To His Excellency
Genl Bustamente
Commander in Chief &c &e
The undersigned, finding a deep and lively concern in all that
relates to the welfare of their adopted Country, and entertaining
a peculiar regard for the future advancement and tranquility of
Texas, beg leave very respectfully, to submit the following facts
and suggestions to Your Excellency's serious consideration, in order
that the subject to which they relate may be presented to the proper
authorities of the Government of Mexico—
In the winter of 1823, Mr. Monroe, then President of the United
States of the North, recommended to Congress that measures should
be taken to remove all the Tribes of Indians resident within the
organised limits of the United States, to regions to be assigned
them on the west side of the Mississippi, and beyond the boundaries
of the State of Missouri and of the Arkansas territory—The
Congress promptly adopted the recommendation and Commissioners
were appointed to treat with the Indians on the subject of their
removal—Treaties to that end have already been effected with some
of the most considerable Tribes of the North, to wit—with the
C[h]octaws, the Chickesaws the Cherokees and the Creeks, by which
they have severally engaged to emigrate to the west—Other Treaties
probably have been or shortly will be made with other Tribes of a
similar import—
By the terms of these treaties, lands are designated for the future
location of these Nations or barbarians, on the west side of the
Mississippi and for some of them, in the immediate vicinity of
Texas—Stipulated annuities in money and in arms and ammunition
are allowed them in consideration of the lands they have relinquished
and ceded to the United States, that Government continuing to
exercise its wonted national sovereignty over them and to guarantee to
them its national protection.
The very terms of these compacts import that the Government
of the United States possess a right of supervisorship and control
over these Indians, and every principle of national comity that
ought, and it is hoped does exist between the Government of Mexico,
and that of the United States, would dictate that that right should
be so exercised as to prevent these barbarian protejees from
becoming troublesome or inconvenient to their neighboring sister
Republic—And we conceive it to be perfectly competent and reasonable
for Mexico to protest against the settlement of these Savage Tribes
in her immediate vicinity, inasmuch as it must subject that part of
her territory bordering on such settlements to an absolute dereliction
or render it fit only for the habitation of other Nations of Savages—
The removal in part of several Tribes has already been effected,
and although but a small proportion of the whole number
contemplated to be removed have as yet appeared in the Country designated
for their future location, the injurious consequences flowing from
this forced and unnatural accumulation of Savages in a territory
obviously incapable of sustaining them, to the adjacent territories
of Mexico is too apparent to escape the most cursory observer— It
is a fact sufficiently notorious, that a great proportion of the
Country alotted for the settlement of these discordant nations is [in] a
sterile, unproductive wilderness and situated in an inclement and
unfriendly climate—Such a country can present but few
inducements to a permanent agricultural occupation by a people who have
made just enough progress in civilization to have acquired many of
its most mischievious arts and all its vices, but not enough to endow
them with sufficient fortitude and patience to subdue a stubborn
wilderness to cultivation, or to sustain themselves from again
relapsing into their primitive state of barbarism—Hunting and predation
are the favorite pursuits of Savages—the chase possesses a
fascination that is altogether irresistible to the untutored mind and derives
its principal charm from the resemblance it has to War, to which all
unenlightened nations are passionately addicted—
It requires but a superficial acquaintance with the character of
these aborigines of the north who are about to be transposed to our
borders to predict that in a very few years after their ejection from
the pale of that power which has heretofore surrounded them and
curbed their wild propensities, they will abandon all their acquired
habits of civilization and return to their pristine savage condition:—
and it then requires less forecast to perceive, that the Country in
which they are to be congregated will be altogether insufficient for
their accommodation—Without estimating the certain occurrences
of feuds and wars among themselves, and the inevitable dispersions
resulting from them, we may deduce from the principles of a purely
physical necessity, the fact that many of these Tribes will be
compelled to spread themselves abroad and to seek a more commodious
residence in a Country less densely populated and where the means
of subsistence are more plentiful and of easier access—Texas
presents every allurement that is calculated to attract their notice and
excite their cupidity—Lying contiguous to their newly acquired
territory and possessing a climate mild and salubrious—with a soil
abundantly prolific diversified by alternate forests and prairies
replete with every variety of game, and pervaded in every part by
perennial streams of water, it has the superior attraction of being
sufficiently remote from any powerful white population to promise
them an undisturbed occupation, and is still sufficiently proximate
to insure ample opportunities of gratifying their ancient animosities
and indulging their passions for rapine and war, by depradating on
the unprotected frontiers of Mexico.
