risk of a last attempt, and chose for their leader one of ciently influential to check in some little degree the movethe heroes of this war, the intrepid Milam. Milam, whose ment of independence. It even proceeded to an unsuccessmany brilliant adventures had rendered his name popu- ful trial of an expedition beyond the Rio-Grande, which lar in Texas, was in prison at Mexico when the struggle had for its aim to revive the spirit of Federalism in the commenced. Forthwith he had broken his chains, and neighboring Provinces, and to excite therein a counter-rethrough a thousand dangers he had rejoined his companions volution. The two feeble detachments which attempted before Goliad. His bravery and skill inspired a boundless this hazardous enterprise, were exterminated by the troops confidence in his companions. This time also he justified of Santa-Anna. Whilst this was passing near Matamoras, it, and it was at the cost of his life. On the 5th of Decem- the politicians continued the discussion of independence, ber, at daybreak, Milam, having succeeded in distracting whose advocates invoked history, morality and interest, by the attention of the enemy by a feigned attack upon the turns, to cause their opinions to prevail over more timid citadel, penetrated into the city with his brave volunteers; counsels. From these hesitations it is presumable, that if but then the difficulties commenced, and the dangers of at that time the Mexican States bounding upon Texas had the enterprize were manifest at every step. General Cos taken up arms for the Federal Constitution, the Declaration had profited by the situation of the ground and of some of Independence would have been postponed, and the allarge stone buildings to fortify himself strongly in the in-liance of Texas, with the Northern Provinces of Mexico terior. All the avenues of the place were barricaded, in- against centralism, would have given an entirely different tersected with ditches, furnished with cannon. He had direction to events. But they learnt that in Mexico all placed a piece of artillery upon the platform of an old parties were rallied in a common consideration of national church which commanded all the city, and the fire of the vengeance: and what put an end to all irresolution, was the citadel could make good the defence of the city itself. report of the agents sent to the United States on the result However, the volunteers of Milam were not discouraged. of their mission. They announced that they had concluded To answer the enemy's fire, and to neutralize it, they had at New-Orleans a loan of $200,000; that the zeal of the those incomparable rifles, whose aim and execution the Anglo-Americans, in favor of Texas, would immediately Mexicans knew only too well. This was their grand re- cool, if they saw them hesitating to proclaim its indepensource. Once got within the city, they could not dislodge dence: they therefore advised their fellow-countrymen to them, even after the loss of their intrepid commander, who adopt this decisive measure without further delay. The was killed the seventh by a ball in his head. This internal advice was followed, and a new convention assembled at siege lasted five days. The Texans did not make them- Washington, on the Upper Brazos, on the 1st of March, selves entirely masters of the place before the ninth, at 1836. night, by a surprise. The next day the citadel itself capitulated. General Cos and his officers gave their word of honor not to oppose the reëstablishment of the Federal Constitution, and obtained on that condition the power of returning home, with a part of the troops only. The money and the munitions of war which were found in Bejar were delivered up to the conquerors. Thus, in the beginning of December, 1835, three months and a half after the opening of the campaign, there was not a single Mexican soldier spon the territory of Texas.

