San Felipe de Austin October 2 1826
Genl Humphry Fullerton,
Dr Sir, I was truly gratified to learn by your letter to Major
Burnett that you had arrived at home safe in July, that your health
was improving and that you had received applications from near
one hundred families who wished to emigrate to this colony, and
more were daily applying—
The forty swiss families you speak of from Vevey will be
valuable acquisition as cultivators of the vine, a species of culture which
I have no doubt will succeed well and yield great profits in
proportion to the Capital and labor employed. The climate and soil are
said, by those who profess themselves judges, to be well adapted
to the cultivation of the vine, we cannot decide from actual
experiments for none of consequence have been made—wild grapes are
very abundant in sandy soils throughout the country and of a good
quality, well flavored.—
It is important that you should send on as soon as possible a
list of the families who are coming on stating the name of the head
of the family, age, where born, last place of residence, wheither
married or single, number of male and female children, ages, number
of hirelings—occupation—age of wife—This list is necessary in
order to enter them in the records of the Colony—
In regard to the fees I am as yet unable to inform you—The
commissioner has not come on and I have received no final instructions
on the subject—I am certain however that they will not exceed
about four cents pr. acre including surveying fees and all charges
and six years will be allowed to pay a part of them. Such
arrangements can no doubt be made with the surveyors in regard to their
fees as will make the payment easy
The Government move very slow—and sometimes produces
embarrassments and frequently disappointments and I wish the families
who are coming on to understand that I am not in any manner to be
accountable or censurable for embarrassments occationed by the
delays of the Government—So far as depends on me their business
shall be promptly and faithfully attended to. we as yet have no
constitution for this state altho the Legislature or congress convened
to frame it have been two years in session—there is a prospect that
it will be completed in all this winter—The question as to the
admission of slavery is undecided tho I think it probable that the
unrestricted admission of slavery will not be permitted—those now in
the country will probably be held as slaves for life, what will be done
with their descendants is doubtfull
The Commissioner of the old Colony I expect will be here in all
this month or next in company with that of the new one; and as soon
as the affairs of the former are finally closed the surveys of the latter
will commence and not before, by that time the list of families above
spoken of can be sent on and the land laid off for them—
I am in very bad health which must be my excuse if I have not
written as fully as you wished—hoping to see you and the families
in the course of the coming winter I remain
Stephen F. Austin [Rubric]