thorities of Old Spain. He was advised to apply to the authorities of New Spain, and in 1820 set out for Bexar to do so. The story is related that Governor Martinez, to whom he applied, treated him as an intruder, bade him quit the province, and that he was actually on his way out when he fell in with the Baron de Bastrop, whose name is forever associated with that of Aaron Burr. Bastrop, it is certain, took up his cause, explained his purposes to the Governor, and obtained leave to draw up a memorial asking permission to colonize three hundred American families in the northeastern inland provinces. While the paper was on its way to the Commandant-General Don Joaquin Arredondo at Monterey, Austin started back to the United States. But between Bexar and the Sabine he was robbed and left to find his way as best he could to the Louisiana settlements. The exposure and suffering were too much for him, and in June, 1821, he died, laying a solemn injunction on his son, Stephen F. Austin, to go on with the scheme.

The injunction, it is needless to say, was obeyed; indeed, no sooner was the father buried than the son hastened to San Antonio, conferred with the Governor, selected his tract, and drew up the plan for distribution of the land among the settlers. The tract selected stretched along the coast from Galveston Bay to Matagorda Bay, and ran inland to the great highway connecting Nacogdoches and Bexar.

The terms of the grant required four things. Three hundred families must be brought in from Louisiana; each settler must be a Roman Catholic or become so before he put foot on the soil of Texas; must give evidence of good character and good habits; must take the oath of allegiance to the King of Spain, and swear to uphold the government and constitution of the Spanish monarchy. All who came on those conditions were to be assigned tracts of lands proportionate to the size of the family, and were to pay twelve and a half

To find settlers ready to go on such terms was an easy

* Each man, 640 acres; a wife, 320 acres; each child, 160 acres ; for each slave the owner was to have 80 acres.

1821.

AUSTIN IN TEXAS.

9

matter, and in November, 1821, the schooner Lively, with eighteen emigrants, sailed for Matagorda Bay, while Austin with fourteen more went on by land to the Brazos, down which he hurried to the coast to meet the Lively. But

of the schooner and her company no tidings of any kind ever reached him. For three months he waited and searched the coast, and then in despair went on to San Antonio to report his loss to the Governor.

It was March, 1822, when Austin reached the city and heard with amazement that Mexico was in rebellion against Spain. In 1816, when Apodaca succeeded Calleja as Viceroy of Mexico, he found the Republicans dispersed but far from conquered, and, in the hope of winning them back, adopted a mild policy of forgiveness. This proved successful. Leader after leader threw down his arms, till between Mexico city and Acapulco there was but one band of Republicans under arms. Their stronghold was a mountain on the road between the two cities, and was most difficult of access; their leaders were Guerrero, Asensio, and Bradburn, a native of Virginia, who had gone to Mexico with Mina, and their number about fifteen hundred.

In the hope of overcoming this last remnant of the Republicans, the viceroy appointed Augustine Iturbide to the command of the Department of the South, gave him some three thousand troops, sent him to Iguala, on the road to Acapulco, and bade him disperse the rebels. But before Iturbide had time to act news came of the revolution in Old Spain, of the re-establishment of the constitution, and of the introduction of reforms which aroused and alarmed the clergy. A cry for independence of the mother country was immediately raised, which Iturbide was not slow to turn to his own profit, and from his camp at Iguala he issued his pronunciamento in February, 1821. This famous plan proposed that Mexico should be turned into a limited constitutional monarchy; that the Crown should be offered to each member (if necessary) of the Bourbon family, beginning with Ferdinand Seventh; and that, if all refused it, the Mexican Cortes should select the king. A field-marshal with an army was at once sent against Iturbide. But the clergy, the soldiers, the

whole people were behind him, and in four months' time Mexico was in their hands and Apodaca in prison. Hardly had these events happened when Lieutenant-General Don Juan O'Donojú, sent out by the reformed government of Spain, landed at Vera Cruz, approved what Iturbide had done, requested an interview, met him, and, on August twenty-fourth, signed and published the treaty of Cordova. Till Spain could act, a regency of six persons, with Iturbide president, was to administer government; and until a congress could assemble a junta of five persons was to act as a legislature. As Spain refused to ratify the treaty of Cordova, Mexico became free and independent.

