in the following pages i have endeavored to sketch, in rather bold outlines, the story of texas. it is a story of knightly romance which calls the poet even as, in earlier days, the land of the tehas called across its borders the dreamers of dreams.
but the history of texas is far more than a romantic legend. it is a record of bold conceptions and bolder deeds; the story of the discoverer penetrating unknown wildernesses; of the pioneer matching his strength against the savage; of the colonist struggling for his freedom and his rights.
it is the chronicle of the birth of a people; the history of the rise and progress of a great state.
i have tried in these simple readings so to arrange the salient points of a drama of two centuries as to present a consistent whole.
and i shall be happy if i shall succeed in awakening in the reader somewhat of the interest in texas history which has inspired this work.
there are several features which mark texas history as unique. one of these is the difference between the methods of colonization employed in texas and those exercised elsewhere in the united states.
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the pioneer with his cabin, his ever-spreading fields, his gardens and orchards—the idea of the home with its roots in the very soil, as represented by austin and his followers—was preceded by a hundred barren years of fortress and soldier, the spanish idea of conquest and military rule.
again, its vast extent of territory and the ease with which its rich lands were acquired seemed to adapt texas peculiarly to those communistic and utopian experiments which have been the delight of the visionary in every age of the world’s progress. a number of these have been tried upon its soil. the result has been to give a varied and original coloring to the shifting scenes.
the philosophical student will find these phases of our history well worth his consideration.
i desire in this place to express my thanks to the texas teachers, to many of whom i am indebted for timely suggestions and for kindly encouragement; also my grateful obligation to mr. william beer, of the new orleans howard memorial library, for valuable assistance; and to the library itself, which, under his able direction, has become particularly rich in documents and publications relating to the early history of louisiana and texas. m. e. m. davis.
