the State has grown the feeling of obligation to 
 provide for the care of its defectives and the edu- 
 cation of its youth. The first public charitable 
 institution in Texas was that for the blind, which 
 was opened in 1856. It was soon followed by the 
 institute for the deaf and dumb and the asylum 
 for the insane. Within the last few years these 
 
THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 309 
 
 institutions have been multiplied and enlarged till 
 now the State may fairly claim to be apjjroxi mating 
 an adequate and efficient system. The list of estab- 
 lishments now includes four extensive asylums for 
 lunatics, one being especially for epileptics, an 
 institute for the deaf and dumb, one for the blind, 
 one for colored deaf, dumb, and blind, an orphans' 
 home, and a home for Confederate veterans. These, 
 at the limit of their capacity, provide for about 
 thirty-six hundred lunatics, four hundred and fifty 
 white deaf and dumb, one hundred and seventy-five 
 white blind, one hundred colored deaf and dumb oi' 
 blind, three hundred orphans, and three hundred 
 and twenty Confederate veterans. 
 
 The care of defectives, orphans, and veterans, 
 however, would be the prompting of simple human- 
 ity, and an extensive system for the purpose might 
 be more the outgrowth of general sympathy than 
 of high social ideals or a clear view of how the 
 o-overnment can render most effective service to the 
 people. The best and truest measure, perhaps, of 
 the insight and the social wisdom of any community 
 lies in the perfection of its educational institutions. 
 If Texas is yet too young to claim a place, in this 
 respect, among the very foremost States, there are 
 certainly few that are making such rapid progress. 
 The reader has already seen that education was 
 one of the earliest concerns of the Republic, and 
 that the State showed the same desire and strove 
 to realize it until the outbreak of the Civil War. 
 "When reconstruction was over, and the thought 
 
310 TEXAS 
 
 and energy of the people of Texas began to return 
 to their accustomed channels, the work of educa- 
 tional development began anew, and was pushed on 
 with great vigor. Since then, much progress has 
 been made towards the establishment of a really- 
 good and efficient system of public schools. Most 
 cities and towns of importance have formed inde- 
 pendent school districts and levied special taxes 
 for their support. The sy^stem of joining state and 
 local effort so as to supplement each other has been 
 so wisely framed and administered as to afford a 
 degree of educational advantage to the poorest 
 communities, and at the same time to foster local 
 responsibility and civic pride. 
 
 Along with the common schools, and superposed 
 thereon, has grown up also a system of secondary 
 and higher education. This began with the estab- 
 lishment of the State Agricultural and Mechanical 
 College in 1876. The next step forward was the 
 founding of the Sam Houston Normal Institute in 
 1879 ; and the next, the organization of the Uni- 
 versity of Texas, which was opened to students in 
 1883. Besides the institutions named the State has 
 another normal school for training white teachers at 
 Denton and still another soon to be opened at San 
 Marcos, one for colored teachers at Prairie View, 
 and a girl's industrial school to begin work shortly 
 at Denton ; while in the high schools of the cities 
 and larger towns students expecting to enter the 
 University can obtain preparatory training that is 
 rapidly attaining a high degree of excellence. 
 
THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 311 
 
 The growth of the University has been very 
 gratifying. At the time of its organization in 1883, 
 it opened with a faculty of thirteen officers and 
 instructors of all ranks, and only about two hun- 
 dred students, who were divided between the aca- 
 demic and the law departments. For the year 
 1901-1902 the faculties and other officers of the 
 various branches of the University numbered one 
 hundred and ten, and the total enrollment amounted 
 to nearly thirteen hundred. 
 
 For all that the State and the independent dis- 
 tricts are doing, private educational enterprise 
 continues to flourish in Texas. In the thirteenth 
 biennial report of the superintendent of public 
 instruction (1902) appear statistics of fifty-six pri- 
 vate and church schools and colleges, which make 
 quite a creditable showing for private education in 
 the State. 
 
 It is, however, rather of educational progress 
 than of the status attained that Texas can boast ; 
 and the same is true not only in education, but in 
 most other matters. What has been done is not as 
 significant and hopeful in itself as it is in its pro- 
 mise of more to come. So Texas looks out upon 
 the twentieth century and all future time brimming 
 with courage, energy, and faith. 
 
INDEX 
 
 AoAES, Spanish settlement at, 47; near 
 Natchitoches, 75 ; flight of Spanish 
 from, 76. 
 
 Agricultural and Mechanical College, 
 310. 
 
 Agricultural resources of Texas, 299, 
 300. 
 
 Aguayo, Marques de San Miguel de, 
 his cntrada, 11, 78. 
 
 Alamau, his message of initiative in 
 1830, 159, IGO. 
 
 Alamo, the, its origin, 71 ; the name, 
 71; beginning of the siege of, 20(j ; 
 the storming of, 208; Mexican loss 
 at, 209 ; besieged while convention 
 was at work, 218. 
 
 Alarcon, Governor Martin de, corre- 
 spondence with La Harpe, 49; rela- 
 tions with the missionaries, 49; 
 founder of San Antonio, 69, 70. 
 
 Alcaldes, 62. 
 
 Almonte, Colonel, 226. 
 
 Altamira, his review of Spanish colo- 
 nizing work, 87, 88. 
 
 Anahuac, expedition against, 176. 
 
