So a band of hardy,
working youths, trained in the district schools of New England and
New York, accepted the pledges of gain and protection she offered them,
and, with Stephen F. Austin at their head, went to the beautiful land
of Western Texas. They had no thought of empire; they were cultivators
of the soil; but they carried with them that intelligent love of
freedom and that hatred of priestly tyranny which the Spanish nature
has never understood, and has always feared.
Very soon the rapidly-increasing number of American colonists
frightened the natives, who soon began to oppress the new-comers. The
Roman Catholic priesthood were also bitterly opposed to this new
Protestant element; and, by their advice, oppressive taxation of every
kind was practiced, especially, the extortion of money for titles to
land which had been guaranteed to the colonists by the Mexican
government. Austin went to Mexico to remonstrate. He was thrown into
a filthy dungeon, where for many a month he never saw a ray of light,
nor even the hand that fed him.
In the meantime Santa Anna had made himself Dictator of Mexico, and
one of his first acts regarding Texas was to demand the surrender of
all the private arms of the settlers. The order was resisted as soon
as uttered. Obedience to it meant certain death in one form or other.
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