I have now to draw the picture of the short but decisive campaign, whose results have consecrated the independence of Texas. This campaign commenced at the moment when the Texan people, surmounting its last hesitations, prepared to maintain the struggle for itself alone, and bravely vindicated the rights of its nationality. It lasted but two months. The Mexican army appeared on the 21st of February, 1836, before San-Antonio de Bejar. On the 21st of April, General Houston and Santa-Anna fought on the plains of San-Jacinto the battle which finished the war. These rapid successes of the insurrection immediately Three events signalized it. The heroic defence of the produced throughout the entire country a general desire of Alamo (citadel of Bejar) by one hundred and forty Texan independence, to which the movement of the United States soldiers under the command of the immortal Travis; the in favor of the Texan cause gave at the same time a differ- defeat of Colonel Fannin at Goliad, and the horrible massaent direction. They knew that the new government of the cre of his troops after a capitulation signed on the field of Merican Republic had triumphed every where over the in-battle, an infamous action ordered by Santa-Anna, which surrections of the Federalist party, and Texas clearly un- has disgraced his name forever, and which he would have derstood that henceforth between Mexico and her it was paid for with his blood, if the moderation and fidelity of the no longer a political but a national war. Was not this pre-Texan leaders had not protected him against the exasperatence of defending Federalism a ridiculous falsehood, when tion of their countrymen; lastly, the victory of Houston, at the rest of the Republic was silent and submitted without San-Jacinto, crowned by the capture of Santa-Anna, Preresistance? The Provisional Government of Texas, which sident of the Republic, and Commander-in-Chief of the existed by virtue of the Federal Constitution of 1824, was Mexican army. In the whole course of this campaign the under the necessity of rebathing its powers in another forces of Mexico were superior to those of Texas, in regard spring and of renewing the principle even of its existence. to number and military organization. As soldiers the It was General Austin, who, in the end of November, gave Mexicans were worth much more than their enemies, as that impulse to public opinion, and demanded the calling men they were much below them. Their first successes at of a new National Assembly; for he did not believe that Bejar and at Goliad, sullied besides by useless cruelties, do the Provisional Government had the right of proclaiming not afford them the least honor. As to the Texans, on the independence, and of breaking the last threads by which contrary, the defeats are as glorious as the triumphs. Texas was still attached to Mexico. He set out after- The army of invasion was divided into three bodies: wards for the United States with his colleagues: but the Generals Sesma, Filisola and Cos, belonged to the first, popular enthusiasm had already anticipated their exertions. which was to commence its operations by the siege of BeThe New-Orleans Greys had figured at the taking of Bejar.jar; Urrea and Garray commanded the second, directed Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, also sent their volun- against Goliad; the third was under the command of Santateers and their money to the Texans; and it was during the holding of the General Consultation, that M. B. Lamar, then a citizen of Georgia, now President of Texas, offered his services to the insurgents.

Nevertheless the party which wished to maintain the union with Mexico was still numerous, and it was suffi

Anna, and destined to act according to circumstances. Bejar and Goliad being Spanish towns, there was a great advantage from taking them for the base line of the subsequent movements of the army. From each branched roads which met at a common centre, at San-Felipe de Austin-that is to say, at the heart of the Anglo-American settlements.

The garrison of Bejar, commanded by Colonel Travis, was treated as prisoners of war, and conducted to Goliad, where very weak; that of Goliad, under the command of Colonel they would remain for nine days. At the expiration of that Fannin of Georgia, was more numerous; but both were in-term, the volunteers of the United States should be emsufficient. At the first appearance of the Mexican troops, barked for New-Orleans at the expense of the Mexican Travis and his gallant men retired into the Alamo, judging Government; the Texans and Fannin should remain priit useless to dispute an open city with an enemy too superior in numbers and well supplied with artillery. Masters of the city, the Mexicans immediately began to bombard the citadel, which Travis had fortified to the best of his ability. Hemmed in on all sides and hopeless of being succored, Travis resisted for fifteen days-slew many of the assailants-repulsed many attacks, and lost scarcely any

men.

The letters which he wrote during the course of the siege, are admirable for their resolution and coolness. We read in that of the 3d of March, "It is possible that I may be overcome; but the victory shall cost the enemy so dear, that a defeat would be better for him. God and Texas! Victory or death!" He wrote the same day to a friend: "Let the Convention go on and make a Declaration of Independence; we are ready to risk our lives a hundred times a-day, and to defy the monster who attacks us with a blood-colored flag, who threatens to massacre all prisoners and to make a vast desert of Texas. I shall have to fight the enemy when and how he pleases; but I wait for him resolutely, and, if my countrymen do not come to my assistance, I am resolved to perish defending the place, and my bones shall loudly accuse the indifference of my country."

