Fureign Colonizati011 of Texas, 1820-1835
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Bahia to Nacogdoches; thence one league up the Lavaca; thence along a line parallel to the road to Lego Crossing on the Guadalupe continuing to Coleto Creek; thence down Coleto Creek to the juncture with the Guadalupe." But in 1830 DeWitt vigorously protested when de Leon attempted to remove by force 25 families established by DeWitt. The Governor had to admit that the extension of the limits of de Leon's colony was an encroachment on DeWitt's contract and declared it void. 62 After the Government refused to extend or renew DeWitt's contract, which expired in 1831, de Leon was free to occupy the vacant lands in the former empresario's grant. He and his colonists naturally resented encirclement by Anglo settlers. The indefinite nature of their grant and the preference givn to Mexicans by the law constantly afforded de Leon and his colonists opportunities to attempt to widen the area they claimed. When in 1828 James Power and James Hewetson obtained a contract to establish a colony south of de Leon's, he and the Ayunta- 1nie11,to of Goliad immediately petitioned an annulment. To this the Governor replied "neither law, reason, nor decorum" could justify the executive in annulling the contract made with Power and Hewetson "merely to gratify the wishes" of de Leon and the Ayuntamienu, of Goliad. 63 Manuel de Mier y Teran, commander and inspector general of the eastern states and boundary commissioner for Texas, pointed out, however, that the grants made to Power and Hewetson and to de Leon lay within the ten coast-leagues, and consequently the matter was for the Central Government to decide. In May of 1832 the Federal Government ruled that the de Leon colonists were to be confirmed in possession of their property, provided they had been the first to occupy the land. Although the truculent Mexican empresario fell a victim to the terrible cholera epidemic that decimated many of the settlements of Texas in 1833, his colony continued to grow. The Land Commissioner issued more than 100 titles to settlers in de Leon's colony by July, 1835. Since his original contract appears to have called for only 41 families and the establishment of a town, it may be said that de Leon fully complied with his obligations. The town of Victoria, Texas, "remains today a tribute to the work of this Mexican empresario . . the only one who fulfilled his contract completely."" The settlement of Pect1ti Poi1it. The area on Red River known as 62 1bid., 67-70, 75. 63Translation of Empresario Contracts, 72, Tezas Land Offic1. "Henderson, "Minor Empresario Contracts ...," Tiu QuartnlJ, X.XXII, 9-10.
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