250
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
AusTIN TO RAMON MusQUIZ
[J..'rom Bexar Archives]
Ympuesto del contenido del oficio de V. S. fecha 5 del presente mes relativo al trnto q• hnce el habitante John Williams con los Indios-- he hecho entender al dho individuo que por ningun motivo debe com- prar ca:vnllarda ni tener trnto de municiones ni armas, advertiendole que en el caso de resultnr comprometido en qualquier trato ilicito u otros procedim to, de mala tendencia con los indios clebia esperar todo el rigor del castigo q• lu. ley le impone en semejantes casos Lo q• comunico a V. S. en contestacion a su citado oficio Dios y Libertad villa de Austin 24 de Ago~to 1829 EsTEYA~ F. AusTIN [Rubric.] Sor Gefe del Depart° C. Ramon Muzquiz
AUSTIN TO HENRY AUSTIN l
Austin Augst. 27th 1829 MY DEAR Sm-A traveler has just handed [me] yours dated at Matamoras 3d of this month, which I recd with great pleasure It has been a long time since I heard from you by letter. I recd. two Gins from Mr Coit of N. Orleans on your act. and lea[r]ned that you were about to engage in the navigation project on the Rio Del Norte • I should have written you to N york on that subject, but my information as to the time when you were to have started induced me to believe that you had already departed- I fear that the opinion you express that "it is extremely doubtful whether the enterprize will result in success " is but too well founded- I think you will find that river and country entirely unfit for steam naviga- tion as it regards the river, I deem it to be far inferior as a navigable stream to our Brazos river of Texas, which is much smaller, but confined to a narrow bed, free from bars or shoals, and our freshets are of long_er duration than in the Rio Grande-none of the rivers of this country are navigable above tide water except in time of floods and then the current is rapid. The Brazos on an average during the last seven years, could have been navigated with a boat of 80 tons to,this place six months in the year-it is too narrow and the turns too sudden for large boats, There will be use for steam boats in Galveston Bay after a few years-tho I will 1 .From a COP1 mndc b7 Moaea Austin Brynn, Aug. 20, 1844. Tbe orlglnnl ls not avnttable.
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