To his Excellency the Governor of the State of Coahuila and Texas .

Citizen Stephen F. Austin, most respectfully represents to Your Excellency, that he has been solicited by several of the inhabitants of Bexar, to settle some families on the borders of the River Colorado, at the place where that river is crossed by the road leading from Bexar to Nacogdoches, in order to found a town, at the above- mentioned crossing, with a view not only to afford the necessary facilities to the travellers of that road, but also to penetrate with the new settlements, further into the interior of the country, towards the Savage Tribes, but as this road is the Northern boundary of the Colony, I have already contracted, and as the best site for the settlement of the Town, is on the Eastern bank of the river Colorado, above the said road, and beyond the limits of any colonization contract, I am unable to effect the settlement proposed, without entering into a new contract, with the Government, for the purpose, and believing that the Settlement of said Town, will be highly beneficial affording facilities for travelling, and to the mails and Troops, frequently passing from Bexar and Nacodoches, and also prevent in some degree the incursions of the Indians, who are continually harassing the neighborhoods of Bexar, La Bahia, and the new Settlements, and infest the roads, I have considered it my duty, in order to promote the welfare and progress of that section of the State, to lay the matter before your Excellency, and recommend the establishment of the before-mentioned town, offering on my part, to discharge all the duties of Empresario, in effecting the same, and to settle in the vicinity of the town proposed, the lands which may not be within the limits of any Colonization Contract; provided the favors and privileges allowed to Empresarios are granted to me, and also that one of the stipulations of the Contract is, that each Colonist is to pay the sum of Thirty Dollars, for my services, in attending to their business, and making the translations to the completion of the title to their lands, by the Commissioner guaranteeing the contracts made between the Colonists and myself, I offer to settle One hundred families in this new Colony, but upon the conditions, that should there not be a sufficiency of land, within the limits assigned for the said new colony, to locate them in conformity with the law in the case; Your Excellency will permit me to complete to them the quantity deficient, within the limits of the colony which I have already contracted with the Government of this State

Saltillo, Octr. 11, 1827.

Stephen F. Austin