soners until exchanged, or until the end of the war. These conditions were violated with an abominable perfidy. SantaAnna, who was still at Bejar, ordered the massacre of the prisoners; and on the 17th of March, in the morning, being Palm-Sunday, they were all, to the number of nearly four hundred, killed not far from Goliad, between that city and the sea. It was the President himself who had desired this horrible assassination: many of his Generals had opposed it in the Council held at Bejar; but he had silenced their voices-signed the sentence of death-sealed and delivered the despatch, with his own hand, to the courier, who was to be the bearer of it. All the odium of this great crime lies therefore upon the head of Santa-Anna He missed his aim besides. In place of striking their minds with terror, he filled them with a just indignation, and created in all their hearts a thirst for vengeance which doubled the courage of the Texan insurgents.

The campaign opened, as we have seen, under the sad dest auspices for Texas. Nothing seemed at hand for an effectual resistance. The organization of the regular army was very little advanced. The Commander-in-Chief, Hous ton, did not himself arrive at head-quarters, upon the Gua The unfortunate Travis was not succored. The only dalupe, until three or four days before the fall of the Alamo, reinforcement which he received, was a detachment of and found there only three hundred men. Wherefore, on thirty-two men come from Gonzales, who succeeded in learning this disaster, be wisely gave orders to fall back slipping into the Alamo. The besieging army, on the con- upon the Colorado, in order to rally there the reinforce trary, was doubled since the beginning of the siege. Santa- ments which were getting ready in his rear. The Mexicaa Anna had led his division thither, and he needed nothing General, Sezma, having reached the Colorado on the less than forces sufficiently overwhelming to carry the of March, Houston continued his retreat unto the Brazos, place. On the 6th, in the night, Santa-Anna, resolved to and thus continued until the middle of April to retire conquer at all hazards, gave the order for mounting to the wards the East. The inhabitants of San-Felipe, whom assault. It has been since learnt, from a negro who waited this retreat left exposed, evacuated the city after having set on him, that he passed the night with his Aid-de-Camp, Al- fire to it. General Houston has been wrongfully reproached monte, in extreme agitation. "This will cost us dear," for not having sooner made head against the enemy. Upen said Almonte to him some moments before the assault. "It the Colorado, and even on the Brazos, he had not yet a matters little," answered Santa-Anna, "it must be done." single piece of cannon. In proportion as he fell back to Travis and his men kept their word. The Alamo was the rear he still further concentrated all his disposable forces, taken, but the loss of the Mexicans was enormous. "Ano- whilst Santa-Anna every day lost a few of his upon ther such victory," said Santa-Anna on his return from the road; and we have reason to believe, that in approaching assault, "and we are finished." Travis died in the breach, the frontier of the United States, he counted upon sont in slaying the Mexican officer who had wounded him to assistance, at least indirectly, from General Gaines, who death. All his companions likewise perished with arms in had advanced from his side as far as Nacogdoches, upon their hands. One only demanded quarter and had his the Texan territory, by order of Jackson. throat cut. James Bowie was slain in his bed, where a At last, upon the 21st of April, the battle was joined wound kept him. David Crockett of Tennessee, the intre- upon the banks of the San-Jacinto, which decided the fate pid hunter of the West, was among the number of the de-of Texas. The army of Santa-Anna amounted to fiftees fenders of the Alamo, and perished there with the rest. hundred effective men, that of Houston to seven hundred Santa-Anna was in great danger in this affair. Major and eighty-three, of whom only sixty-one were cavalry Evans, the commander of the artillery of the fort, was about to set fire to the powder-magazine when he received a ball which killed him; and it is related that in his wrath, Santa-Anna twice stabbed with a poniard the corpse of the man who might have buried him with himself beneath the ruins of the citadel.

