USA > Texas > The history of the republic of Texas, from the discovery of the country to the present time; and the cause of her separation from the republic of Mexico > Part 22
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305
NAMES OF COUNTIES.
It is difficult to say whether this will continue to be the boundary between Texas and the United States when the present commission shall have finished its labours.
The exact extent of territory now in the abso- lute possession of the Texans is distinctly defined on the map, and has been divided into judicial dis- tricts,# and subdivided into the following
COUNTIES :
Jefferson
Nacogdoches
Brazoria
Jackson
Jasper
Houston
Austin
Victoria
Sabine
Liberty
Fort Bend
San Patricio
San Augustine Galveston
Matagorda
Gonzales
Shelby
Harrisburg
Bastrop
Refugio
Harrison
Montgomery
Travis
Goliad
Red River
Milam
Colarado
Bexar
Fannin
Robertson
Fayette
Lamar
Ward
Bowie
Paschal
Navisata
Burnet
Spring Creek
Panola
Menard
Washington
I now arrive at a subject, namely, the climate of Texas, which I approach fearlessly, having given it my most constant attention from the earliest period of my arrival in the country up to the moment I left it ; and I would earnestly entreat of every class of my readers to reflect seriously upon the facts, more particularly such of my countrymen who are about to emigrate from this country in hopes of finding a more hospitable asylum than their native and favoured, but over-crowded island at present
* Sce page 362.
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306
CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
offers. For what would be the real worth of the richest soil in the world, where, if the agriculturist did not absolutely lose his health, his energy would become so completely paralyzed that he could not cultivate it ? Or what is to compensate a mechanic for the loss of his health, and therein of his labour ? Is it the prospect of his being able to earn as much in one hour in an unhealthy country as he would in a whole day in his own ? Certainly not. The climate which checks the legitimate use of corpo- real labour, be it sickly or not, is the constant and unconquerable opponent of human prosperity, and is, therefore, only to be avoided by inquiring into its physical construction. This hint, it is to be hoped, will not be overlooked by emigrants, be their destination where it may.
The territory of Texas, extending from 27° 30' to the 42nd parallel of north lat. on the west, and from about the 29th to the 34th of north lat. on the east; and from about 94º to 94° 30' of west longitude, is exposed on the southern and eastern extremities, and for two or three degrees from the coast towards the interior, to all the va- rieties and inconveniences of a tropical climate ; and on the northern and western, from about the 35th of north lat., to the perpetual snow and frost of the frigid zone. This region, however, is visited during the summer months by an ardent sun, while the atmosphere throughout the former of the last- named limits, is either very wet, cold, or sultry. At the beginning of spring (March) it is generally
307
CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
very wet and cold, the thermometer seldom rising above 45°; but towards the close of the spring (May) it suddenly becomes sultry, the thermometer reaching as high as 95°. This sudden transition produces among the inhabitants fever and ague, congestive and jungle fever, while vegetation makes but little progress.
In summer the ordinary range of the thermometer is from 95° to 105°, but it frequently touches 125°, when the rapid progress that vegetation makes appears almost supernatural ; and the sun, by im- parting vitality to every species of filth on the surface of the earth, fills the air with innumerable tribes of insects, whose existence renders life an intolerable burthen. This season also brings its epidemics, yellow and bilious fevers .*
In autumn the thermometer falls gradually until it reaches 60 degrees, and the weather becomes more congenial for a short time, when the autumnal rains or rainy season sets in, and continues all through the winter and greater part of the spring, accompanied by awful thunder, lightning, and northerly winds, which search the frame with an indescribable acuteness.
The baneful influence of these sudden transitions of the atmosphere on the animal, is only equalled by their destructive influence on the vegetable family that covers the face of the earth, which is
* The yellow fever carried off 65 per cent of the population of eastern Texas in 1839.
