TEXAS.*
THOUGH we have lately heard much about Texas, and are doubtless destined to hear more, there are probably few English newspaper readers who have any definite notion of the ex- tent, the productions, and the resources of the greatest of the United States. Figures, it is said, cannot lie ; but even if the statement were true, it could not be denied that they may be so manipulated as to convey a wrong impression; and, for the most part, mere numbers convey no impression at all, unless it be one of passing wonder. Who, for instance, can realise the significance of ordinary geographical statistics, such as that the area of this or that country is a million square miles, that a certain territory contains a hundred million acres, or that two groups of planets are fifty million miles apart. As the authors of On a Mexican Mustang shrewdly observe, "comparison is the only way by which we can realise quan- tity ;" and, with the help of comparative statistics, we are enabled to form some idea, though it may still be rather shadowy, of what Texas is. From north to south it measures 670 miles (double the average width of this island); from east to west 825 miles (or half as far again as from Land's End to John o' Groats). The area of Texas is 275,000 square miles, and within her boundaries are contained 175,000,000 acres of land. In other words, the State is nearly as big as France and Great Britain together ; and by reason of the fertility of her soil and the fineness of her climate, could probably support twice the number of people. If Texas were as largely peopled in proportion as France, she would count 48,000,000 inhabitants ; peopled on the scale of Great Britain, she would count 70,000,000. The State stretches over ten degrees of latitude, and from the sixteenth to the thirtieth degree of longitude, west from Washington. Big as a country,ishe is a giant among States. "Take the States of Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia ; add to them the States of New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania ; then, for good measure, throw in the whole of the six New England States,— and the area of all these States combined will not equal that of • On a Mexican Mustang through Texas, from the Gulf to the Rio Grande. By Alexander B. Sweet and J. Armoy Snot. London ; Chatto and Windus.
the great State of Texas." It is only right to observe, however, that there may possibly be exaggeration in these figures. We say possibly, as even competent authorities differ considerably in their estimates of the area of Texas, Chambers's Encyclopcedia, for instance, putting it at 237,504 square miles, while Meyers's Hand-Lexikon makes it 273,000.
The soil of this favoured region is among the most productive in the world. Cotton, corn, the sugar-cane, and nearly all the cereals flourish side by side with the fruits of the tropics and the hardy plants of more northern climes. The region suitable for growing wheat is estimated at fifty thousand square miles (not much less than the area of England and Wales) ; and the State, which now produces a million bales of cotton a year, a fifth of the total crop of the Union, has land enough suitable for the staple to produce five times as much of it as is now grown in the whole world. These are cheering facts for English cotton- spinners, who, however bad times may be, are not likely to run short of the raw material of their industry ; but our farmers must hear with something like dismay of the seemingly inex- haustible capacity of America for producing unlimited supplies of bread-stuffs at., so far as they are concerned, nnremunerative prices. As touching climate—albeit there are parts of the country where fever and ague seem to be chronic, and the temperature is liable to sudden and not very salubrious changes—Texas, on the whole, must be deemed a highly-favoured land. Men can labour in the fields all the year round, the skies are of more than Italian softness, and the air is so pure that to breathe it is the pleasure of a stranger's life. No wonder, as our authors observe, that the native Texan is usually a large man, loud of speech, and inclined to boastful- ness. " Considering his favourable surroundings, should we blame him if he does occasionally speak in italics and swear in large capitals ?"
On a Mexican Mustang is rather a big book, too big for the subject it might seem at first sight ; yet few readers will find it too big for their liking. Though full of useful information and shrewd observation, it abounds in graphic description, and positively teems with humorous sayings and good stories. There is a laugh in every page of the book ; sometimes in every sentence. The authors, two American journalists, rode across Texas on a pair of mustangs ; and the present work is the record of their journey, and of a good many promiscuous facts about the people and the land, which they picked up in the course of their wanderings. About these mustangs,—which, though sorry enough jades in appearance, can buck a man off with the greatest ease, and send him flying through the air like a shot,— there is more than one capital story. One of the best is about being " unhorsed on the prairie." In this instance the narrator (who always speaks of his companion as " the doctor ") was not bucked off; he got off to drink at a water-hole, and in returning the cup to his friend, the doctor, let it fall on the ground, " startling my pony, and causing him to run about fifty yards."
At first the mustang's rider thought there would be little diffi- culty in catching the beast. The latter showed no intention of making off, but began to graze in the moat unconcerned manner possible, which his master, after satisfying his thirst, walked up and essayed to mount ; but the story is best told in the teller's own words :—
"He let me walk to within five paces of his head. He had no objection to my walk. The fact is, and I regret to bear witness to it, he seemed rather to enjoy seeing me walk. Just as I was abont to reach out to catch the bridle he walked off. Then I began to run ; so did he. He evidently enjoyed the acceleration of speed on my part, even more than he had previously enjoyed my walking-gait. He ran a short distance with his head down, apparently chuckling to himself at my discomfiture ; then, throwing his heels up in the air, be cantered round me in a circle, neighing in a derisive manner. When I stopped, he would stop, and wait until I would almost catch up with him. He was always on the alert, however, and stood with his tail at full cock, ready to go off at the slightest increase of speed in my movements. What added to the interest of the enter- tainment was, that when the vile mustang started, the coffee- pot and other loose articles of virtu attached to the saddle kept flopping around, increasing his hilarity, and causing him to perform gratuitous antics that no one would ever have thought the brute capable of performing. The result of this was that, from the moment he started to run, he began shedding my portable property, leaving a train of tin-ware and notions to mark his erratic course It was a wofnl sight, but my pony was not the sort of animal that stops at the sound of woe. There was something that added to my bitterness of spirit ; something that persons of sedentary habits, who have lately taken to horseback exercise, can understand and appreciate. After two hours spent in fruitless endeavours to catch him,—and after trying all manner of deceitful devices to entrap him with a handful of choice grass, and offering it to him in the most respectful manner and sweetest arm of
voice, and in holding a hat to him in such a manner as to suggest that it contained about two quarts of shelled corn,—after all this had failed, he caught himself by entangling a rope, that hung loose from his neck, in the branches of a low mesquite."
