Brassos River Province of Texas.
January 20th. 1824
Most Excellent Sir
Having left the City of Mexico before the arrival of your
Excellency it was out of my power to present myself in person and
explain to your Excellency as I wished to do, the motives which
induced me and those who have accompanied me to become
inhabitants of this Nation; And as my own future welfare and that of
my family, as well as the prosperity of the new Colony which I am
establishing in this Province will entirely depend on the protection
and favourable opinion which the Government of our Adoption may
be pleased to extend to us, I hope it will not be deemed an intrusion
if I now take the liberty of introducing myself to your Excellency
and of Supplicating the good opinion and protection of Your
Excellency and of the Supreme Executive Power towards the Infant
Establishment which after a series of difficulties, heavy expences and
constant labor for three years past I have finally Succeeded in
forming in the heretofore unsettled deserts of this Province—
As Your Excellency entered upon the high duties of Minister of
Relations subsequent to the period when my business was finally
completed in that Department by His Excellency Don Jose Ignacio
Illueca on the 14th. of April 1823 it may not be superfluous succinctly
to recapitulate a short history of its Origin and progress up to this
time referring Your Excellency to the Official Documents on file in
that Ministry to Confirm my Statement.
My late Father Moses Austin a native of the State of Connecticut
in the United States became a citizen of Louisiana and of the
Spanish Nation in the year 1798 and enjoyed the confidence and
protection of that Government until the Cession of that Province to
the United States. Urged by the advice of his friends and yielding
to the Solicitude of many of his neighbours who wished to obtain
permission to establish themselves in this Province he visited the
Capital of San Fernando de Bexar in the month of December 1820
and made application through the local authorities of this Province
to the Superior Government for permission to settle 300 families in
this Province, which was granted by the Superior authorities of the
Oriental Internal Provinces , and the corresponding orders for
carrying it into effect were issued on the 17th January 1821—In
compliance with these Orders the then governor of this Province
Brigadier Don Antonio Martinez (at present a resident in the City
of Mexico) dispatched Don Erasmo Seguin (at present a deputy
in Cortes from this Province) to Nachitoches to meet my Father
and conduct him and the families that were to accompany him
to the place of their destination in this Province.—Unfortunately
my Father fell a victim to the uncommon fatigues of his first journey
to Bexar, and died shortly after his return to his Family, of an
Inflammation in the breast occasioned by exposure in an Inclement
Season in the extensive wilderness between Nachitoches and Bexar—
Immediately after this melancholy event I hastened to meet my much
esteemed and Honorable Friend Don Erasmo Seguin at Nachitoches
and accompanied him to Bexar where I received from Governor
Martinez the necessary instruction relative to the Contemplated
Colony; I then returned to Louisiana, and in the month of December
1821 removed the first families and commenced the Settlement, and
then hastened to Bexar to receive the further instructions of the
Government-— On my arrival at that place I was advised by the
Governor and my other Friends to proceed direct to Mexico and
lay the subject before the Sovereign Congress and receive from that
Source the authority to make the Titles to the Settlers for their
Lands— I accordingly departed for Mexico and arrived in that
City in April 1822
Shortly after my arrival the political convulsions which existed
during the short reign of Iturbide commenced, which delayed any
decision on my business untill the 18th of February 1823, when I
received the final Decree of the Emperor bearing date on that day,
the original of which is on file in the Ministry of Relations— Not
wishing to leave Mexico after having spent so much time and
money, with even a shadow of doubt remaining as to the validity
of my Authority I awaited the event of the revolution in favour
of liberal principles, and after the fall of Iturbide I presented to
the Sovereign Constituyent Congress the Decree which I had received
from the Imperial Government praying for a Confirmation of it
by Congress And on the 10th of April 1823 that Body unanimously
approved it, passing it to the Supreme Executive Power for their
Approbation, which was given on the 14th. of April same year,
And I immediately after departed from Mexico for this Province.
On my arrival in the Colony which I had commenced nearly two
years before I found that most of the Emigrants discouraged by
my long absence and the uncertainty in which they had been for
such a length of time had returned to the United States, and that
the few who remained hard pressed and harrassed on every side
by hostile Indians and threatened with the horrors of famine in
consequence of the drougth were on the eve of breaking up and
leaving the Province. Encouraged however by my return we
persevered through the Complicated and appalling difficulties which
surrounded us on every side untill the new Crops yielded us Bread.
Since my arrival I Have been most industriously laboring in
Conjunction with the Baron de Bastrop the Commissioner appointed by
the Government of this Province in Conformity with the decree
above mentioned, in completing the affairs of the Colony and
hope to make a finish of them in a few months more tho' owing
to the many unfavourable reports propagated by those who returned
and my delay in Mexico many of the families who originally
intended to remove have not come which has produced some delay in
Completing the 300 families which I am permitted to settle in this
Colony.
