THE AUSTIN PAPERS 871 All persons who are included in any of my Co]onies, whose land business is not completed, are therefore requested to come forward, in person, and take out their titles. Those who do not apply by the 15th Decembe1· next, will be con- sidered as having forfeited their right of reception, as it is the inten- tion to close the business by that time. s. F. AUSTIN. San Felipe de Austin, 9th October, 1832.
AUSTIN TO GENERAL ,v ILLIAM H. ASHLEY
Snn Felipe de Austin (Texas)
October 10, 1832.
Gen I ,vm H. ASHLEY l
Dr Sm, It is long since we have seen or heard of each other by any direct intercourse, but I judge of you by myself when I say that you have not forgotten your old townsman we have spent too many pleasant hours together in Potosi for them to have passed away from your remembrance, Sam P. Browne and John Rice Jones with their families are here permanently settled, also my brother-in-law, James F. Perry, an<l several others from ·w ashington County; from them and other sources I have heard of your prosperity and success in private ancl in public life, which was highly gratifyiug to me. :My lot has been cast in the wilderness-a pioneer-you may readily imagine that the change was a considerable one for me. I recollect your taste for bear hunting and that I wondered at it, for at that time mine did not incline much to such rude sports, though I also recollect that when you and R. T. Brown and myself were out on the Boons Lick road as commissioners to examine it, he killed a large bear and I snapped at one and killed _a cub, and I thought it might be very .fine sport-it was very exciting at lenst. I nm not now a good hunter, but I have entered much more into the spirit of the thing than I then did and no longer wonder at your fondness for the sport There is a freedom, a wide and wild and elevated range of thought, as well as of action, in rambling over the verdant prairies, and gentle undulations of Texas, where every living thing you see gives evidence of equal :freedom by scampering nncl bounding before and around you, which per- sons who have all their lives elbowed their way through crowded streets, know nothing about-I no longer wonder at the attachment
1 Ashley representro Missouri In Congress, 1831-1837. For a btleC sketch, see Blo- craphleal Congressional Director:,.
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