THE AUSTIN PA.PERS 679 gratitude to rny adopted country-and to be infiexibly true to the inte,·ests and just rig/i,ts of rny settlers. It is my boast to say, that I have never deviated from these general principles, and it is a matter of proud gratification to me that my colony has always poSiiessed the confidence of this Govt. A fortune I have not made, on the contrary except my land I 8m poor, but am satisfied, for I have fully succeeded in the main ob- ject- If speculation had been my object I should now have been <lashing in wealth in Europe or whel'e I pleased, worshipd by foe thousands and dispised by the two's or three's (two or three out of a 1000 is perhaps a low estimate of those who would be gov4 by principle alone when placed in opposition to wealth) Texas would have remaind to this day, what I found it, a wilderness and many of the Capitalists of the U. S. and of England would have been gulled out of their money · Others who have attempted colonization here have wished to make a matter of great and speedy speculation of it. · No one who starts on that plan will succeed in doing any thing except to injure this country and throw it back many years. They have faild so far, and strange to say, some of them have wished to throw the blame of their failure on me, and have suspected me of an unfriendly dispo- sition towards them, or towards their interprises, on the ground that competition was disagreeable to me-. such a suspicion displays a total want of all correct knowledge of the subject. There can be no competition to my injury with any others who have attempted, or ever may attempt colonizing in Texas. The plan of the New York company for instance is to send out families get the title of a league of land made to each of them, and then bind each one to convey to the cornpany all but a few hundred acres: thus expecting to monopolise the whole country. All of which is illegal and inad- missable-their misconception of the law defeats them, and they attribute their defeat to the interference of others against them. In this -colony the settler gets the full amt. of land which the law allows-the expences are light, and a long credit is given to pay the most of them and then they can be payed in part in cattle or other produce of the country which the settler can make off the land he gets before it is due under this system how could the New York company or any others take my settlers from me1- what injury could competition do me 1- They do not understand the matter at all for the result would be that all their settlers who could get away would leave them' on their arrival here and come to me- besides, most of the emigrants to my colony are men of capital, who bring numbers of indented servants as laborers or a considerable cash capital-
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