Such colonizing activities indicated to the Mexican authorities that the Texas government definitely intended to settle and develop the area west of the San Antonio River, and thus the so-called "no-man's land" would soon become distinctly a part of the rebel country to the north. That Congress had such an object in mind in granting liberal land bounties for the introduction of settlers was openly admitted in Texas. The object of Congress, wrote "Civilian," is "to augment our population as fast as possible under our present relations with Mexico and thus strengthen the defensive powers of the country. After our independence has been formally acknowledged by that nation we shall have no necessity for granting rewards to those who come to dwell among us."[12]  Furthermore, if German, French, Belgian, Dutch, and British colonists were established in Texas, a Mexican invasion would tend to ally the mother countries of the imperilled immigrants to the Texas cause. While the efforts of the Republic to occupy the territory within its asserted boundaries and outside the limits of old Mexican Texas excited some attention in Mexico, the efforts themselves proved largely unsuccessful. There was some dubious infiltration into the County of San Patricio. "Land boards of the Republic issued certificates to lands which were surveyed and located in the [county, but] . . . there was in fact little, if any, settlement on these grants" until after General Zachary Taylor reached the Nueces at the end of July 1845.[13]  On January 29, 1842, an act to organize the County of Guadalupe was passed over the President's veto.[14]