A port on
the gulf is of great and immediate necessity to our Pacific
possessions. Of this hereafter.
The proposed boundaries, of the Territory of Arizona, are the
34th parallel of latitude, with New Mexico on the north, from the
103d meridian west to the Colorado; Texas on the east; Texas, and
the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and Sonora on the south; and
California on the west. The new Territory would thus contain
within its borders the three largest rivers on the Continent, west of the Mississippi©-the Rio Grande, Gila, and Colorado of
the west, and embrace 90,000 square miles.
The Gadsden purchase is attached by act of Congress to the
Territory of New Mexico. At the time of its acquisition there was
scarcely any population except a few scattering Mexicans in the
Mesilla valley, and at the old town of Tucson, in the centre of
the territory. The Apache Indian, superior in strength to the
Mexican, had gradually extirpated every trace of civilization,
and roamed uninterrupted and unmolested, sole possessor of what
was once a thriving and populous Spanish province.
Except the report of Col. A. B. Gray, there is scarcely anything
in print with reference to the early history of Arizona, beyond
the scanty but valuable notes of Major Emory and Hon. John R.
Bartlett, in their reports, and in the appendix to Wilson's late
book, "Mexico and its Religion.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25