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Texas
fascinated the Europeans as a splendid opportunity for settling
on the frontier and beginning to live the American Dream.
There was also an important political perspective.
Many governments were alarmed by the idea of United States' Manifest
Destiny, and the threat such power created for their opportunities
in international commerce and influence. Germans were particularly
intrigued with central Texas, and the opportunity to escape their
nearly feudal life under the local noblemen.
This original engraved map contains a wealth of information valued
by any prospective immigrant. The earliest counties in southeast
Texas are shown, including the mammoth Bexar, Robertson and Milam
areas, the last conversions of the original Mexican land grants
to counties under the government of the Republic. Most notably,
the areas of particular interest to the German settlers around Fredericksburg
are named Deutsche Colonie des Mainzen Vereins (colored green) and
for the French around Castroville (colored yellow) is an area marked
Franz Colonie. These colonies were on the edge of the frontier,
while an enormous amount of growth blossomed in southeast Texas.
Perhaps the most dramatic land promotion scheme took place in what
is now the Texas panhandle and the eastern half of New Mexico. A
tract of land comprising an astonishing 48,000,000 acres was granted
to Stephen Wilson, a North Carolina trader living in Mexico City.
Several years earlier he had worked in the mines at Santa Rosa,
New Mexico. When the empresario grant was confirmed, Wilson hired
Alexander LeGrand, another veteran trader and explorer of New Mexico's
north, living variously in Santa Fe and Taos.
LeGrand's lasting contribution to the cartography and land promotion
was to report, as marked on this map, that the area was: "naturally
fertile, well wooded and with a fair proportion of water" in
a now obvious attempt to lure settlers to the remote region. Interestingly,
there is considerable speculation as to whether or not LeGrand in
fact even made the survey, or rather spent his time trading with
the various Indian tribes on the Southern Plains, while accepting
a reported $10,000 from Wilson for the questionable survey and the
supporting journal. This German cartographer more accurately notes
the area as the "Mountainous Summer Range of the Comanches."
The routes of explorers, and a variety of other trails are recorded
to the west of Texas as they cross the interior of New California,
the center of which bears the inscription: "Vast land with
saline soil almost without vegetation." The regions controlled
by various Indian Nations are also marked. There was obviously a
keen interest -- and rivalry -- between cartographers of the different
world powers where Texas was concerned. In the northernmost reaches
of Texas are several rivers marked as either not being on the American
Emory map or the British Arrowsmith map.
$785 framed replica map in darkwood, approximately 43" x 39"
$485 unframed replica map, approximately 34" x 30"
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