 Anglo-Americans, their filibustering 
 expeditions, 8 ; their appearance in 
 Texas, 111; preserve their own in- 
 stitutions in Texas, 151 ; restrictions 
 on privileges granted them, 158 ; 
 danger to Mexico in free entry of, 
 160; Mexican suspicion of, 171; their 
 bearing towards the Mexican sol- 
 diery, 175 ; their character, 307. 
 
 Annexation, Texas vote in favor of, 
 1836, 229, 255 ; deferred by dispute 
 over slavery, 256; overtures for, in- 
 vited by Texas, 256, 257 ; efforts of 
 Great Britain to prevent, 256 ; atti- 
 tude of Mexico towards, 256 ; treaty 
 of, defeated, 257 ; the issue in the 
 campaign of 1844, 258 ; accomplished 
 by joint resolution, 258, 250 ; sup- 
 ported by antislavery men, 261. 
 
 Apaches, Spanish checked by, 15 ; 
 Lipan, their request for a mission, 
 88 ; mission granted to, 89. 
 
 Archer, Branch T., commissioner to 
 United States, 193, 198; president 
 of consultation, 195. 
 
 Archives, attempt to remove them to 
 Houston, 240. 
 
 Armada, defeat of, 12. 
 
 Armijo, Governor, 246. 
 
 Arroyo Hondo, line between Louieiana 
 and Texas, 81, 127. 
 
 Asinais, Spanish name for the Cenis, 
 24; included among the Tejas, 33; 
 Hidalgo among the, 39 ; Saint-Denis 
 among the, 42. 
 
 Atlantic coast, colonized by English, 4. 
 
 Aury, Louis de, his government on 
 Galveston Island, 132; leaves Gal- 
 veston Island to Lafitte, 133. 
 
 Austin, city of, laid out in 1839, 230. 
 
 Austin, Moses, in Philadelphia, 138; 
 in Virginia, 138; his visit to " Upper 
 Louisiana," 138, 139; his settlement 
 there, 139; his plan for a colony in 
 Texas, 140 ; his journey to San 
 Antonio, 140 ; his petition approved 
 by Governor Martinez, 141; death 
 of, 141 ; charge concerning his state- 
 ments in Mexico, 148. 
 
 Austin, Stephen F., cooperates in hia 
 father's enterprise, 140; takes up 
 his father's plan, 141; in the Mis- 
 souri legislature, 142 ; circuit judge 
 in Arkansas, 142 ; in New Orleans, 
 142; his first visit to Texas, 142, 
 143 ; recognized as empresario, 143 ; 
 his plan for his colony, 143; his re- 
 quirement of purchase money for 
 land, 144; his first party of settlers, 
 144, 145; his first visit to Mexico, 
 145; confirmation of his grant, 147; 
 his good faith towards Mexico, 148 ; 
 his powers of government, 149 ; re- 
 turns to his colony, 149 ; his dif- 
 ficiUties, 150 ; obtains additional 
 grants, 155 ; the principal empre- 
 sario, 157; opposes the Fredonians, 
 166 ; advises Texans to avoid na- 
 tional politics, 172; his attitude to- 
 wards slavery, 172, 173; with Mejia, 
 178 ; president of convention of 1832, 
 181; opposed by William H. Whar- 
 ton, 182, 183; commissioner to 
 Mexico, 185 ; his second visit to 
 Mexico and imprisonment, 185 ; his 
 restraining influence, 190; his 
 speech in favor of a consultation, 
 190, 191; commander-in-chief of 
 Texas army, 192 ; elected commis- 
 
314 
 
 INDEX 
 
 sionerto United States, 198 ; absent 
 from Texas during convention of 
 183G, 210; favors a declaration of 
 independence, 211; a candidate for 
 president, 229. 
 Ayuntainienio, 62. 
 
 Baker, Mosely, refusal of his company 
 to follow Houston in retreat, 221, 
 223. 
 Banks, defeated at Sabine Pass, 289 ; 
 his defeat at Sabine Cross Roads 
 (Mansfield), 290. 
 Barragan, president ad interim, 107. 
 Bastrop, Baron de, his service to Moses 
 
 Austin, 141. 
 Bean, Ellis, a member of Nolan's 
 
 party, 112. 
 Beason's Ford, 222. 
 Btijar, the name, 74; exposed to 
 Apaches and Comanches, 94; not 
 represented in convention of 1832, 
 ISO; department of, 187; captured 
 by Texans in 1835, 192, '93 ; the 
 departments of, 230. 
 Bell, vote for, in Texas, 285. 
 Bexar Archives, 125. 
 Bienville, expels the English from the 
 Mississippi, 37; bis protest against 
 Spanish settlement at Adaes, 47 ; 
 his note to Alarcon, 49 ; his orders 
 to Blondel, 77 ; his protest against 
 establishment of Pilar, 79 ; his work 
 in Louisiana, 80. 
 Blackburn, Ephraim, his execution, 
 
 115. 
 Blondel denies attacking Adaes, 77. 
 Boundaries of Texas, adjustment of, 
 
 in 1850, 265. 
 Boundary, the Spanish, recedes west, 
 110 ; of Texas, defined, in Decem- 
 ber, 1836, 243 ; of province of Texas, 
 not the Rio Grande, 2G2 ; of Texas, 
 final adjustment of, 267. 
 Bowie, Colonel, appointed to lead 
 Matamoras expedition, 200 ; sent to 
 the Alamo, 204. 
 Bradburn, Jolm Davis, at Anahuac, 
 175 ; his arrest of Madero, and Car- 
 bajal, 175, 176 ; his escape to Loui- 
 siana, 177. 
 Brazoria, exempted from order closing 
 
 ports, 175. 
 Brazos, refusal to pay duties at month 
 of, 17G; department of, 187, 230; 
 Indian agency, 272. 
 Breckinridge, vote for, in Texas, 28o. 
 Bucareli, founding of, 92. 
 Burleson, in command of troops m 
 
 1842, 247. 
 Burnet, David G., president of pro- 
 visional government, 218 ; urges 
 Houston to fight, 224 ; saves Santa 
 Anna from Texas vengeance, 242. 
 
