T K X 



271 



TEX 



The appeal to arms was precipitated by a eu&tom-hous 

 brawl. An attack was made under some pretext or an 

 other on the custom-house at Anahuac. Captain Thomp 

 son, dispatched by the Centra] Government, in June, 1835 

 at the request of the Ayuntamiento of that place, in th( 

 Correo war-schooner, to inquire into the affair, precipi 

 lately attacked and captured a Texan trading-vessel. Thi 

 proprietors of the prize armed another trading-ship, tool 

 the Correo, and sent the captain to New Orleans under a 

 charge of piratically interrupting the trade between the 

 United States and Texas. In the month of August Santa 

 Anna requested the Texans to deliver up Zavala, a leader 

 of the Federal party, who had been his friend and sup- 

 porter while he remained faithful to ' the plan of Vera 

 t 'nu,' but latterly his enemy. The request was refused 

 and reports soon after reached Texas that Santa Anna was 

 mustering troops to invade it. 



While affairs were in this position, Stephen Austin 

 was entertained at a public dinner in Brazoria, on his 

 return from his long captivity. Austin had, as long 

 Id, done his utmost to prevent the discontents 

 of the settlers assuming a political complexion, ant 

 when that was no longer possible, had steadily opposec 

 any projects that seemed to point at a separation from 

 Mexico. The advice therefore which he gave on this 

 occasion, to organise committees of safety and vigilance 

 throughout the province, was at once and implicitly fol- 

 lowed. He was himself appointed chairman of the com- 

 mittee of his own colony, to which a degree of control 

 over the other committees was tacitly conceded. Before 

 the organisation of the country was completed hostilities 

 wore commenced between the colonists and the military in 

 the province : in consequence of which Austin, in the begin- 

 ing of October, assumed the command of an army hastily 

 rted at Gonsalez, and Zavala was appointed chair- 

 man of the Austin committee in his stead. 



On the 3rd of October, 1835, General Ban-agon issued a 

 derive abolishing the legislative powers of the several 

 states and establishing a central republic in Mexico. A 

 al consultation of Texan delegate./ was, in conse- 

 quence of this measure, held at Austin, which, on the 7th 

 of November, issued a declaration in favour of state-rights ; 

 summoned a convention of delegates to be held at Wash- 

 ington in Galvtston, on the 1st of February next ; 

 and organized an interim government. Henry Smith was 

 chosen governor and W. Robison lieutenant-governor ; 

 Samuel Houston was appointed major-general and coni- 

 mander-in-chief of the regular army of Texas; and Stephen 

 Austin, B. T. Archer, and W. H. Wharton were appointed 

 commissioners to the United States. 



The new commander-in-chief immediately established 



his head-quarters at Washington. In .January, la'tti, 



Stephen Austin reported that he had concluded a loan at 



New Orleans of 200,000 dollars, and had hopes of raising 



another of 400,000. Volunteer troops in aid of the 



:s were racing in Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, 



and Georgia. The Convention met at Washington on the 



i-nary, and on the 2nd of March it published a 



ation of independence, signed by fitly delegates, of 



whom Lorenzo de Zavala was one. In the election of 



officers of state which immediately followed, Zavala was 



chosen vice-president. 



Santa Anna marched from Saltillo on the same day that 

 the Convention met at Washington. He was successful in 

 his first encounters ; but on the 21st of April he was 

 led and taken prisoner by General Houston. On the 

 1 Hh of May he signed a convention for the evacuation of 

 , and soon after not a Mexican soldier remained in 

 the state. The constitution adopted by the new state is 

 a close imitation of the state government of the Northern 

 Union ; and, like its prototype, presents the anomaly of 

 slavery existing under laws which profess to regard all 

 men as equal. 



Texas was recognised as an independent republic by the 

 . nment of the United States on the 3rd of March, 1837. 

 A mot ion was made in congress for receiving it into the Union, 

 but after some discussion withdrawn. France recognised 

 the independence of Texas and concluded a treaty with it 

 on the 25th September, 1839. A treaty of amity and com- 

 merce between England and Texas was signed in London, 

 on the ICth of November, 1840, and ratified by the Texan 

 government in February, 1841. The Mexican government 

 Im expressed a determination to reconquer Texas ; but it 



is not likely that in the distracted and impoverished state 

 of that country it will be able to reduce a population 

 almost inaccessible by land from Mexico, possessed of 

 better harbours and more shipping, in a position to receive 

 constant support from the United States even against the 

 will of the government at Washington, and on terms of 

 alliance and amity with England, France, and the United 

 States. Nor is it to be desired that Texas should on any 

 terms be re-annexed to Mexico: its Anglo-American 

 population never could assimilate with the Spanish Mexi- 

 cans. 



