The first grant from the Mexican
Government to found an American colony in Texas, was dated on
the 17th of January, 1821. This grant was given to Moses
Austin, a native of Connecticut, and the father of the
distinguished Col. Stephen F. Austin. The father dying
suddenly, the son undertook the great and benevolent work of
carrying out his father's plans. He accordingly explored the
country watered by the Guadalupe, Colorado and Brazos rivers,
and laid out the town of San Felipe de Austin, on the Brazos.
The news of Austin's colony had spread over the western
country, and there were many adventurers who were anxious to
join him; so that the number of colonists came on faster than
provision could be made for their support. The first settlers
were often reduced to the necessity of living entirely on wild
game, and clothing themselves with skins. They also suffered
greatly for several years from the Carankaw Indians. In the
year 1813, one of the colonists gives us the following account
of their sufferings:
"Those of us who have no families,
live with families of the settlement. A part of us are obliged
to go out in the morning to hunt food, leaving a part of the
men behind to protect the women, and children from the
Indians.--Game is now so scarce that we often hunt a whole day
for a deer or turkey, and return at night empty-handed. It
would make your heart sick to see the poor little half-naked
children, who have eaten nothing during the day, watch for the
return of the hunters at night. As soon as they catch the
first glimpse of them, they eagerly run out to meet them, and
learn if they have found any game. If the hunters return with
a deer or turkey, the children are wild with delight. But if
they return without food, the little creatures suddenly stop
in their course, and the big tears start and roll down their
pale cheeks."
These were hard times for the young
colony. But they were engaged in a great and good work, and
met and over-came all difficulties with manly firmness. The
common dress of the people was buckskin ; and occasionally a
strolling peddler would penetrate into the wilderness with a
piece of domestic or calico, which was deemed of as much
elegance as silk or satin is among us.
Soon after the establishment of Austin's
colony, many other colonies were founded in different parts of
the country. The settlement at Victoria was begun in 1825. The
town of Gonzales was laid off about the same time. In 1828,
Col. Austin obtained another contract to colonize three
hundred families on lands near the Gulf. Texas had now become
the great point of attraction to thousands of adventurers from
all parts of the United States. Men of desperate fortunes and
of roving habits, speculators in land, broken-down
politicians, refugees from justice, as well as multitudes of a
better class, who were desirous of finding new homes for their
growing families, and fresh lands for their increasing slaves,
swelled the tide of Texas immigration. This tide, rolling down
from the northern and westeru States, at last excited the
jealousy of the Mexican Government, and finally brought on a
war with Mexico, which ended in the independence of Texas.
