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Our Catliolic Heritage in T e::eas
that a land commissioner be appointed to examine claims and give titles to 168 families living in the border strip between the Atoyac and the Sabine within the boundary reserve, who, he declared, he was convinced had settled in this area in good faith. The Edwards brothers and their few friends tried in vain to secure support and raise recruits in Louisiana to renew the struggle. Dr. Sibley, the perennial friend of The Revolutionists on the frontier, expressed the general attitude that prevailed in Louisiana towards the Edwards rebellion. "There never was a more silly, wild, quicksotic [sic] scheme," he declared, "than that of Nacogdoches, and all sober honest thinking people here view it in the same light". 60 Tne col<»ry of Martzn de Leon. Martin de Leon had obtained in April, 1824, an informal grant to found a colony in Texas before the passage of a state colonization law. His interest was first aroused in 1823 during a cattle drive from his ranch in Ta.maulipas through South Texas to New Orleans. His contract, granted by the Provincial Deputa- tion of San Fernando de Bejar, did not specify either the number of families or the boundaries. The settlers were exempted from payment of duties for seven years on everything but tobacco, and from all excises, tithes and first fruits for ten years. By October of 1824 he and 12 Mexican families had located them- selves, their horses and cattle on the Guadalupe River, approximately one-fourth league from the Atascosito Road. Twenty-nine other families were to come from Tamaulipas, but they were delayed first by a drought and then by excessive rains. He was joined, instead, before the end of the year by 16 Anglo-American families, who had penetrated Texas in search of new homes. 61 After repeated requests Juan Antonio Padilla was appointed land commissioner to extend titles to the settlers and formally establish the town of Guadalupe Victoria (modem Victoria). Encouraged by his success, de Leon asked permission in 1829 to introduce 150 additional families and requested a definition of the boundaries of his colony. His dispute with DeWitt in 1826 had made him aware of this need. His petition was granted and the limits were described as beginning at the "Lavaca, near the crossing of the middle road leading from La '°This summary is based largely on the excellent account given by Barker in his Ufe of Stephen F. Austin, 195-202. 61Translations of Empresario Contracts (Ms.), I, 57-61, Texas Land Office; Mary Virginia Henderson, "Minor Empresario Contracts for the Colonization of Texas, 1825-1834," Tiu Q11arterl-y, XXXII, 1-6.
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