 Burnham's Crossing, 222. 
 
 Burr, fears of his invasion of Mexico, 
 
 lie. 
 
 Bustamante, overthrows Guerrero, 
 104 ; driven from ofifice, 184. 
 
 Cabeza de Vaca, wanderings of, 16. 
 Cabildo, 62, 63. 
 
 Cadillac, Governor Lamothe de, his 
 cooperation with Crozat, 39 ; his 
 efforts to open trade with Mexico, 
 39; sends an expedition to Texas. 
 40; his instructions to Saint-Denis, 
 42 ; his letters from Saint-Denis, 
 44, 46, 47 ; his plan to oppose Span- 
 ish settlement at Natchitoches, 
 47. 
 Canary Islands, settlers from, at San 
 
 Fernando, 72, 73. 
 " Cart War," the, 274. 
 Cattle industry, the Texas, 301. 
 Cenis, reached by La Salle, 24; in- 
 cluded among the Tejas, 33. 
 Cliamp d'Asile, 136. 
 Cherokees, their settlement near Na- 
 cogdoches, 163, 233,234; expulsion 
 of, in 1839, 234. 
 Cibola, the myth of, 15 ; discovered 
 
 by Niza, >17. 
 Clark, Edward, supersedes Houston, 
 
 288. 
 Clear Fork Indian Agency, 272. 
 Coahuila and Texas, constitution of, 
 
 1827, 101. 
 Coke, Richard, 296. 
 Colonization law, general, of January, 
 1823, 146; of April, 1823, 153; of 
 August, 1824, 153, 154; of Coahuila 
 and Texas, 154. 
 Comanches, Spanish checked by, 15 ; 
 attack the San Saba mission, 89; 
 Spanish expedition against, 90; in- 
 solent behavior towards Mexicans, 
 126; fight with, at San Antonio in 
 1840, 234 ; the most troublesome of 
 the tribes, 271. 
 Commerce, illicit, on the Texas bor- 
 der, 84. 
 Common law, its introduction re- 
 quired, 215. 
 Concepcit')n, battle of, 192. 
 Concepcion, pueblo of, 56 ; description 
 of church of, 62; mission removed 
 to B^jar, 71. 
 Constitution, of 1824, 98 ; of 1836, 214- 
 216; of 1866, 293 ; of 1869, 296 ; of 
 1876, 297. 
 Consultation, general, called, 190, 191 ; 
 
 its organization, 194. 
 Convention of 1832, 180-184. 
 Convention of 1833, 184, 185. 
 Convention of 1836, meeting of, 210; 
 declares Texas independent, 211- 
 214; its work, 214. 
 
INDEX 
 
 315 
 
 Convention of the Secession, called, 
 
 285; action of, 286-288. 
 Convention of 18(56, 293. 
 Convention of 1868, 295. 
 Cooke, Captain Pliilip S., his treatment 
 
 of Snively's men, 251. 
 Cordoba, expedition to Yucatan, 13. 
 Cordova, Vicente, hia insurrection, 
 
 233. 
 Coronado, expedition of, 2, 18. 
 Correo, outrages and capture of, 188. 
 Cortes, 12, 14, 17. 
 Cortina, Juan, leader of law-brealiers, 
 
 274. 
 Cos, his surrender of Bejar, 195 ; re- 
 enforces Santa Anna, 225. 
 Cotton, production of, in Texas, 300. 
 Council of provisional government, its 
 
 organization, 197; its quarrel with 
 
 Governor Smith, 199-203. 
 Croix, General, his visit of inspection, 
 
 92. 
 Crozat, Antoine, grant of Louisiana 
 
 trade to, 38. 
 
 Davis, E. J., 296. 
 
 Dawson, Captain Nicholas, slaughter 
 of his men, 248. 
 
 Debt, the, of the Republic of Texas, 
 235. 
 
 Declaration for the constitution of 
 1824, 196. 
 
 Decree of April 6, 1830, adopted, 159 ; 
 provisions of, 173, 174; of Sept. 15, 
 1829, abolishing slavery, issued by 
 Guerrero, 158; exemption of Texas 
 from, 172, 173. 
 
 De Leon, Alonso, sent to find Fort St. 
 Louis, 26; his second and third ex- 
 peditions to Texas, 27. 
 
 De Leon's colony, 156. 
 
 Delgado, his murder of Salcedo and 
 his staff, 120. 
 
 De Nava, his dealings with Nolan, 112. 
 
 Denton, Normal School at, 310. 
 
 De Soto, expedition of, 2. 
 
 De Witt's colony, 156. 
 
 Dickinson, Mrs. Almerion, survives 
 tlie massacre at the Alamo, 208. 
 
 Dutch colonies on the Atlantic coast, 4. 
 
 Education, acts concerning, in Janu- 
 ary, 1839, and February, 1840, 275 ; 
 private, in Texas, 311. 
 
 Educational institutions of Texas, 
 309-311. 
 
