Galveston Island played a major role in Texas history from the sixteenth century onward. Cabeza de Vaca wrote of the cannibalistic Karankawa Indians after being shipwrecked there in 1528. Between 1815 and 1821, the island served as headquarters for Jean Lafitte and other adventurers. Its harbor was recognized as important by 1825, when Stephen F. Austin petitioned the Mexican government to establish a port. In April 1836, Galveston became the temporary capital of the Republic when President David G. Burnet fled there as Mexican Gen. Santa Anna approached. After the revolution, Galveston became established as the first city of the Republic, with immigrants pouring through the port and the Texas Navy berthed there. Statehood in 1845 brought continued growth, including Texas' first telegraph in 1854, first national bank in 1865, and first electric lights in 1888. During the Civil War, the capture and recapture of Galveston were principal Texas engagements: blockading Union troops took the port on Oct. 4, 1862, and Gen. John B. Magruder retook it on Jan. 1, 1863, after which it remained in Confederate hands. On Sept. 8, 1900, a hurricane with winds of 120 mph drove a vast tidal wave across the island and killed 5,000 people, the greatest toll of any American disaster. Two immediate results were the construction of a protective seawall 17 feet high and 7½ miles long and the creation of a commission form of city government that spread to other American municipalities. The port remained one of the state's most important, handling more sulphur than any other in the world, and toll-free ferries operated by the Texas Highway Department carried sightseers and motorists across the 2½-mile strait between the island and Port Bolivar.
