Our Catl,olic Heritage i11 Texas
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of ports. Since Arredondo was more interested at this time m the mouth of the Rio Grande, he requested the authorization of a port at this point so as to promote trade directly with Havana and Campeche, and suggested that only such duties be charged as would be necessary to maintain a customhouse. He recommended that La Bahia be made a secondary legal port. Arredondo favored subsidization of manufacturers and tobacco growers. His plan included the granting of small tracts of land to prospective settlers. To make the offer still more enticing to industrious colonists interested in the cultivation of the soil, he recommended that the Government provide all the necessary implements as well as seed and food for the first year to tide them over until they could raise a crop. It seems that the authorization of La Bahia in I 81 5 as a legal port of entry with privileges comparable to those of Tampico had not been made public, much less carried into effect. A five-year extension of these original privileges was now granted, but the request for the new port on the Rio_ Grande was denied. Authority for distributing lands to prospective settlers, Arredondo was told, could be secured only by direct application to the King, who alone had the power to grant it. The implements could not be furnished free, the Royal Treasurer maintained, but he generously offered to arrange to secure them at cost on easy terms.• He further recommended that colonists be required to cultivate their lands within three years. The Williams ,pla,i. In the spring of 1817 there came to Havana a singular character named John Williams. Apparently, the true name of the mysterious visitor from New Orleans was Lacarriere Latour, a French engineer, a man of wide knowledge and keen observation. In his report, Williams or Latour regarded the establishment of colonies along the frontier as essential. The repopulation of this devastated area gradually dawned on officials and citizens alike as basic to recovery. Latour declared that the recent success of the United States against Great Britain had resulted in swelling the pride of Americans and in making many believe that they were chosen by Providence to help liberate the Spanish colonies. Sympathy for the cause of independence, he asserted, was general throughout the Southwest. This enthusiasm, shared by the inhabitants of Louisiana, rendered its frontier a danger zone. 'Arredondo to the Minister of Relations; Informe de! Contador, February 28, 1817, A.G. I., G11adal.ajara, 103-3-23.
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