the

The evening before Houston had had all the bridges de stroyed, by which the enemy could retreat towards the Brazos. His instinct had not deceived him. The engage ment was not long; the Texans marched forward, ery.ng Remember the Alamo, and soon Travis and his brave met were avenged. They slew of the Mexicans six hundred Whilst Santa-Anna was paying so dearly for the capture and thirty men, including a General officer and four Col> of Bejar, Urrea marched upon Goliad, and occupied that nels; two hundred and eighty were wounded, and seren place which Colonel Fannin had received orders to evacu- hundred and thirty made prisoners. The destruction of ate. The next day, Fannin, who had not more than five this corps of the army was complete. This victory cost the hundred men with him, was attacked in the prairie by a Texans but two men killed, and twenty-three wounded, six division of nineteen hundred men, whose assault he sus-of them mortally. Colonel M. B. Lamar, now President tained the whole day. But although the Mexicans had lost of the Republic, commanded the cavalry, and justified by many men, they were still three times as numerous as the his bravery the confidence of the soldiers who had chosen Texans, who wanted provisions and artillery. Fannin, him for their leader.

seeing that he had no chance of deliverance, accepted Santa-Anna was not taken until the next day by a de therefore Urrea's propositions, and laid down his arms upon tachment sent in pursuit of a few Mexicans who bad es the following conditions: He and his soldiers should be caped. They found him concealed in the high grass and

much frightened. He kissed the hand of the first Texan | themselves, the exchange of prisoners and the liberation of soldier who appeared, and offered those who surrounded Santa-Anna, were stipulated by the open treaty; by the sehim a very handsome watch, jewelry and money; but it cret treaty, Santa-Anna engaged not to appear again at the was in vain that he tried to corrupt them. Then he began head of the Mexican troops against Texas during the preto weep. They reassured him and led him towards Hous- sent war, and to neglect nothing to induce the Mexican ton, who was sleeping at the foot of a tree, his head sup- Government to recognise the independence of Texas. ported by a saddle. It was then only that Santa-Anna made himself known. He said to him in Spanish, "I am Antonio Lopez de Santa-Anna, President of the Mexican Republic, and Commander-in-Chief of the army of operation, for the massacre of Goliad. Every where the sintions." Then he demanded opium, of which he took a great quantity, and seeming to recover from his distress, he also said to General Houston, "You are not born for ordinary things; you have conquered the Napoleon of the West." After this puff of pride, so ridiculous in such a moment, he asked what they would do with him? Houston, evading the question, answered him that he must first cause Texas to be evacuated by his troops, and reproached him with his cruelty towards the Texans. As to the affair of the Alamo, Santa-Anna defended himself by invoking the right of war. "Be it so," answered Houston, "but the massacre of Fan-to postpone his liberation. Shortly afterwards the army, nin and his people?" "There was no capitulation," answered the prisoner," and besides I have only executed the orders of the Mexican Government." But it is you who are that Government," said Houston to him. The conversation continued sometime longer, and Santa-Anna succeeded in conciliating the good will of Houston, who protected him against the exasperation of the Texans, and was unwilling to sully his victory by a useless murder.

These two treaties were very unpopular. The army which excelled much more in courage than in discipline, continued to demand the death of Santa-Anna, in retalia

cerity and intentions of the Mexican President were distrusted; they were unwilling to see that this unfortunate campaign had ruined him, for a length of time, in the estimation of his fellow-countrymen, and that once returned to Mexico, he would not be tempted to recommence the war. However that may be, they were obliged to postpone his embarkation for Vera-Cruz. On the day appointed for his departure, an insurrection of the soldiers broke out at Velasco; and the Executive power, not in a condition to subdue the general effervescence, decided on the 4th of June

