The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928 Page: 125
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German Settlers and the Indians in Texas, 1844-1860 125
dress, which the Indian interpreter, Jim Shaw, who was with
Major Neighbors, translated.30 Meusebach proposed the three
following articles for a treaty:
1. My countrymen have the permission to go and travel where
they please, and no harm must be done to them, but you must pro-
tect them everywhere. On the other hand, your people can come
to our wigwams and cities without fear and can go wherever they
please and shall be protected.
2. You the chiefs, and your people will assist us and report to
us, when bad men and redfaces of other tribes steal our horses or
intend other felonies, and we shall do the same, when you are
attacked.
3. I am going to send men with the thing that steals the land
(compasses), as the red men call it, and will survey the whole
country of the San Saba as far as the Concho and other waters, so
that we may know the boundaries where we can go and till the soil.
And if you are willing after consultation with your warriors, to
make this treaty, then I will give you and your squaws many pres-
ents, or equal them with the white pieces of metal, that we call
dollars, and give you as many as one thousand and more of them.
Meusebach set the date for the signing of the treaty in the fol-
lowing words: "If we agree on this treaty, I shall go and fetch
the presents and will sign the treaty solemnly, at the latest when
the disk of the moon has rounded twice." The treaty was ratified
at Fredericksburg at the appointed time.
The making of the treaty was a very important accomplish-
ment, both for the German settlers and for the state of Texas.
The Fisher and Miller grant at last became valuable for the
Adelsverein. Without the treaty it would have been dangerous
for either the settlers or the surveyors to go into the grant. If
the Adelsverein could not have had its land surveyed, the contract
would have lapsed. Meusebach was indeed a courageous man and
displayed great skill in the making of the treaty with the warlike
Comanches, who held him in great respect and called him "El sol
colorado," on account of his great flowing reddish beard.
"Tiling, Moritz, History of the German Element in Tewas from 1820-
1850, gives the translation of the "talks" by Meusebach, Santana, Mope-
chuoope, and Pochanaquarhip (Buffalo Hump), 99-104. Penniger, Fest-
Ausgabe, 101-107, gives these talks in German from an article which
appeared in the Magazin fuer die Litteratur des Auslandes, 1847. The
three articles of the treaty were proposed by Meusebach in his, first talk.
They are found in Tiling, op. cit., 100.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928, periodical, 1928; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101088/m1/137/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.