The first Congress under the new order of things assembled on February twenty-fourth, 1822, and was already well on in a quarrel with Iturbide when Austin arrived at San Antonio and was told by the Governor that he must obtain a confirmation of his grant by the Congress. The prospect of success was poor; but he proceeded to Mexico, where he found Hayden Edwards, Robert Lefwitch, Green Dewitt, three Cherokee chiefs-Bolles, Fuldo, and Nicollet-and General James Wilkinson, each seeking a contract or a grant of land in Texas. So many applicants gave the matter much importance, and it was referred by the Congress to a committee who brought in a general colonization law, which was about to pass when, one morning in October, Iturbide perpetrated a political crime worthy of Charles and Cromwell.

Iturbide had long been quarrelling with the Congress and with the regency, and one night in May, when all was in readiness, the soldiers and the rabble, excited by his agents and headed by corporals and sergeants, filled the streets of Mexico and proclaimed him Emperor. It was a night of violence, of uproar, and of terror. The seven hundred bells of the city pealed from every convent, church, and monastery. Musketry and cannon were fired from the barracks, while the shouts of the mob announced to the startled people that the fate of Mexico was settled. When morning came the man thus proclaimed in darkness and in tumult by a rabble was duly decreed Emperor of Mexico by the Congress sitting in its hall surrounded by bayonets. Iturbide, who thenceforth

1823.

ITURBIDE BECOMES EMPEROR.

11

called himself Augustine the First, having no further use for the Congress, determined to dismiss it, and accordingly, just after the members had assembled on the morning of October the thirtieth, General Cortazar entered the hall, read the imperial order dissolving Congress, and announced that if the members did not leave within ten minutes he would be compelled, in obedience to orders, to drive them from the building. The president directed the order to be spread on the journal, called on Cortazar to sign it, and, when the general had done so, the members retired.* The Emperor Augustine at once organized a Junta of thirty-five members named by himself, and by this body was enacted, in January, 1823, the first law for the colonization of Texas. It began with a repeal of the royal order of Philip Second for the extermination of foreigners; guaranteed them liberty, security of property and civil rights, provided they professed the Roman Catholic religion; promised each farmer not less than one labor, and each stock-raiser not less than one league of land; and freed them for six years from the payment of all taxes, duties, and tithes. Settlers could come individually or as members of an empresario, or contractor's company.

Under this law the contract of Austin was formally approved in February, 1823, and he was about to return to his colony when another revolution swept the Emperor from his throne and restored the republic.

During all these many revolts, uprisings, and revolutions the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa had remained in the hands of Spain. Iturbide had attempted to secure the surrender of the castle by treaty, and had gone to Jalapa for this purpose, when a quarrel arose between Santa Anna, who commanded the city of Vera Cruz, and General Echavani, who commanded both the city and the southern division of the empire in which it lay. Santa Anna repaired to Jalapa to exculpate himself, but was rudely received and removed from command. Hurrying to Vera Cruz before the news of his dismissal was known, he paraded the troops, renounced allegiance to the Emperor,

* Poinsett's Notes on Mexico, p. 63. A labor equalled 177 acres.

A league was equal to 4,428 acres.

raised the standard of revolt, gathered an army about him under Guadalupe Victoria, Guerrero, and Bravo, and prepared for war. Iturbide in terror fled to Mexico, called together such members of the old Congress as were near, and tendered his resignation.* But, as a quorum was not present, they refused to act. A few days later,† when a quorum had assembled, his letter of abdication was again sent in. To accept it would be to legalize the acts by which he had established the empire. The Congress therefore would not consider his request, but allowed him to leave Mexico, promised him an annual pension of twenty-five thousand dollars, and he was soon on his way to Lisbon with his family.

The moment Iturbide was gone the old Congress appointed an executive of three men, summoned a.new Congress, which promptly declared every act of the late Emperor void, and among them the colonization law of 1823 and the confirmation of Austin's contract. A new confirmation, however, was obtained from the executive, and in the early summer of 1823 Austin returned to Texas, laid off the town of Colorado, and marked out the foundation of San Felipe de Austin.

The new Congress-the Constituent Congress, as it was called-after a labor of five months framed and adopted the Constitution of the United States of Mexico, which created eighteen States and three Territories, and assigned to each the duty of establishing a government of its own. Until this time the province of Texas had never been connected with that of Coahuila, which adjoined it; but by an act of the Cortes both were now joined and made the State of Coahuila and Texas.

The first Congress of this new State began its sitting in August, and in the following March passed a decree intended" to increase the population of its territory, promote the cultivation of its fertile lands, the raising and multiplication of stock, and the progress of the arts and commerce.'

* March 8, 1823.

+ March 19, 1823.

The Constitution was adopted by the Congress on January 31, 1824, and proclaimed October 4, 1824.

Leyes y Decretos del Estados de Coahuila y Texas Decreto No. 16, 24 de Marzo de 1825.