Foreign Colunizati<m of Texas, I820-I835 1 93 make himself understood orally as well as in writing. He had also learned much about Mexican politics and Mexican character. Once again he had success within his grasp when his plans were rudely shaken in August by Iturbide, who adjourned his recalcitrant Congress and replaced it with the ltmta lnstituyente of forty-five hand-picked men. To the new body Austin now addressed himself, for a few friends had survived the upheaval. At long last the Junta lnstitu,yente passed a colonization law on January 4, 1823. Under its terms the Government guaranteed liberty, security in the possession of property and other civil rights to all foreigners who professed the Roman, Cat.holic, Apostolic religion. To facilitate their establishment within the limits of the nation, the law set forth the terms under which land would be granted. Such grants could be acquired through an empresario or directly from the city council nearest to the place chosen for settlement. Each settler was to receive a minimum of one lah01' of farm land and one sitio of land for grazing stock. 32 The law further provided that colonization contracts entered into with the Spanish Government, but still pending, were to be governed by the terms of the new law. When the number of families in a given locality became sufficient to warrant the establishment of a town, a local administrative council was to be organized. The Government was to see that new towns. were provided adequately with priests. In accord with the decree of March 27, 182~. natives of the country, more particularly veterans of the War of Independence, were to enjoy preference in land distribution. Empresarios were to receive as a reward three luzciendas and two lahores for every 200 families they introduced. Settlers were to have two years in which to begin cultivating their land. They were to be exempt from taxes for a period of six years and were to be taxed only fifty per cent for the second six-year period. Thereafter, they were to be assessed in full as all other citizens. Tools, machinery, and personal property brought in by the colonists were to be duty-free, as was the merchandise of each settler in the amount of $1,000.00. It was in securing the adoption of a qualification to Article XXIX that Austin encountered the greatest difficulty. The Mexican Congress had been adverse to slavery. Austin argued in vain the need of slaves in order to attract prosperous settlers so essential to the development of a new country. His patient and persistent efforts, however, finally lZit defined the unit of measure as the Spanish vara. Five thousand varas con- stituted a league or 4,439 acres; a league square was a sitio; five silios, an -i1""'1; and one thousand varas square, a labor.
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