In early 1800, San Antonio was in a flourishing state. True, the buildings were mostly mud-houses, yet the place was extensive. The troops were stationed on the east side of the river, near the Alamo, in the new parish of Valero, then under the care of Father Clemente Delgado. The old town had a separate curate. The missions below the town, having been secularized, were all unoccupied, except that of San Jose. These old missions, the work of other days, had long been the seat of hospitality, of refuge, and of prayer; but they had survived the brains that conceived and the hands that reared them, and stood, in 1806, as they still stand, in silent majesty, surveying the changes around them. Let no Vandal innovator disturb their solid proportions; but let them go down to the future, as monuments of the faith of the Franciscan fathers, and the works of their neophytes!
The population of Texas was, at this time, about seven thousand, of which some two thousand lived in San Antonio. This population was made up of Spaniards, creoles, and a few French, Americans, civilized Indians, and half-breeds. Their habits were wandering, the most of them being engaged in hunting buffaloes and wild horses. The former furnished them meat; with the latter they carried on a contraband trade with Louisiana. To check in some degree this rambling life, Governor Cordero restricted the hunting of buffaloes to a particular season of the year, and obliged every family to cultivate a certain quantity of land.
Society had been greatly improved in San Antonio by the officers of the army as well as the new settlers. Among the leaders of fashion and polite manners were, next to the governor, Father McGuire, Doctor Zerbin, Captain Ugarte and his lady, and Colonel Delgado. These attended to the hospitalities of the town, and introduced among the inhabitants a suavity of manners and a fondness for social intercourse which served much to make San Antonio by far the most pleasant place in...