Lone Star Nation by H.W. Brands Page B

assented. Nacogdoches was their first stop. “The buildings consist of a large stone church, another large stone building with eight or ten apartments in it. . . . The remainder of the buildings are adobes, except a few which are made of wood.” About a hundred people lived there, including the Mexican commandant, who had to deal with all manner of mundane and extraordinary occurrences. During Dewees’s visit a distraught traveler from Mexico presented himself to the commandant and demanded to be hanged. The commandant thought he was mad and told him to go away. But the traveler insisted that he deserved death: he had murdered his partner on the road and sunk the body in the Angelina River. So importunate was he that the commandant finally agreed to send a party to the Angelina, where the murderer produced the corpse, weighted down by rocks. Upon the group’s return to Nacogdoches, the conscience-stricken man got his wish. “The Commandant called a few persons together to witness the solemn scene, took the man out behind the old stone building and there, according to the man’s request, hung him on a tree till he was dead.”
    In Nacogdoches, Dewees learned of the Austins’ Texas colony and decided to give it a try. He returned to Arkansas to conclude some personal affairs, and discovered that the news of Texas was traveling fast. “When we arrived at this place [Pecan Point, Arkansas, on the Red River] we found several families had heard of this enterprise of Austin’s, and they are now making preparations to join the colony.” Dewees was happy to have his judgment confirmed, and he looked forward to the company on the trail. He also looked forward to sinking roots in Texas. “If I like the country I intend to remain there, as I am tired of this wandering mode of life.”

    By the time he reached the Austin colony, Dewees was even wearier of wandering. “We were several months in getting here,” he wrote, “there being several families in company, among whom were quite a number of women and children. A part of the time we were detained by the sickness of one or another of the company. Besides this, we lost several horses on the way, and in fact we seemed to meet with a great many misfortunes. We carried our luggage entirely upon pack-horses, the roads being perfectly impassable for a vehicle of any description.”
    Dewees and a few other families pitched camp in January 1822 where the Camino Real crossed the Brazos, a short distance above the mouth of the Little Brazos. Two families had preceded them to the spot and were busy building cabins with timber from the riverbank. “We were, all of us, well pleased with the situation of the place and decided to remain here for the present. The settlement now consisted of seven families; there is no other settlement within fifty miles. About the time of our arrival here, a few families settled below us on this river, near the old La Bahia crossing.”
    The pioneers’ lot was hard at first, especially for the women and children. Their flour and meal ran out, and though they had planted some corn, lack of rain stunted its growth. Yet there was no risk of anyone starving. “The country is literally alive with all kinds of game. We have only to go out for a few miles into a swamp between the Big and Little Brazos, to find as many wild cattle as one could wish.” These escapees from Spanish herds had multiplied along the Gulf coastal plain; their only competition came from the buffalo that wandered in from the north, and which also supplied the settlers’ wants. “If we desire buffalo meat, we are able to go out, load our horses, and return the same day.” The hunters worked communally and shared their take equally, with the exception of the tongues, which went to the men who felled the beasts. Dewees’s companion on one hunt upstream was a “yankee preacher.” Dewees called him a