wanting every thing, and believing itself neglected by the Government, endeavored to deprive it of its power;-it sent one of its officers to Velasco to exact the adoption of certain measures; and this officer, dissatisfied with the reception which they gave him, attempted to arrest the President, who was fortunately defended in this crisis by the citizens of Velasco. Similar deeds occur in all revolutions. The reverse of the medal, the infancy of the indeIn the meanwhile, the National Convention convoked at pendence of the United States, presents a great number of Washington on the 1st of March, had promulgated on the them. The Revolution of Texas could not be exempt 2d the Declaration of the Independence of Texas, digested from them. The turbulent character of the population—the a Constitution, passed some urgently needed laws, and or- composition of the army-the disorder of the finances of ganized an executive power for the present, of which Mr. the new State--the inevitable confusion of all the elements David Burnet was President, and Lorenzo de Zavala Vice- of administration-do not allow us to hope that the newPresident, with four Ministers, an Attorney General, and a born Republic should entirely escape these passing pertur Postmaster General. We shall not analyze the Constitu-bations. Santa-Anna thought it his duty to protest against tion of Texas; it will suffice to say that, modelled upon his captivity. The President answered him, that circumuse of most of the States of the Anglo-American Union, stances rendered necessary the measure adopted with reat is purely democratic. A President chosen by the citi-spect to him; that on the side of the Mexicans, there had zens for two years at first, and afterwards for three years, not immediately reëligible with the right of a suspensive veto, the least power possible, and an annual salary of ten tapusand dollars; a Vice-President; a House of Representatives renewed every year; a Senate renewed every Liree years; most offices in the appointment of the Congress; the jury, slavery forever, always with the prohibition of the slave trade, and under the condition that slaves shall be imported from only the United States: such are the esseatial features of this Constitution, very simple and as litthe wise as new. But in North America, space still takes place of every thing.

The Provisional Government of Texas had followed the retreat of General Houston before the army of SantaAana. It was in the desert and naked island of Galveston that it received on the 25th of April the news of the victory of San-Jacinto; and when President Burnet arrived on the 1st day of May at head-quarters, Houston had already coneluded a convention with Santa-Anna, by which the latter engaged to have Texas evacuated by his troops. They guaranteed to him the preservation of his life. The Minister of War, who followed the army, had given his consent to this convention, which Santa-Anna hastened to execute by sending orders to Generals Filisola, Gaona and Urrea, to fall back upon Bejar and Victoria. Houston had decided as a statesman. President Burnet and the members of his Cabinet approved, and two regular treaties, the one open, the other secret, were concluded at Velasco on the 14th of May with Santa Anna. The evacuation of Texas by the Mexican troops, the restitution of all property, slaves and beasts of burden, of which the Mexicans had possessed

VOL. VII-53

been many infractions of the treaty; that besides he complained wrongfully of the privations which he endured; that they were shared by the first personages of the Republic. "I have sacrificed to your welfare that of my sick family, (added Mr. Burnet.) If we are wanting in comfort, it is to your visit at our house that your Excellency should ascribe it, and it appears to us very plain that you should suffer a little of our evils."

Things remained in this state until the meeting of the first Constitutional Congress of the Republic, which commenced on the 3rd of October at Columbia on the Brazos ;* but the citizens had already proceeded to the election of the President, and had decided at the same time upon the great question of the incorporation of Texas with the United States.

This same Assembly adopted another resolution to authorize the government to make purchase of a collection of the laws of the State of Cohahuila and Texas, which belonged to a Signor Caravahel.

The city of Houston did not become the seat of Congress, and of the Government until 1837. It was balloted for in the Congress against many other localities, and did not pass until the fourth vote, by twenty-one voices. We may judge what the capital or palace of the National Representation then was, from the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted, and which I have turned up upon the journal of the House of Representatives: “Resolved, that the door-keeper be instructed to have the plastering over head, in the hall, all taken off, believing it to be 'bad work, and unsafe to sit under."

