The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 174
xiii, 358 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
[of this colonization law], and in consideration of his petition, it
assigns to him the land for which he asks, contained within these
limits: Beginning on the right bank of the Arroyo de la Vaca,
at a distance of the reserved ten leagues from the coast, adjoining
the colony of Stephen Austin, the line shall go up this arroyo
as far as the B6jar-Nacogdoches road; it shall follow this road
toward the west until it reaches a point two leagues west of the
Guadalupe River; from there it shall run parallel with the river
south toward the coast until it reaches the ten-league coast reser-
vation; thence it shall run along the inner edge of this reservation
toward the east to the place of beginning.1
2nd. The empresario shall respect the rights of individuals
legally possessed of lands within this district.
3rd. In accordance with the above-mentioned colonization law
of March 24, the empresario, Green De Witt, shall be obliged,
under penalty of losing the rights and privileges guaranteed by
article 8 of this law, to introduce the four hundred families within
the term of six years beginning from to-day.
4th. The families that shall compose this colony, besides being
Catholic, as the empresario promises in his petition, must also be
able to prove, by certificates from the authorities of the localities
from which they come, their good moral character.
5th. The empresario shall not introduce into his colony crim-
inals, vagrants, or persons of bad morals, and if such be found
there he shall cause them to leave the republic, by force of arms if
necessary.
6th. To this end he shall organize, in accordance with law, the
national militia, and he shall be commanding officer of it until
other arrangements shall be made.
7th. When he shall have introduced at least one hundred fam-
ilies he must advise the government, in order that a commissioner
may be sent to put the colonists in possession of their lands ac-
cording to law, and to establish towns, for which he shall carry
competent instructions.
8th. Official correspondence with the government or with the
state authorities, legal instruments, and other public documents
must be written in Spanish, and when towns shall have been
formed, it shall be the duty of the empresario to establish schools
in that language.
9th. It shall also be his duty to erect churches in the new
towns; to provide them with ornaments, sacred vessels, and other
adornments dedicated to divine worship; and to apply in due time
for the priests needed for the administration of spiritual instruc-
tion.
10th. In all matters not here referred to he shall be governed
by the constitution, the general laws of the nation, and the special
laws of the state which he adopts as his own.
These articles having been agreed upon by his excellency, the
1 In translating the description of this line, literalness has to a consid-
erable extent been sacrificed to clearness.174
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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/m1/176/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.