Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/31

Rh 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 Missisippi by the rapid emigrations, which have taken place, during the last twenty years, from the old Atlantic Anglo-American states, are now retiring.*

On the North-eastern frontier the case is different, for there the rich and beautiful province of Texas might prove a source of contention, did not the two governments wisely determine to remove all motives of difference, by abiding by that