[Illustration: MAIN DOOR OF MISSION SAN JOSÉ, SAN ANTONIO.]
Under Six Flags
THE STORY OF TEXAS
BY
M. E. M. DAVIS
Author of “In War Times at La Rose Blanche,” “Under the Man-Fig,”
“Minding the Gap,” etc., etc.
GINN & COMPANY
BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON
Copyright, 1897
By M. E. M. DAVIS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
26.5
_The Athenæum Press_
GINN & COMPANY · PROPRIETORS · BOSTON · U.S.A.
TO THE MEMORY
OF
_E. H. Cushing_
PREFACE.
In the following pages I have endeavored to sketch, in rather bold
outlines, the story of Texas. It is a story of knightly romance which
calls the poet even as, in earlier days, the Land of the Tehas called
across its borders the dreamers of dreams.
But the history of Texas is far more than a romantic legend. It is a
record of bold conceptions and bolder deeds; the story of the discoverer
penetrating unknown wildernesses; of the pioneer matching his strength
against the savage; of the colonist struggling for his freedom and his
rights.
It is the chronicle of the birth of a people; the history of the rise
and progress of a great State.
I have tried in these simple readings so to arrange the salient points
of a drama of two centuries as to present a consistent whole.
And I shall be happy if I shall succeed in awakening in the reader
somewhat of the interest in Texas history which has inspired this work.
There are several features which mark Texas history as unique. One of
these is the difference between the methods of colonization employed in
Texas and those exercised elsewhere in the United States.
The pioneer with his cabin, his ever-spreading fields, his gardens and
orchards—the idea of the home with its roots in the very soil, as
represented by Austin and his followers—was preceded by a hundred barren
years of fortress and soldier, the Spanish idea of conquest and military
rule.
Again, its vast extent of territory and the ease with which its rich
lands were acquired seemed to adapt Texas peculiarly to those
communistic and utopian experiments which have been the delight of the
visionary in every age of the world’s progress. A number of these have
been tried upon its soil. The result has been to give a varied and
original coloring to the shifting scenes.
The philosophical student will find these phases of our history well
worth his consideration.
I desire in this place to express my thanks to the Texas teachers, to
many of whom I am indebted for timely suggestions and for kindly
encouragement; also my grateful obligation to Mr. William Beer, of the
New Orleans Howard Memorial Library, for valuable assistance; and to the
Library itself, which, under his able direction, has become particularly
rich in documents and publications relating to the early history of
Louisiana and Texas.
M. E. M. DAVIS.