The Hillsborough Recorder

TEXAS.

Extracts from a letter from John Scott, esq. formerly of this town, to a gentleman in this place, dated

An emigrant should not stop short of Texas. Thousands from the richest parts of the valley of the Mississippi are pouring into this new republic. A farmer may grow rich here upon one fourth of the labor it takes to support his family in Orange. If they move at all, let them come to Texas. The best geographical account of the country, is one lately published in New York by a Mr. Newall. Probably Turner & Hughes of Raleigh, may have it for sale. I recommend it to the perusal of every one who thinks of Texas. It is a small volume.

The late Congress appointed five commissioners to locate the seat of government. It will be on the Colorado, or a little east of it, in a fertile, well watered, and delightful country, as healthy as any part of the globe.

By coming next fall, each head of a family will secure 640 acres of bounty land, and each single man 320 acres, provided they arrive before the first day of January, 1840, at which time the law expires.

The late Congress passed a law to establish a line of military forts, from Red River to Rio Grande, a distance of six hundred miles, over a delightful and salubrious and fertile region of country, to protect the frontier settlements. Each fort is to contain a square of land, of nine miles each way, laid off into sections of 160 acres each. A bounty of one section is to be given to every able bodied settler, who will locate himself, and open a farm and keep it up for three years, within either boundary of the forts. This added to the 640 acres, will make 800 acres of land, the bounty for settling in one of the choicest portions of the earth!

I have appended hereunto a copy of the emigrant law above spoken of; also the act exempting from execution certain property therein named; also the prices at the Houston market. Corn, you see, is four dollars per bushel! This exorbitant price is owing solely to the demand created by the constant influx of emigrants.

Families who come to Texas by land, should cross the Mississippi river somewhere between Natchez and Vicksburg, and enter Texas on the Red River side. It will be the shortest and most direct route to the new city of Austin.

Houston was commenced in March, 1837, when the first house was built; now its population is about 5,000 souls.

The hardy sons of "the old North state" muster strong here; more so, perhaps, than from any other state of the union.

Memucan Hunt, formerly of Granville, is now Secretary of the Navy.

An Act entitled an act to extend to the late emigrants or those who may emigrate within a specified time, a donation of land.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas in Congress assembled—That every person who emigrated to this republic since the first day of October Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, or who may emigrate to this republic by the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and forty, who is a free white person and the head of a family, and who actually resides within the government with his or her family, shall be entitled to a conditional grant of six hundred and forty acres of land by paying the fees of office and surveying. The conditions of the said grant shall be, that both grantee and his or her family shall remain and reside permanently within this republic, and do and perform any and all duties required of other citizens for the term of three years, after which time he or his legal representatives shall receive from the government an unconditional deed for said grant of land, provided that no sale of said claim to land by the individual entitled to the same or the government shall be valid in law and binding upon the person selling the same until an unconditional deed shall be obtained by the grantee for said land; and in no case whatever shall a grant of that description be made unless it be satisfactorily proven that all the conditions and provisions of the law have been complied with; and all single free white male persons of the age of seventeen and upwards who have emigrated to this republic since the first day of October one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, or who may emigrate to this republic by the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and forty, shall be entitled to three hundred and twenty acres of land, and all laws and parts of laws contrary to the meaning and provisions of this act are hereby repealed.
Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That all permanent resident citizens of Texas who have or may arrive to the age required of emigrants by the above section of this act shall be entitled to the same quantity of land as emigrants upon the same conditions that emigrants are.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That all officers and soldiers who engaged in the service of Texas previous to the first of March one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, whose families are now here or who may arrive here by the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and forty, shall be entitled to the same quantity of land that they would have been if their families had emigrated to the country with them.
An act entitled an act to exempt certain property therein named from execution.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this Act, there shall be reserved to every citizen or head of a family in this Republic, free and independent of the power of a writ of fieri facias, or other execution issuing from any court of competent jurisdiction whatever, 640 acres of land or one town lot, including his or her homestead, and improvements not exceeding five hundred dollars in value, all household and kitchen furniture, (provided it does not exceed in value two hundred dollars,) all implements of husbandry, (provided they shall not exceed fifty dollars in value,) all tools, apparatus and books belonging to the trade or profession of any citizen, five milch cows, one yoke of work oxen or one horse, twenty hogs, and one year's provisions; and that all laws and parts of laws contravening or opposing the provisions of this Act, be and the same are hereby repealed. Provided, The passage of this Act shall not interfere with contracts between parties heretofore made.
Extracts from the Prices Current, Houston Market.

Flour, $21 to 23 per barrel.
Hams, 27 to 40; middlings 28 to 30.
Lard 30 to 35 per lb.
Butter, 45 to 100.
Corn, $4 per bushel.
Oats, $3.50 to 4.00 per bushel.
Salt per sack, $8.50 to 9.00.
Nails, 25 per lb.
Candles, tallow, 75 per lb.
Molasses, $2.00 to 2.50 per gal.
Potatoes, $10 per barrel.