Past page 400 now and almost finished. Olmsted leaves San Antonio for Eagle Pass to cross the border into Piedras Negras and interior Mexico. He does an impressive job detailing the landscape, flora, fauna, and weather of southwest Texas. A few pages about runaway slaves escaping to Mexico. He then returns to San Antonio and essentially follows I-10 through San Felipe, Houston, and Beaumont on his way to New Orleans. Pre-highway travel through the bayous and swamps of southeast Texas sounds much more difficult than today. Once again, Olmsted admires the German immigrants but has little regard and few compliments for other Texans.
The book finishes with second-hand descriptions of north Texas and the Llano Estacado (which he didn't visit) and statistics regarding population, weather, geology, and agricultural production. I was surprised to learn that the most populated county in Texas in 1850 was Harrison County (county seat: Marshall) with 11,822 people. Furthermore, Harrison county was one of only a few counties with more slaves than white people. Harrison County almost had a larger population than Bexar County (6,052 people), Harris County (4,668 people), and Dallas County (2,743 people) combined.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and encourage others to read it, too (the book can be purchased relatively cheap from Amazon or Elibris). I found myself longing for a present-day blog or guide that retraced Olmsted's journey through Texas. I wish that there was still a more authentic German influence in the Hill Country (Wurstfest doesn't really count).
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