Our Catl,olic Heritage in T ezas
lands had to prove their "Christian and good moral character"n on arrival. Titles to land could be acquired by prospective settlers either through individual application to the nearest ayuntaminz-to or through an empresario. Families were entitled to a labor of fann land and 24 grazing labores suitable for stock raising. The settlers had to pay in three installment&-four, five and six years from the date of grant- $30.00 for the league of grazing land, and $3.50 for each labor of irrigable, and $2.50 for each /,abo, of non-irrigable land. In order to acquire permanent title they had to occupy the grant and begin cultivating the land within six years. Single men could receive from one-fourth to one-third of a league from an empresario, which grant could by marriage be increased to one league. Bachelors marrying Mexican women were offered an additional quarter league--apparently as an inducement to intermarriage. Settlers could not sell but they could bequeath their grants before they were improved; to the heirs thereupon fell the obligation of developing the land before they could perfect the title. An empresario was a contractor who undertook to settle a minimum of 100 families. He received five leagues of grazing and five labores of farm land for each 100 families he settled, the maximum being 800 families. Contracts were limited to six years and became null and void unless 100 families were settled within the time stipulated. Mexicans could purchase tracts to a limit of I I leagues at the rate of $100.00, $150.00 and $200.00 a league for grazing, non-irrigable and irrigable land, respectively. Agreeable to the provisions of the federal law, no grants could be made in the ten-league strip along the coast or in the twenty-league section along the border without the approval of the Government. The right of the Federal Government to regulate immigration, or exclude settlers from a particular nation, if deemed necessary, was recognized. Exemption from general taxes for a period of ten years was granted to all settlers. There were to be no essential changes in the law for six years. Indians were to be allowed to trade freely in the colonies and were promised lands on the same basis as others but only after they were sufficiently civilized. In regard to slaves, the law was specific: "The new settlers shall subject themselves to the laws that are now, and shall be hereafter, 17The use of the term "Christianidad" in the Spanish original is evidence of Bas- trop's influence. No Mexican or Spaniard at that time would have used this term in preference to "Catholic." Immigrants could swear to their "Christian and moral character," without a qualm. Ley de Colo,u)acwn, Decreto Num. 16, March 24, 1825, Saltillo .Arc/,;ves, MS. Vol. 47, pp. 30-31. (Photostat copy, University of Texas.)
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