Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/603

 TEXAS

545

TEXAS

of this the exports were in value $220,491,365. The coast-wise commerce of the port is estimated at §200,000,000. Port .Artlmr, the port next in impor- tance to Galveston, had on 30 June, 1911, foreign exports for the year to the value of $23,981,681; the value of the imports was 8173,81.5. The domestic commerce of this port is said to be in excess of the foreign. The towns of Beaumont and Orange will soon share with Port Ai-thur in the commercial bene- fits of deep water, all three being connected by the Sabine Xeches Canal, now about to be deepened to 25 feet. Houston also is to share with Galveston by the completion of the ship-channel which connects the city with Galveston Bay. The securing of deep water at Aransas Pass will make Harbor Island an- other deep-water port. Velasco at the mouth of the Brazos River, and Point Isabel at the mouth of the Rio Grande, will yet be important ports for deep- sea commerce, al- though only begin- nings are now in evi- dence. The project of the Federal Gov- ernment to form an inland water-way from the west coast of Florida to the Rio Grande, skirting the Gulf Coast, through the protected bays where possible, has been already begun in one section in Texas, between the Brazos River am Matagorda Bay, through the main- land. Other chan- nels are being main- tained in various places while some of the rivers are utilized for navigation and projects for rendering them more navigable are being prosecuted. The value of Texas shipping, stpamships, and saihng vessels given by the comp- troller's department is S2,299,S50.

Eiiucntional System. — The pubhc educational sys- tem of Texas includes, under .State control, the Uni- versity of Texas at Austin, and its medical depart- ment at Galveston; the Agricultural and Mechanical College at College Station; four normal schools situated respectively at Huntsville, San Marcos, Denton, and Canyon; the College of Industrial Arts (for women) at Denton; the normal and industrial school for coloured youths at Prairie View, and the high schools and common schools in the various in- dependent and common school districts of the State. The intention expressed in the Constitution of the Republic of Texas of establishing a university, and the later endowment granted by the Congress to give it effect (1839), never attained fruition. In 1869 the new Constitution of the State again directed the establishment of a university and in acconlance with this mandate the Legislature (1871) refunded a prior endowment of SlOO.Oa) and added thereto 1,000,000 acres of land. In 1881 the main imiversity was located at Austin and the medical department at Galveston. The main university was opened in 1883 with an enrollment of 221 students. Not until 1S91 did the medical department receive its first students. The income of the university from its lands is about $170,000 yearly; the legislative appropriation for 1912 is $268,.545, in 1913 it will be $400,000. The institution has 49 professors, 43 instructors, 10 tutors, 10 fellows, .34 student assistants; the present enrolment in the main university at Aus- XIV.— Sa-

tin is 1777; in the medical department, Galveston, 285.

The .Agricultural and Mechanical College was opened in 1876 with Federal aid. Its present enrol- ment is 1126. The Legislative appropriation for its maintenance and that of other colleges is shown below.

1911 1 1912

Agricultural and Mechanical College

$ 96.750 '$368,350 33.000 51,000

33,000 68,600

33,000 92,000

27,500 59,945

College of Industrial .^rts

Prairie View Normal and Industrial College.

39,575 121,300 48,600 1910-11 1912-13

$161,430 '$155,540

Mission of San Fr.

The school prop- erty in independent school districts, in- cluding cities and towns, is valued at .S16,602,342, and in common school dis- tricts at 86,644,998. Enrolled in the scho- lastic census of the independent districts .are 368,303 children, in the common school districts are 623,106; in all 991,409 between the ages of 7 and 17, thescholastic age fixed by law. The total available fund for the current year from all sources for the educa- tion of these children is 813,351,121.

Political His- tory. — Early in the sixteenth century Spanish explcjrers along the Gulf Coast and in the interior of the territory had gained a knowledge of Texas, among the first being Aloiizo Alvarez de Pineda. Alvar Nunez, better known as Ca- vezadeVaco,unmi.stakably investigated the Gulf shore from Florida to Mexico before 1530, and had even traversed Texas from the coast probably near Gal- veston to a point in the vicinity of El Paso. There is evidence to show that Coronado, in his memorable northern expedition from Mexico, 1.540, travelled near San Elisario and entered the pueblo of the Tig\as, afterwards called Ysleta, where a church was built. A church still exists on what is said to be the site of that built under the eye of Coronado. Spain's knowledge of this country, however, had no result towards its occupation before the landing of La Salle in 1685. Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who had sailed down the ^lississippi to its mouth in 1682, was returning from France in 1685 prepared to found a colony on the banks of the "Father of Waters" and hold the great river for France; because of an error in his estimate of the latitude of its mouth he passed the mighty stream, and sweeping along the Gulf Coast landed in Matagorda Bay in Texas, which he named the Bay of St. Bernard. In this neighbourhood he attempted to found a colony and called the place Fort St. Louis. From it he made expeditions to discover the position of his confrere de Tonti, who had been left in charge of a colony near the mouth of the Illinois River. On one of these La Salle was slain by one of his own followers, an enemy of his nephew, Duhaut. His faithful friend and comp.anion. Father Anastase Douay, buried in Texas soil the body of this intrepid and enterprising explorer.