CHAPTER I. MEXICO BECOMES A REPUBLIC-PLAN OF IGUALA-MEXICO GAINS AN INDISPUTABLE TITLE TO TEXAS, IN 1819-COLONIZATION SCHEMES-KEENE-OWEN-MOSES AUSTIN OBTAINS A CONTRACT-DIES-STEPHEN F. AUSTIN SELECTS A LOCATION IN TEXAS FOR HIS COLONY-AUSTIN AIDED BY HAWKINS-SCHOONER LIVELY LOST-AUSTIN IN THE CITY OF MEXICO. WE E do not propose to take our readers into the labyrinths of Mexican politics, or even to record the oft-recurring revolutions of that unhappy country. But Texas was under Mexican domination, and of course was more or less affected by all the changes of government; and this was the period in which Mexico threw off her dependence upon Spain and took her position among the independent nations of the earth. Hidalgo was the first to unfurl the Republican banner in Mexico. This was in 1812; and though he failed, Morelos and others kept up the organization of a party, struggling for deliverance from the Spanish yoke. Spain herself was now passing through the trying ordeal of a change of dynasty, and the Republicans thought it a favorable moment to strike for Mexican independence. Fortunately, Agustin Iturbide, the ablest of the loyalist generals, gave in his adhesion to the movement. At the suggestion of Iturbide, a conference was held with Guerrero and other Republican leaders at Iguala, a small town about sixty miles from Mexico, on the road to Acapulco. The result of this interview was "the Plan of Iguala," proclaimed February 24, 1821. This plan was somewhat modified after the arrival of O'Donohue, the newly-appointed Viceroy, but in fact, the Plan of Iguala terminated the Spanish dominion in Mexico. Another change favorable to the settlement of Texas had taken place. For more than a century the country had been in dispute, claimed by both France and Spain; and after France sold Louisiana to the United States, that government had revived the claim of France. The United States also wanted Florida. The ministers plenipotentiary of the countries met. Spain was represented by De Onis, and the United States by John Quincy Adams. A treaty was entered into February 22, 1819, by which Spain sold Florida to the United States, and the latter relinquished all claim to Texas. When the United States achieved her independence, she proffered a home to immigrants from all parts of the world. Her unexampled prosperity had its influence upon her southern neighbors. Even before the independence of Mexico, her rulers began to entertain projects for the colonization of unsettled portions of the country. To Edmund Keene, the English statesman, was given the right to settle with colonists 21,000 square leagues of the best land in Texas. This project failed. The next to apply for a colonization grant was Robert Owen, the Socialist and Communist, who wished, in this wilderness, to test the practicability of his Socialistic system. But as none but Roman Catholics were tolerated in Spanish America, this application was, of course, unsuccessful; and New Harmony, Indiana, witnessed the failure of Owen's exper iment. The survivors of the ill-fated expeditions of Magee and Long had given glowing descriptions of Texas; and the liberal disposition of the Mexican authorities made it a favorable time for planting colonies of Anglo-Americans in this inviting field. Moses Austin, a citizen of Missouri, who had moved into that country when it belonged to Spain, resolved to become the founder of a Texas colony. To |