receive Anglo settlers. Among the Anglos the family befriended was Stephen F. Austin, who took young José María under his mentorship. Kentucky, Virginia, return to Texas Austin obtained parental permission for young Carbajal to travel to Frankfort, Kentucky in 1823 with merchant Littleberry Hawkins and learn the tanning trade from Hawkins' brother-in-law Blanchard. Two years later, Carbajal moved to Lexington to train under a saddle maker by the name of Peter Hedenbergh. Carbajal converted from Catholicism to Protestantism in 1826 and was baptized in the Reformed Baptist Church of Lexington. It was at this church that Carbajal heard theologian Alexander Campbell of Bethany, Virginia. Campbell enrolled Carbajal in Bethany College, and Carbajal roomed in the Campbell home for the next two years. Carbajal returned to Texas in 1830 and requested Austin's assistance in marketing bibles that had been translated into Spanish by the Bishop of Madrid. The price of the bibles was to be on a sliding scale, depending on an individual's ability to pay. It is unknown whether Austin involved himself with the Bible sales. Austin did, however, have such sufficient faith in Carbajal's character and abilities by 1832 that Austin detailed him to New Orleans on a personal issue, to meet with Rezin Bowie and collect a debt owed to Austin by the Bowie family. Political beginnings Surveyor Carbajal decided upon the profession of a surveyor, completing his studies in his chosen field by 1831. His bi-lingual abilities gave him an advantage when communicating to Anglo settlers the complex legal documents written in Spanish. Stephen F. Austin sponsored him in obtaining employment as the official surveyor for empresario Martín De León and his wife Patricia de la Garza De León to plat the town of Victoria, Texas. The market square he originally laid out is now known as DeLeon Plaza and Bandstand. Carbajal married the De Leon daughter María del Refugia De León Garza and became one of the colonists who settled in the De Leon land grant. The Law of April 6, 1830 of Mexico had been passed to stop the tide of Anglo immigration into the country, hoping to safeguard against the annexation of Texas by the United States. The state government of Coahuila y Tejas sent Carbajal and Jose Francisco Madero to conduct land grant surveys in East Texas in January 1831, for settlers who had been residing outside the authority of any other empresario