Morgan wrote his friend Samuel Swartwout, "I will go ahead in this matter & do all that I can do and if times were not so d---nable here you should not want. I cannot sell a foot of land -- no money in the County. We'r perfectly drained & times awfully hard indeed in the money way -- property valued two yrs. ago . . . at $55,000 in the town of Houston sold lately under the hammer at Sheriffs sale for $800!!"[112]

On May 2 Canales, after promising to reward Lamar for the kindness shown him and his troops,[113]  left Austin in company with Carbajal, López, González, and Molano, for Houston and Galveston to procure clothing, provisions, and supplies for another expedition. En route, Canales and his suite stopped for one day at Bastrop upon the invitation of Colonel Jacob Eberly and other citizens to make known his views. In the evening a ball was given in his honor. Canales addressed the company in a short and eloquent speech, delivered in Spanish, which was then translated by Colonel Carbajal, who spoke English fluently, "being free from any offensive idiom or provincialism in accent or expression."[114]  The Federalist commander expressed appreciation for the sympathy and attention that had been shown him by the citizens of Texas, and gave a brief outline of his military operations and future intentions. He denied that his party had committed any aggression upon the territory claimed by Texas. He said,

We are not anxious about boundaries but are willing to allow Texas any line she may choose; we are fighting for liberty, both civil and religious, the principles of which are the same everywhere; we are now following in the footsteps of Texas, and wish to establish a government of our own in-