30 LETTERS FROM TEXAS. 



Why should not this State be the home of Ten Millions of the 

 human family early in the next century ? 



Before deciding to say a word in favor of Texas as a home for 

 those as yet strangers to her, I made inquiry and satisfied myself 

 that her wild lands are not merely cheap to-day, but certain long to 

 remain so. They are held in tracts of a thousand to many thousands 

 of acres, by men of limited means, who bought them for a song, or 

 obtained them without price by Mexican concession, and who have 

 held them to this day partly because wild lands paid no taxes, and 

 partly because they could find no purchasers : every one who either 

 had property or aspired to have being already gorged with wild 

 land. Now all is changed. Slavery being dead, lands are in request 

 and have a value, which railroads are ra^iidly doubling and quad- 

 rupling. Taxes are high and rising ; Common Schools and State 

 loans to Railroads are certain to enhance them ; so that moneyless 

 holders of unproductive tracts tmist sell or be sold out by the sher- 

 iff and tax-collector. I am sure that at least One Hundred Millions 

 of fertile acres are to-day owned by men who must sell them within 

 the next five years. And this necessity is sure to keep down prices. 

 Let me, then, give some idea of their range. 



I traversed yesterday the railroad which runs westward from 

 Harrisburg near Houston, through Harris, Fort Bend, and Colorado 

 Counties, by Richmond to Columbus, 83 miles. Most of this route 

 lies through a rich, level prairie, covered with Horses and Cattle ; 

 but Timber is always in sight on one side or on both, and we pass 

 through the genei'ally forest-covered intervales of the Brassos and 

 Colorado, with those of Oyster Creek, San Bernard, and Caney. 

 This is one of the earliest settled portions of Texas, and its popula- 

 tion has largely increased since the war. I was avithorized by Mr. 

 Wm. Brady of Houston to offer a league of it (4,400 acres), includ- 

 ing a sufficiency of timber and water, for $1 per acre ; but, if that 

 should not meet the views of pioneers, he would survey it into farms, 

 and give alternate tracts of 100 acres to industrious, sober, thrifty 

 pioneers who would settle upon and convert them into productive 

 homesteads. And I have been assiired by othei's that a colony of 

 two or thi'ee hundred Northern farmers and mechanics could obtain 

 lands for settlement on like terms in almost any part of the State. 



Do not jump at the mistaken conclusion that the landholdei-s of 

 Texas are exceptionally philanthropic and generous. They make 

 no pretensions to this character. They want to make their lands 