The two competitors for the Presidency were Stephen | Texas, whose independence she has not yet recognized✦— Austin and Samuel Houston. The name of the founder of so much did the creation and character of this Republic Texan Nationality seemed to have lost all its charm, and seem to her likely to affect the balance of political powers the conqueror of San-Jacinto was called to the Presidency in the New World. Besides, some of the States, which by three thousand five hundred and eighty-five suffrages, one would have believed the most favorable to the incorpowhilst Stephen Austin opposed to him, only five hundred | ration of Texas, grew cool with respect to it from different and fifty-one. About three thousand votes were given to Mirabeau Lamar for the Vice-Presidency. The incorporation of Texas with the United States was asked for by the very significant number of three thousand two hundred and seventy-seven. In taking possession of the Presidency at the seat of Congress, Houston, whose character is not wanting in a certain grandeur, had a happy moment when he laid down his sword. Emotion prevented his continuing his discourse, and the entire Assembly shared in the feeling which oppressed him.

causes, amongst which physical interests had also a place. Texas, has therefore solemnly withdrawn its demand. It will lose nothing by remaining independent. Its resources are immense, and its ascendancy over all the northern part of the Mexican Republic is much more secured, by the existing state of things, than it could be by a different mode of political existence.

I shall extend no further this recital of the events, which have brought about the revolution of Texas and consoli dated its independence. Besides, the history of the last Samuel Houston was then the hero of Texas, the glo- three years is reduced, as to Europe, to some general views, rious personification of her struggle against Mexico; soon, which it will be easy to sum up in a few words. What is this popularity vanished. His differences with the Con- most prominently presented in the external relations of the gress concerning the disposal of the national domains and new State is its recognition by the French Government; in the organization of the militia, his little taste and little its internal relations, is the uninterrupted progress of its fitness for business, his soldier's habits, his undignified population, especially since the nomination of General manners, caused his old services to be forgotten. The Lamar to the Presidency of the Republic. After a jourCongress had manifested in a remarkable report* the live-ney of some months in the interior of the country, I no liest opposition to Santa-Anna's having been set at liberty. Houston believed that honor made it his duty to release his prisoner, and have him taken to the United States. Lastly, he persisted in the desire of annexing Texas to the AngloAmerican confederacy, whilst the Texans, dissatisfied with having been repulsed by the Cabinet of Washington, made it their pride to form a separate Republic, whose grandeur and prosperity would one day be the envy of their powerful neighbors. This opinion of Houston filled the measure of his discredit, so that public opinion attracted the votes to Mirabeau Lamar at the Presidential election of

1836.

longer recognized the former cities which I had seen, so rapidly did the public and private buildings multiply. Texas, which did not reckon more than seventy thousand souls at the end of 1836, has now more than two hundred and fifty thousand. Agriculture, commerce, the organization of the public strength, have gone on with the same steps. It has formed a Navy; the Army is numerous, bul more ardent than disciplined; the receipts of the customhouses, and particularly the custom-house of Galveston, exhibit every three months a considerable increase in the advance of maritime commerce. For the production of cotton, Texas is unrivalled. The cotton there is at once handsomer and more abundant on the same extent of ground, than in the most favored States of the American Union; and in this respect Texas has but one danger to dread, that is, the excess of production.

