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Show TEXAS CONTINUED. 429 manner by their complexion ; for the officers are, as a rule, of purer Spanish blood than the privates.. When brought to General Houston, stiff with cold and barely able to speak, the prisoner announced his name and rank, and asked for opium. Having swallowed this, his spirits soon revived, and address-ing Houston with lofty dignity, he said: " Sir, you are born to no ordinary destiny; you have conquered the Napoleon of the West!" Modesty never was Santa Anna's strong suit. While a captive he acknowledged the independence of Texas, but repudiated it when free; and a feeble sort of border war went on for eight years, the Texans making several expeditions against Santa Fe, all of which proved unsuccessful. In these and the Mier expedition many barbarities were committed some on both sides. Then came the annexation to the United States, the Mexican war, the period of development, and the war of the Rebellion, all of which are within the memory of men yet young. Texas suffered less from the late war than any other Southern State. Her soil was barely touched upon the border by invading Federals. She was smart enough to let Confed-erate money alone, and stick to gold and silver, which constitute her currency to- day. Soon after the war " the spirit of immigration revived, and since 1872 Texas has been receiving settlers at the average rate of two or three thousand per week. And still there is room. Of her 270,000 square miles, or thereabout, one- third or more is as fer-tile as any part of the West ; one- third is less fertile, but of great value for grazing; the remainder, lying far up the slope, is dotted with rocky hills and sandy wastes. The Staked Plain, so called from the stakes with which the Mexicans marked a road across it, is mostly an irreclaimable desert. As in all the border States, fertility decreases as one goes towards the heads of the streams, up the slope and away from the larger bodies of water and timber. Her 100,000 square miles of fertile land now contain at least 1,200,000 inhab-itants; and there is land abundant for twice as many more. She can accommodate the surplus population of the Southern and Middle- Western States for fifty years. Dallas is the center of a region two hundred miles square, which is eminently fitted for occupation by Northern men. In the upper sec-tions corn, wheat and cotton grow side by side ; farther down corn and cotton are the staples. It is high, dry and healthful ; but North-erners should not settle on the " bottom lands" along the streams. Even Texans incline to surrender them to the freedmen. Southern Texas would not suit the majority of Northern born settlers. Not |