We left the other day for San Antonio right away on horseback, both equipped with a good rifle. He has twelve horses distributed over the country. After crossing the Colorado River at Austin we are in the prairie wide open with some mesquite trees (a kind of locustus) and live oak trees. Only on river sides we find a narrow spot of trees. Clear nice waters and dark fertile soil; good grazing land. I read in Germany one time that this grass stays always green even through wintertime. This is not true. It is harder to kill but still not enough to keep cattle through wintertime. The loss is big and it is hard to get milk and butter during that time. Hay has to be imported if some one wants milk and butter throughout the winter months. There are no barns for the cattle and the cattle have to be rounded up from a distance of thirty English miles sometimes. In springtime they have their round-up and picking up of the calves. After crossing Liveoak Springs, a place where Captain Wrede was scalped and killed half a year ago, we arrived at the San Marcos River in the evening. A nature wonder! A small spring in a little pond running up to a stream of twenty-five ells width and six feet deep. The water of those rivers is so often so clear that even at twenty feet you can see every little rock and fish at the bottom. The water must have quite some calcium to be that clear just like our little spring at home in Gringelglock which contains quite some calcium compounds, too. All the water of these west rivers are very transparent.
We stayed here overnight sleeping on the ground and wrapped up in a blanket after having a supper invitation by an American who is going to settle here. He is living in a tent and his Negroes erecting a log cabin here. One of the Negros had to stay up all night to save our scalp and horses from Indians. Already twenty houses are here since the last half a year.
The next day around noon we reached Braunfels on the Guadalupe River, already a nice and important little city. The third biggest in Texas with about 3,000 inhabitants. (Galveston 5,000, San Antonio 4,000). Here is the seat of the German noblemen. But many have a hard life and often you see a baron sawing wood to make his living. Some, of course, still sponsored by the club and take it easy. However, some day there will be an end and the money gone, then they will have to work and have to learn to make a living. I stayed with Henkel who owns a restaurant and little shop here in partnership with someone else. He is making a good business and always has taken me in very friendly. His name Henkel, Count of Dommersmark he has cut down, calling himself Henkel only. The price of an acre here climbed up to $10-$20. Some places in town they have paid already $300. No threatening of Indians here anymore, only occasionally they steal horses and a scalp is lost. Between here and the coast is everything free of Indians and it is a lie if German papers say immigrants were attacked by Indians of their trek from the coast. They might as well write Indians attacked Berlin. I will drop my claims about the 160 acres only if they make me stay on it before it is deeded to me. We left Braunfels at 2 p.m. and reached the Cibolo (Mexican name for buffalo) at sundown. The river is absolutely dry here while up and down this place it is quite a running stream. We noticed that quite often here in the West. Late at night we saw the rivers of the Alamo, the tragic end for Travis, Bowie, and Crockett. Half an hour later we reached San Antonio after riding fifty-three miles (12 German miles). The crossing of the Antonio River was quite difficult; it was a dark night and the crossing path not straight. But we made it.
San Antonio, founded in 1731 by a colony of Spaniards from the Canary Islands is quite a sight. The older buildings partly in ruins are made of walls three to four feet thick.
One story buildings with a shingle roof or flagstones supported by 4x4 posts which stick out the walls. The top of the roof is covered with four to five feet of soil against the sun which provides them a cool house in summertime and a warm one in winter.
In the middle is a big gate and doors leading from both sides into the rooms. The floor is covered with hard rock floor covering. Even open fireplaces in the rooms. The rooms have only a small window. Between those big houses are small ones. Living quarters of the Mexicans (half Indians). Poles from mesquite trees close, one by one, dug in the ground, raw cowhides plugged through and covered with a loamy soil. Palm leaves furnish the roofing materials. Four of the five Spanish missions are close up, but also ruins. One of the favored sports of the Mexicans is swimming in the Antonio River. Often I saw Mexican children between seven to ten years old swimming aside big logs down river so directing them. The river is divided in several arms and channels but partly fallen to pieces and covered with mud.
I found along the river Indisches Blumenrohr (Indian or Hindoo cane), passion flowers of pale red colors, fig trees, peach trees, and Granatapfel (pomegranate) wild growing remains of earlier settlements. Quite often around San Antonio are cactus four to five feet in height, a plague for everyone in their thickness. Even cattle try to avoid these spots. Also Yucca, which resembles very much the aloe are found here three to four feet high. The leaves end in a sharp point hurting often the horse. der Blutenshand (flowering) is similar to our Armleuchter (stonewort with yellow parts like tulip bells.) From the different cactus I found six to eight specimens.
I met here persons more than 100 years old. Not more than four feet high, and bent, with hair as white as snow. Nothing but skin and bones. After eight days, we finally went surveying in the western hills - Indian country. The next town we reached was Castroville on the Medina River, twenty-five miles from San Antonio. A nice little town stocked with Germans, Frenchmen, and Mexicans. Castro not very much liked in Germany, has done a good job here and nobody was unfriendly to him. However, those settlements here and elsewhere have the disadvantage of very expensive living, for instance for two pound of batatas you pay one half dollar. Good flour in Houston runs $6 per barrel. For freight you have to pay $3 per 100 pounds. To Austin takes $12-$14 per barrel of flour while in San Antonio you have to pay $21 already. So is everything very much higher.
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Searching Shipping records? Simply naval gazing.
