BENT'S FORT, on the Arkansas, established by Charles Bent, was the third of these remote posts, for which the above description will suffice. [6] CACHE-À-LA-POUDRE. French, hiding-place for the powder. [7] SALT LAKE was known to early Spanish explorers (see p. 37); had been often visited, but not explored. Ashley of Missouri, who led a party of trappers to the heads of the Colorado in 1823, built the next year a trading-house near Salt Lake. See also Bonneville's account. Fremont's explorations disclosed the existence of a great interior basin between the Rockies and Sierra Nevada, whose waters fall into Utah and Salt Lakes instead of reaching the Columbia or Colorado. [8] FORT BOISÉ. French, meaning wooded. [9] ASHBURTON TREATY settled our north-eastern boundary with England, and carried the parallel 49° to the Rocky Mountains, but not beyond. In 1846 a second treaty carried it to the Pacific. TEXAS ADMITTED. Mexico threw off her allegiance to Spain in 1821. Not till then did the Spaniards in Mexico abandon their policy of excluding all foreigners from their soil; but the example set them by the United States, with the feeling born of freedom from the Spanish yoke, brought about a change of policy in this regard, and Americans were invited to settle in Texas on the most generous terms. No stronger instance is found of the influence exerted by free institutions from without upon the hereditary prejudices of a whole people. It confessed a failure nobly. When Texas was thus thrown open to emigration her settlements were few and scattered. Habitual timidity or indolence had restricted them to the neighborhood of fortified posts or missions.[1] The chief ones were San Antonio, Goliad, Refugio and Nacodoches, and around these small parcels of land had been brought under cultivation. But the missions themselves, which had formed the groundwork of Spanish occupation, were fallen into irremediable decay. The Indians who had been gathered into them by the monks had dwindled away until the missions were mostly depopulated. Here, as in California, experience had shown that the natives could not exist under the shadow of the whites. Civilization wasted them away. [Illustration: SAN ANTONIO.] To induce settlers to come into Texas, they were offered exemption from all taxes for the space of ten years. Among the first to avail themselves of these offers was Stephen F. Austin, of Durham, Conn. Acting under a grant of lands made by the Mexican authorities to his father, Austin began a settlement on the Brazos in 1821, which later became the capital of the State, of which he was the foremost founder.