59'
PAPERS OF lV[IRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
zation of the country, and the raising of revenue. The, public do- main, as a matter of course, was the chief dependence for means. A bill was accordingly passed for the survey and sale of 36 Town- ships of land on the Attoyac and Red-river; the minimum price_of those on the first named, being fixed at one dollar per acre, payable one fourth down, and the residue in three annual instalments; whilst the lands lying on the latter stream were to be sold at various prices according to its quality, ranging from twelve and a half, to fifty cents per acre. Major Cook was 'Commissioned on the twenty ninth of July to proceed to Pecan Point for the purpose of establishing. order on the frontier and of promoting the settlements already com- menced in that section by offering bounty-lands to soldiers, and Head- rights to actual settlers. A printing office was put in operation by Mr Harris; and a News-paper called the "Star" was published under the editorial conduct of Horatio Biglow; a man of considerable intelli- gence and talents and not destitute of merit, apart from his inveterate habits of intoxication. The paper derived its name from the national flag of the New-Republic, ·which was of white silk, striped and fringed with red, having a single star in the center of a red ground in the upper corner, attached to the staff. It was devised by the General himself; and the one first hoisted in the cause, was the handy work of Mrs Long and her sister Chesley, afterwards, Mrs Miller. These, and many other regulations, all salutary in their character, and well calculated to promote the objects intended, were adopted, and promised at the time, much greate'r stability, and more beneficial consequences than were-realized.- Among the proceedings of the Supreme Council we find an Act authorizing the establishment of a military post at Bolivar Point; and another, directing the organization of a Custom House on Galvezton Island. The title of this latter act is-'' An Act declaring Galveston, in the Island of St Louis, a Port of entry and delivery. "-These measures were predicated upon a letter received from the celebrated Lafitte, who was then in the occupancy of that Island. Lafitt 's letter was in reply to one from General Long announcing his plans and designs, and invoking the aid and co-operation of that inveterato despoiler of Spanish commerce. The letter, we think, is too interest, ing and important to be omitted. vVe will venture to insert it, not- withstanding its inconvenient length. Its publication- now for the first time-may not only be gratifying to the curiosity of the reader; but the letter itself will serve as an illustration of the character of the auther, and cannot fail to present him in a much less repulsive light than the one in which he has been generally regarded. The original 66 is now before us; but we shall avail ourselves of the unambitious translation of it, by our friend Mr Damour of Macon Georgia, whose knowledge of his native idiom is more critical and copious than that of his adopted country.
Very soon after the reception of the foregoing letter, Biglow, was dispatched to Galvezton for the purpose of carrying into effect the
,.A translation of this original was printed as no. 19 of this collection.
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