Foreign Colonization of Teza.s, 1820-1835
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established on the subject." 31 This meant there were to be no slaves as such brought into the country. Success of A1'sti11, as an empresario. Austin's trying year in Mexico had almost disrupted his colony. But the experience gained, the knowl- edge of Mexican character obtained, and the friendships made with the leading men of the day were to prove invaluable to the young colonizer. He had no sooner returned than he began to plan enlarging his first contract. Before the passage of the state law, he had made application for additional contracts. Under the new law he obtained permits before 1830 for the introduction of 800 families. The following year he and Samuel M. Williams, his secretary and business partner, were authorized to settle another 800 Mexican and European families. His colony grew by leaps and bounds. By March of 1828, the population had increased to 2,021; by June, 1830, it numbered 4,248; and by 1831, it was 5,655. More than 1,000 titles had been issued to settlers in Austin's various grants alone before the end of 1833. Figures compiled after his death reveal that the great empresario authorized a grand total of 1,540 grants to colonists, a truly remarkable accomplishment. The boundaries of his colony were first defined by Jose Antonio Saucedo, political chief of San Antonio, on May 20, 1824, as extending from "the seashore to the San Antonio Road, and from the Lavaca River to Chocolate Bayou." The occasion was the need of determining Austin's judicial jurisdiction. In November it was enlarged to take in the west bank of the San Jacinto. A more careful demarcation became necessary to prevent confusion with the numerous contracts granted to other empresarios after the passage of the law of 1825. Thus, on March 7, 1827, the Governor described the limits as "commencing at a point on the west bank of the San Jacinto ten leagues from the coast; thence up the river to its source; and north from there to the San Antonio Road; thence along the road westward to a point from whence a line due south strikes the head of the Lavaca; down this line and the east bank of the Lavaca to the ten-league reserve; and then along this to the place of beginning." st Founding of San Felipe u Austi,.. The center of the first colony was the town of San Felipe de Austin, formally established by Austin 11 Gammcl, L(l'Uls of Tezas, I; The Spanish text is found in CoucciJn fon,,ada con aJgunos tiecrelos . .. , SaJlillo Arc/lives, MS. Vol. 47, pp. 30-40. (Photostat copy, University of Texas.) 19 Barker, Lif1 of Ste,p/,e,, F. Austin, 142-143.
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