Note 6 — AN INQUIRY INTO THE SOURCES OF TREASURE LEGENDS OF TEXAS

If we turn from the Spanish and Mexicans to the early American colonists of Texas, we find that the prospect of mineral riches had little part in motivating their colonization. Though Stephen F. Austin “denounced” a mine—perhaps coal—on the upper Trinity,6 and though the Bowie brothers, with a small band of men, staked their lives on the chance of gaining silver ore from the San Saba country,7 thereby giving basis to the most remarkable of all Texas legends, nevertheless, the pioneer settlers of Texas came hither to plough and herd, to trade and labor, not to prospect.8