268
A¥ERIOAN HISTORIOAL .ASSOCIATION
the necessary office fees and charges for writing, translating and recording, and nlso the surveying fees, all of which were fixed by a -regulation of the Government of Texas, nnd were, or ought to have been paid by the settlers; for the Government allowed us nothing for our services. I was therefore both Empresnrio and Commissioner to my first Colony.-Besides this, I was specially appointed by the Supreme Government of Mexico the Civil Chief, the sole judicial officer, and the commandant of the militia of the new Colony, subject always to the orders of the Government of Texas, and the Com- mandant-Genernl of the military dep11rtment, but for these services I received nothing from the Government. These several appoint- ments (for they were all sepa.rate and distinct the one from the other,) threw a vast burden of lnbor and responsibility and expense upon me individually,-An expense and lnbor which I was not bound by my contrnct as Empresario to bear. "\Vhat rendered my situation still more troublesome and perplexing, was that the Gov- ernment at that time was unsettled and shaken by frequent political revolutions and changes of systems, policy uncl officers, n,nd I had to make new friends and acquaintances amongst the superior powers at every change. Added to all this, out of my office there was not one person in the settlement who could correctly translate any law or order of the Government. I was from necessity the sole organ of communication with the Government; and as respects the local gov- ernment of the settlement, the granting of lands, etc. etc., it appeared to the settlers that my authority was absolute.-It is sufficient for me to sny that my settlers were North-Americans, and many of them frontier men who had never known restraint, to inform you that I was looked upon with jealousy and suspicion. It was the natural result of the national character of those people, and of the situation in which circumstance and necessity, and even the salvation of the settlement had placed me-and that situation also imposed upon me · the duty nnd difficult task of bearing in silence and good humor, all the abuse and jealousy that ignorance and suspicion could heap upon me, leaving it to time to test my acts and prove whether they were correct or not. It has done so, and all are satisfied with [me] except a few. I do assure you that it was a difficult task, and I may frankly ' confess that I would have abandoned the settlement, the settlers and the country, if no other motive than pecuniary individual interest had influenced me. My ambition was to be the means of laying a foundation for spreading an intelligent and an ·enterprising popu- lation over this fertile and hitherto unknown and wilderness country; perhaps, also, I had a. little pride in wishing to succeed, for I under- took this enterprise in opposition to the advice of my friends in the
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