Austin agreed with Martínez to be responsible for all administrative task after he arranged for settlers to come to Texas in exchange for land; in payment for his services, Austin would collect 12½ cents an acre in compensation. Austin returned to New Orleans and sought willing colonists and by the end of the summer of 1824 most of the Old Three Hundred were in settled in Texas.

According to the terms of the 1823 Imperial Colonization Law of Mexico, each family engaged in farming was to receive one labor (about 177 acres) and each ranching family one league (about 4,428 acres), for which the family would have to pay the state thirty dollars within six years.  An additional caveat was that the land had to be occupied and improved within two years.

Because of the obvious advantages, many of the colonists elected to classify themselves as stock raisers although they were technically farmers.  Moreover, because the family was the unit for distribution, Austin permitted unmarried men to receive grants in partnerships, usually in groups of two or three.  Between 1824 and 1828, Commissioners Baron de Bastrop and Gaspar Flores issued 297 recognized titles, not 300. 

 

Most of these first Texians were farmers from the South, and many had substantial means before they arrived.  Because Austin wanted to avoid problems with his colonists, he generally only accepted those from higher social classes; indeed, only four of the Old Three Hundred grantees were illiterate.