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CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
as rich as any in the world ; but every thing it pro- duces, whether planted by nature or the hand of man, is no sooner above ground than it is matured, and vanishes as if by some convulsive effort of nature. The flowers on the prairies are of a single day's creation, showing themselves in all their primitive and exquisite beauty in the evening; but the next day's sun reduces them to a cinder, or inundates them with water, which varies in depth (during the rainy season) from eighteen inches to four, and in some places eight feet. At the close of this season these waters do not disappear ; on the contrary, in April the sun comes forth with great power, and its action on the snow that. covers the mountains in the north causes similar inundations in the valleys which intersect the moun- tainous regions, whence the waters thus produced are in a great measure confined or backed up by a strong south south-easterly wind which prevails. (with the sun at this season,) aided by the waters that fall during the rainy season : but the latter no sooner begin to retire, hurried by a strong northerly wind, than the mountain valleys pour forth their tor- rents, not unfrequently sweeping every thing before them," but never failing to continue the inundation
* " The New York Sun reports that there have been great floods in Texas. The rivers had swollen to a great height. People were obliged to climb trees to escape from drowning. The weather was, however, intensely cold, and ice and drift wood prevented the navigation of the streams." -- From the Jamaica Morn- ing Journal of March 10th, 1811.
حمـ
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CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
of the lower country from about the 1st of April tothe middle of May, when the rivers of Texas, which at other seasons are particularly narrow and shallow, rise, overflow their banks, and so spread their waters to collect the annual deposits of decomposed vegeta- ble matter on the prairies, and the loose timber of the forest, with which they subsequently return to their former course, thence dashing onward with astonishing rapidity for their common destination, the Gulf of Mexico, into which they discharge them- selves, together with an immense body of drift timber and decomposed vegetable matter collected as above described, and which they carry on their surface for hundreds of miles through the interior of the country.
The temperature of the waters, at this sea- son, is never less than 20 degrees below the tem- perature of the water produced by the rains, and at all times 40 degrees below the temperature of the atmosphere, and thus the energy of the animal family, and of all vegetation, is completely paralyzed.
But it is asserted that " draining " will remedy all this; such is not the case, for if the low lands were drained (admitting for a moment that it were practicable) so as to carry the water off the surface, the sub-soil must be cut into, and being thus drained, would lose the moisture it now re- tains, and which alone supports the vegetation on the surface through the summer months, that are invariably intensely hot and dry.
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310
CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
Again, we are told by the romantic tourists and needy speculators, who have visited Texas, that these obstacles are not met with in the upper or western part of Texas; but although they are ignorant of the physical formation of the climate and soil of that country, they are not ignorant of the fact, that all the finest part of Texas is still in the absolute possession of various tribes of In- dians, amounting in all to about 80,000, who can never be brought under the Texan yoke; and if they should by any chapter of chances be extermi- nated, their place will be immediately supplied by other and more formidable tribes from the state of Arkansas, whence all the tribes that have emigrated from the valley of the Mississippi, for the last thirty years, are now located, and concentrating all their strength.
Having given a description of the climate of Texas, from personal observation, for the truth of which I hold myself responsible to the reader, it will be readily admitted that I am justly entitled to expose the errors into which other writers have fallen on this subject. Indeed, I deem it a duty so to do, as the obvious tendency of every line that has been written on Texas is to seduce people to emigrate to the inhospitable swamps of that country.
Mrs. Holley, a fair American authoress, who gives the most romantic, seductive, and extravagant ac- count of Texas, says, when speaking of the climate.
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MRS. HOLLEY'S CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
page 42, " indeed, the severe heat of the summer season, when the average range of the thermometer is S5 degrees, would render it quite uncomfortable and unhealthy were it not for the refreshing breezes from the south, which blow almost without intermis- sion." But towards the close of the same paragraph she (in one of those contradictions, with which her work is replete throughout) states, " The tem- perature, however, depends, at all times, greatly upon the REGULAR WINDS, WHOSE CHANGES sometimes cause it to vary 40 degrees in twenty-four hours." And again she says, page 43, " But it must not be supposed that there are no cold days in Texas, nor exceptions to the general course of things. Within the last FEW YEARS, which have been signalized by winters EXCESSIVELY COLD everywhere, the weather has been so severe in Louisiana, as well as Texas, that all the young orange trees were killed, and the old ones injured; and much of the cane injured."