 Edwards, Benjamin W., left in charge 
 of Edwards's colony, 164; proclaims 
 republic of Fredonia, 165. 
 
 Edwards's colony, 156. 
 
 Edwards, Hayden, in Mexico, 146 ; his 
 grant, 163; his authority, 164; op- 
 position to, 164; withdrawal of grant 
 to, 165 ; his unwise action, 165. 
 
 Eleemosynary system of Texas, 308, 
 309. 
 
 Ellis, Richard, president of the con- 
 vention of 1836, 210. 
 
 Escoceses, 102. 
 
 Espinosa, 45. 
 
 Espiritu Santo Bay, La Salle at, 22; 
 expedition against, 79, 80. 
 
 Fannin, at Goliad, 205 ; massacre of 
 his men, 206 ; his orders from Hous- 
 ton, 210. 
 
 Farias, vice-president, 105, 106. 
 
 Filisola, General, succeeds Santa 
 Anna, 226. 
 
 Fisher, Colonel William S., 249. 
 
 Flag, the Texas, 230. 
 
 Flores, Manuel, his death, 233. 
 
 Florida, struggle of French and Span- 
 ish in, 5 ; purchase of, 7 ; reached 
 by De Leon, 13 ; original extent, 16. 
 
 Fort St. Louis, sufferings at, 23 ; de- 
 struction of, 24 ; reached by Span- 
 ish, 27. 
 
 France, war with Spain in Italy, 11. 
 
 Franciscans, their colleges, 60. 
 
 Franquis, Don Carlos de, his persecu- 
 tion of Sandoval, 83. 
 
 Fredonians, allied with Indians, 167 ; 
 refuse to submit to Mexican govern- 
 ment, 167 ; their repulse of Norris, 
 168. 
 
 Fredonia, republic of, proclaimed, 
 166 ; dissolved, 168 ; danger in the 
 rising, 168, 169. 
 
 Freedman's Bureau, 295. 
 
 Free Masonry, used for political pur- 
 poses, 101. 
 
 French, early explorations of, 2 ; ex- 
 pelled from America by English, 6. 
 
 Gachupme.i, their cruelties and devas- 
 tations in 1813, 121. 
 
 Gaines, General, on the Sabine River, 
 227 ; his movement into Texas in 
 1836, 253, 254. 
 
 Gaines, James, opposed to Edwards, 
 164. 
 
 Galveston, Harrisburg, and San An- 
 tonio Railroad, 304. 
 
 Georgia lost by Spanish, 6. 
 
 Goliad, one of the three old Spanish 
 settlements in Texas, 66 ; captured 
 by Texans in 1835, 192 ; declaration 
 of independence, 212, 213. 
 
 Gonzales, Ensign, expelled from 
 Adaes, 128. 
 
 Gonzales, skirmish at, 191 ; contin- 
 gent from, enters the Alamo, 206 ; 
 bunied, 220 ; its situation, 220. 
 
 Gonzalez, Ensign Joseph, coi'respond- 
 ence with Saint-Denis, 82. 
 
 Government, provisional, of 1835, 197. 
 
 Granger, General Gordon, 292. 
 
316 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Grant, Doctor, 205. 
 
 Great Britain, relations of, with Texas, 
 
 257. 
 Greer County, lost by Texas, 267. 
 Grijalva, expedition of, 1518, 14. 
 Groce's, 223. 
 
 Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 264. 
 Guadalupe, mission, location of, 50. 
 Guerrero, president, 103 ; dictator, 
 
 103 ; his decree abolishing slavery, 
 
 103, 158. 
 Gutierrez, Bernardo, expedition of 
 
 1812-1813, 116-121 ; on council of 
 
 provisional government of 1819, 122. 
 
 Harrisburg burned, 224. 
 
 Herrera, his treaty with Wilkinson, 
 129, 130. 
 
 Hidalgo, Miguel, his rising, 95. 
 
 Hidalgo, the missionary, his letter to 
 Cadillac, 40, 41. 
 
 Hood's Brigade, 288. 
 
 Houston and Texas Central Railroad, 
 303. 
 
 Houston, city of, chosen as seat of 
 government till 1840, 239. 
 
 Houston, Sam, at convention of 1833, 
 185; favors declaration for consti- 
 tution of 1824, 195 ; elected major- 
 general, 198; his attitude towards 
 the Matamoras expedition, 200; 
 orders Neill to abandon Bejar, 204 ; 
 delegate to the convention of 1836, 
 210; appointed commander-in-chief 
 of the Texas army, 218, 219; his 
 orders to Fannin at Goliad, 219 ; 
 his retreat from Gonzales to San 
 Jacinto, 221-224 ; elected president, 
 229 ; his Indian policy, 233 ; assists 
 in saving Santa Anna from Texas 
 vengeance, 242 ; his speech in tlie 
 United States senate in 1859, 279 ; 
 opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska 
 bill, 280: beaten by Rumiels for 
 governor, 1857, 280 ; beats Runnels 
 for governor, 1859, 280 ; leader of 
 conservative element, 281 ; his ef- 
 forts to prevent secession, 284-288; 
 stands by his State, 287; deposed 
 from the governorship, 288 ; his 
 death, 288. 
 Huston, General Felix, 232. 
 
 Immigration, checked by decree of 
 April 6, 1830, 174, 270, 271. 
 
 Independence Day, 227. 
 
 Independence, declaration of, 211. 
 
 Indian reservations, 272, 273. 
 
