towns of San Francisco and San Miguel de Aguago, proceed to establish their ayuntamiento in the town which the executive shall consider most suitable, proceeding with his report to trace out the limits of the new municipality, giving notice thereof to congress for their information and approval. For its fulfilment the governor of the state shall cause it to be printed, published and circulated. Given at the city of Leona Vicario, on the 26th of January, 1830. [The same Signers.] DECREE No. 115. Municipal Ordinances of the town of San Juan de Allende. DECREE No. 116. Municipal Ordinances of the town of San Nicolas de Capellania. DECREE No. 117. Municipal Ordinances of the town of Morelos. DECREE No. 118. The Congress of the state of Coahuila and Texas, in view of the question proposed by the executive on the 4th of September last; whether the substitutes who fill the offices of magistrates and attorney general of the tribunal of justice should necessarily possess the qualifications required by article 200 of the constitution of the state, has thought proper to decree as follows: ART. 1. Should there be absolutely no counsellors possessing the qualifications required by article 200 of the constitution, persons under twenty-five years of age who are counsellors, shall be eligible as substitutes to fill up the offices of magistrates and attorney general of the tribunal of justice. ART. 2. If there should be no counsellors at all, said provisional offices may be filled up by citizens over twenty-five years of age, who, in the opinion of the congress or of the executive, as may be the case, shall have the necessary instruction to serve the aforesaid offices, with the previous advice of the council, and in conformity, as to the appointments, to the Decree No. 103. For its fulfilment the governor of the state shall cause it to be printed, published and circulated. Given at the city of Leona Vicario, on the 16th of February, 1830. DECREE No. 119. The Congress of the state of Coahuila and Texas has thought proper to decree: ART. 1. The resignations of those offices, the appointment of which belongs to the congress of the state, shall be made before the same through the executive. ART. 2. During the recess of congress the executive is authorised to admit such resignations, and to make the provisional appointments, in conformity to the article 3, of Decree No. 103. For its fulfilment the governor of the state shall cause it to be printed, published and circulated. Given in the city of Leona Vicario, on the 19th of February, 1830. [The same Signers.] DECREE No. 120. The Congress of the state of Coahuila and Texas has thought proper to decree : ART. 1. In the statement which, by the article 43 of the law No. 17, the executive is to give every month, that of the moneys received and paid by the treasury shall be included. ART. 2. Both statements shall be made according to the annexed one, so that the respective statements which, by the order of the 1st of August last to be circulated, may be inserted in the Gazette. For its fulfilment the governor of the state shall cause it to be printed, published and circulated. Given at the city of Leona Vicario, on the 19th of February, 1830. [The same Signers.] TITLE II. LAWS, ORDERS AND CONTRACTS FOR AUSTIN'S COLONY. Translation of the Laws, Orders, and Contracts on colonisation, from January, 1821, up to 1829; in virtue of which, Colonel Stephen F. Austin introduced and settled foreign emigrants in Texas: with an Explanatory Introduction. INTRODUCTION. To the Settlers in what is called "Austin's Colony," in Texas. In order that the settlers, who have been established in Texas, under the authority granted by the government, to Mr. Stephen Fuller Austin, may fully understand the means by which they obtained admission, and procured titles for land in this country, and the nature of those titles, the following succinct narrative is presented to them, as an introduction to the translations of the several laws, decrees and contracts on colonisation, which follow, in the regular order of their dates. Manuscript translations of these documents, have heretofore been made and published, so far as it was practicable to give publicity to them in that shape, and the originals have always been open to the inspection of any one who called at the office for that purpose. The earliest, and only opportunity which has ever occurred, of publishing them in print, is now embraced. The idea of forming a settlement of North Americans in the wilderness of Texas, originated with Mr. Moses Austin, of Missouri, and after the conclusion of De Onis's treaty in 1819, efforts were made by him to put matters in train for an application to the Spanish government in Spain. If the application succeeded, it was contemplated to remove a number of families in a body, through Arkansas territory; and as a preparatory step, his son, Stephen Fuller Austin, was sent to Long Prairie, on Red river, with some hands, &c., for the purpose of opening a farm near the boundary line, which it was thought would be useful, to furnish provisions, and afford facilities to emigrants; and a resting place, until some preparation could be made in the wilderness of Texas. It was thought that the farm could be advantageously sold afterwards, or continued as a cotton plantation, should the enterprise totally fail. At that time, there were but three families at Long Prairie, and Hempstead county had just begun to settle. In answer to the inquiries of the elder Austin, as to the best mode of laying the subject before the Spanish government, he was advised to apply to the Spanish authorities of New Spain. He accordingly undertook the journey, from Missouri to the capital of the province of Texas. The information collected by the younger Austin, on Red river, had convinced him that the route by way of Natchitoches, or by water from New