But Mrs. Holley's spirit of contradiction does not rest here, for in page 44 she asserts, " The climate [of Texas] is, in truth, very similar to that of Louisiana, but modified by so many favourable cir- cuinstances, [the frequent vast and sudden transi- tions of the temperature of the atmosphere from 85 to 40 degrees] as to possess all the genial influ- ences [not forgetting the destruction of young and old orange trees, cane, &c.] of the latter, while it avoids its attendant evils ;" which she describes as " fever and ague," and then continues thus, page 45 :
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MRS. HOLLEY'S
" Near the large river bottoms [of Texas] which are ANNUALLY OVERFLOWED, a sickly region may be marked out, where intermittents [fever] frequently prevail. Even here you never find the malignant fevers which characterize the vicinity of the Missis- sippi and other southern rivers after inundation."
The fevers of the Mississippi, and most other " southern rivers," are intermittents, bilious, con- gestive, and fever and ague. These, according to our gentle shepherdess of " Sibyl leaves," do not ex- ist in her adopted country ; which she thus accounts for : " The reason of this [the non-existence of sick- ness] is found in the fact that no miasmatic marshes or stagnant pools remain to mark the overflow, as is the case with the rivers in the south of the United States." But mark the next paragraph. " In the vicinity of the forests," alluding again to Texas, "as is usual, sickness prevails to some extent. It is thought that the moss, which we call Spanish moss,* and use for stuffing mattresses, indicates an unhealthy region, and this is found frequently in the woodlands, especially on the live oak. But, on the other hand, the forests of Texas are generally distinguished by an almost total absence of under- wood, [which happens to be impenetrable on the Trinity, Buffalo Bayou, Caney Creek, and Brazos bottoms] presenting frequently a smooth verdant
* The moss, which is purely an atmospheric production, is to be found in all parts of Texas, as every traveller can testify.
313
CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
turf for miles. The climate, in such regions, though subject to FEVERS, is far more healthy than the lower parts of Louisiana."
This certainly carries a mouthful of consolation with it; but before we have time to breathe, our gentle shepherdess informs us, that "another cause of disease is to be found in the water, being chiefly THAT OF THE RIVERS AND CREEKS, which are used for ALL PURPOSES." But mark the consolation she gives on this point : " This, however, is a tempo- rary evil, and, if prolonged, will be so unnecessarily ; for, although springs do not abound in some parts, especially near the coast, yet water of the very best quality may be had from wells of moderate depth."
This is true; " water may be had from wells of moderate depth," but this water is produced by the drainage of the surface strata of the earth, which, according to our author's own account, is more or less impregnated with nitre or salt; but the singular flavour of the well-water in that country I do not attribute to the existence of either the one or the other, but solely to the gross mucilage of the par- tially decomposed vegetable matter with which the waters become impregnated on the surface of the earth, and carry with them through the surface strata to the substratum, where water can always be found.
With one or two more of Mrs. Holley's " Sibyl leaves," and I have done with the American specu- lators and romance.
After describing Texas, on the whole, as a shade
314
MR. KENNEDY'S
better than the lower parts of Louisiana, she states, (page 15), " The whole coast is possessed of a belt of prairie, about eight or ten miles wide. This prairie is destitute of timber, except narrow skirts on the margins of the rivers and creeks. Its dis- tinguishing and happy peculiarity is, that, although rather low, and so extremely level, that the scope of the eye comprises an horizon of many miles ; it is entirely free from marsh, so much so that, in most places, a loaded wagon may be driven to the beach without obstruction."
I am sorry to find such an erroneous statement as this recorded by a female pen-a statement that might lead an innocent family or party of strangers to undertake the risk even of crossing them, knowing, as Mrs. Holley must, that it is un- fordable for two-thirds of the year, and that the attempt has frequently terminated in the loss of both life and property. But finally, she informs us, (page 45) that there are no stagnant pools or marshes in Texas, while, in the very next page, the following passage occurs :--- " It is a remarkable fact, well worthy of notice, that stagnant lakes and pools of water [in Texas] are never covered with green slime, which in summer characterizes our [meaning Louisiana ] ponds and stagnant streams."
These contradictions of Mrs. Holley are only equalled by those that occur in Mr. Kennedy's pages ; but in the latter they are so ably and in- geniously interwoven with strained embellishments,
315
CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
that it is almost impossible to detect the incongrui- ties of this author, who
" For the satisfaction of a thought- No further harm,"
Vol. I. p. 73, says-" If any part of Texas can be termed sickly, it is the narrow strip of country running parallel to the gulf, where, in the low and timbered bottoms, the rivers deposit the accu- mulations of their annual overflowos."
