New Orleans March 4th 1831
Col S F Austin
Saltillo
My dear Sir
I wrote you two long letters by the last vessels to Matamoros,
chiefly on my own subject. The main object of this is to acquaint
you with some propositions made to me here which I think may be
directed to the interests of the Colony and also to your own. Mr
N A Ware of Philada who has lately sold his plantation on this river
proposes to invest forty thousand dollars in a cotton manufactory
in the colony, provided he can have permission to do so, a piece of
land for the establishment and your countenance and support to
the enterprise. He says Mr Boys reports having obtained the
exclusive right for Texas, in consideration of establishing a cotton mill
at Bexar which he is now going about. I do not believe this to be
true, you can ascertain. Mr Ware does not propose to go out
immediately himself but to send a confidential and experienced man to
erect the establishment, in whose name the location might be made.
I have told him I thought it probable yon would be much pleased
to have such an establishment erected and so far from seeing any
difficulty in obtaining permission, I had no doubt you would give it
all the encouragement in your power, and obtain for him an encreas'd
grant of land proportionate to the magnitude of the enterprise say
5. 6 or more leagues, perhaps as far as 11 He then said if you would
do so he would send in immediately a thousand spindles with the
force and capital necessary for the operation, and a sufficient
number of young negroes under indentures to secure the permanent
running of the mill, and give you such a share of the net profits as you
should judge reasonable for obtaining an encreas'd quantity of land
(over one league) say one eighth or one tenth. He would prefer
erecting the mill on a water course to use water power if it could
be done in a secure and healthy position without going too far from
the coast otherwise would use steam. I think it would be desirable
to have it near S. Filippe if practicable to encourage the growth of
cotton in that quarter and help build up the town on the subject oflocation you can give him the best advice. He appears to be a sound
man and has a large capital laying idle
Mr William Taylor our late Consul at Vera Cruz is now here Mr
Ware was introduced to me by him. Mr Taylor has retired from
Mexican business with forty or fifty thousand dollars and appears
to be at loss how to invest his money. Mr Ware proposed to him
to join in his Texas manufacturing project, which he immediately
assented to, and desired me to request of you to address a copy
of your letter to Mr Ware, to him. Mr Ware will leave this for
Philada in four or five weeks and as it is uncertain how long I shall
remain here, as I only wait advices from you to determine my future
course; I have told him I would request you to write directly to
him on the subject and at foot I give you his address also that of
Mr Taylor.
This is not a new project of Mr Wares, he has given his attention
to the subject for some time and has better information respecting
the colony than any man I have ever met with.
On my own subject, I shall get to the Colony in some mode if
my solicitation be granted and shall not engage in anything until
I know the fate of it. My wish would then be to go to England if
I could raise capital enough, to make arrangements for a direct
trade,—to procure my equipment and goods at the first European
cost, with english artizans and laborers to erect my buildings etc
at a cheap rate—and at the same time see what could be done with
live oak timber, rail road etc. If a contract could be made for
supplying live oak for His Majestys Dockyard it would throw great
wealth into the Colony. There is a rail road building here, such
an one might be built in the Colony at an expense of 3,000$ pr
mile, 3/4 of which expense would be in the Iron ways, which might
be dispensed with; a railroad of live oak would not cost over 1,000$
per mile. I wish you would advise me of your intentions respecting
the Hawkins lands, it occurs to me that if you were to set off the
lands on the east side of the river it might interfere materially with
any arrangement for live oak—besides circumstances might render
it advisable to purchase their right or the lands when set off Who
is their agent here ?
Europe is in a very disturbed state and in all probability we shall
soon have a general war there, revolution in Spain and very possibly
in Ireland if not in England, These circumstances will drive a
large amount of European capital and labor to this side of the
ocean if matters can be managed in the colony to preserve
tranquillity and security and the policy of the Govt continues to be
liberal Texas will spring into importance with astonishing rapidity.
Henry Austin
I give you the address of Mr. W on the envelope