PANAMA, May 23, 1849. SIR: Your note of the 22d instant has been received. An arrangement had previously been made between Mr. O. S. Witherby and myself, by which it was determined that a certain number of persons attached to the boundary commission could be accommodated upon the steamer Oregon; that number was designated by Mr. Witherby, and the list arranged to his satisfaction. Upon the strength of your recommendation, and the apparent necessity to the commission for the services of those designated by you, their names were added by me to the number already upon the list, although much against my desire, the boat being already too much crowded, and his list, with the prices of passage attached, was sent to Mr. Witherby, for a draft to cover the amount. This he refused, alleging he was the person designated by the commissioner to make the selection of those who were to go, and that a Mr. Comer, carpenter, and others, were more necessary to the service of the commission than those designated by you. He was willing to pay for their extra tickets, provided he could select the persons to receive them; but when informed that the steamer was already crowded, that tickets for the persons in question were only issued upon the supposed necessity of their presence in San Diego being indispensable, he preferred detaining the whole until the arrival of the steamer California, rather than any should go other than those selected by himself. For yourself and servant I have secured passage. In haste, respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieutenant WHIPPLE, United States Army, &c., Sc. W. NELSON. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, June 16, 1849. SIR: I have the honor to report my arrival at this place on the 1st instant, with ten of my party. I regret that the unnecessary detention of the steamer at Panama, by the agent of Messrs. Aspinwall & Co., prevented me from complying with the requisitions of the treaty. Another portion of those engaged upon this survey came in a few days since on the Oregon, and the balance still remain at Panama. In consequence of this division, I have been subjected to much trouble and a good deal of expense, which otherwise would not have been incurred. General Garcia Condi, who, I understand, is the commissioner appointed by the republic of Mexico, has not yet arrived. I received, however, a few days since, a letter from our consul at San Blas, advising me that he sailed from that port in a British vessel for San Diego, on the 24th ultimo, with his suite and one hundred and seventy soldiers. His arrival, therefore, is daily expected. No time will be lost on our part in organizing the commission, and placing the parties in the field. In the absence of instructions, (if agreeable to the Mexican commissioner,) we will proceed with the work as if the meeting had taken place within the time prescribed by the treaty. It will require some time to secure the necessary transportation to pass from the Pacific to the Colorado, and it may be found wholly impracticable to prosecute the work from this direction beyond that point. In the existing state of military discipline here, I apprehend the necessary escort could not be easily obtained beyond that river. Two companies have been reported to me by the commanding officer of the escort-one company of sixty-one dragoons; the other, twenty-two infantry, effective and non effective. I have no information as to the number agreed upon by the respective governments, but in my opinion this force will be entirely too small. Our expenses have already been so great, that I fear the appropriation made by the act of Congress of August 12, 1848, will be quite exhausted soon after the work is commenced. Our limited means will retard our progress very much, and in the end subject us to expenses which otherwise might have been avoided. The Congress of 1848, I am sure, could not have anticipated the state of affairs in this country, else the appropriation would have been much more liberal. As it is, I can only promise to use the means at my command to the best advantage. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. U. S. Commissioner. PUEBLO OF SAN JOSE, August, 1849. SIR: I have had the honor to receive, by the hands of Mr. Beale, United States navy, your letter conferring upon me the post of commissioner of the United States for the determination of the boundary line with Mexico. I feel much gratification in accepting the appointment, and beg to offer through you to the President my acknowledgments for the mark of confidence bestowed upon me, and which he may be assured is fully appreciated. Colonel Weller is now at San Francisco, having just arrived from the south. His reports of the actual state of the survey will probably suggest instructions for me. I will see him in a few days, and after having made myself acquainted with the condition of the work, shall be able to communicate understandingly with the department. I have the honor to be, with much respect, your obedient servant, To the Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, Secretary of State. CAMP RILEY, CALIFORNIA, September 15, 1849. SIR: General Orders No. 65, dated Adjutant General's office, Washington, December 27, 1848, placed me in command of the escort to the United States boundary commission, and directed me to report for further instructions to the Secretary of State. I did so report, and received an order transferring to my custody all the astronomical and surveying instruments destined for service on the boundary between the United States and Mexico; I received at the same time information that I was to be the chief astronomer and topographical engineer on the work. In the in structions to the United States commissioner, dated Washington, February 13, 1849, (a copy of which I obtained at my own request,) I am designated as the chief astronomer and topographical' engineer. Beyond this, I have received from the Department of State no instructions, nor have I received a letter of appointment. Being on the ground as commander of the escort, I have retained the custody of these instruments and have performed the duties above designated. It is questionable in my mind whether the Department of State has followed up its intentions conveyed in the preliminary instructions of February 13. But if it has done so, and I am considered as occupying the position of chief astronomer and topographical engineer, I now desire, for reasons which in my judgment form an insurmountable obstacle to the proper performance of these duties, to be released from all duty with this commission. I request the person may be designated to whom the instruments in my custody shall be turned over; they are at present distributed between Captain Hardcastle, Lieutenant Whipple, Mr. A. B. Gray, and myself. In due season an account will be rendered of my astronomical determinations on this work, as well as those of the officers under my command, and the commission will be furnished with the results. By the time of receiving my recall, I hope to have finished the determination of the astronomical line forming the boundary between the Pacific and the mouth of the Gila river; and it will be a convenient point for the transfer of the work to other hands. The commissioner has been absent on business since the 16th August, and I am without the means of knowing what is to be done with the civil assistants brought out by me; but I respectfully ask consideration for them, more particularly for the two scientific gentlemen, Professor James Nooney and Dr. C. C. Parry, and that, should their services be no longer required, directions may be given to have their expenses paid back to their homes. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, HON. J. M. CLAYTON, Secretary of State. W. H. EMORY, Brevet Major, &c., &c. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, October 4, 1849. SIR: The sketch which accompanies this note will show you the position of the initial point of boundary between our country and that of the Mexican republic, as fixed by the survey of the southern part of the port of San Diego and measurement of the marine league, agreeable to the decision of the joint commission of July 9, and in conformity with the fifth article of the treaty with Mexico. It will also show approximately the direction that the line will take over the ridge of high lands which come down to the Pacific and across the valley of the river "Tia Juan"-the same valley up which we travelled on our recent reconnoissance-to the mountains separating the desert from the ocean. I had advised the surveyor on the part of Mexico of my having completed the surveys necessary for ine to determine the southernmost point of the port, as called for in the treaty; and a few days after your departure to San Francisco, we exhibited to each other small plans of our triangulations, &c., which agreed without any difference. But the changes from local causes by time, &c., which have taken place in that portion of the port, and the peculiar features: which it now presents, caused Mr. Jalayer to think the southernmost. point to be further to the north than I had believed was represented on the map accompanying the treaty. A difference in the season of the year, which possibly may have been the case in which the two surveys were made, (that of 1782 and that of our own,) might also make a difference in its appearance. I pointed the positions of one or two points in the range of bluffs bordering the low salt flats, and in which time seemed to have made no change, and proved the identity of this range very nearly with the black curve line representing the boundary of the port, of the map of Don Juan Pantoja. He desired to make a few more measurements, which he did, and advised me of his being induced to believe that the line of coast on the treaty map was the same very nearly with the high land, or line of bluffs, mentioned. The difference between the point agreed upon by us and that first supposed by him was some 3,500 feet,. and which places the initial point that distance further south. The parallel from which we commenced the measurement of the marine league was that of the highest point at which indications were noticed of the overflow of salt water, or the water of the port. Every degree of accuracy was pursued in the marine league measurement; and the number of metres taken for its length was 5564.6, according to the authority of "Francœur." The double red line upon the sketch will show that two offsets were necessary to avoid inequalities and irregularities in the surface of the ground, and to obtain a level plain as far as practicable. The initial point, as will be seen by the sketch, falls upon the sand beach within a hundred metres of a plain triangularly shaped, and elevated by a bluff bank about fifty feet above the level of the sea. It is also backed by a mountainous spur which puts out from the great chain reaching from Upper to Lower California, and is an excellent natural position for a monument to fix the limit of the two countries. My parties are now actually engaged in the field; and when I will have returned from the reconnoissance to the mouth of the Gila river along the line, and which I am desirous of accomplishing within the next twenty days, I will then, I hope, have made the requisite triangulation to fix the mouth and vicinity of that river for mapping; also have obtained in that time sufficient topography and notes enough of the line between the Pacific and that point. This will enable, as soon as the latitudes and longitudes of the two extremes are determined by the astronomical party engaged upon that duty, to make out a very correct plan of this whole line between said points sufficient for the purpose of demarcation, and for the erection of such monuments at those points decided upon at any time by the joint commission hereafter. I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JOHN B. WELLER, ANDREW B. GRAY, U. S. Surveyor. United States Commissioner, &c., &c. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, October 5, 1849. SIR: I have the honor to inform you that, since my despatch of the 28th July last, the commissioner has been actively engaged in executing the important duties imposed by the treaty. The boundary line, from the initial point on the Pacific to the junction of the Gila with the Colorado, will be an astronomical line connecting the two points. To obtain the azimuth of this line, the determination of latitude and longitude of its extremities was necessary. The determination of this line is nearly com pleted. Major Emory, the chief astronomer of the commission, finding no suitable point for an observatory at the initial point on the Pacific, established one at "camp Riley," and determined its geographical position in latitude and longitude by no less than three hundred observations on stars near the zenith, and its longitude by observations on every culmination of the moon and the moon culminating stars which were observable since the establishment of his observatory on the 20th July last; and these results have been carried from his observatory to the initial point by a single triangle. In a very few days all the necessary computations will be completed. On the 8th ultimo, Lieutenant Whipple, of the astronomical party, with a suitable escort, was sent to the Gila, and is now at the junction of that river with the Colorado, for the purpose of observing with a view to de termine the latitude and longitude of that point. Captain Hardcastle, of the same corps, in the mean time, has been despatched to the mountains, this side of the desert, between the two points, to conduct the signals; by means of which Major Emory will be enabled to connect the two extremes of the line in longitude. In the event this fails, the absolute determinations in longitude made respectively by Major Emory and Lieutenant Whipple will be resorted to, and the azimuth of the line forming the boundary completed and marked on the ground. I will in a few days send a detachment of the surveying párty along the line to make a topographical sketch of the country between the two points; and I have no doubt, within twenty or thirty days this great work on the west side of the Colorado will be completed, and nothing will remain except to fill in a few intermediate points. This, with the placing of suitable monuments on the Pacific and at the intersection of the Gila with the Colorado, will complete what has always been regarded the most difficult portion of the work. The distance will be about one hundred and thirty miles. As a natural boundary (the Gila and the Rio Grande) constitutes a large portion of the remainder of the line, it is thought no difficulty will be found in establishing it. I must again repeat, that unless Congress, at an early day in its next session, appropriates the necessary means, the work must be suspended. My movements have already been much retarded for the want of funds; and I trust the commission may not be thus embarrassed in future. If the joint commission is broken up from any cause, the work is inevitably sus pended for an indefinite period. I send herewith a map prepared by the surveyor, Mr. Gray, with an explanatory note, showing his operations in determining the initial point in the boundary. No communication whatever has been received from your department since the 15th March last. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, Secretary of St-te. U. S. Commissioner. |