608
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
is now on his way to Matamoros and possibly may go as far as Sal- tillio and if he does will hand you this himself, otherwise will forward it from Matamoros, as I have but a few minutes to write before the departure of the vessel, must come to the subject at once and be brief. I named to you last £all that I had expended up- wards of $12000 in obtaining the Grant made to the Nashville Com- pany and my share of the expenses since, and emigrated to this Country with my large family nearly three years ago for the purpose of aiding in colonizing sd grant which has cost me much more money a.nd as none of the Company except myself and Doctor Heard emigrated to this country and they have done nothing towards colon- izing but have sold out their shares to speculators who will probably try .to get the Grant for themselves exclusively and leave me to suffer my losses, although the Grant never would have been obtained for the Company had I not furnished the man and the funds. I ad- vanced Leftwich $6500 previous to his departure for :Mexico and my brother furnished him $5000 at :Mexico and Saltillio on my acct. which I have accounted with him for since, and had it not been for these funds he could not have succeeded but must have been im- prisoned for his expenses as the Company did not furnish him with half enough. I therefore think and hope that if the Govern- ment will grant that tract of country to any person they will give the preference to me who is the greatest sufferer by the enterprise and has done everything in my power to get the Grant colonized, and I must request the favor of you to be so good as to aid me in every way in your power in obtaining a Grant for the same bound- ary of land that was granted to H. II. League as Empresario for the Nashville Company, and I will engage to colonize it with one thousand families within six years one half of whom shall be Euro- peans. and I wish the Grant to be upon the same conditions as the one named, in every other respect or as near as will be consistent with the laws of the country. I hope you will act as my agent in this matter and draught and present a petition for the grant for me and in my name and sign my name to it and do such other things as is necessary in the business relative to obtaining s 4 grant and this shall be your authority as fully as if I had made you a i·egular power of atto. as I have not time now to make one. I have no hesitation in saying to you that I feel confident in having t~e whole number of families on the Grant within half the time of six years but it is preferable to have time enough. It will be of great importance to the country and great advantage to your colony ancl all the lower country to have that section of country settled as early ns possible by agricultural people as t~ey will soon be able to supply the lower country with flour etc. which we are now compelled to import from the U. S. Of America and it will also be the means of driving back nll the tribes of hostile Indians
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