been properly represented to the civilized
people of Europe, would have caused them to blot the name of Texas out
of the list of nations.

I have already related the massacre of the Comanches in San Antonio, and
the miserable pilfering expedition to Santa Fe, but these two acts had
been preceded by one still more disgraceful.

The Cherokees, who had migrated to Texas, were flourishing in their new
settlement, when the bankruptcy of the merchants in the United States
was followed by that of the planters. The consequence was, that from
Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, hundreds of planters
smuggled their negroes and other property into Texas, and as they dared
not locate themselves too far west, from their dread of the Mexicans and
Indians, they remained in the east country, upon the rivers of which
only, at that time, navigation had been attempted.

These new comers, however, had to struggle with many difficulties; they
had to clear the ground, to build bridges, to dry up mud-holes and
swamps; and, moreover, they found that they could not enter into
competition with the Cherokees, who having been established there for a
longer time, and raising abundant crops of maize, cotton, and tobacco,
were enabled to sell their provisions at one-half the price which the
white planter wished to realize. The Europeans, of course, preferred to
settle near the Cherokees, from whom they could obtain their Indian corn
at fifty cents a bushel, while the American planters demanded two
dollars, and sometimes three. In a short time, the Cherokee district
became thickly settled, possessing good roads, and bridges and ferries
upon every muddy creek; in short, it was, in civilization, full a
century ahead of all the other eastern establishments of Texas.

The Texan planters from the United States represented to the government
that they would have no chance of cultivating the country and building
eastern cities, as long as the Cherokees were allowed to remain; and,
moreover, they backed their petition with a clause showing that the
minimum price the Cherokee land would be sold at to new comers from the
United States was ten dollars an acre. This last argument prevailed, and
in spite of the opposition of two or three honest men, the greedy
legislators attacked the validity of the acts made during the former
presidency; the Cherokees' grant was recalled, and notice given to them
that they should forthwith give up their plantations a