The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Volume 1 Page: 5

for Austin’s Colony.
5
twenty he married Miss Maria Brown, in Philadelphia, and soon after
established a commercial house in Richmond, Virginia, in partnership
with his brother Stephen, who was at the head of an extensive import-
ing house in Philadelphia. They afterwards purchased the lead mines,
called Chissel’s mines, on New river, Wythe county, Virginia, to which
he removed and established a regular system of mining and smelting
shot, sheet lead, and other factories of lead, for which purpose, miners
and mechanics, in those branches, were introduced from England; for,
at that time, manufactories of this description, were in their infancy in
the United States. Revolutions, incident to extended commercial busi-
ness, and to adventurous enterprise, brought on a reverse in both the
Philadelphia and Virginia houses, and Mr. Moses Austin having received
flattering accounts of the lead mines of Upper Louisiana, (now Missouri,)
he determined to visit that distant and then unknown country. Accord-
ingly, having procured the necessary passports from the Spanish minis-
ter, he visited upper Louisiana in 1797, and procured a grant from the
governor general, Baron de Carondelet, for one league of land, including
the Mine-a-Burton, forty miles west of St. Genivieve; and after closing
all his affairs in the United States, he removed his family and a number
of others from Wythe county, by a new and almost untried route, down
the Kanhaway river, to his new grant, in 1799, and laid a foundaton for
the settlment of what is now called Washington county in Missouri.
The family of his nephew, Elias Bates, was the first, and his own, the
second, that ever spent a winter at Mine-a-Burton, now Potosi. The
early settlers of that place and county, will bear ample testimony, as to
his enterprise, public spirit, and honorable character; which qualities,
in fact, brought on another reverse of fortune, and caused him to turn,
with unabated ardor, in the decline of life, to a new and hazardous enter-
prise, in the wilderness of Texas.—It is hoped the reader will pardon
this digression; it was thought due to the real author of that enterprise,
which has led to our location in this country.
The memorial of Moses Austin was granted on the 17th of January,
1821, by the supreme government of the eastern internal provinces of
New Spain at Monterey. It gave permission to said Austin to introduce
three hundred families in Texas. A special commissioner was despatched
by the governor of Texas, in conformity with the orders of the command-
ant general, Don Joaquin de Aredondo, to the United States, for the
purpose of communicating to Mr. Austin the result of his application,
and of conducting the said families, in a legal manner, into the country.
This commissioner was Don Erasmo Seguin, a very respectable citizen
of Bexar.
S. F. Austin, who was in New Orleans, as before stated, having re-
ceived information of the arrival of the commissioner, Don Erasmo Se-
guin, at Natchitoches, proceeded to that place, and there heard the death
of his father. He then determined to accompany the said commissioner
to Bexar, explore the country, and make such further arrangements as
might be necessary to prosecute the enterprise. He accordingly started
from Natchitoches the 5th July, 1821, with seventeen companions, in
company with said commissioner, and some other gentlemen from Bexar,
among whom was Don Juan Martin Berrimendi, also a respectable citi-
zen of that place. The whole company arrived in the capital of Texas,
on the 10th of August, by the upper or San Antonio road. He was
(5.)