" On the coast,* especially near the large river bottoms, which are occasionally OVERFLOWED, the climate is similar to the neighbouring state of Louis- iana, but with ample abatement of its injurious in- fluences. The forests are free from the rank under- growth of the woody districts of LOWER Louisiana, as the level region, generally, is from those putrid swamps, the exhalations from [the accumulations of the annual overflows] which, under the rays of a burning sun, poison the atmosphere, and pro- duce sickness and death."
" In Texas, from river to river [which, according to Mr. Kennedy's map, comprehends but a very narrow space] the country is an open, mild accli- vity ; in Louisiana and Mississippi, from river to river, it is a compactly wooded level, retaining the waters of the annual inundations, which, acted upon by a dense vegetation and a powerful solar heat [both of which our author tells his reader will be found in Texas] generates noxious miasma, the
* Kennedy, page 65.
316
MR. KENNEDY'S
certain cause of malignant fevers. In the LOW AL- LUVIAL parts of Texas intermittent fevers frequently prevail; but to these visitations all new countries are subject, particularly where, by the clearing of the timbered land, the rays of the sun first break upon the vegetable deposit of ages. Intermittent fever, or " fever and ague, as it is vulgarly termed, is the general penalty attached to settlements in the bush, from the St. Lawrence to the Sabine."
Here Mr. Kennedy quaintly deposits the fever on the eastern boundary-line of Texas; but, fortu- nately for humanity, he says, in the same para- graph, " In the low alluvial parts of Texas," i. e. running parallel to the gulf, from the Sabine to Rio Grande, "intermittent fevers frequently prevail."
But now I must beg to introduce a few of Mr. Kennedy's favourite authors, to show that " the pest of New Orleans and Vera Cruz," the " yellow fever," finds. in Texas all the elements and advan- tages of position necessary for its periodical deve- lopment.
" Dr. Smith remarks," in a publication on the subject, that yellow fever requires generally for its development proximity to water, and an ardent sun, with, it may be added, a population more or LESS dense. At the time of its manifestation at Galves- ton strong easterly winds prevailed, with cloudy weather. Ten or twelve days after the appear-
* Kennedy, page 78.
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CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
ance of the EPIDEMIC it was checked, by a fall of the mercury to 674º, and there was no new case for nearly three days. The (epidemic) disease was at that time confined within very narrow limits. As the temperature became again elevated, new cases appeared, and the limits of the infected dis- trict were gradually much extended, and extend- ing, when a fall of the mercury to 45 degrees occurred. But the epidemic influences were now become so inveterate, as not to be wholly destroyed by this low temperature, until a ' norther' setting- in, on the 20th of November, depressed the mercury to forty, which it is believed wholly arrested the disease."
The northers mentioned by Dr. Smith are thus described by Mr. Kennedy.
" The northers, which are peculiar to Texas and the eastern coast of Mexico, generally follow a few days of rain and southerly winds : they burst forth suddenly, with a great gust of wind which almost checks respiration, and seems to dry up all moisture of the skin ; severe cold immediately suc- ceeds, and the thermometer falls ten or twelve de- grees [105 to 40°] within half an hour : their average duration is three days. Coming from a point west by north, they depress the mercury in the thermome- ter lower than easterly winds, but they are regarded as less prejudicial to health. During the summer months ' northers' are of rare occurrence, and their rude
318
MR. KENNEDY'S
visits are not an unmixed evil, as they tend much to purify the air."
This paragraph Mr. Kennedy winds up with the following significant hint.
"The shelter of the groves and woods affords sufficient protection to cattle from these assaults." This is an important fact; for Mr. Kennedy states (page 66), that " an occasional norther," of two or three days' continuance, WILL OCCUR during the sum- mer months, and this, which is more sensibly felt upon the land than upon the sea in the immediate vicinity of the coast, is generally accompanied by heavy rain and thunder, and sometimes by a pep- pering hail-storm." But notwithstanding these and other marvellous and frequent convulsive revolu- tions of the atmosphere, Mr. Kennedy informs us, from "The Emigrant's Guide," that " the trees retain their foliage, and the plains their verdure, and that, estimated by their combined effects on a bountiful soil, the climate of Texas may fairly claim to be eu- titled a perpetual summer, admitting, as it does, of two and three crops a year of fruits and vegetables, in great abundance and perfection."
