The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916 Page: 444

The Southwestern Historical Quarterly

NEWS NOTES
Mr. Philip C. Tucker, 3d, has presented to the Texas State
Historical Association a number of objects of much historical in-
terest: (1) The original duplicate of the first seal of the Gen-
eral Land Office of the Republic of Texas. The financial agent
of the Republic in New Orleans was instructed in 1836 to have
this seal engraved, but delay attending the execution of the com-
mission interfered with delivery of the seal when completed; in
consequence it remained in private hands until now. (2) Two
maps: one a "map of Galveston Island copied from surveys made
by J. M. Wampler in 1849 and 1850 under the direction of the
U. S. Coast Survey"; the other a map of the city of Galveston.
(3) A package of manuscripts, comprising the minutes of a
special grand jury, impaneled for the purpose of investigating
and sequestering the property of alien enemies of the Confederacy.
The jury was sworn and charged by Judge William P. Hill of
the District Court of the Confederate States of America for the
Eastern District of Texas, November 18, 1861, and extended to
January 11, 1862. Accompanying the minutes are two reports
of property of alien enemies and forty indictments filled out over
the printed signature of William P. Ballinger, Receiver for Con-
federate States of America. The fact that records of the Con-
federate courts are almost unknown makes this gift of special
importance.
Mr. William Edward Dunn, whose article on'the Spanish Search
for La Salle's Colony appears in this number of THE QUARTERLY,
is now in Seville, Spain, making transcripts of documents bear-
ing on the history of Texas and the Southwest. The work is
financed by the University of Texas, in which Mr. Dunn is In-
structor in Spanish-American History, the University of Cali-
fornia, the Library of Congress, and the Texas State Library.
Down to December 30, 1915, some 4000 pages had been tran-
scribed.
In a review of historical activity in the Southwest, published
in the March number of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review,

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