At the request of Antonio Cordero, interim governor of the Province of Texas, Spanish-born Felipe Roque de la Portilla established a colony on El Camino Real. With his own family of eight, he brought 51 persons from interior Mexico and founded San Marcos de Neve in April 1808. Titles were issued to 13 lots, and homes were built, but June floods washed them away. Hardships plagued the colony as the defensive troops departed, no priest arrived, seed and a farm irrigation system did not materialize, horses and cattle were lost to Indians, and the people feared for their lives. In 1809 new settlers increased the population to 81 without improving living conditions. Portilla lost his health and fortune and was forced to lead his people back to Matamoros, Mexico, in 1812. In 1829 he helped his son-in-law, James Power, and Power's associate, James Hewetson, establish their colony at Refugio near Copano Bay. Portilla received land there in 1834, but left for Mexico in 1836. Because he invested his own fortune in colonizing, he is sometimes called the First Empresario and is recognized as a forerunner of Stephen F. Austin, "The Father of Texas."