011r Catl,olic Heritage i1i Texas
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and the Baron de Bastrop in July, 1824, shortly after Austin's return from Mexico. It was located at the lower Atascosito crossing on the Brazos, where John Macfarland had founded a settlement. Here Austin exercised his varied and broad powers as the chi.ef governing authority over his "North American frontier republicans" until February, 1828. Tired of this heavy burden, he requested the organization of constitutional government in his colony after the adoption of the State constitution in 1827. The election of an ay1mtamie1tto under the supervision of Austin was ordered by the Political Chief in accord with the instructions of the Governor. Thus was the first constitutional election in Anglo- American Texas held on February 3-4, 1828. An alcalde, two regidores and a nndico procura.dur were duly elected viva voce in the seven old alcalde districts. The settlers felt thoroughly at home in the exercise of local self-government. But the choice of the first officials proved ill-advised, for they did not take their duties seriously. No meeting was held from March to December 21, 1828. _Austin was, consequently, forced to make repeated excuses to Mexican authorities for the apparent indifference.' 0 Founding of Bastrq,p. At the request of citizens from San Antonio, as a protection for travelers and a check on Comanche and Tawakoni raids, Austin undertook to settle 100 families on the Colorado along the east bank above the San Antonio Road crossing. This project, authorized in 1827, became known as the "Little Colony." It began on the San Antonio Road and ascended the Colorado along the east bank for fifteen leagues, thence ran eastward parallel with the road to the watershed between the Colorado and the Brazos, which also marked the boundary of the Leftwitch grant; southward along this watershed to the road; and thence along the road to the Colorado. Miguel Arciniega was appointed commissioner of this colony in 1830. On June 8, 1832, he formally established the town of Bastrop at the point where the San Antonio Road crossed the Colorado.' 1 Otl,er colonization grants. The eager would-be colonizers who had flocked to Mexico City in 1822-1823, at the time Austin was there, turned to Saltillo shortly after the passage of the federal colonization law which had placed the disposal of public lands in the hands of the states. 40For a detailed account of the establishment of the first ayu11tamiento in Anglo- American Texas, see Barker, "The Government of Austin's Colony, 18::n-1831," Tl,e Quarterl,,, XXI, 242-252. 41 For the boundaries of the "Little Colony" contract, see C. E. Castaneda, Tl,e Me:rican Side of tl,e Te:riJS Revolutio", 313-314.
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