106 ony, by the united efforts and invitation, both of the company of W. S. Peters and others, and the, then, Republic of Texas. They have endured the hardships of a settlement in a new country- inhabited then only by the Indian- They were compelled to forego, all the privileges-advantages and comforts of social or- der and an advanced state of society.- They were almost unable to raise the necessary amount of grain, on which to subsist, on account of the difficulty of obtaining implements of husbandry.- They were compelled for successive months to subsist alone upon the wild meats of the forests and prairies, which were taken by the unerring fire of the rifle, which had repeatedly "told its own tale" in conflicts with the Indians on this (Then) remote fron- tier. Many of them have lost their stock, which was their only hope of aggrandisement and comfort.-Lost some of them their wives and helpless children and had them butchered before their own eyes while they were unable to protect them- Many who have come by the inducements, of both the Republic and com- pany, have left their bones to bleach upon these extended prai- ries, without a sepulture in a Christian land.-They came from their former homes, associations and relatives in the older states with the only and sole view of acquiring homes for themselves and their families, in a new, and unpopulated Country,- and be- lieving as they did then and do now, that the intention of the Republic and afterward the State of Texas, was and is to secure to the Colonists their dear bought homes,-believing also that their present unfortunate position, as to titles to their lands, have mainly been the result of the strange and dishonest conduct of Henry OHedgecoxe the agent of the Peters Company, who by his fraud and villiany, aroused the resentment of the people, until they concieved that longer forbearance could not be a virtue- believing from evidence incontrovertable, that the said company were supporting the general action of their agent,- believing also from facts, which are indisputable. To Wit, the book and papers, of said agent, that it was the intention of the company to harrass-annoy and if possible finally deprive a large majority of the colonists of their lands and homes, and that this was the settled purpose (not implied but expressed) of the company can be sustained by hundreds of living witnesses whose testimony cannot be impeached Thus unfortunately situated, the colonists knew no legal and effectual manner in which their rights could be secured. To take for a time the control of the agent and office was their only remedy.
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