 Indians, measures to Christianize, 28 ; 
 management of, 56; their raids, 
 
 271. 
 Indios reducidos, deterioration of, 
 
 93. 
 Intercommunication, means of, 303. 
 
 International and Great Northern 
 
 Railroad, 304. 
 Island, Galveston, the rendezvous of 
 
 pirates, 131. 
 Ituibide becomes emperor, 98. 
 
 Johnson, Frank W., leader of expe- 
 dition against Anahuac, 176; ap- 
 poiuted to lead Matamoras expedi- 
 tion, 201. 
 
 Johnston, Albert Sidney, 232. 
 
 Jones, President Anson, his attitude 
 towards annexation, 259. 
 
 Kendall, the historian, his opinion as 
 to the Santa F.5 expedition, 246. 
 
 Kimble, H. S., secretary of the con- 
 vention of 1836, 210. 
 
 King, Captain, slaughter of his men, 
 206. 
 
 Know-nothingism in Texas, 280. 
 
 La Bahia, established by Aguayo, 78 ; 
 besieged by Salcedo, 119 ; captured 
 by Long in 1821, 123. 
 
 Lafitte, Jean, his cooperation sought 
 by Long, 123 ; at Barataria, 133, 
 134; at the battle of New Orleans, 
 134 ; on Galveston Island, 134, 135 ; 
 expelled by United States govern- 
 ment, 135. 
 
 La Harpe, Bt5nard de, correspondence 
 with Margil and Alarcon, 48, 49; di- 
 rects Blondel to apologize to Span- 
 ish, 70, 77 ; his expedition to Espi- 
 ritu Santo Bay, 80. 
 
 Lallemaud, one of the founders of 
 Champ d'Asile, 135. 
 
 Lamar, General, sent to take com- 
 mand of the army, 231 ; his Indian 
 policy, 233; his educational policy, 
 239; favors the Santa F6 expedi- 
 tion, 245. 
 
 La Salle reaches mouth of Mississippi, 
 20; lands by mistake at Matagorda 
 Bay, 21 ; his establishment of Fort 
 St. Louis, 22; his efforts to reach 
 the Mississippi, 24; his death, 24; 
 his sclieme to conquer New Biscay, 
 38. 
 
 Lipantitlan, captured by Texans in 
 1835 192. 
 
 Little Rock laid off by James Bryan, 
 140. 
 
 Llano Estacado, 10. 
 
 Long, James, his invasion of Texas, 
 122, 123; death of, 123. 
 
 Louis XIV., aggressive policy of, 21; 
 his relative neglect of America, 34- 
 37. 
 
 Louisiana, colonized by French, 3, 36; 
 named by La Salle, 21. 
 
 Louisiana Purchase, revives uoundary 
 question, 84, 127. 
 
INDEX 
 
 317 
 
 Magee, Augustus, expedition of, 1812- 
 1813, llG-ril; death of, 119. 
 
 Manchola, Rafael, delegate to Mexico, 
 182. 
 
 Mansfield, battle of, 290. 
 
 Mauufactures in Texas, 301. 
 
 Mauzanet, sent to Texas, 27; hisestab- 
 lisliment of Mission San Francisco 
 de los Tejas, 29; with Teran in Tex- 
 as, 31. 
 
 Margil, his correspondence with La 
 Harpe, 48, 49. 
 
 Martin, Wily, elected brigadier gen- 
 eral, 182 ; refusal of his company to 
 follow Houston in retreat, 221, 223. 
 
 Martinez, Governor, his dealing with 
 Mo-ses Austin, 140, 141. 
 
 Matamoras, expedition, 199, 200, 201, 
 204 ; broken up, 204 ; expedition 
 against, proposed in summer of 183(3, 
 243. 
 
 McLeod, General Hugh, leader of 
 Santa Ft5 expedition, 245. 
 
 McMullen and McGloin's colony, 156. 
 
 Mejia, Jos6 Antonio, his Tampico ex- 
 pedition, 108; his expedition to Tex- 
 as, 178. 
 
 Mexican republic, centralized from 
 the first, 99. 
 
 Mexicans, Ul-feeling towards those re- 
 maining in Texas, 273, 274. 
 
 Mexican War, not caused by a bound- 
 ary dispute, 262. 
 
 Mexico, conquest of, 2, 14 ; independ- 
 ence of, 8 ; effect of separation of, 
 from Spain, 97 ; ill-feeling of, to- 
 wards Texas, 242; suspends hostili- 
 ties against Texas, 251 ; proposal of, 
 to recognize independence of Texas, 
 
 260 ; war of, with the United States, 
 
 261 ; share of, in bringing on the 
 war with the United States, 262. 
 
 Mier expedition, 248-250. 
 
 Milam, Benjamin R., calls for volun- 
 teers to assault Bejar, 193. 
 
 Miller, James B., commissioner to 
 Mexico, 185. 
 
 Mina, General Javier, his expedition, 
 132. 
 
 Mining interests of Texas, 300. 
 
 Missions, the, 54-60; the group of, 
 founded by Ramon, 50; ineffective- 
 ness of , 85; removal of QuertStaran, 
 70. 
 
 Mississippi, mouth of, seized by 
 French, 16; mouth of, reached by 
 La Salle, 20. 
 
 Missouri Compromise line, the north- 
 ern boundary of Texas, 265. 
 
 Moderators, 237. 
 
 Monclova, contest of, with Sal till o for 
 capital, 186. 
 
 Moore, Colonel John, his raid on the 
 Comauches, 235. 
 
