CHAPTER VI.

TEXAS-1687 TO 1889.

La Salle, the French explorer, first settled Texas in 1687, erected a fort on Matagorda Bay, and spread the French flag to the gentle breezes. Without doubt this vast state was included within the French cessions to the United States in 1803, under the name of Louisiana.

France in 1670 ceded all the Territory of Louisiana, including Texas, to the Spanish Crown. The country was retroceded to France in 1800, and by France sold to the United States in 1803. Spain, however, claimed Texas as Spanish territory not included in the retrocession to France in 1800.

The United States made several unsuccessful attempts to wrest Texas from the Spaniards, between 1806 and 1816; in one battle in 1813 the American and Mexican loss amounted to 2,500 killed, while 700 citizens of San Antonio were massacred. In 1819 the Sabine River was established as the boundary.

In 1820, an American citizen, named Moses Austin, obtained from the Mexican government a grant of a large tract of land, and began a settlement which rapidly increased, but some were of such a lawless character that in 1830 the Mexican government forbade any more Americans coming into Texas.

In 1824, the Mexicans overthrew the tyranical power of the Spaniards, and adopted a constitutional mode of government, recognized by every foreign power except Spain.

In 1833, a convention of settlers, then 2,000 strong, attempted to form an independent Mexican State; the attempt was unsuccessful.

In December 1835, a small gathering of Texans assembled and declared the independence of Mexico, and professed to have established the Republic of Texas. Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, at once prepared to invade Texas with an army of 7,000 men.

February 23rd, 1836, he with 4,000 men invested the Alamo at San. Antonio, garrisoned by 140 men, under the command of W. B. Travis; thirty-two other Texans forced their way through the Mexican lines and joined Travis; therefore Travis could muster but 172 men, with which force he defended the Alamo for eleven days, repulsing the Mexicans repeatedly, and killing 1,600 of the attacking force, while his own little band was reduced to a mere handful. On the 6th day of March, 1836, the Alamo fell into the hands of the Mexicans, all of its defenders were slain, only a woman, a child and servant being spared from the wholesale slaughter. They were concealed in a strong inner

room, and escaped the tremendous cannonade and musketry fire. Here the brave Davy Crocket fell surrounded by scores of dead Mexicans, slain by his own hand, while defending himself in the final assault.

General Sam Houston soon after succeeded in raising 800 picked men to repel the invaders. April 21st following he gave battle to twice the number of Mexicans headed by Santa Anna; the battle resulted in the total defeat of the Mexicans, who lost 630 in killed, 208 wounded, and 730 prisoners. Santa Anna escaped from the field, but was captured the following day. This decisive battle practically determined the independence of Texas, and a Republican form of government was at once adopted; General Sam Houston was chosen President and inaugurated October 22nd, 1836.

March, 1837, the United States acknowledged the independence of the Texas Republic, followed by the acknowledgment by France in 1839, and England, Holland and Belgium in 1840. Thus was the Republic firmly established.

In 1845, Texas was annexed to the United States by act of Congress in December in that year. Mexico had never acknowledged the independence of Texas, and an invading army started from the City of Mexico to invest the Texas Republic. The United States authorities proposed to hold by force of arms the new territory acquired by anexation, and the result was the Mexican war of 1846; it lasted into 1848, the Mexicans were defeated, and their capital fell into the hands of U. S. General Scott; peace was established, and Texas became one of the states of the American Union. It seceded with the other Southern States in 1861, and joined the war of the rebellion, and not until 1870 was the state re-admitted to the Union.

The physical features of Texas are its Gulf coast line, extending 800 miles from the mouth of the Sabine River, which separates the state from Louisiana, to the mouth of the Rio Grande River, which forms the boundary line between Texas and Mexico. From a low swampy

coast on the Gulf, the surface gradually rises to 3,000 and even 5,000 feet above sea level in the northern portions of the Pan Handle, and quite mountainous in the northwestern portion, near the city of Elpaso, and near San Antonio. The shore is protected by a chain of long narrow and flat islands from the severe Gulf storms. Large lakes or lagoons are formed between the islands and the main land, and form a safe refuge for small crafts, and in some instances they are deep and afford safe anchorage for large ocean-going vessels.

The islands are from 50 to 200 miles long. The channels connecting the lagoons with the Gulf are of variable depths, that at Galveston Island being of the greatest width and depth, the channel is over two miles wide and twelve feet deep at its greatest depth.

This channel has had millions of dollars expended upon it by the National Government in order that the channel may be narrowed and deepened upon the Eads plan of jetty system. The work is now in the

hands of a competent U. S. Engineer, Major Earnest, and progressing with as much success as the limited appropriations made by the National Congress will admit of.

The City of Galveston is situated on Galveston island, and is already a magnificent commercial city, deeply interested in the final success of the engineering skill of Major Earnest. Here is a magnificent roadstead capable of accommodating the commerce of the world; much cannot be said of the harbor as a refuge for distressed vessels in severe weather owing to the deep water being in the channel and not landlocked; while commodious, it could not be regarded a perfectly secure harbor. It will be necessary to construct two jetties, known as the North and South jetties, in order to control the channel as proposed, each of these jetties of solid stone work will be extended six miles to the deep water in the Gulf. The south jetty is nearly one-third completed; under most favorable circumstances, with ample appropriations the work could not be completed under three or four years; at the present rate this generation will scarcely enjoy the benefits of the proposed harbor, or for that matter, any of the proposed harbors of the Gulf coast.

At the mouth of the Sabine, similar work is being constructed by the Government, the general features being similar to Galveston; no city is there, however, and the commercial necessities do not compare.

