467
THE AUSTIN PAPERS
rival there (about the first of January 1831) I spoke to Governor Jose M. Viesca in relation to the Nashville Colony, for an extension of time for the Company, or a new contract for Robinson [Robertson]. It is to be remem• bered that I was not the agent of the Company, nor of Robinson [Robert- son] and that all I did for them was gratuitous on my part, and proceeded from a desire to serve them and promote the settlement of the country. My application in favor of Robinson [Robertson] displeased Governor Viesca and the Secretary of State, Valle, very much, and produced con- siderable irritation against me for even having made such an application, because they said I knew that it would he an open and direct violation of the 11 th Article of the national law of the 6 th April 1830, to grant it, and make a Colonization Contract with citizens of the U. S. whose emigration to Texas was positively prohibited by said law, and consequently that it would involve the Governor in a responsibility to hot~ the general and State Gov- ernments, that, in the then excited situation of political parties, must have totally ruined him. Besides which he said that I was interceding for a man who had rendered himself notorious and obnoxious to the Govern- ment by the violence and abusive course he had pursued. In this Jflatter therefore I again endeavored to serve the Nashville Company, and Robin- son [Robertson] in the most essential manner, and at the hazard of losing all the influence I still had with the State Government, an influence which was of vital import at that critical period to protect the interests of the settlers in my own Colony, and to ward off trouble from Texas in General. A majority of the then State Legislature were of the central party and politics, and unfriendly to the progress of Texas, and especially to Amer- icans. The fact is that by interfering in favor of Robinson [Robertson] at all, in the matter of parties and politics, I lost sight of my duty to Texas as its representative, for that duty required that I should retain as much influence with the Governor as possible and avoid creating excitements. I knew that applications had been made to the State Government for Con- tracts to Colonize the sections of country formerly contracted to Leftwich, whose contract would expire on the 15 th of April 1831, also for the vacant land remaining in my Colony, between Ten Leagues of the coast and the San Antonio road and also for a section of country North of Nacogdoches. On enquiring, the Governor informed me that one of these applications was by Doct. Beale for an English Company, (the same that afterwards obtained Milam's colony on the West of Colorado) and there were two applications by two frenchmen by the name of Villaveque, for French companies in Paris. · The Governor expressed a disposition to give those applications the preference, as they were made by Europeans, and consequentl}' would not interfere with the prohibitory law of 6 th April 1830
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