Orleans, was much preferable to the one originally contemplated through Arkansas territory; which, added to the unhealthiness of the situation at Long Prairie, and other circumstances, caused an abandonment of the farming project at that place; and he met his father at Little Rock in the summer of 1820. It was there arranged, that the father should proceed to the capital of Texas, and the son to New Orleans; the former to see what could be done by an application to the Spanish authorities of New Spain; and the latter to make some preparatory arrangements in New Orleans, for facilitating the transportation of families, furnishing supplies, &c., and also, to be ready to proceed to the Havana, in the event of its being necessary to have recourse to the government in Spain. The elder Austin arrived at Bexar, the capital of Texas, early in December, 1820, and, on presenting himself to the governor, he received a peremptory order to leave that capital instantly, and the province, as soon as he could get out of it. This order was issued in consequence of the general regulations then existing, prohibiting any foreigner from entering the Spanish territory, without a specific description of passport. There was no remedy; and he left the governor's house to prepare for his departure. In crossing the public square, he accidentally met the Baron De Bastrop, with whom he had a slight acquaintance, in the United States many years previous. Mr. Austin became a Spanish subject in Upper Louisiana, in 1799, and De Bastrop went to the governor with the documents which he had brought with him to prove the fact; a second interview was thus obtained with the governor, and after several days deliberation, and consultation with the cabildo, a memorial was presented by Mr. Austin, asking for permission to settle three hundred families in Texas; which was sent on to the superior government of the eastern internal provinces, strongly recommended by the local authorities of this province. He left Bexar in January and arrived in Missouri in the spring, and immediately set about making the necessary preparations for a removal to Texas, as soon as he should hear of the success of his application. His preparations, however, were greatly retarded by ill health, and on his return in the winter through Texas, he suffered greatly from exposure to bad weather, swimming and rafting rivers. and creeks, and for want of provisions; for at that time, Texas was an entire wilderness, from Bexar to the Sabine. Nacogdoches and the settlements in its vicinity had been totally broken up, and the inhabitants driven off by the expedition that was sent the year before by the Spanish government against the revolutionists in that quarter. He reached Natchitoches, on his return, much afflicted by a severe cold that had settled in his breast, and which terminated in an inflammation that finally ended his existence in Missouri, a few days after he had received information of the success of his application. He left a request that his son Stephen should prosecute the enterprise, which he had thus commenced, of forming a settlement in Texas. Mr. Moses Austin was a native of Durham, in the state of Connecticut, and much distinguished for enterprise and perseverance. At the age of twenty he married Miss Maria Brown, in Philadelphia, and soon after established a commercial house in Richmond, Virginia, in partnership with his brother Stephen, who was at the head of an extensive importing house in Philadelphia. They afterwards purchased the lead mines, called Chissel's mines, on New river, Wythe county, Virginia, to which he removed and established a regular system of mining and smelting shot, sheet lead, and other factories of lead, for which purpose, miners and mechanics, in those branches, were introduced from England; for, at that time, manufactories of this description, were in their infancy in the United States. Revolutions, incident to extended commercial business, and to adventurous enterprise, brought on a reverse in both the Philadelphia and Virginia houses, and Mr. Moses Austin having received flattering accounts of the lead mines of Upper Louisiana, (now Missouri,) he determined to visit that distant and then unknown country. Accordingly, having procured the necessary passports from the Spanish minister, he visited upper Louisiana in 1797, and procured a grant from the governor general, Baron de Carondelet, for one league of land, including the Mine-a Burton, forty miles west of St. Genivieve; and after closing all his affairs in the United States, he removed his family and a number of others from Wythe county, by a new and almost untried route, down the Kanhaway river, to his new grant, in 1799, and laid a foundation. for the settlement of what is now called Washington county in Missouri. The family of his nephew, Elias Bates, was the first, and his own, the second, that ever spent a winter at Mine-a-Burton, now Potosi. The early settlers of that place and county, will bear ample testimony, as to his enterprise, public spirit, and honorable character; which qualities, in fact, brought on another reverse of fortune, and caused him to turn, with unabated ardor, in the decline of life, to a new and hazardous enterprise, in the wilderness of Texas.-It is hoped the reader will pardon this digression; it was thought due to the real author of that enterprise, which has led to our location in this country. The memorial of Moses Austin was granted on the 17th of January, 1821, by the supreme government of the eastern internal provinces of New Spain at Monterey. It gave permission to said Austin to introduce three hundred families in Texas. A special commissioner was despatched by the governor of Texas, in conformity with the orders of the commandant general, Don Joaquin de Aredondo, to the United States, for the purpose of communicating to Mr. Austin the VOL. I.-73 |