Meanwhile the events in the Southwest had been so shaping themselves as to open up prospects for the long desired territorial extension in that quarter. The long dispute between Spain and France, and then after 1803, between Spain and the United States, in regard to the territory between the Rio Grande del Norte and the Sabine Rivers, called Texas, was first definitely settled in 1819, or rather in the Treaty of that year, between the United States and Spain, which Treaty was not executed, as we have seen, until a little later. In it this territory was recognized by the United States as belonging to Spain. It seems that a few persons from the United States had settled upon this territory, while it was disputed ground, and raised some complaint at having been left unprotected by the Government in the Treaty with Spain. {291} [Sidenote: The Austin grant.] The successful rebellion of Mexico against Spain made this territory a part of the new Mexican state, and before Mexico had had time to consolidate its powers or estimate the value of its northern possessions, a shrewd Yankee from Connecticut, who had removed to Missouri, and had become well skilled in the arts and practices of border life, Moses Austin, went to Mexico, and representing himself, it is said, as the leader of a company of Roman Catholics, who had suffered persecution in the United States, for their religion's sake, solicited a grant of land from the Catholic government of Mexico, and permission to make a settlement upon it. The Mexicans gave ready ear to his complaints and petition, and made him a large grant of land in the central part of Texas on the Colorado River. Mr. Austin died before effecting the settlement, and left the work to his son, S. F. Austin, who, in 1822, colonized the grant, and received a ratification of the same from the Mexican Government, the following year. [Sidenote: Local government in Texas.] At that moment, Texas and Coahuila formed a single Mexican province, and, after the establishment of the federal system of government in Mexico, the province became, in 1827, a Commonwealth. In the Coahuila part the population was Mexican, and as it was much larger than the Anglo-American population in the Texas part, the government of the Commonwealth was practically in the hands of Mexican officials. The rule of these officials was arbitrary and uncertain, and the race prejudice between Spaniard and Anglo-Saxon was immediately excited by it. It was pretty evident that the expulsion of the Americans from Texas was intended. In 1830, came at last the decree from the Mexican President, Bustamente, prohibiting further immigration into Texas from the United States. {292} The Texan colonists now numbered some twenty thousand, mostly bold and hardy men, and it was not to be expected that they would either give up their lands, or assist in preventing further immigration, or submit much longer to the foreign rule, as they felt it to be, of Mexico or Coahuila.