Again, says Mr. Kennedy, " the sweet south- westerly breeze, which is so accessory to health and comfort on the level region of the coast, may be almost termed an unmingled luxury among the cool springs, translucent streams, wooded 'bottoms,' islands of timber, and flower-spangled prairies of the
but 1
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CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
rolling country. The greater portion of this beau- tiful region, which has obtained for Texas the name of the Italy of America," or rather the Bog of Allen of America, which Mr. Kennedy, with all the spirit of an Irishman, thus describes :-- " Blessed with a temperature delightful to the sense and favourable to life, and to most of the products which render life agreeable." Amongst which he mentions "sweet potatoes of gigantic growth ; " that are to expand the dimensions and to give to the stunted, depressed and hopeless Briton, strength and symmetry of beauty. Mr. O'Connell could scarcely say more of the virtue of a big potato or the beauties of a newly discovered bog. But our author says, "the drought that pervades the season from the close of April to September, is often modified by copious and re- freshing showers, which sometimes distribute their favours very unequally. The unequal distribution of rain is indeed," he adds, " considered by the husbandman the chief defect in the climate of Texas. One section of the country is frequently saturated by teeming showers, while, at the dis- stance of only a few miles, the ground is gaping for moisture." However, he informs us, that it is "not so at other periods of the year." Then wet weather is general, and in the early spring [this season he recommends to emigrants] predominates, especially on the coast, where it breaks up the roads, swells the streams, which [occur at every ten or fifteen
320
MR. KENNEDY'S
,
miles throughout the country] become unford- able torrents, and sometimes injures the stock and retards the preparations of the agriculturist." Nevertheless, Mr. Kennedy states, (page 137, vol. i.) " If the native of a southern clime, devoted to tropical agriculture, and anxious to obtain quick and large returns from capital, he will find a suita- ble field of operation on the alluvial lands of the coast, or the rich 'bottoms' of the Red River. If accustomed to a more temperate clime, and the mixed pursuit of farming and stock raising, he will be quite at home on the rolling prairies."
I must here apologize to my reader for dwelling so long on this subject, but I deem it one of great importance to my countrymen, who may, by false re- presentations, be induced to emigrate to the inhos- pitable swamps of Texas, and therefore I beg to direct attention to a few more of Mr. Kennedy's observations on the climate of his young republic.
"The vernal season of Texas Proper, which is [a continuous swamp] slightly elevated towards the north and north-west, begins to shed its cheering influences about the end of February ; then [mark ! ] the weather, though variable, is often delightful, and the Texans boast that March in the young republic equals in amenity ' the glad green month of May' in New York and the adjacent states. To persons of northern habits, April and October are the most pleasant and attractive periods of the year, both with respect to climate and scenery.
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CLIMATE OF TEXAS.
The stranger who journeys along the low lands of the Brazos [the heart of Texas Proper] during the drenching days of the short winter of Texas, when the natural roads * over the rich alluvial soil are broken into sloughs, and the creeks swollen into unfordable torrents, will probably anathematise the country and its eulogists, and perhaps, as some have done, abandon it altogether in disgust. But were the same person to arrive in spring or autumn, and mounting a good horse [which unfortunately it is quite out of the power of the poor, depressed, and hopeless Briton to obtaian] ascend from the coast to the interior, where the path winds along limpid brooks and gentle vales, through a wilderness of flowers, varied by clustering evergreens and fairy groves, his heart could hardly fail to dilate with motions of grateful joyousness, and to ejaculate in the silent temple of nature, 'Methinks it is good to be here.'"
Here our author might have added, particularly if caught in summer deshabille, in a " norther, which bursts forth suddenly with a gust of wind, that almost checks respiration, and seems to dry up all moisture of the skin," while the thermometer runs down from 105 to 40 degrees in less than half an hour. However, with one more quotation from Mr. Kennedy I shall close this chapter :-
" The healthiness of the climate, I conceive,
* There are no other roads in Texas.
Y
الضا تحطـ
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BONNELL'S PETRIFIED FOREST.
does not admit of doubt ;* I speak from informa- tion derived from others, and from personal ex- perience, which has been considerable."
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