THE AUSTIN PAPERS. 1047 from removing from this to your country. To those who think liber- ally an exclusive religion-presents no formidable difficulties but you are well apprised of the wonderful influence of education upon a subject involving the present and future happiness of Mankind, particularly in a country like this where religious liberty exists in all its purity. The operation of your system [will be alarmingn to our Females whose influence we must submit to in every thing relat- ing to social and domestic happiness. We will not say they renounce the religion of our Fathers or be deprived of the pleasures derived from its doctrines and ceremonies for all other earthly enjoyments. If deprived of these every other object would cease to please and all around would appear dark and dreary. An elysium under such cir- cumstances would be more intolerable than Siberian desserts. You may depend upon it that your exclusive system has a most discourag- ing effect upon imigration particularly among the more respectable classes of the community. If that first and most obnoxious article could be blotted from your constitution, my word for it, families of respectability and influence would flock to your country from every part of the United States. • Our most valuable inhabitants here own negroes. I nm therefore anxious to know what the laws are upon that subject. Can they be introduced as the labouring servants of emigrants1 and, when are they free 1 They are an important species of property here and our planters are not willing to remove without they c~n first be assured of their being secured to them by the laws of your·Govt. Inform me about the general appearance of your country, its soil, and climate, particularly in that part of it •immediately on or near the sea coast. Is it high and dry or is it low and swampy 1 Do springs abound and is it difficult to produce water by digging wells 1 and is the country as well adapted to sugar cane as to cotton 1 Are you subject to severe droughts during the summed 1Vhat is the size of the Colorado, will it admit of schooner navigation up to your town: and is the land immediately on the river high or low and subject to inundation~ How far is your town from the sea coast and would a store of goods to well in it 1 "What are your most coinmon diseases; are bilious fevers frequent and severe and would a Doctor do well among you 1 In what way do you dispose of your lands; do you give long credit to purchasers, and how much is the extent that each family can posses 1 Must they settle it themselves or will you allow them to settle their purchases in the first instance with good and industrious families 1 My reason for asking this question is that many of our first rate men might be induced to purchase if they were certain that it was not necessary for them to remove untill after their places were well improved and
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