Page:John O. Meusebach - Answer to Interragatories.djvu/31

 If there was no express written agreement, was there or not any understanding, and if so, what was it?

Were the terms, conditions and inducements made by the said Company generally known by the emigrants before their emigration, or on arriving in Texas, or when?

If so, what were the terms, conditions and inducements, and how were they proclaimed or made known?

Annex any written or private testimony in your possession relating to these subjects, as your answer.

—Yes, I know something about the matter. I take statement from White's brief, page 4, which is correct:

"Whenever a party was willing to become an emigrant a contract was concluded with him and was signed and executed by the contracting parties in Germany, stipulating for the quantity of land he was to receive upon his arrival at the colony lands in Texas, and also the duties he was to perform as a colonist."

I add, as requested, one printed copy of the original contract. Before I started from Europe, in February, 1845, I objected to the form of the contracts, and I repeated my objections in my first reports from Texas. I told them that the contracts did not state the truth. That I could see no reason why to deviate from it, except perhaps the pride to appear in the eyes of the emigrants as donors in place of simple contractors only. That it may perhaps be a source of trouble afterwards, when it was necessary to prove to the government of Texas that a transfer of half the land allowed to each family or each single man by the Republic of Texas was really made to the Company, as it was their right to