Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 850 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
731
of Seguin is named), an influential citizen of Bexar,
to the United States as a special commissioner for
the purpose of communicating to Mr. Austin the
result of his application, and of conducting the
proposed immigrants into the country in a legal
manner. Hearing of the arrival of the commissioner
at Nachitoches, Stephen F. Austin hastened from
New Orleans to that point, and soon after reaching
it, learned for the first time of his father's death.
Thus, in the twenty-eighth year of his age, the
son, unknown, with limited means, with a heart
crushed by a sore affliction, found resting upon him
the weighty responsibility of an enterprise which
nothing but the resources and influence of a powerful
government seemed adequate to carry to a
successful issue. Was he fitted for the task? Let
the testimony of that sturdy band which followed
him into the wilderness reply. Did he meet his
responsibilities in full? History has answered that
question by inscribing upon its immortal pages as the
unanimous verdict of his compeers: "Stephen F.
Austin was the father of Texas." He who was to
be the founder of a great State was no mere adventurer,
with rude manners and uneducated mind. On
the contrary, he was cultivated and polished to a
degree rarely seen in the Southwest in those days.
When but eleven years old his father placed him at
one of the best academies in Connecticut to be prepared
for college; and in his fifteenth year he was
duly matriculated as a student in Transylvania
University, Lexington, Ky., an institution then of
high reputation. Here he remained for several
years and was distinguished among his fellowstudents
for his gentlemanly deportment, application
and progress in studies. The next we hear of
young Austin is in the year 1813, when we find
him, at the age of twenty, representing Washington
County in the Territorial Legislature of Missouri
(where he met Thomas H. Benton, whose friendship
he retained through life), a position to which he was
regularly returned until 1819, when he left the territory
to open a farm at Long Prairie. He resided
in the territory of Arkansas the greater portion of
the years 1819-20, and while there was honored
with the appointment of Circuit Judge. Thus he
was unconsciously being prepared by a special
training for the great work, which, all unknown to
him, the future had in store.
Having resolved to accept the important trust
which his dying father had bequeathed him, Austin,
with seventeen companions, and accompanied by
the Spanish Commissioner, set out on horseback
for Bexar, where they arrived August 10, 1821. He
was duly recognized as the legal representative of
his father by the Governor, Don Antoino Martinez,who received him most cordially. With the Governor's
permission he explored a large section of
country on the lower Guadalupe, Colorado and
Brazos rivers, and determined to locate his colony
between the last two rivers. At the suggestion of
the Governor, Austin now drew up the following
plan for the distribution of land among the settlers:
Each head of a family, and each single man, over
age, was to receive 640 acres, 320 acres in addition
for the wife, should there be one, and 80 acres additional
for each slave. This plan was approved by
Governor Martinez, who commissioned Austin to
take absolute control of the local government of
the colony.
Austin now returned to New Orleans, and addressed
himself earnestly to the work of procuring
colonists. Advertisements widely scattered made
the public acquainted with his project and attracted
universal attention.
Applications to join the colony came in rapidly,
but how was Austin, broken in fortune, to procure
the means of transportation ? Among the influential
citizens of New Orleans was Joseph Hawkins, a
lawyer, who came forward promptly and advanced
the greater part of the needed funds for fitting out
a vessel. He had confidence in the success of the
enterprise because he had confidence in its head.
Many years before the two men had been classmates
and fast friends at Transylvania University,
and the friendship then formed endured through
life. With the generous assistance of Hawkins a
small schooner, the " Lively," was dispatched in
November for Matagorda Bay. She had on board
eighteen men and the provisions, arms, ammunition,
farming implements, etc., necessary for the establishment
of an outpost in a new and savage country.
But, as if some evil influence hovered around the
fatal shores of the bay where perished, in 1698, the
ill-starred colony of La Salle, the "Lively " failed to
reach her destination, and was never heard of more.
Another cargo sent by Hawkins, in 1822, was
*landed on the beach at the mouth of the Colorado,
were it was plundered by the Carancahua Indians,
and four men murdered. In the meantime, however,
Austin had arrived by land on the Brazos, in
the last days of December, 1821, with the first immigrants,
and the new settlement was begun in what
was then an entire wilderness. Accessions to the
body of colonists followed; the seed of a new civilization
was newly planted, and notwithstanding its
many mishaps, the settlement began to wear a thrifty
aspect. It had been a terrible struggle, though, with
the colonists. They suffered great privations, were
without bread and salt, and were forced to subsist
on wild game and wild horses, the latter the best
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/850/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.