Early Texas Years
In 1817, Burnet moved to Natchitoches, Louisiana and set up a mercantile business. After several months he developed a bloody cough. A doctor diagnosed him with tuberculosis and suggested he move to Texas, then a part of Mexico to recuperate in the dry air. Later that year, Burnet traveled alone into Texas. A Comanche tribe came to his aid when he fell off of his horse by the Colorado River, and he lived with them for two years until he made a full recovery. Near the end of the year, he met Ben Milam, who had come to the village to trade with the tribe.
His cough improved, Burnet returned to Cincinnati. In his return to civilization, asked that the Mexican prisoners be released with him and allowed to return home as well. The Comanches agreed to this proposal and the Mexican families were surprised that there was no ransom or other agreement to the release of these prisoners.
In Cincinnati, Burnet wrote a series of articles for the Literary Gazette detailing his time spent with the Indians. Burnet practiced law for several years, but returned to Texas after hearing of Stephen F. Austin's successful colony for Anglos. Burnet settled in San Felipe, the headquarters of Austin's colony, in 1826. For the next 18 months he provided law advice to the 200 settlers in the town and organized the first Presbyterian Sunday School in Texas. A deeply religious man, Burnet neither drank nor swore and always carried a Bible in his pocket.
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