(Texas, by William Kennedy, London, 1840; Colonel 

 Almente's Report on the Statistics of Texas, Mexico, 

 1833 ; Correspondence of the daily Papers of London and 

 Paris ; Debates in the British Parliament, the Congress 

 of the United States, and French Chamber of Deputies.') 



TEXEIRA, or TEXERA, JOSEPH, was born of a good 

 family in Portugal, about the beginning of 1543. Alter 

 distinguishing himself at the University, he entered tin- 

 order of St. Dominic in 15G5, and obtained general respect. 

 for bis learning and virtue. He was prior of the convent 

 of Santarem in 1578, when King Sebastian undertook his 

 expedition into Africa. 



In the troubles which ensued, Texeira attached himself 

 to the party of Don Antonio, and accompanied that prince 

 to France in 1581, where he went to solicit assistance 

 against Philip II. Texeira published at Paris, in the begin- 

 ning of 1582, a compendium of the history of Portugal. 

 The work is very scarce (it is described as a thin quarto of 

 70 pages), and appears to have been published for the 

 purpose of supporting Don Antonio's claim to the throne 

 of Portugal. The author was taken prisoner by the 

 Spaniards in the naval battle off Terceira on the 26th of 

 July, 1582, and carried to Lisbon, whence he contrived to 

 make his escape and rejoin Don Antonio. Duard Nonius 

 a Leone, a converted Jew, employed by Philip II. to re- 

 fute the ' Compendium of Portuguese History,' asserts 

 :hat Texeira, while a prisoner at Lisbon, denied to him 

 :hat he was the author. 



The partisans of the League having obliged Don Anto- 

 nio to quit Paris, Texeira accompanied him a,s his con- 

 'essor, tirst to Bretagne, and in 1586 to England. In 1588, 

 laving returned to France, he was introduced to Henri III. 

 and the queen-mother : the former appointed him a court 

 chaplain ; the latter dispatched him on a confidential mis- 

 sion to Lyon, then in the possession of (he League, 

 jelieving that a Dominican friar was unlikely to be sus- 

 pected of being an agent of the court. Texeira rc- 

 nained at Lyon from July, 1588, to January, 1589. During 

 his interval he prepared for publication a reply to the 

 attack upon his History by Nonius i Leone. This pamphlet, 

 or some indiscreet expressions in conversation, having 

 given umbrage to the Leaguers, he was obliged to fly ; 

 the papers left in his cell were seized, and the whole im- 

 >ression of his pamphlet (with the exception of one or 

 wo copies) destroyed. 



He rejoined Henri III. at Tours, and after the murder of 

 hat prince, in August, 1589, was continued in his office of 

 :ourt-chaplain by Henri IV., to whose service he attached 

 ihnself. After the entry of Henri into Paris, Don Antonio 

 vas enabled to return to that city, and Texeira appears to 

 lave resumed his office of confessor. In March, 1595, he 

 mblished a new edition of the work which had been de- 

 itroyed at Lyon, but his labour was in vain, for he was 

 tailed, in the August following, to perform the last service 

 if his church to the prince whose cause he had advocated 

 vith such fidelity. 



In 1596 Texeira was a witness of the public abjuration 

 jf Calvinism by the dowager-princess cff Conde. at Rouen. 

 .'lie Papal legate selected him to instruct and confirm the 

 >rincess in her new faith ; and from that time till his death 

 le continued attached to the service of the house of 

 Conde. This engagement left him pretty much the com- 

 mand of his own time, and he employed it principally in 

 lis favourite study of genealogy. A list of his published 

 vorks will be found at the end of this article : here it is 

 mly necessary to remark that to the second edition of his 

 Genealogy of the House of Conde,' published in 1598, he 

 idded an account of the public ceremonial of the princess's 

 econcilialion with the Roman Catholic church. 



In 1601 he published a narrative of the adventures of 

 )on Sebastian, ' from his expedition into Africa in 1578, 

 ill the 6th of January of this present year 1601.' We have 



