Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/17

Rh unexplored wilderness. During the American Revolution, of which the 4th of July is the memorial day, the Spanish possessions of Mexico and Texas remained in quiet. Texas was safe from danger; her harbors were almost unknown; her property offered no temptation to pillage, and her scattered population could afford no recruits. The Spanish settlement at Natchez had opened a trade with Texas through Nacogdoches. This road had become familiar to many besides the Spaniards. Traders on their return would make reports to the Americans in and around Natchez, of the advantages of trade in Texas, the surpassing beauty and richness of the country, the abundance of game, and the numerous other attractions to adventurers. Thus, about the beginning of the present century, the tide of trade and travel began to take the direction of this new country. The town of Nacogdoches soon became a place of much importance; many persons of wealth and education emigrated from Louisiana to that place. The old missionary station became a town; arsenal, barracks, and substantial buildings, some of which are still standing, were erected. And, although the Spaniards held the country for upwards of one hundred and fifty years, little now exists in Texas to remind us of their rule, except the names which they gave to many towns and rivers. In 1810 to 1812 there was a military expedition, composed of American volunteers, intended to aid Mexico in its revolt from Spain. This expedition proceeded as far as San Antonio River. Parties passed to and fro from this expedition for more than two years. The founder of the town of Washington on the Brazos, Capt. Jack Hall, was one of the expedition. It is now generally believed that all that part of Texas known in common parlance as the white settlements, was thoroughly explored by American adventurers previous to Austin's colonial enterprise. Although Mexico was still under the sway of Spain, Moses Austin, a native of Connecticut, for a while a resident in Virginia, then a citizen of Missouri, succeeded, after various rebuffs and adverse courses of action, in concluding a proposition with Don Antonio Martinez, Governor of the province of Texas, for the settlement of three hundred families within the limits of Texas. The Governor had treated Moses Austin, at San Antonio de Bexar, very ungraciously, and even ordered him to leave the province without delay. He retired from the government house resolved to leave San Antonio de Bexar within the hour. As he crossed the plaza he accidentally met a gentleman with whom, many years before, he spent a night at a country tavern in one of the Southern States. This gentleman was the Baron de Bastrop. When together, they had conversed freely, and had thus acquired some knowledge of each other, both being men of enterprise and of much experience. Now, when they