Henri Castro, a Portuguese Jew born in Alsace, France, first visited Texas in 1842 as the French consul general to the Republic of Texas; shortly thereafter he received a million-acre land grant under the Texas empresario program. After Stephen Austin, Castro was responsible for bringing more immigrants to Texas than any other single empresario - 700 between 1842 and 1844. A number of Alsatians he recruited founded Castroville on the banks of the Medina River, west of San Antonio, in 1844.