noblemen to promote German colonization in Texas. Co-founder Count Victor August of Leiningen-Westerburg-Alt-Leiningen was president of the society, and Count Carl of Castell-Castell became vice-president and business director. The Republic of Texas issued colonization land grants totaling 4,494,806 acres. These grants were with individuals and conditional upon said individuals establishing settlements in a stated geographical area of Texas, and were limited to a given time period in which the colonization had to take place. On June 7, 1842, Henry Francis Fisher and Burchard Miller received a colonization land grant to settle 1,000 immigrant families of German, Dutch, Swiss, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian ancestry, known as the Fisher–Miller Land Grant. The contract was renewed on September 1, 1843 by the Republic of Texas House of Representatives. On June 26, 1844, Fisher sold an interest in the grant to the Adelsverein. On December 30, 1845, both Fisher and Miller sold their grant rights to the Adelsverein, conditional that Fisher be on the Verein's colonial committee. On April 7, 1844, a second land grant acquired by the Verein was the Bourgeois-Ducos grant, which had actually expired December 3, 1843. The Verein appointed the grant's namesake Alexander Bourgeois d'Orvanne as Colonial Director, who sold them on the promise he could get the grant's deadline extended. In the end, the Bourgeois-Ducos grant was not extended. Commissioner-General On October 24, 1844, Meusebach wrote a letter to Count Castell to express his interest in moving to the Republic of Texas in order to pursue his love of geology, botany and horticulture. He had become fascinated by Texas and had been reading everything about the area. At the suggestion of his brother Carl, he read Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas by author William Kennedy and became intrigued by a place named Enchanted Rock. The same book had inspired Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels who had been named Commissioner-General of the Verein's colonization. Once in Texas, Prince Solms had become disillusioned because of the financial and logistics difficulties of establishing German colonies in Texas. Fisher had badly mis-managed funds and assets entrusted to him, with Prince Solms lending more money to the expedition. In 1844, Prince Solms asked the Vereins to remove him as Commissioner-General and appoint a successor. Count Castell replied to Meusebach's October 24 letter by stating that he could buy a share in the Verein for $2,000 and have a chance