period of separation fearfully accelerated by making Texas a sovereign and independent power, with such an ally as England?"

The question of Texan annexation, or independence, presented an embarrassing dilemma to those who wished, by means of protective duties, to secure a monopoly of the home market for American manufactures. If the United States extended their southern wing to the Rio Grande, the anti-tariff party would gain a preponderance most favourable to England. On the other hand, if Texas were independent, she might force the whole American continent into the adoption of free trade principles, which would be still more conducive to British aggrandisement, as it would "tranquillize her restless population by constant occupation, and, by returning a superabundance of raw material, in exchange for her fabrics, enable her to undersell the world."

CHAPTER III.

Cherokee Indians-Presidential Election-Policy of President Lamar's Administration-Education--Laws--Tariff -Banking-Grants to Settlers-Indian Irruptions and Designs-Expulsion of the Cherokees - Trade with the Mexicans - Mission to Mexico-French diplomatic Agent in Texas-Arrival of Admiral Baudin at Galveston-Appointment of General Hamilton and Mr. Burnley to negotiate a Loan-Recognition of Texan Independence by France Presidential Message-State of Mexico-Treaty between England and Texas.

FOR the purpose of furnishing a clear consecutive statement of the events and transactions detailed in the preceding chapter, I have been obliged to depart from chronological order, from which, indeed, I have more than once had occasion to deviate for the like reason. The course of the narrative still lies within the period of General Houston's administration, which, according to a provision of the Constitution restricting the first Presidential term to two years, commenced in 1836, and was to terminate in 1838.

Defensive preparations, the settlement of land titles, measures of finance, and Indian feuds and negotiations, chiefly occupied the Texans during 1837-38. To many of the settlers the policy of President Houston with regard to the Cherokees and other north-eastern tribes gave great dissatisfaction. It appears by the Journal of the Consultation of Texas, held at San Felipe, October 16th,

1835, that the delegates assembled in Convention had declared on the 13th of November-" That the Cherokee Indians and their associate bands had derived their just claims to lands, included within a district lying north of the San Antonio road and the Neches, and west of the rivers Sabine and Angelina, from the government of Mexico, from which the declarants had also derived their right to the soilby grant and occupancy." The Consultation further declared that they would guarantee to said Indians the peaceable enjoyment of their rights to these lands, pronouncing all grants, surveys, and locations within the specified bounds null and void, and calling on the Commissioners who had issued the same to recall and cancel them, as having been made upon lands already appropriated by the Mexican Government.* Upon the basis of this declaration, three Commissioners, of whom General Houston was one, had been deputed to negotiate a treaty with the parties indicated.

Bowles, the Cherokee chief, the offspring of an Indian woman by a Scottish father-a shrewd, intelligent man-had made strenuous endeavours to obtain for the tribes a grant of the lands they occupied. Almonte's Report establishes the fact that, at the close of 1834, Bowles and his colleagues had not succeeded in their application-the petition being at that time only on its way to the Mexican GoIt was obviously the policy of Mexico to hold out the inducement of a land grant to

vernment.

* Since a previous allusion to this subject, I have procured the Journals of the Consultation.

the Indians, in order to obtain their co-operation against the Colonists, but no evidence has been adduced of the perfecting of such a grant. The declaration of the Consultation, therefore, in the absence of a Mexican title, was deemed inoperative by most of the Texans, who also held that the Consultation, in framing the declaration, had exceeded their powers, which were not plenary.

General Houston, who had been mainly instrumental in obtaining the pledge from the Consultation, accompanied by Mr. Forbes of Nacogdoches, met Bowles, Big Mush, and some other chiefs, delegated by the Indians, on the 23rd of February, 1836, at the Cherokee village, and concluded a treaty. By this treaty, the Cherokees and their associate bands were to receive a fee-simple title to all the land lying "west of the San Antonio road, and beginning on the west at the point where the said road crosses the river Angelina, and running up said river until it reaches the mouth of the first large creek below the great Shawnee village, emptying into said river from the north-east. Thence running with said creek to its main source, and from thence a due north line to the Sabine, and with said river west; then, starting where the said San Antonio road crosses the Angelina, and with said road to where it crosses the Neches, and thence running up the east side of the river, in a northwesterly direction." The Convention at Washington, which declared the independence of Texas and framed the Constitution, refused to accept this treaty, of which nothing more was heard until the elevation of General Houston to the Presidency, when he pressed its adoption with all the weight of execu

tive influence. It was, however, formally rejected by the Senate, in secret session, on the 16th of December, 1837.

In the mean time, the Cherokees had opened negotiations covertly with the Mexican Government, and had, according to official documents filed in the State department of Texas, concluded an agreement by which they were to have, not only the territory comprised in the stipulations of 23rd February, 1836, but concessions much more extensive, provided they succeeded in ejecting the Anglo-Mexicans from the country. Still, President Houston contended that these Indians were entitled to an absolute fee-simple of their lands, and used every exertion to obtain a ratification of their claims. Whether or not the grant of the lands would have secured the fidelity of the Cherokees and their associates, as the President believed, I am unable to say; but it was ere long discovered, that they had formed a league with the Mexican population about Nacogdoches to attack simultaneously the AngloAmerican inhabitants. For the accomplishment of this design, a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition had been procured, and numbers of Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles invited from the United States into Texas. An accident defeated the plot. Some horses having been stolen by the Indians, their owners followed in pursuit, and traced the spoilers of their property to the general rendezvous in a swamp on the Angelina. The citizens of eastern Texas flew to arms, and a force under General Rusk dispersed the Indians and drove the revolted Mexicans out of the country.

In the hope of quieting the Indians, President