The Superior Government in the Decree above alluded to, gave me
authority to administer justice, and preserve good order in the
colony untill its Organization was Completed— This part of
my duty has been attended with many embarrassments owing
to the absolute want of copies of the laws and forms— I Have
however in every instance Conformed to the laws of this Nation
where I could ascertain them, and where I could not, or where they
did not apply to the cases arising of our peculiar situation, necessity
has compelled me to adopt provisional and temporary regulations
which are only entended to operate untill the laws can be procured
and translated into the English Language—
The Situation I am placed in near the Frontiers of two Nations,
and surrounded on every side by hostile Indians and exposed to
their attacks and to the no less vexatious pilfering and robbing of
Those Tribes who profess friendship but steal whenever an occasion
presents, renders my task peculiarly laborious and difficult and
requires a most severe and efficient police to keep out and punish
fugitives and vagabonds from both nations, And I have experienced
some difficulty on this subject owing to the want of more full and
ample authority relative to the Punishment of Crimes— The
Commanding General of Monterrey ordered me by his Decree bearing
date the 16th day of June last to condemn Criminals to hard labour
on public works untill the superior Government should decide on
their cases and to punish them in no other way. But a difficulty
arises in executing this Order— We are from 40 to 50 leagues from
Bexar, and have no jail, no Troops to guard Prisoners, and a
Condemnation to hard labour without an adequate guard to enforce the
Decree is only to exasperate a Criminal, make him laugh at the
laws and civil Authorities and turn him loose on Society to
Commit new depreciations, for nothing has a more disorganizing
effect than a weak and inefficient administration of the laws, as it
discourages and disgusts the Good and well disposed and Emboldens
evil men and renders them arrogant and audacious— I Have
therefore in some cases been driven to the painful alternative of either
permitting a Criminal to escape unpunished or of taking upon
myself the responsibility of inflicting corporal punishment
If those difficulties could be removed by vesting authority in some
tribunal here to punish by Corporal punishment, and in case of
foreigners, banishment from the Province I think it would greatly
tend to the harmony and good order of this part of the Province
I Have made it a rule not to admit any settler who does not
produce the most unequivocal evidence of good moral character and
industrious habits, and I will vouch for those received by me that
they will not prove undutiful nor ungrateful Citizens and Subjects
of the Nation which has so kindly received them— As a proof of
our readiness to aid so far as we are able towards the support of
the Government we have notwithstanding the Infant state of Our
Settlement impoverished as it is by the difficulties we have had to
encounter voluntarily contributed upwards of 500 fanegas of Corn
towards paying the Expences of the Deputy in Congress and other
necessities of this Province.
Before I left Mexico I presented a Petition to Congress praying
to be admitted to the rights of Citizenship of this Nation, but I
never heard whether it was acted on or not— I expect to spend my
Life in this Nation, and if the new Constitution does not declare
all persons actually established in the Nation at the time of its
adoption, Citizens, (as I presume it will) or if the Grant made to
my Father to settle in this Province, previous to the Independence,
and my own removal in the first year thereof will not entitle me to
the rights of Citizenship. I should wish if deemed worthy of that
honor to procure Letters of Citizenship
I hope that Your Excellency will pardon me for troubling you
with so long a Letter, but as I before observed the future fate of
myself and followers must depend on the good opinion and
protection which the Government of our adoption may be pleased to
extend to us, And as settlers of the Colony look to me as their organ
of Communication with the Governor I have deemed it my duty
to explain our Situation and progress up to this time— It is also
of the utmost importance to me individually that the Government
should know me as I really am, for I have spent all I am worth on
this enterprize— I have labored most faithfully for near three
years in those unsettled deserts exposed to every danger and
hardship and fatigue; My whole future prospects and what is dearer
to me still, my name and Character depend on the Success of my
Arduous Undertaking, and I need not Comment on the great benefits
which will result to this Province from my labours in furnishing
force to aid in repelling the hostile Indians, resources to support
the Government, and Agriculturists and Mechanics to bring into
active operation the occult advantages and riches of this heretofore
deserted and uninhabited portion of the great Mexican Nation;
And in the increased value which my Colony will give to the public
lands in its neighborhood in the event of those Lands being sold for
the use of the Government, and the facilities it will afford in forming
the new Settlements— The wisdom of Your Excellency will discover
all these things; neither need I recapitulate the extent of our
sufferings and losses in forming a settlement in a wilderness nor
the vast expence and difficulty which I as the head of the first Colony
which has been attempted by foreigners in this Province, have
undergone, as they must also be evident to the superior
penetration of Your Excellency— I then close this long letter with the
prayer that Your Excellency will be pleased to take this first
effort of Colonization within the Mexican nation since its glorious
Emancipation, under your protection and patronage, and that you
will have the goodness to assure the Supreme Executive Power
of our good disposition towards the Government of our adoption,
and that we are at all times ready and willing to aid all in
our power in defending the Independence and Liberty of the
Mexican Nation— With Considerations of the highest Respect— I
Have the Honor to be
Your Excellencys Most Obedt. and Humble Servant
Estevan F. Austin [Rubric]
To His Excellency Don Lucas Alaman
Minister of Exterior and Interior Relations, etc., etc.