In fact, Texas had been unable to procure the admission of her star into the great constellation, towards which it felt itself drawn by a community of origin, institutions and interests. At the risk of a war with Mexico, the United States had recognized the Independence of Texas, as soon The lands which extend below the Red River to within as the Government of that country had received its defini-seventy or eighty miles of the Gulf of Mexico, can pro tive organization; but powerful motives prevented the duce, in average years, from one bale to a bale and a bat cabinet of Washington from proposing the incorporation per acre (the acre represents very nearly half of a hectar of the new State to Congress. The daring Jackson would of France;) those which belong to the zone of the coast, perhaps have braved the dangers of this aggrandizement; from the Sabine to the Rio-Grande, commonly yield from but the prudent Van Buren, was unwilling to add this addi- two to three bales per acre, and in certain localities sall tional embarrassment to all those which his predecessor more. Each bale of cotton represents a weight of at least had bequeathed him. The necessity of maintaining the five hundred pounds; a hectare in Texas can therefore proequilibrium, to maintain the Union itself, between the slave- duce, every year, from two to three thousand pounds of holding States and the States which have proscribed sla- raw cotton; a wonderful fertility, if we compare it with the very, between the agricultural States of the South and the produce of some localities of the Union. In Alabama, the manufacturing States of the North, between the valley of settler usually obtains only six hundred pounds per scre the Mississippi and the original States, prevailed over the that is to say, a little more than one bale; and certain part Counsels of ambition. The abolition advocates attacked of Georgia frequently yield only three hundred pounds, the Texans without restraint, and declared against the ad- about the fifth of what the same extent of ground produces mission of Texas into the Union with extreme vigor. Mr. in Texas. I have seen upon the road from Montgomery to Adams of Massachusetts, made this question in the House Charleston, in Alabama and Georgia, immense fields, whereof Representatives the subject of a very violent, though in the cotton tree does not arrive at three feet in height; the forcible discourse, which reechoed in the bosom of the same plant rises to five or six feet on the banks of the MEnglish Parliament, and was not without influence upon sissippi, and to seven or eight in Texas. the decision of the Cabinet of Washington. England her- The cultivated part of Texas is embraced between the self, we cannot doubt, busied herself with the Government 96th and 100th degree of west longitude of the meridian of of the United States, to induce it to repel the offers of Paris; it extends from the sea-side as far as to the 32nd degree of latitude, and even further towards the north; the * The last pages of this report contain very severe, and space comprised between the 32nd parallel and the Ret unhappily very just, observations upon the political life and the morality of Santa-Anna. Never perhaps has the lawful head of a foreign Government been the object of a similar criticism in a public document emanating from anoer Government.

River, becoming peopled every day.

from four to five hundred thousand square miles, that twenty An American author has calculated; that Texas comprises

* Since this was written, she has.-Translator,

five millions of acres might be cultivated; that from five to six millions would produce at least a bale of cotton to the acre, and the greater part two or more. The least annual product would therefore be five millions of bales, which, at forty dollars a bale, would make the sum of a milliard of franes. Even should these calculations be marked with a certain exaggeration, the cultivation of cotton would not be the less an eventual source of riches for Texas, truly prodigious.

Here are some figures more modest. In 1833, Texas exported 4,000 bales of cotton, 10,000 in 1834. Their labors were suspended during the years 1835 and 1836; but they were resumed vigorously in 1837, and the exportation of 1838, was nearly 100,000 bales; this figure must have been exceeded since. It was in the month of March of the latter year, that Texas, for the first time, entered directly into commercial relations with Europe. The three masted English vessel, the Ambassador, arrived at Galveston from Liverpool with a rich cargo, and took back a cargo of 1,100 bales of cotton. This vessel, which drew twelve feet and a balf of water, entered at Galveston without difficulty.

What I have just said of cattle, necessarily applies to horses. The Texans appreciate all the advantages which the prairie presents to them in this respect, and desirous of profiting by them, they are establishing races on all sides. Besides the races between individuals, which the least gathering of the planters always occasions, there are races appointed by the Government for every locality sufficiently settled. The stakes sometimes amount to considerable sums; they have reached as much as 3 or 4000 dollars for a single parish. The Texas breed of horses is the same as that of the United States; it will be doubtless improved by the settlers, though it already much excels the mustangs of the prairies, which belong to the Arab stock; the Texan horses are at least as active as these, and much stronger.

To vegetable riches Texas adds others which are for modern nations more precious than the gold of Peru; iron and coal, those two so powerful instruments of civilization and labor.