 Moore, Commodore, his controversy 
 with Houston, 231. 
 
 Morelos, the revolutionary leader, 95. 
 
 Morti, Padre, his estimate of the estab- 
 lishments at Bejar, 92. 
 
 Morfit, Henry M., 253. 
 
 Nacogdoches, one of the three old 
 Spanish settlements in Texas, 66; 
 flight of republicans from, in 1813, 
 121 ; conditions there ripest for re- 
 volution, 161-163 ; effect of filibus- 
 tering expeditions on, 162; occupied 
 by Anglo-Americans, 162; included 
 in Edwards's grant, 163; rising at, in 
 1832, 179, 180; department of, 187, 
 230. 
 
 Napoleon, 127. 
 
 Nassonites, the. La Harpe among, 48. 
 
 Natchitoches, Domingo Ramon at, 51 ; 
 near Adaes, 75; removal of fort 
 at, 81 . 
 
 Navarro, Jose Antonio, imprisoned in 
 Mexico, 246. 
 
 Navy, the Texas, 230, 231. 
 
 Neill, Lieutenant-Colonel, his report 
 to Houston, 201; ordered to aban- 
 don Bejar, 204. 
 
 Neutral ground, Gutierrez-Magee ex- 
 pedition organized there, 117; as 
 proposed by United States in 1804, 
 128, 130, 131; treaty, 130. 
 
 New Mexico, attitude of, towards 
 Texas claims in 1848, 264; territory 
 given to, out of Texas claims iu 
 1850, 266; campaign of 1861-1862 
 in, 289. 
 
 New Orleans founded, 37. 
 
 New York taken by the English, 5. 
 
 Niza, Marcos de, his discovery of Ci- 
 bola, 17. 
 
 Nolan, his expedition, 111-116 ; hia 
 aims, 111-114; his death, 115. 
 
 Norris, Samuel, opposed to Edwards, 
 164; beaten by the Fredonians, 
 168. 
 
 North Mexican confederation, propo- 
 sal to establish, 244. 
 
 Novenarios, 102. 
 
 Old San Antonio road, the, 50. 
 
 Old Stone Fort, the, 61; built near 
 Mission Guadalupe, 92; Piedras'8 
 men driven therefrom, 180. 
 
 Orcoquisac, suppressed, 91. 
 
 Palmito, last battle of the Civil War 
 at, 290. 
 
 Panhandle, 11. 
 
 Peace of Ryswick, 35-37. 
 
 Peace of Westphalia, 12. 
 
 Pease, Governor, his measures pro- 
 posed to stop the " Cart War," 274. 
 
 Pensacola, attack on, 76. 
 
318 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Perote, uprising at, 102; prisoners of, 
 250. 
 
 Perry, Captain, on Galveston Island 
 with Miua, 13'2, 133. 
 
 Piedras, Colonel, at Anahuac, 177; 
 rising against, 179, 180. 
 
 Pilar, presidio of, established, 78; sup- 
 pressed, 91. 
 
 Pineda, his exploration of Gulf shore, 
 14. 
 
 Poblaeidn, the, 62, 63. 
 
 Politics, personal nature of, in the 
 early State period, 279. 
 
 Polk, elected President, 258; too ag- 
 gressive towards Mexico, 262. 
 
 Population of Texas, in 1820, 124; in 
 1827, 156; in 1847, 270; growth of, 
 305. 
 
 Prairie View Normal School, 310. 
 
 Presidio, the, 60, 61. 
 
 Property, assessed value of, in Texas, 
 305. 
 
 Provincias Internas, organization of, 
 92; changes in, 94. 
 
 Public domain, 236. 
 
 Public education, grant in support of, 
 asked for by convention of 1832, 
 237 ; provided for in constitution of 
 1836, 238; sentiment favoring it in 
 Texas, 238, 239; development of the 
 system, 275-279 ; provisions for, in 
 constitution of 1845, 276; revival 
 of interest in, after Compromise of 
 1850, 277; act of 1854 concerning, 
 277, 278. 
 
 Public lands, Texas retains its, 261. 
 
 Pueblo, the, 62, 63; the, of Concep- 
 cion, 56. 
 
 Quer«;tarans, retirement of, from Tex- 
 as, 92. 
 Queretaro, Franciscan college of, 60. 
 Quintana, Andreas, 146. 
 
 Railroad building, in Texas, 303, 304. 
 
 Bamon, Captain Diego, his treatment 
 of Saint-Denis, 43, 44; leader of ex- 
 pedition of 1716, 45; at Natchi- 
 toches, 51. 
 
 Rangers, the, their efficiency as Indian 
 fighters, 232. 
 
 Reconstruction, effects of congres- 
 sional policy of, 291; according to 
 President Johnson's plan, 292 ; ac- 
 cording to the congressional plan, 
 294-297. 
 
 Red River, French settlement on, 51. 
 
 Refugio, founding of, 93. 
 
 Bfgidorcs, 62, 63. 
 
 Regulators, 237. 
 
 Revolution of 1821, effect of, in Texas, 
 124. 
 
 Revolution of 1836, begun in Mexico, 
 108. 
 
 Rhode Island, income of, per capita, 
 303. 
 
 Richards, , a member of Nolan's 
 
 expedition, 113. 
 
 Rigault, one of the founders of Champ 
 d'Asile, 135. 
 
 Rio Grande, presidio of the, Saint- 
 Denis at, 43, 44. 
 
 Rivera, General Pedro, his inspection, 
 86; his controversy with the mis- 
 sionaries, 87. 
 
