Nearly two years of toil, privation and peril, have been wasted.

My sufferings had been great, though my spirit soared on the bouyancy of hope.

Now the fair superstructure of an important enterprise, whose ideal magnitude had employed my mind, to the exclusion of many hardships endured, suddenly vanished from my sight, and left before me a hideous and gloomy void with no other encouragement than total disappointment, conscious poverty and remediless despair! What _should_ I then have done?
My health was restored, but my detention and consequent expenses had been so great that my funds were nearly exhausted.
I came to the country for an important purpose; and I reasoned with myself thus; although my way is closed in this State, cannot something be done _elsewhere_?
I will not boast of the stoutest heart among men, but mine _must not quail_.

Something further _must_ be done if possible, and I will try.
In the course of my travels, I had seen a part of the adjoining State of Tamaulipas, and had been informed that the colonization laws thereof were liberal.

I was even aware that some parts of it are more suitable for the culture of the sugar cane, than any tract I could have obtained in Coahuila and Texas.