Fureign Colonization of Texas, 1820-1835
205
given an extension of time, first to December, and then to June, 1828. Understandably, the colonists resented having to abandon their settle- ment and move to Gonzalez. The latter had already begun to flourish, for its population had been increased by many new arrivals from the United States, and by the return •of the original settlers, who had fled to the Colorado after the Indian raid." This land dispute and the contraband incident are among the earliest illustrations of how misunderstandings were to arise between Mexican and Anglo settlers. Suspicion, distrust, and hatred were to spring up and develop from such incidents. The open rebellion of Haden Edwards in Nacogdoches, better known as the Fredonian Rebellion, helped put an end to the DeWitt-de Leon dispute and gave the colonists in the other settlements an opportunity to prove their loyalty to their recently adopted country. The prudent policy of Austin, whose counsel was implicitly followed, did much to allay temporarily the increasing suspi- cions and growing animosity of Mexican settlers, officials in Texas Haden Edwards, like DeWitt, Leftwitch and others, had waited and schemed in Mexico City during the trying years 1823-1824. Edwards then went to Saltillo, where on April 15, 1825, a month after the passage of a state law, he secured a contract to settle 800 families in East Texas. Roughly, the boundaries of his grant ran north from the intersection of the coast and border reserves beyond Nacogdoches for 15 leagues; hence west to the Navasota; then in an irregular line along this stream, the San Antonio Road, and the San Jacinto to the line of the coast reserve, touching Austin's grant along the San Jacinto, and following the ten-league coastal reserve line eastward to the starting point. The old Spanish settlement of Nacogdoches was included within the grant, which unfortunately also bordered the Neutral Ground. 49 Conditions in and around the scarred frontier outpost of Nacogdoches would have tried the patience and wisdom of a Solomon. Edwards lacked both. Revolutionists and filibusters, like the shifting tide, had churned back and forth over the battered bastion. Its old settlers had fled to Louisiana for protection. After the successful attainment of independence by Mexico and .the amnesty proclamation, some of the old settlers had returned to their ruined homes. News of the liberal land policy adopted and the central Government. The Fredonian Rebellitm.
••Rather, "DeWitt's Colony," Tl,e Quarterl,., VII, 109-1 I 4. 49 Barker, The Life of Stephen F. .Austin, 168.
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