 Roberts, Judge O. M., chairman of 
 Secession convention, 286. 
 
 Robertson's colony, 156. 
 
 Robinson, James W., elected lieuten- 
 ant-governor, 198; recognized as 
 acting governor, 202; his proposi- 
 tion to Santa Anna, 250. 
 
 Roman Catholic, Austin's colonists 
 required to be, 148. 
 
 Rosillo, battle of, 119. 
 
 Rubi, MarqutSs de, his visit of inspec- 
 tion, 91. 
 
 Rusk, goes to the Texas army, 224; 
 favors the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
 280. 
 
 Sabine Cross Roads, battle of, 290. 
 
 Saint - Denis, Louis Juchereau de, 
 chosen leader of expedition into 
 Texas, 41 ; his agreement with Ca- 
 dillac, 42; his letters to Cadillac, 
 44, 40, 47; his marriage, 44; con- 
 ducted to Mexico, 44; his declara- 
 cidn, 45 ; an official of the expedi- 
 tion of 1716, 46; his treachery, 47, 
 56; his fortunes after 1716, 51,52; 
 did not attack Adaes, 76; his double 
 dealing, 79, 80; correspondence with 
 Sandoval, 82, 83. 
 
 Salado, decimation of Mier prisoners 
 at, 250. 
 
 Salcedo, murdered by Delgado and his 
 men, 120. 
 
 Saltillo, contest with Monclova for 
 capital, 186. 
 
 Sam Houston Normal Institute, 310. 
 
 San Antonio, missions in and near, 62; 
 one of the three old Spanish settle- 
 ments in Texas, 67; its origin, 68; 
 its three elements, 69; the name, 
 74 ; captured by Vasquez, 246; cap- 
 tured by Won, 247, 248. 
 
 San Antonio de Bejar, presidio of, 
 founded by Alarcon, 70. 
 
 San Antonio de Valero, mission of, 
 establislied by Alarcon, 70; seculari- 
 zation of, 74. 
 
 Sandoval, Manuel de, his trouble over 
 removal of fort at Natcliitoches, 
 81-83. 
 
 San Felipe de Austin, the capital of 
 Austin's colony, 150; passed by the 
 Texas army, 223. 
 
INDEX 
 
 319 
 
 San Fernando, management of affairs 
 at, 64; school system of, C5; villa 
 of, its establishment, 71 ; first set- 
 tlers of, 73 ; Indian pueblo put in 
 charge of parish of, 74; application 
 of the name, 74. 
 
 San Francisco de la Espada, a continu- 
 ation of San Francisco de los Tejas, 
 30, 71. 
 
 San Francisco de los Neches, flight of 
 Spanish from, 76. 
 
 San Francisco de los Tejas, Mission, 
 established, 29; misfortmies of, 30; 
 transfers of, 30; reestablished, 
 1716, 50. 
 
 San Jacinto, battle of, 225, 226. 
 
 San Jose de Aguayo, mission of, 70. 
 
 San Juan Bautista, Mission, estab- 
 lished, 34; Saint-Denis at, 43, 44. 
 
 San Juan Capistrano moved to Bejar, 
 71. 
 
 San Marcos, Normal School at, 310. 
 
 San Saba, establishment of mission, 
 89. 
 
 Santa Anna, his overthrow of the con- 
 stitution of 1824, 102; rising against 
 Bustamante, 104 ; president, 105, 
 106; his retirement, 100; his cen- 
 tralizing work, 107; dictator, 107; 
 in favor with Texans, 180; elected 
 president, 184 ; his decision as to 
 Texas affairs in 1834, 186 ; over- 
 throws government of Coahuila, 
 187; orders execution of prisoners 
 at the Alamo, 208 ; his pursuit of 
 the Texas army, 222-225; reen- 
 forced by Cos, 225; captured, 226; 
 overthrown by Herrera, 259. 
 
 Santa F6, first Spanish settlement east 
 of Rio Grande, 15. 
 
 Santa Fe, expedition, 244-246. 
 
 San Xavier, mission established on, 
 88. 
 
 Seguin, Erasmo, commissioner to Mex- 
 ico, 185. 
 
 Sesma on the Colorado, 222, 223. 
 
 Sheridan, General, 294, 295. 
 
 Slavery, provisions relative to, in the 
 constitution of 1836, 215 ; not the 
 motive to colonization or revolution 
 in Texas, 216; its troublesome influ- 
 ence on relations with Texas, 241 ; 
 complicates the question of annexa- 
 tion, 255. 
 
 Slave trade, prohibited by constitution 
 of 1S36, 215 ; declaration concern- 
 ing it, by convention of 1836. 217. 
 
 Smith, Henry, his circular letter of 
 October, 1834, 189 ; elected provi- 
 sional governor, 198 ; his quarrel 
 with the council, 199-203 ; a candi- 
 date for president, 229. 
 
 Snively, Colonel Jacob, his expedition, 
 250, 251. 
 
 Somervell, commander of Texas army 
 in 1842, 247-249. 
 
 Southern Pacific Railroad, 304. 
 
 Soutliwest, the, settled by the Span- 
 ish, 3. 
 
 Spain, war with France in Italy, 11 ; 
 religious history of, 54. 
 
 Spanish, failure of, in colonizing work, 
 53 ; daring of their explorers, 53 ; 
 settlements in Texas, 54 ; their three 
 settlements, 65. 
 
