general colonization law[1] leaving the state governments free to regulate the establishment of colonies within their respective territories, several legislatures formed rules for promoting the occupation of their wild lands for industrial purposes.[2]
With the adoption of the federal form of government in Mexico, Texas was united to Coahuila, the two former provinces now forming one state, which in its sovereign capacity made to Austin several grants, among them that of settling eight hundred families, for which he was assigned a larger extent of land. Austin was an active, industrious man, and laboring assiduously in carrying out his colonization schemes, succeeded in planting colonies on the Brazos and Colorado rivers near San Antonio de Béjar, which early in the third decade of this century were already in a flourishing condition.
Austin was not the only person to whom such grants were made in Texas; they were made to all foreigners asking for them,[3] and the country thus became in a short time populated by about eight thousand families of different races, religions, and habits, and by adventurers from all parts of the world, many of whom took possession of such land as suited them, with no better title than that afforded them by their rifles. All settlers were exempt from taxation during seven years under a Mexican law. This state of affairs greatly facilitated smuggling on the frontier states, to the injury of the Mexican revenue.
Such was the condition of Texas when President Victoria's administration appointed a commission in
- ↑ August 18, 1824. Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., i. 712-13. Bustamante calls that measure 'la borricada mayor que pudo cometer el primer congreso.' Voz de la Patria, MS., x. 136.
- ↑ Vera Cruz was one of those states, where a French colony settled on the Goazacoalco, but for several reasons the enterprise failed.
- ↑ The state of Coahuila and Texas, March 24, 1825, passed a law inviting foreigners to settle on lands of the state, 'eran libres para hacerlo, y se les invitaba por esta ley á verificarlo.' Zavala, Revol. Méx., ii. 308; Thrall's Hist. Texas, 155-6.
