Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/18

 met on the plaza, their recognition was instant. The Baron invited Moses Austin to his house, where the latter, in a few words, explained to him the object of his visit to San Antonio, and informed him of his interview with the Governor and of its consequences. The Baron entered immediately into the spirit of the enterprise, waited on the Governor, informed him that Austin was his friend, and enlisted the aid of influential citizens. At the end of a week the objections of the Governor were removed, and a promise secured to recommend Austin's proposition to the favorable consideration of the Commandant General, Don Joaquin Arredondo, and the Provincial Deputation of the Eastern Internal Provinces, holding sessions at Monterey, and sharing with the Commandant General the government of the Eastern Provinces of New Spain. These efforts proved successful. Shortly after his return to Missouri he had the pleasure of hearing officially from Governor Martinez, that his propositions had been favorably received at Monterey, and that he was at liberty to commence his settlement in Texas immediately. He commenced preparations to return to Texas, giving notice to all who wished to accompany him, to m.eet him in Nachitoches, La., in the latter part of May, 1821, and proceed with him on his way to the Brazos and Colorado. But he was taken sick about the first of June, at the house of his daughter, Mrs. James Bryan, well known in Texas as Mrs. James F. Perry, and died in his daughter's arms, on the 10th of June, 1821, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. His family consisted at this time of his wife, who survived him about three years, of his daughter, Mrs. Bryan, already named, of his son, Stephen F., then in New Orleans, and of a younger son, James Brown Austin, then at school in Kentucky, and afterward well known in Texas. On his death-bed, Moses Austin declared it to be his earnest desire that his son, Stephen F. Austin, should endeavor to have himself recognized by the Spanish authorities in Texas, as his representative, and that he should carry forward the enterprise of colonization. The son undertook the great and noble work of carrying out his father's plans. He was born in Virginia, had been well educated, and had served with Hon. Thomas H. Benton in the Territorial Legislature of Missouri. With the first Anglo-American settlers he arrived on Brazos River, December, 1821. He camped with his party on a small creek, near the present town of Brenham, on the first day of January, 1822, and from that circumstance called the creek New Year's, a name it bears at this time. He explored the country watered by the Guadalupe, Colorado, and Brazos Rivers, and laid out the town of San Felipe de Austin, on the Brazos. He did not succeed in getting