 Spanisli Bluff, Anglo-American name 
 for fort on Trinity, 118 ; settlement 
 destroyed in 1813, 121. 
 
 Stewart, Charles B., fined for con- 
 tempt of council, 203. 
 
 St. Louis, Fort, established by La 
 Salle, 22 ; Spanish expeditions 
 against, 26. 
 
 Sunset railroad system, 303. 
 
 Swedish colonies, on the Atlantic 
 coast, 4; conquered by Dutch, 5. 
 
 Tejas, Indians, 27 ; home of the, 28 ; 
 the confederacy of, 33. 
 
 Tenorio, expulsion of, from Anahuac, 
 187, 188. 
 
 Teran, Captain Domingo, expedition 
 to Texas, 31. 
 
 Teran, General, his visit to the frontier 
 in 1827, 160 ; his military occupation 
 of Texas, 174. 
 
 Terry Rangers, 288. 
 
 Texas, its making, 1, 9, 12 ; the pro- 
 vince formed, 7 ; revolution, 8; geo- 
 graphy of, 10 ; crossed by Coronado, 
 IS ; early expeditions into, 18; old- 
 est town in, 19; the name, 32, 33; 
 neglected by Spanish, 34, 35 ; en- 
 tered by Saint-Denis expedition, 42 ; 
 in possession of Spain, 52; presidio 
 of, abandoned, 70; restored by Agua- 
 yo, 78; Spanisli failure to colonize, 
 85 ; presidio of, suppression of, 86, 
 87 ; effect of Mexican independence 
 on, 97 ; attached to Coahuila, 100 ; 
 holds out for the constitution of 
 1824, 107 ; claims of United States 
 in, 127 ; not filled with immigrants 
 by the empresarios, 155 ; desire of 
 United States for, 170 ; exempted 
 from decree abolishing slavery, 173; 
 military occupation of, by Teriin, 
 174 ; ill-feeling of, towards Mexico, 
 242 ; suspends hostilities against 
 Mexico, 251; independence of, re- 
 cognized by various nations, 252 ; re- 
 lations of Republic of, with France, 
 252 ; with United States, 2.52, 253 ; 
 with Great Britain, 257 ; accepts 
 annexation, 259, 260; its failure to 
 establish jurisdiction to the Rio 
 Grande, 263 ; payments to, by Com- 
 promise of 1850, 266, 267, 269 ; atti- 
 
320 
 
 INDEX 
 
 tude of, in the Civil War, 282, 283 ; 
 niQitary operations ia, during the 
 Civil War, 288-290; condition of, 
 during the Civil War, 290 ; readmit- 
 ted to the Union, 29G ; territorial ex- 
 tent of, 298; agricultural resources 
 of, 298; progress subsequent to re- 
 construction period, 299; cotton pro- 
 duction of, 300; cattle industry of, 
 301 ; manufactures in, 301 ; income 
 per capita, 303; railroad mileage of, 
 304; value of property in, 305; pop- 
 ulation of, 305; immigration to, its 
 sources, 305, 306; character of the 
 people of, 307, 308. 
 
 Texas Pacific Railroad, 304. 
 
 Throckmorton, J. W., opposed to se- 
 cession, 293; removed by Sheridan, 
 295. 
 
 Tornel, 103; his policy, 158. 
 
 Travis, William B., arrested by Brad- 
 burn, 176 ; leader of expedition 
 against Anahuac in 1835, 188 ; his 
 refusal to act with Peace party, 189 ; 
 sent to the Alamo, 204 ; his requests 
 for help, 206 ; his letter of February 
 24, from the Alamo, 207, 208; his 
 courage, 208. 
 
 Turtle Bayou resolutions, 177-179. 
 
 Twiggs, General, his surrender of 
 Texas to the Confederates, 288, 289. 
 
 Tyler, President, his part in the an- 
 nexation of Texas, 257-259. 
 
 Ugartechea, at Velasco, 177 ; his de- 
 mand for cannon at Gonzales, 191 . 
 
 United States, claims in Texas, 127 ; 
 seeks to buy all or part of Texas, 
 170; war of, with Mexico, 261; 
 
 makes conditions for the payments 
 to Texas, 266, 207. 
 University of Texas, appropriation for, 
 by act of January, 18.39, 278; pro- 
 vision for, by act of February, 1858, 
 278 ; its opening and growth, 310, 
 311. 
 
 Vasquez, his capture of San Antonio, 
 
 246. 
 Velasco, attack on, 177 ; treaties of, 
 
 226, 242. 
 
 Ward, Lieutenant-Colonel, his party 
 captured, 206. 
 
 Washington on the Brazos, meeting- 
 place of the convention of 1836, 210 ; 
 seat of government for a time, 240. 
 
 Wharton, J. A., report of declaration, 
 195. 
 
 Wharton, William H., delegate to 
 Mexico, 182 ; his opposition to Aus- 
 tin, 182, 183 ; elected commissioner 
 to United States, 198. 
 
 Wilkinson, General, his treaty with 
 Herrera, 129; in Mexico, 146. 
 
 Williams, Samuel M., in partnership 
 with Stephen F. Austin, 155. 
 
 WoU, General, his capture of San 
 Antonio, 247. 
 
 YorMnos, 102. 
 Ysleta, 19, 67. 
 
 Zacatecans, retreat west, 91. 
 
 Zacatecas, Franciscan college of, 60. 
 
 Zavala, Lorenzo de, takes refuge in 
 Texas, 188 ; vice-president of pro- 
 visional government, 218. 
 
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