The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 173
xiii, 358 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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De Witt's Colony.
APPENDIX III.
DE WITT'S PETITION.1
(TRANSLATION.)
Most Excellent Sir: I, Green De Witt, a citizen of the United
States of North America, appear before your excellency to make
known to you that I have come to this country seeking to obtain
permission to colonize with four hundred industrious Catholic
families those lands of the ancient province of Texas (now an in-
tegral portion of this State) which are included within limits that I
shall shall herein designate. These immigrants shall be required to
subject themselves to the religious, civil, and political laws of the
country which henceforth they adopt as their own, and in estab-
lishing themselves therein, they shall respect the rights of all pre-
vious settlers, as provided by the colonization law which the honor-
able congress of this state has just passed. Moreover, there shall
be brought into this colony only such families as are known to be
respectable and industrious. I therefore beg you to grant to me,
your petitioner, those lands that are included within the following
limits, in order that I may settle upon them the four hundred fam-
ilies above mentioned: Beginning on the right bank of Arroyo
de la Vaca at a distance of the reserved ten leagues from the coast,
adjoining the colony of Stephen Austin on the east, the line shall
go up the river to the Bejar-Nacogdoches road; it shall follow this
road until it reaches a point two leagues to the west of Guadalupe
River; thence it shall run parallel with the river down to the
Paraje de los Mosquitos; and following the inner edge of the ten-
league coast reservation, it shall close the boundaries of the grant
at the point of beginning.
We are also desirous that respectable families of this country
[Mexico] shall come to settle with us, not only in order to con-
tract enduring friendship with them, but also in order to acquire
the use of the language of the nation that we now adopt as our
own and the ability to give perfect instruction therein to our chil-
dren. Therefore I humbly beg you to grant my petition.
GREEN DE WITT.
Saltillo, April 7, 1825.
Conditions upon which is allowed the projected introduction by
Green De Witt, a citizen of the United States of North America,
of four hundred families as colonists into the department of
Texas.
1st. Inasmuch as the plan presented in the preceding memo-
rial by the person concerned conforms to the colonization law of
the honorable congress of the state, adopted March 24, the gov-
ernment consents to it, and, therefore, in fulfillment of article 8
1 Empresario Contracts, 27-31.173
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905, periodical, 1905; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101033/m1/175/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.