e passage of the colonists provided it did not exceed
$20, and after they were established upon the land, to furnish them
agricultural implements, stock, seed, and housing quarters, as well as
$6 monthly during the first three months, and thereafter a sum later
to be agreed upon. Each family was to be given sixty acres for
cultivation, forty for cotton, fifteen for corn, and five for a
garden.[7] The company was to receive 40% of the yield of cotton and
corn, the colonists 50%, and Ellis 10%. The colonists were to have two
years in which to pay for their passage; but, of course, the money
advanced for sustenance was to be paid from the first crop, except in
the event of an extremely lean year. The entire produce of the garden
was to go to the Negroes. Stores were to be established in the colony,
the colonists were to have their cotton ginned at the gins of the
company at the rate of $1.50 per bale, and the company was to be given
preference on all the produce sold. The contract was to endure for a
period of five years.[8]

Ellis set about immediately to fulfil his agreement. Going among the
Negroes of Alabama and Georgia, he issued a rather extravagant
circular representing his proposition as presenting the "greatest
opportunity ever offered to the colored people of the United States to
go to Mexico, ... the country of 'God and Liberty.'" He declared that
the land of his company would easily produce a bale of cotton and from
fifty to seventy-five bushels of corn per acre; spoke of irrigation
facilities which made them independent of the rain, of "fine game,
such as deer, bear, duck, and wild geese, and all manner of small
game, as well as opossum," and of schools and churches to be
constructed; and sought especially to impress upon their minds the
fact that "the great Republic of Mexico extends to all of its citizens
the same treatment--equal rights to all, special privileges to
none."[9]

A number of Negroes were soon attracted by the project and early in
February they were ready to set out. In fact, by the 6th a party had
already arrived at the hacienda of the company, situated some thirty
miles east of Mapimi, Durango, in a rather "wild and inaccessible
place" several miles from a railway. On the 25th of the same month
another group of colonists put in their appearance, making a total of
about 816.

It is interesting to note the section from which the Negroes came, and
the size and composition of the families whi