At the mouth of the Brazos River, private capital has taken hold of the matter by permission of the government. The bill giving them permission to construct a harbor, also provides for payment by the National Government a stipulated sum per foot of depth obtained as the work progresses, until 24 feet of water is obtained, when final payment is made by the Government, and the harbor management reassumed by them. A great many persons believe that the friends of Brazos Point have solved the question of economical and speedy construction of harbors upon the Gulf coast. The friends of Aransas Pass also favor development by private capital in a manner similar to Brazos, and Congress will undoubtedly be called upon to pass a bill of similar tenor to enable private capital to improve Aransas Harbor and Pass.

Galveston friends and friends of Sabine professes to be satisfied with the National appropriation idea, but are divided upon the present system of appropriations in homeopathic doses. The true friends of either place are heartily in accord with the Inter-State Deep Harbor movement, while the enemies to progress and public interest are in favor of continuing the present long-drawn-out system which probably affords them place or profit as individuals. profit as individuals. Aransas Pass, while very conspicuous as a prospective deep water port, has received but a few hundred thousand dollars from the National Government, and no continuous work has been performed at that point; unlike Galveston, the

*See Appendix for purposes and accomplishments of the Deep Harbor Committee.

harbor is land-locked, but limited in good depth and also limited in anchorage; the friends of this point claim, however, that the harbor is of sufficient capacity to hold safely all of the merchant marine that will ever traverse the Gulf, in addition to all of the American navy. (The latter is only a slur at our present navy, they have been so accustomed to speak slightingly of our navy that they cannot read the signs. of the times, viz: The future American navy will be larger and more effective than any other single government on earth can produce).

We grant that Aransas Pass has more in her favor, naturally, to make a greater port than any other point on the Gulf coast, but in the same connection we must say that men of energy, enterprise, and strategy move the world and not conditions. Conditions do not make or build cities, it is individual and collective enterprise, and they are which conquer conditions, as evidenced by our great Chicago. Almost anywhere within twenty miles of Chicago's present site could have been builded a city with one half the difficulties to overcome that has marked the era of that magnificent metropolis. Was it conditions then that made Chicago? No, it was the man, and it will be man that makes Aransas, irrespective of conditions, or it will not be made at all. Macauber like, the friends of Aransas appear to be waiting for something to turn up.

Turning from the coast we follow the gradually rising and gently undulating prairie lands, except a few counties in the eastern portion famous for their pine; the state is purely agricultural and stock raising. Texas contains a greater area than any other state or territory of the United States, (except Alaska), 274,356 square miles, divided into 229 counties, some of which are larger than some two or three New England States combined.

The principal rivers of the state are the Red, Sabine, Trinity, Colorado and Grand, collectively supplying some 400 miles of navigable waters, all flowing southeast into the Gulf.

The principal cities are Galveston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, Waco and Austin, the latter, the state capital. Galveston is the principal seaport, Houston is also a seaport city, reached by Galveston Bay and Buffalo Bayou; Houston is also a great railroad center. Dallas is a large wholesale point, only surpassed in the state by Fort Worth, which city claims to be the greatest railroad center in Texas, some thirteen roads centering or diverging from there. San Antonio is a winter resort, a "quaint old town" of great historical renown; here is the famed Alamo, and various other missions of the early days of the Montezumas.

Texas produces every species of grain, vegetable or fruit known to agriculture, except bananas, oranges and pineapples, and they are raised to a very limited extent. Cotton is principally produced, Texas ranking first of all the United States. In wool, Texas is in the lead, in fact in all live stock and live stock products Texas leads the Union.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The public schools of Texas are rapidly approaching a degree of perfection that approaches the boasted New England systems, and as compared with other Southern States are vastly superior. The following facts gathered from reports of Hon. F. B. Chilton, Secretary of the Texas State Bureau of Immigration, and can be relied upon:

The permanent free school fund, invested in state and county bonds, is $5,873,174.02; 40,000,000 acres of land controlled by the state, and four leagues, or 17,712 acres, to each county organized and unorganized, controlled by the counties, making a total of 47,288,676 acres, which at $3 per acre would bring $141,866,028, added to the above makes a grand total of $147,739,202.02. The interest on the bonds and land notes for which school lands have been sold, rentals from the lands leased, one-third of the state tax, and one dollar on each poll, forms the available fund which is used each year for the maintenance of public free schools. The available fund is increasing rapidly each year. In 1881 the amount appropriated for maintenance of public free schools was $103,933.44; in 1885 it was $2,050,000; in 1887 it was $2,285,415; a letter from the treasurer of the state says, the appropriation for 1888 will be about $2,300,000. This fund will soon be sufficient to give free education to ten times as many children and persons as now live in Texas, between the ages of five and twenty years. We have a State University located at Austin, the capital, which is one of the best endowed educational institutions in the United States. It is open to both sexes; tuition free. The Constitution of the state provides for the establishment of a university for the education of colored youths; steps have been taken to put it in operation. The University lands will permanently endow these institutions, making them in time the equal of any in America. The University Permanent Fund is at present $523,411, invested in bonds; this with an available fund of $21,680, and cash on hand of $10,825, makes a total University Fund of $555,916. Besides this, it has 2,221,400 acres of land, most of which was located at an early day, and is very valuable, worth from $3 to $20 per acre. At an average of $6 it would bring $13,328,400, making a grand total of $13,884,316 for university purposes. The State Agricultural and Mechanical College, located near the City of Bryan, Brazo County, is endowed with $209,000, invested in bonds, also a large endowment from the United States Government. Ninety-four students, one-half of whom take a mechanical, and one-half an agricultural course, receive free board and tuition. The cost of board and tuition for other students is $130 for the schoolastic year. The Sam Houston Normal School for the education of white teachers, and the Prairie View Normal School for the education of colored teachers, are supported by the state, and 155 white and 45 colored students receive tuition and board free, in proportion to white and colored population.