NO. 1.

A SCAMPER IN THE PRAIRIE OF JACINTO.


Reader! Were you ever in a Texian prairie? Probably not. _I_ have been;
and this was how it happened. When a very young man, I found myself one
fine morning possessor of a Texas land-scrip--that is to say, a
certificate of the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, in which it was
stated, that in consideration of the sum of one thousand dollars, duly
paid and delivered by Mr Edward Rivers into the hands of the cashier of
the aforesaid company, he, the said Edward Rivers, was become entitled to
ten thousand acres of Texian land, to be selected by himself, or those he
should appoint, under the sole condition of not infringing on the property
or rights of the holders of previously given certificates.

Ten thousand acres of the finest land in the world, and under a heaven
compared to which, our Maryland sky, bright as it is, appears dull and
foggy! It was a tempting bait; too good a one not to be caught at by many
in those times of speculation; and accordingly, our free and enlightened
citizens bought and sold their millions of Texian acres just as readily as
they did their thousands of towns and villages in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
and Michigan, and their tens of thousands of shares in banks and railways.
It was a speculative fever, which has since, we may hope, been in some
degree cured. At any rate, the remedies applied have been tolerably severe.

I had not escaped the contagion, and, having got the land on paper, I
thought I should like to see it in dirty acres; so, in company with a
friend who had a similar venture, I embarked at Baltimore on board the
Catcher schooner, and, after a three weeks' voyage, arrived in Galveston