Texas Rangers often served as volunteers since government offers of payment rarely materialized. In May, while Austin was in Mexico City, his lieutenant, Moses Morrison, used this authority to assemble a company of men to protect the Texas coast from the Tonkawa and Karankawa Indians. Under Mexican law, Austin was authorized to form a militia to ward off Indian raids, capture criminals and patrol against intruders. His colony, and those proposed by other empresarios, would serve to reinforce Mexico's claim to Texas and act as a buffer between the hostile Comanche Indians and Hispanic settlements at San Antonio de Bexar and Laredo.īy 1823, the settlements suffered frequent raids by the Comanche, Tonkawa and Karankawa Indians. Austin was to be rewarded for his services with land, titles and military powers over the colony. and Europe who would be given land if, among other conditions, they agreed to become Mexican citizens, adopt the Catholic religion and learn to speak Spanish. He was authorized to recruit settlers from the U.S. Austin assumed his late father's contract as empresario, or developer of settlements in the Mexican province of Tejas. This ability must be proven before a man becomes a Ranger.' For The Common Defense

Bob Crowder once put it, 'A Ranger is an officer who is able to handle any given situation without definite instructions from his commanding officer, or higher authority. Over the years, a distinct Ranger tradition has evolved. The Rangers are part of the history and mythology of the Old West. And numerous movies, radio shows and television shows have been inspired by the Rangers over the years.

Scores of books, from well-researched works of nonfiction to Wild West pulp fiction novels have been written about the Rangers. They have been compared to other world-famous law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, Scotland Yard, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Rangers have a heritage that began with the earliest settlements in Texas. Homer Garrison, Jr., long-time director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, once described the men who have worn the silver or gold star of the Texas Rangers, the oldest state law enforcement agency in North America.

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