272
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1831-1832
1 R. B. Blake, Transc,·ivts of Documents from, Records of the District Court c,f Nacogdoches County, concerning Jmlivicluals Who Particivated in the Texas Revolut.ion, 1896, II, 92, The University of Texas Library. The orig- inal document from which the Nacogdoches Court copy was evidently made may be found in the "Application Book for Austin's Colony," 763, S7ianish Archives, General Land Office of Texas. Both of these sources have enclosed the field notes of the survey, and are dated January 9, 1833. ~It seems that Houston applied for and received two headrights of land, this one noted above in Austin's Colony, and another on April 21, 1835, in David G. Burnet's Colony. While he reports himself as a married man in his application for land in Austin's Colony, he says he has come sin familia in his application for headright in Burnet's Colony. But in an affidavit filed in the District Court of Nacogdoches County, June 14, 1849, Houston declared that this land in Austin's Colony was not a grant but a purchase of land "for the sum of Three Hundred and Seventy-five Dollars; •.. that he never was a resident in Said Austin's Colony, nor did he intend to become one, and that he understood at the time of receiving said grant from the said Stephn F. Austin, that he was obtaining it as a purchase." See Blake, Nacogdoches Transcrivts, II, 107, The University of Texas Library. Also see Houston's application for a headright in Burnet's Colony, April 21, 1835. 1833 To HENRY L. ELLSWORTH AND OTHERS 1 Natchitoches, Louisiana, February 13, 1833. TO INDIAN COMMISSIONERS AT FORT GIBSON GENTLEJ\IBN~: It was my intention to have visited Fort Gibson, and to have reported to you my success, so far as it was connected with the Camanche Indians; but at this season, as I may expect a great rise in the waters, and the range for horses on th.e direct route is too scarce to afford subsistence, I will con- tent myself with reporting to you the prospects, as they are presented to me, of a future peace. Since my report from Fort Towson, I proceeded through Texas as far as Bexar, where I had the good fortune to meet with some chiefs of that nation, who promised to visit the commissioners in three moons from that time. This will make it the month of April before they will be enabled to set out for Fort Gibson, and perhaps defer their arrival at that point until the month of May next. I found them well disposed to make a treaty with the United States, and, I doubt not, to regard it truly and preserve it faith- fully if made 3 • It was necessary for them to return to their people, and counsel before they could send a delegation. I re- quested that they should endeavor to see both tribes of the Ca- manches, as well as the Pawnees and their bands, that when a
Powered by FlippingBook