Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/34

 According to the third article of this treaty, the boundary line between Mexico and Louisiana (then ceded by Spain to the United States) commences with the River Sabina, which runs into the Gulph of Mexico, about Lat. 29, West Long. 94, and follows its course as far as its junction with the Red River of Natchitoches, which then serves to mark the frontier up to the 100th degree of West longitude, where the line runs directly North to the River Arkansas, which it follows to its source, in the 42d degree of North latitude, from whence another direct line is drawn, (immediately upon the forty-second parallel,) to the coast of the Pacific; thus dividing between the two rival republics the whole Northern continent of America, with the exception of the British Colonies.

A reference to the accompanying map will explain this seemingly complicated arrangement, which, at present, is of but little importance except with regard to the Eastern coast; as between the frontier established, and the last settlements of the Americans and Mexicans to the North and West, a vast space intervenes, tenanted only by Indian tribes, who have never yet been subdued, and over whom neither of the two governments possesses the slightest authority. With the exception of a narrow belt of Missions in New California, on the Western coast, which terminates with the port of San Francisco, in Lat. 36, and the isolated province of New Mexico, the capital of which (Santa Fé) is situated in the same parallel as San Francisco, the whole country contained between 28° and 42° of North latitude, is unappropriated by any white population, and almost unknown; and centuries must elapse before the civilization of America can increase sufficiently to give it any value. It will, probably, be one of the last strong holds of man in a semibarbarous state; for it is in this direction that the Indians, who have been driven from the valley of the [sic]Missisippi by the rapid emigrations,