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Galveston April 1 1866 Respectfully returned with the following remarks On the 22nd of August last I purchased from Col. A.T. Oliver of Austin Tex, the growing crops of corn and cotton; with the property purchased there were turned over to me all the negroes on the place formerly belonging to Col. Oliver numbering of all sizes, something over one hundred. those negroes were under contract at the time of my purchase, a copy of which is attached. As soon as I took possession I informed the negroes that I would change their contract in that instead of paying them as agreed upon in their articles of writing, I would pay them by the hundred for all cotton picked and make payment every Saturday night I paid them for one or two weeks at the rate of thirty cents coin per hundred; and then increased the am to forty cents There were due them two months wages (July & August) when I began this system of payment, which amt I told them I would pay at the end of the year, conditioned upon the fact of their fulfilling