Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1846-05-07

been told Of the balmy breezes, but not Of the
freezing siroccos of Texas, read and ponder we'll
the sad revelation, OF the unadorned truth, briefly
Swallowed forth in Tho following from an intelli-
gent and well informed source;
FROM THE CHARLESTON EVENING NEWS,
CoRPus CnRlsTI, Crexas,) Jan. IS.
The people of the United States have been,
and still are, egregiously guled by scrip-hoders
and editors respecting the character of this coun-
try. ! should be amused i'm readinq the euloais-
TIC descriptions which are TO be found in almost
every newspaper respecting the climate, produce
lions, and the general capabilities Of Texas, were
1t not Tor the Indignation which feel i'm reflect
ing on the very many worthy families that will
be ruined by such barefaced Interpretations.
There is no district i'm all Texas from the Sabine
to the Rio Grande, with the general character of
which have not made myself pretty well ac-
quainted. This did by making il business to
cross-eNamine intelligent persons who had visit
ed one or more of all those districts. One of the
conclusions which derive from my injuries is
that taking Texas in its totaity, there is no re-
gion In the United States, containing the same
number of square miles, that is not in,rinsicaly
much more valuable. Another is, that no dis
trlct OF ten miles square can be found within the
widest limits of Texas which combines the adj
vantages OF good land, good water, good timber,
good health, and good navigation. Nine-tenths
consist oil prairie wastes, which for many substan.
tial reasons, must remain for centuries to come,
II not forever an uncultivated wilderness fit only
Tor animals TO inhabit. 1t is almost exclusively
on the banks of Il few pary rivers, which are
said TO be navigable, that good timber is TO be
found and even ON them only in narrow strips,
which do not generally average over three hum
dred yards in breadth. The lands on the mar
gins OF those rivers are generally very rich, but
almost every year they are extensively overflow
ed, and subsequently visited by feyers of most
deadly type. In addition to all this, the seasons
In ieXas are nnquestlonably worse than those of
any country in the United States. The rainy
season prevails here during the inter months.
when rains are not wanted, and from April till
September there pretty regularly prevails an I'M
renting drought. The consequence is. that
experienced planters do not calculate on makinp
more than one out of three crops and i, is not
always That they can make so large proportion.
was told the following anecdote Yesterday, by |
a gentleman who attempted, during four years TO
sustain himself by planting on the banks of the
"Gaudaiupe, near Victoria, which is one of the
richest, the best located, and most lauded posi-
tons in all Texas. He told me that he planted
on high ground, which was very rich, the first
year; and that his crop was entirely burnt up by
the drought. The second year he planted on the
low river bottom lands and succeeded i'm making
a crop. The third and fourth years he planted i'm
the same land, and each year his crop was totally
destroyed by the hoods.-He sad moreover, that
the only crop which never failed was bilious re-
YER and that this flourshed abundantly in his
family every year as regularly as July came"
The climate of Texas, like every thing else.
has been greatly misrepresented. The iremen-
dous "norlhers" which prevail every few DAYS,
during the winter months, and which sweep un-
broken from the Rocky Mountains, over the prai.
rle regions of this wilderness country, frequntly
reducing the mercury to twenty degrees, give one
strange idea of ''tropical'' Texas! These. to.
gether with cold pelling rains, dense foos, re-
iieved ny few scattering fair days, present the
rue Dill OF iare of the winter season in the most
tropical portion of Texas In summer there pre-
walls dreadful droughis, which generally com
mence in April and continue unremittinGlv ill
September. These droughts are accompanied.
Tour days out OF five, with clustering, parching
sIrocco winds, which occasion such excessive e. |
Vaporations as TO destroy any species of Young
tree; and it is probably to this circumstance
that Texas owes it prairie character. have seen
several attempts made to raise sugar cane in this
part OF the country, but they all prove signal fail
ures. The cane, though planted in the richest
land, was so stunted by the powerful evapora-
tlng winds, as not to acquire one half the size of
ordinary cane by the 2Sth November, when it
was utterly destroyed by frost, which reduced
the mercury to 90 degrees. II is said that some
good sugar crops have been made on the Brasos,
and on the river north and east of this {; but it
would take ocular demonstration to convince me
that iull sugar crop ever has been or ever will |
be made In any portion of the country between
The Sabine and the Rio Grande. need scarcely
inform you that orange trees and other tropical
productions VIII never be seen Except as curios-
lles) In country whose climate is so inclemeut
That n blackjack Tree dares not show its head
But, supposlDg that the unavailable prairies .
which form nearly the whole of southern and
western Texas (aIas tropical .Texas''i were
rich, well timbered we'll waered lands. with
good navigation and seasonable climate, instead
OF being, as they tmberless, unwatered.
land locked deserts, subject to irregular and most
lnclement seasons, would il even then | ask he .
advisable for southern planters to emigrale here !
Most assuredly not. unless they wish to lose all
their negroes, and then cultivate, by free labor
lands TO which they would have precarious titles.
The insecurity of slave property is so great, in |
the southern and western portions of Texas that
no man In his senses would risk large gang OF
negroes south Of Colorado, even did he find their
labor profitable, which he most assuredly would |
not. 1t is only necessary for a negro in this re-
gion OF the country TO mount one of the mustangs
which are always and every where at hand and
in less than jortyeight hours he is irrecoverablv
lost to his owner; for he has only TO cross the |
Rio Grande in order to be freeman and on a |
perfect equality with his adapted countrymen
have not space to say half what wish TO say
abopt Texas, and must therefore conclude here (
Tor the present, and may probably renew the ,
subject in another communication.
s---s---oz----~-----~--
BEWARE or CoUNTERFEIT FivEs ON THE Ey- !