The statement of Land Commissioner John P. Borden, in the Supplement to the House Journal of the Fifth Congress (1840), p. 347, shows that under Mason's contract, dated June 19, 1834, there were issued by his agent, James Bowie, nine titles for an aggregate of ninety-five leagues. I have been unable to find these titles in the Land Office, though it is possible they are still there. Samuel M. Williams, in an address to the people of Texas, July, 1835, declared that Mason's grant was for 300 leagues. (See The Texas Republican, July 25, 1835, in the Austin Papers. Brown (History of Texas, I 261) says that the Legislature of 1834 squandered “to dishonest speculators eleven hundred leagues of land in one transaction and four hundred leagues in another.” He implies that it was done after July, 1834, but goes on to say that “the Constitution mentions by name John T. Mason, of New York, as chief beneficiary in this wholesale squandering of the public domain.” He gives no authority for his figures. Kennedy (Texas, II 83) simply says, “An immense extent of the domain of Texas had been granted in 1834 to John T. Mason, of New York.”
