New Orleans 8 Aug 1824
Dear Sir
A report has been in circulation here for some days, brought I
believe by a Steam Boat from Natchitoches that all your settlers, have
raised the standard of Rebellion; and refuse obedience to law or any
authority whatever—As the province must now be the only resort
to which Mrs Hawkins can look for support for herself and helpless
family the report of course excites considerable Interest and I hope
it is not true—If you should receive this in any reasonable time after
its date you would greatly oblige me by forwarding such
information as would put the subject beyond doubt, one way or the other—I
am the more anxious on this subject from a paragraph which on
reperusing your last letter strikes, me with much force, since
hearing the foregoing report—you say "I have many things to explain
relative to events recently transpired here but have not time now" I
much fear these events are the rebellion of your settlers, and that
it will be a scene of confusion and disaster, retarding your final
opperations for years to come.
I shall not make any communication on this all import Subject to
Mrs Hawkins or Mr Sanders until I am better informed myself,
but be assured I shall feel great anxiety until I know more on the
subject.
I have no doubt but your late Emperor Iterbide is by this time
relanded at Vera Cruse—he sailed from London in May with the
declared intention of his again assuming Kingly Authority in Mexico,
and he further states that his voyage is undertaken at the Instance
of a large number of the first characters of the Province—it is to be
hoped however that his views will not be reallized but that on his
landing he may be caught and hung—there is little doubt but Saint
Anna is no better than Iterbide and while such Arch Traitors hold
offices of trust and honour in the country there can be no guarantee
for the lives or property of the Citizens—In short I fear there is
not yet sufficient learning and virtue in the people of that country
to make a staple form of Government and then suppert it. They may
make and adopt constitutions every year and still find persons to
violate them, and when the penalty is called for, the criminal
concentrates his party and puts down the whole System—This has been
the case for fifteen years, and still there is no fixed and solid
foundation for them to sustain—and I fear wont be until the present
generation passes away and another organized on different principals raises
up, who from more Experience will be able to frame a constitution
suitable to the manners and customs of the people it is intended for—
Nath: Cox
I intended to send you the letter of Iterbide which he addresses
to a friend in London before sailing, but cant lay my hand on it at
present—
N C
Col. Stephen F. Austin Province of Texas.