CHAPTER I. 



PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 



ORGANTZATIOX OF TTTF. COMMIPSlOX FOR ECXNIXO THK BOUXDAKY I.IXE BETWEEX TUn UXITKD STATES AXD THE P.KPrELIC OF 



rXDFR TUB TKEATY OF xVraUST, 1848.— CUANGtlS IX TUE HKAD OF THE COMJIISSIOX. GOLD IIAXIA IN CALIFOUXIA.— FAILURE 



OFTriE GOVEBXMEXT TO KKKP ITS EXGAGEMEXTS.— MIRAPPEICATIOX OF THE PUBLIC MO.VKY.— GENERAL MISMAXAGEMEXT OF THE 

 AFFAIRS OF THE COMMISSIOX. FIXAL BEOKGAXIZATIOX.— CORllECTIOX OF STATEMEXTS IX Mil. BARXLKTT's XAUKATIVE. 



Tlie narrative of the connexion wliich different individuals have had with the Boundary 

 Commission woiihl no doubt he instructive^ hut the commission organized under the treaty of 

 Guadahipe Hidalgo was changed so frequently, and the controversies between different mem- 

 bers of the commission were so acrimonious, as to make the task both complicated and unpleas- 

 ant, and the execution of it might, perhaps, be attended with injustice. 



I will, therefore, confine myself to such accounts as will enable the government, should occa- 

 sion require it, to trace the history of the work, or any particular portion of it, and to the cor- 

 rection of some erroneous impressions which have gone abroad, not under authority of the gov- 

 ernment, but of books published as a private venture. 



There have been two boundaries agreed upon with Mexico — that provided for in the treaty of 

 Guadalupe Hidalgo, Angust, 1848, and that which now exists as the boundary, agreed upon in 

 the city of Mexico, December 30, 1853, and usually known as the Gadsden treaty. 



The treaty under which the first commission was organized required the appointment of a 

 commissioner and surveyor, to run and mark the boundary from the Pacific to the Atlantic, a 

 distance following the sinuosities of the boundary of several thousand miles, extending over a 

 portion of the Continent but little known, and diversified wdth much variety of climate and 

 topography, and infested throughout its wdiole extent with formidable and hostile bands of 

 Indians. 



I traversed a considerable portion of the line, in the campaign of 1846 and 1847, and made a 

 reconnoissance of the country adjacent. The information obtained formed the basis of Mr. 

 Buchanan's specific instructions to our minister in Mexico, in reference to the boundary, which 

 instructions, unfortunately for the country, were not carried out. 



It was, no doubt, from my supposed knowledge of the country that President Polk tendered 

 me the office of commissioner, but attached the condition that I should resign from the army. 

 This I respectfully declined. Colonel Weller was then appointed commissioner, and I was 

 attached to the commission as chief astronomer and commander of the escort of United States 



troops, which was to accompany it. 



The commission was organized on a moderate plan, and proceeded^ according to the terms of 

 the treaty, to commence at a point south of San Diego, on the Pacific side. The only way to 



get there was by Cape Horn or by th 

 latter route, and reached Panama in 



Vol, I 1 



Most of the commission took the 

 : to meet one of the line of mail 



