of limits between Spain and our country was concluded in 1819, conceived the project of establishing a settlement in that region. Accordingly, in 1821 he obtained from the Commandant General of the Provincias Internas, permission to introduce three hundred foreign families. In 1823, a national colonization law was approved by the Mexican Emperor Iturbide during his brief reign, and on the 18th of February, Stephen F. Austin, who had succeeded his father, after his death, in carrying out the project, was authorized to proceed with the founding of the colony. After the emperor's fall, this decree was confirmed by the first executive council in conformity to the express will of congress.
In 1824 the federal constitution of Mexico was, as we have narrated, adopted, by the republican representatives, upon principles analogous to those of the constitution of the United States; and by a decree of the 7th of May, Texas and Coahuila were united in a state. In this year another general colonization law was enacted
by congress, and foreigners were invited to the new domain by a special state colonization law of Coahuila and Texas.
Under these local laws and constitutional guaranties, large numbers of foreigners flocked to this portion of Mexico, opened farms, founded towns and villages, re-occupied old Spanish settlements, introduced improvements in agriculture and manufactures, drove off the Indians, and formed, in fact, the nucleus of an enterprizing and progressive population. But there were jealousies between the race that invited the colonists, and the colonists who accepted the invitation. The central power in the distant capital did not estimate, at their just value, the independence of the remote pioneers, or the state-right sovereignty to which they had been accustomed at their former home in the United States. Mexico was convulsed by revolutions, but the lonely residents of Texas paid no attention to the turmoils of the factionists. At length,