To the north of the river Sabine, and all along the heights which begin to the north west of, and a little distance from Nacogdoches, and go to join the Ozark Mountains, we The Texans are also commencing the culture of the meet with very abundant mines of iron. They say that, sugar-cane; and, following the track opened by the settlers like certain beds of iron ore in the State of Missouri, they of Louisiana, they had given the preference to the variety contain fifty per cent. of metal. These formations make of Otaïti. This variety, which is [glaque], marked with part of the system of the Ozark Mountains. An English long violet bands, furnishes its saccharine matter in the mineralogist, who explored them at the expense of the course of a vegetation of five or six months, whilst the State of Arkansas, wrote, in 1838, that this chain contains cane of the Antilles requires fifteen to eighteen months to the richest iron mines, which have probably ever been seen arrive at the same point. The cane of Otaïti does not at-upon the surface of the globe. The bed of the Brazos is tain so great a development as this latter, it is true, but it yields two crops, whilst the latter is yielding but one. Cultivated first at Brazil, it afterwards passed to the Havannah, and thence to Louisiana, where some French settlers had the public spirit to distribute it. Now all the banks of the Mississippi, below New-Orleans, are covered with immense fields of canes, whose produce, already very great, is daily increasing. I have seen upon the coast of Brazoria, canes which reached from ten to twelve feet, and whose rings were already ripe, in the month of August, to the height of seven feet.

Indian corn succeeds perfectly in Texas; as to grain, a trial made for some years in the neighborhood of San-Antonio de Bejar, has proved that the elevated prairies, which surround that city are very suitable for this particular culture. Finally, I shall say, to conclude this careful observation of the vegetable riches of Texas, that the culture of the mulberry and of tobacco, that the production of cochineal and indigo, have been successfully attempted, and could be pursued upon a grand scale, with the most complete certainty of deriving therefrom a considerable profit.

The geological formation of Texas, offers to the settler admirable facilities for the raising of cattle; its prairies are for ten months covered with a verdant herbage, and during the two other months, that which is dried up at the period of the cold season, is still an excellent forage, which one might save if he felt the need of it, but all the woods are carpeted with a thick turf, which always remains green, and which supplies a better sustenance for cattle.

extremely rich in iron, (ferruginous free stone) and in the plain which extends between the Brazos and the Colorado, all the ravines are filled with hematite iron in grains.

As to coal, it is probable the indication afforded by the formation of red free stone, which we meet with on the left bank of the Brazos, is not deceptive. We feel equally certain that coal abounds in the Upper Brazos, and in the higher portion of the Colorado. I have heard it mentioned by some trappers, who had gone over New-Mexico and the deserts of California, that on the side of Lake Salina, to the north of the Sierra-de-San-Saba, and in the plains of California, not far from Lakes Teguayo and Timpanagos, (coal) and sea salt, were abundant. Many travellers speak in the same manner. It now appears nearly certain that coal is very abundant at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and that it is often seen bare along the water courses, which traverse the plains, and particularly in many points along the Missouri River, the Yellow Stone, the Kansas, the Osage River, &c. All these deposites of [houille] without belonging entirely to Texas, are at least within her reach, as well the gigantic amount of this material with which nature has so liberally endowed the territory of the United States. Finally, salt abounds in Texas; they

In the United States, coal is found throughout, from the borders of the Atlantic to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, are full of it. The chains and the parallel basins of the Alleghany mountains, are so many [coal] basins which a working of This happy combination of circumstances is, for Texas, many ages cannot exhaust. To the riches already accua source of riches always certain. It is not uncommon to mulated, new riches are daily added; and, as if Nature in meet there with settlers, who already own from 1500 to favoring these fortunate lands had been unwilling to do it 2000 head of cattle, for the rearing of which they have by halves, she has placed most of these deposites of comnot taken the least pains. All these animals are at liberty; bustibles in the vicinity of great water courses, all navigaevery one marks with his cypher those which belong to him, ble. The banks of the Alleghany River, and of the Mononand gives himself no further trouble about them; the sum-gahela, present at every step workings of [houille]; it is mer, they pass in the prairie; in the winter, they well know how to find for themselves the fresh and juicy grass of the bottoms.*

*So they call the woody places which skirt the watercourses, and where the grass remains green all the year.

the same with the Ohio and the greater number of its tributaries. New mines of coal seem to rise every instant in the prairies of Indiana, and very recently they have just discovered, on the banks of the River Illinois, a deposite of [coal] of the greatest riches. This river traverses a prairie most commonly bare of trees; we must suppose that