With respect to the fact that many of these northern Tribes will
extend their migrations and eventually select a home beneath the
brighter skies of Texas, we are not left to the precarious calculations
of conjecture—several of them have already taken up their
encampments within the proper jurisdiction of this Government, and they
have already declared their determination not to relinquish their
forcible, uninvited and unauthorized possessions—The names and
numbers of those Tribes or parts of Tribes that now occupy our
territory are as follows:
Shawnees 550 families
Kickapoos 500 " "
Delawares 250 " "
Cherokees 80 " "
Quapaws 150 " "
The Quapaws are encamped on the west side of the Red River of
Louisiana, a little below the Sulphur Fork and it is quite
problematical whether they are within this territory or not—This fact
cannot be determinately know[n] untill the boundary line between
the two Governments shall be finally adjusted—Reducing these
families to individuals by supposing 5 souls to each family, we have
7650 souls and allowing one able bodied man to every 5 souls will
give the aggregate number of 1530 warriors This number, though
sufficiently formidable of itself, considering the wilderness state of
the Country and the infancy and feebleness of the white population
within it, is rendered still more alarming by the warlike and
ferocious character of those warriors—They have been long tried
in arms in many fierce and bloody contests with the hardy
backwoodsmen of the north, and have always displayed great bravery
and indefatigable enterprise and persurverance—They are
admirably expert in the use of the Rifle, and although compelled to retire
before the accummulated masses of the north Americans, who have
gradually driven them from forest to forest and over river after
river, they have never acknowledged themselves conquered, but still
feel able to contend with equal numbers of the best troops of the
civilized world-
Should these Indians be allowed to remain and obtain a
permanent foothold in the Country, it will inevitably attract the
residues of their respective nations to re-unite with them, and in
all probability other Tribes will be allured by their example to seek
a more congenial residence than is to be found in the inclement
forests of the North—In the lapse of a very few years unless some
prompt and efficient measures are taken to check this dangerous
imigration, these northern barbarians will swarm in Texas as the
Goth and Vandals swarmed into Italy, and impelled by the same
motives and the same antipathies, they will spread a similar
desolation in their progress—
Another and very imminent danger connected with this
emigration is found in the great probability that these strangers will form
at least a temporary alliance with our ancient enemies the
Comanches, the Whacoes and the Tawackanies, and combined with
those treacherous people to devastate the exposed frontiers of the
Republic—Such a combination would be replete with mischief and
might require the utmost energies of the nation to suppress it—
We, the undersigned, do therefore feel it a duty as the confidential
agents of this Government appointed to superintend the
Colonization of important Districts of Texas, to represent this interesting
subject to your Excellency as the proper organ of the Federal
Government—We conceive the subject to be important to the Country
at large, but to involve in a peculiar and especial manner the vital
interests of Texas, and we submit it to Your Excellency in the hope,
that some suitable measures may be adopted to arrest the progress
of a fearful and growing evil and to save the peaceful Citizens
of Coahuila and Texas and all the regions around and contiguous
to the Rio Grande from the tomahawk and scalping knife of a
ruthless, infuriated and savage foe—The evil of which we speak
is yet in its incipient state, but it is rapidly maturing, and although
the scene of its operation is located in a remote and sequestered
part of the Republic, its development will not be the less disastrous
for having its origin in the secret and unfrequented wilds of our
northern frontier—
We consider this matter to be worthy of the solemn interposition of
the National Government, and we entertain no doubt but the
Government of the United States, as soon as the subject shall be properly
presented to them, will employ their influence with these intruding
Indians to induce them to evacuate the Mexican territory and return
to their respective homes: and in the event of a contumaceous
refusal, that they will withold their annuities and withdraw their
protection—Such a procedure would in all probability constrain
many of them to return and deter others from committing similar
trespasses, and would essentially conduce to the future welfare and
prosperity of Texas and to the tranquility of the several contiguous
states—
And we further present to Your Excellency the great danger and
the manifest impolicy of making any promises of concessions of
Lands, either temporary or perpetual, and of offering any other
rewards or emoluments, whether it be by military appointments or
civic honors, to any of the Chiefs or head warriors of these barbarous
Tribes—The friendship of savages is always treacherous—it is
purchased today and lost tomorrow—it is generally dearly bought,
and is never gratuitous but to superior force—when sold, the first
price, though ever so exorbitant, is only a prelude to future exactions
—a sale is only a loan for use, and as the savage is always suspicous
and never disinterested, the loan is sure to be recalled whenever
convenience or interest may prompt—The very offer to purchase his
friendship carries, to his mind suspicions of inability to compell it—
fear alone is the arbiter of all his affections—
Should it once be whispered among the numerous and populous
Tribes of the North that those of their kindred who have already
forced themselves upon us, have been caressed and fostered by the
Government, a very few months will be sufficient to fill up the vacant
lands of Texas with a fierce and ungovernable people, who will soon
turn their fury on their benefactors, and in comparison with whom,
the Comanches, the Whacoes, and the Towackanies are utterly
contemptible and harmless—
David G Burnet [Rubric]
San Felipe de Austin 2d July 1827