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Show LAS TEXAS Y LOS TEJANOS. 415 ftil plain extends for some two hundred rods northward, and rises by a gentle grade to several picturesque knolls. On the crest of the cen-tral one, which slopes evenly toward all the cardinal points, stands the capitol ; north of it are other public buildings, all around and for two miles further north are the finest private residences, while the city proper, of trade and crowded streets, extends from the capitol down to the river. Except the main street due south from the cap-itol, and a few of the nearest cross- streets, the city appears like an ex-tension of retired country seats. At three or four places only is the steep bluff graded down to give a passage- to the river ; but north of town is a more gentle slope, and a broad sand- bar. On the opposite side is a range of heavily- timbered hills, and all around, far as the eye can see, and twenty miles further, extends a gently rolling coun-try, alternating strips of fertile prairie with pretty little groves. The commissioners who selected this site for the capitol deserved well of their country; but they looked a long way ahead, ' for it was then ( 1839) " far up the country," on the Indian border, and even now this may be considered the western limit of connected settlement. But they had faith in the future, and selected the most available spot near the geographical center. In 1841 several men were killed by In-dians within the corporate limits of the city, and Castro, a Lepan chief, was regularly hired by the infant government to scout north and west and keep off the Comanches. The growth of the city has been slow and regular. Here we enter the land of border romance. Hence to the Rio Grande south- west, and to the Rocky Ridge west and north- west, ev-ery grove, canon and valley has been the scene of some romantic and daring incident ; but should I attempt to repeat all that are told here, the world itself, to borrow a simile from Scripture, would not contain the books that should be written. Hunters and herders alternately fought and fraternized with both Mexicans and Indians, and many a brave Texan has risked and suffered sudden death by venturing back to the hostile region after a favorite Indian girl or senorita. Noted among the wild riders of those days was one Bob Rock, an outcast from Mississippi, who, like thousands of others, had sought Texas as a land where legal requisitions were not valid. His skill with the rifle passed into a proverb. " If Bob Rock draws a bead on him, he's gone,", was the general verdict. But the desperado was conquered at last by a little mestizo,, who, though of mixed blood, affected most the company of her wild kinsmen ; and she, by her native coquetry, suc-ceeded in drawing the hunter into the rocky region near the head of |
