702
Al\-IERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
valuable. At the same time another party of the same nation went down the river, where the settlers live very scattered, and compelled them to give them corn, etc. etc., with threats to kill them because the Choctaws, Cochates and Alabamos have murdered the Captain of the Cocos, his son and three other Indians, and a Tancalrne ,v oman, taking her son a boy three years of age prisoner. To prevent such outrages hereafter, and to recover. the stolen horses I resolved to march against them, which I did, I surprised their camp on the 2nd• Instant, and compelled the captain to deliver to me all the stolen animals, and to inflict with his own hands in my presence a severe lashing on the marauders. I ordered them also to leave this river and the Colorado at once, with a warning that if they again attempted to steal cattle, or to molest the settlers on these rivers, I would not be satisfied with lashes only, but would canse the delinquents to be shot, an extremity to which I do not wish to be compelled to resoft. I hope these measures will meet your approbation. ESTEVAN F. AUSTIN. Brazos River, October 20th, 1823, 3 rd • and 2d. AusTIN TO LuouNo GARCIA To preserve good order in the colony under my charge, I have been compelled to cause five men to leave it, with their families, to wit: Briton Baylie, John :M Coy, Alen ,vhite, David Fitzgerald and Daniel 0. Quin. They are all men of infamous character and bad conduct, fugitives from the United States, one for having com- mitted murder, the others for having counterfeited money, and for whose apprehension t.he American Government has offered high rewards :Men of such a stamp can not but be prejudicial to this new settlement; therefore, I hope that my action will meet your high approbation. To prevent, hereafter, the introduction into this Colony of men of that kind, I shall be compelled to keep up a rigid and active police; which measure, I think, will also be approved by you. EsTEVAN F. AcrsTIN. Brazos Hivcr, October 20 th , 1823. 3 rd • & 2 nd •
AUSTIN TO LUCIANO GARCIA
I would have carried your orders of the 9 th of last September, relative to the coJlection of the general direct Tax into immediate execution but for the consideration that the second article of the Colonizat'ion Law, says; that, during the six first years from the
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