Insufficient unappropriated land within the boundary of the colony led to a request for an extension of the boundary, which was granted in a second contract, signed on November 9, 1841. This contract extended the boundaries of the colony forty miles southward, but also increased the number of required colonists to 800. On November 20 the Texas Agricultural, Commercial, and Manufacturing Company was formed in Louisville, with the addition of seven Louisville associates, to help offset the absence of financial backing from the London investors. The new company sent the first group of immigrants to the Cross Timbers   area of Texas by steamboat as early as December 1841, but difficulties in attracting and keeping people in the colony caused the company to request an extension of time and another adjustment of the boundaries. By terms of a third contract, signed by Sam Houston   for the republic on July 26, 1842, the company was given a six-month extension for the introduction of the first third of the colonists, and the boundary was extended to enclose a ten-mile-wide strip on the west and a twelve-mile-wide strip on the east. In return for these concessions, however, the republic reserved for itself each alternate section of land.

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