Page:The Story of Mexico.djvu/337

Rh southwestern pioneer, applied to the Mexican Commandant-General in Monterey in 1820 for permission to colonize three hundred families in Texas. Without waiting for his answer, he set out towards the Sabine River, was robbed and abandoned in that deserted waste, and died of the disease he caught by exposure soon after finding his way back to Louisiana. The grant was made, and given to his son, who had it confirmed in the city of Mexico, and it was he who founded the colony which has since become the capital of Texas, named Austin after him. More grants of land were willingly made by the Mexican government, who thought well of encouraging settlers as protectors against the savage hordes that infested the northern part of their country; and colonization went on, chiefly by people of the United States, until these emigrants to Texas far outnumbered the Mexicans. The difference of race and education was strongly marked between these sturdy settlers of Anglo-Saxon origin, and the chance stragglers from Mexico, not the best specimens of the Latin race. This population had no sympathy with the pronunciamentos and jealousies of the capital, and the result, as we have seen, was a revolt against Mexican rule in 1835, in consequence of the acts of the Federal government.

Santa Anna hastened to the scene with his army, but the rebellious forces, under the brilliant command of "Sam" Houston, General, Governor, and afterward President, were everywhere triumphant, and Texas declared herself an independent Republic, which maintained its separate existence between