New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-04-20
RIO aRANDE CORRESPONDENCE.

RIO aRANDE CORRESPONDENTS.
Southern Steamship oompony-7s 7sisp Is a.e Rio
Grande- Areeable Suyprise at Re Fdce 81 ia
Country = Wrong Impressions dbosa He HJo
Grande HaReg- Fertile Sol The Toscn n
Bro,rnscale- It's People, and many otAer M
aerestirg Henas.
Special TO the New Orleans crescent.I
BROWNSVILLE, April Is, 1860.
Ed. Crescent-The first trip Of the steamship
Austin was decided success, for she not only
brought to Indianola and Brazos Santiago large
freight list, but she also performed the work wen,
and in quick time. The design Of the Southern
steamship company to establish weekly commu-
nication between New Orleans and the Rio Grande
Is fully justified by the business and the service
will be agreeably rendered by the Arizona and
the Austin. New Orleans Is under obligations to
this Company for the many facilities which il haB
afforded for connection with Gulf ports for your
city, with all its wealth, lacks the enterprise to
start such hazards ITSELF and without the Steam
ship Company, your intercourse with Galveston,
Indianola, Brownsville, Apalachicola Pensacola,
Key West, and numerous other depots Of trade on
the Gulf, would be at the disposal Of adventurous
steamship owners and sailing vessels. As it is, no
sooner does point on the Gulf in our own terri
tory offer sufficient promise of trade, than the
Southern Steamship Company dispatches boat
to fulfill the want and secure to the Crescent City
her legitimate trade. lam aware that many com
plants are urged against the Company, as .
monopoly and as extravagant in ts charges
but then these frequently arise from jealousy and
i'll nature and often senseless desire to find fault.
They do no injury, however, and therefore are
not to be seriously thought Of Or discussed.
Allow me to make known, through your COZ
ys-.r.
people outside Of that city, are most proyokingly
misinformed as to this city and its resources. /
came here under the common delusion, and right
here enter my Acknowledgements that did unin-
tentionally the most fragrant and inexcusable in
justice to the Rio Grande valley. I ought to have
known better, too, for crossed this crooked
stream at FL Paso many years ago, and saw there
the finest OF fruit orchards, the most delicious OF
grape vineyards, very fragrant tobacco leaves and
good cotton stalks; hut despite my own obserya-
ton took the word of others and voted the Rio
Grande hereabouts as barren sand plain, inca
pable," to use the expressive language Of friend,
s'of raising beans psi have seen the country, ]
| have eaten the beans I have observed the vines,
turned over the soil and calculated the chances,
and / deliberately affirm that this country spiH
raise beans, and the heaviest crop, too, that the
| most ardent Mexican could desire. A gentleman
| who owns farm not far from here, informs me
| that he took three bushels of beans and scattered
them loosely over twenty of land, and if Cor
tina had not fed his horses on the vines, the yield
would have been sufficient to exist this whole
town for six months, SO prolific was the promising
crop.
| The people in Louisiana and the rest of the
Southern States are sadly in when they vote;
this section Of Texas to be worthless and uninyit-
| ing and l defy any competent judge to visit the
Rio Grande and deny my conclusions. The land is
fertile to degree that would astonish even the
dwellers on the old father of wsters,t for here
1 the soil is the same as that on the Mississippi, and
not only that but it is far south that two crops
can be raised where only one is gathered in Louis
lana. field of corn just inside the corporate linn
its is now growing, which will be taken of in
two months, and the ground replanted for another
crop to mature in the fall But enough Of this for
| the present-it is subject which ought to be
treated Of weekly until the pervading wrong i'm
preston is thoroughly oYerthrown.
The town. or rather city, Of Brownsville is situ-
ated the left bank Of the Rio Grand river, about
eighty miles by land from its mouth. The location
is pleasant and the business large. The town is
well built and contains population yariously es-
timated at from eighteen hundred to twenty-five
uuuuF6u pcUpiGs luGh6 lluHuitduL6 are ulYluEu
into Americans, Mexcans and Europeans. The
native American element is the smallest the Mexi-
can the largest, and the foreign the medium. Be
tween these elements there is that srrepressible
conflict which always subsists between different
nationalities and therefore the town is not very
harmonious in its method of acting for people
with diverse tastes will disagree even in the midst
of dangers. The popularity is, however, that all
the others combine to depreciate the true lords Of
the soil for the Mexican naturally detests the
American and the foreigner finds it to his interest
to take sides with the largest body of customers.
There is no particular ill-wi, however, between
the Americans and Europeans, except that all
people are more or less clannish, and this raises
the distinction in Brownsville, as it does in New
Orleans and elsewhere.
i Brownsville is under the weather Just now, from
the uncertainty attending our relations with Mex-
co. The boundary line is too close, and the facil
ties for committing crime this side and hiding il
on the other too great to allow much security
to person or property in this vicinity Many sue
cessful farms and stock ranches were insoperation
in this vicinity before the late difficulties but now
the fields are uncultivated and the herds OF cattle
, DESTROYED. Cortinas has probably butchered
thousands Of beeves belonging to Texans, and sold
the hides and tallow in Matamoras. he mas MADE
i off with any number of horses and mules, anu lne
a nnmber Of his murdered victims no man here has
the heart to compute. Great numbers OF traders
q coming here to buy cattle have never been heard
Of. except in the tales told by skeletons whitening
nm the road side. But | drop the subject, as one
too painful to contemplate until longer period OF
the present peace and security has made the theme
more a matter of history than subject of
anxiety.
Business is resiving somewhat, as is evidenced
by the houses. which are gradually filing up.
Three months ago every fourth house was for
rent, and no property was offered for sale, for
there were no buyers. AT present the bic
houses are mostly occupied, and new comers are
inquiring for others. Board Of a superior quaf
can be had here at from 81 so to ~ SO per
and the tables are well supplied with be-
ton, pork and veal and vegetables Of
The fare to this place is $50, divided
the steamer, 81 for iighterage to
! 81 stage fare to this place, 3 d
: eight miles.