In Texas, at least, life on the prairies is not quite the glorious, exhilarating, romantic life it once was, or that Mayne Reid, in his stories, describes it as being. Indians no longer roam the war- path ; they loaf and drink. If adventures are still to the adventurous, they are often neither romantic nor pleasant ; and if you should chance to be suspected of horse-stealing, as our travellers once were, your portion may be a short shrift and a long rope, for in Texas horse-stealing is the one unpardonable sin. Horse-flesh, indeed, is held in far greater respect than human life. " It is very easy to get killed in Texas ; steal a yearling, and you will be accommodated with a rope and a live- oak limb. Contradict a native, or dispute the accuracy of his statement, and the coroner's jury will return the verdict, Died from the effects of calling Mr. — a liar.' There is no better place than Texas for a man who wants to get killed or hung; but if he wants to get hung in a legitimate way, by a regularly ordained sheriff, Texas, however, is not a good country for that class of emigrant." The meaning of this euphemism is that juries can seldom, if ever, be persuaded to consider homicide a crime, and that in the rare instances when murderers are punished, it is either by Judge Lynch or the revolver of some self-appointed avenger. Though there be still desperadoes in Texas, promiscuous shootings, it is satisfactory to know, are not quite so common as they once were; yet, despite its fine climate, fertile soil, and other advantages, life out there is not absolutely without drawbacks. Even the climate leaves some- thing to be desired. Not to speak of the districts subject to fever and ague,—where, however, people need not go unless they like,—there is an infliction called a " norther," a sort of cold simoom, which comes as unexpectedly as a bolt from the blue, and is so bitterly chilling that in winter it often proves fatal " to cattle that are weak and old ;" and, we should think, to a good many bipeds who are in the Same unhappy condition, —unless the following description be overdrawn :—
" The norther is a copious breeze that comes to Texas from the north. It is like the Assyrian that came down like the wolf on the fold, or the wolf that caught the Assyrian, whichever it was. What I mean to indicate is, that it comes suddenly and unexpectedly, but it does not stay long ; in fact, it does not stop at all, except about long enough to take the roof off a barn or tarn an umbrella inside out. .It is always in a hurry, and goes straight across the country. I do not know how high or how thick a norther is ; but an adult Texas norther is several hundred miles wide, and so long that at a go-as-you-please gait, it takes about forty-eight hours to pass a given point, and it sometimes carries the point along with it There are two kinds of northers—the wet and the dry ; and both are exceedingly cold. Tongue cannot tell, nor can pen express, how cold a norther feels to a man who gets up in the night, at his wife's suggestion, to see if he forgot to fasten down the dining-room window."
If we add to these defects of climate a few insect plagues, such as mosquitoes and tarantulas, and the fact that it is pretty warm sometimes, we probably know the worst about Texas. The rainfall does not seem to be excessive, some forty inches in a year; but in so vast a country there is necessarily great variety of climate, and after giving full weight to every adverse consideration, the State offers advan- tages to intending emigrants which cannot well be matched else- where. Germans, Messrs. Sweet and Knox tell us, make by far the best settlers. They are orderly, industrious, and plodding, and, being prepared to rough it at starting, are not rendered miserable by unlooked-for troubles and difficulties. Englishmen expect too much, and are greatly given to grumbling when everything does not turn out as they expected and would like. Several hundred English families were some time ago induced to go to Texas by the representations of Dr. Kingsbury. Some of them are doing well, some have gone back to England, " and the rest lie around, and spend their leisure in writing letters to the London Times and Telegraph, abusive of Kingsbury and the State of Texas." One man wrote to the Galveston News complaining that Dr. Kingsbury, when describing the country, had maintained a wicked silence about the mosquito ! People who cannot put up with hardships and meet difficulties with light hearts had better stay at home,—a new country is no place for them,—and those who fail in Texas are not likely to succeed anywhere else.
No account of Texas would be complete without a history of its first settlement by American colonists, of their rising against the Mexican Government, their victory over the Mexican army and capture of General Santa Anna, the exploits of Austin,
Houston, and other heroes, and the winning of Texan independ- ence. The story has been told before, but it bears repeating; and the present generation of Texans may well be proud of the deeds of their forefathers. It may be advisable to remark, how- ever, that the account, as here given, is entirely from an American point of view. Told by a Mexican writer, it might read somewhat differently. According to Messrs. Sweet and Knox's account, the American settlers were peaceful, patient, and long-suffering, and only took up arms after being cruelly ill-used and goaded past endurance by the infamous treatment of the Mexican Government. All this may be true ; but if the Mexican rule had been as mild as it was the reverse, we do not believe the colonists would have submitted to it a moment longer than they could help. There is no instance on record of a people of English stock yielding permanent obedience to an alien government,—they either leave the country or throw off the yoke. There are French-speaking communities in Canada and the States, German-speaking communities in Russia and elsewhere, but there is no English-speaking community existing that owns allegiance to any flag but its own. Whether this be due to accident (if there be such a thing as accident in human affairs), or to what, for want of a better term, may be called the "imperial instincts of the race," we will not attempt to deter- mine. But be that as it may, this peculiarity has greatly in- fluenced the past of civilisation, and may equally influence its future. Consider, for instance, the difference it would have made in the development of American civilisation if Texas, a State as large as two European kingdoms, had remained a possession of Mexico instead of passing to the United States.
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