10 



PERSONAL ACCOUNT 



On reaching Wasliingtonj I found a change had taken place in the oifice of Secretary of the 

 Interior^ and that the new Secretary, the Hon. A/ H. H. Stuart, among the first acts of his 

 administration, had sent relief to my party. By the aid of the means then furnished, the work 

 was comjdeted on the Pacific side, and the party returned to Washington in Septemher^ 1851. 



Before leaving the Pacific coast, orders were sent me to turn over all the instruments, and 

 the persons to whom they were turned over were directed to take them to El Paso, overland, 

 hy way of the junction of the Gila and Colorado. 



The country to be traversed, as far as then known, was of the most difficult character, and 

 almost impassable for wagons. The wages of teamsters and other laborers was $150 per 



means 



and not a wagon was 



in the possession of the boundary commission. I reported all these facts, and showed the 

 difficulty of complying with the order if we had funds; and, in addition to the natural 

 obstacles interposed, it was well known there was not a cent in my hands ; yet in the face of 

 my remonstrances, the orders were reiterated, and, so far as my efibrts went, were faithfully 



mi 



accom 



Foreseeing this result, and thinking it all-important that we should have a party on the 



ground in time to meet the commissio 



Mondav in Novemb 



on which they agreed to meet, and also that all the topographical information might be 

 gained necessary to enable the commission to come to a proper decision on the point to be 

 selected as the initial point of the boundary on the Eio Grande, I took the responsibility of 

 ordering Lieutenant Whipple, with a suitable supply of instruments, to proceed to El Paso, 

 by the way of Panama to New Orleans, and tlience take the smooth road through Texas in 

 wagons. But for this, the commission would have heen at El Paso without an astronomical 

 instrument, and without persons capable of using them, and wholly dependent upon the 

 Mexican commission. A coujjle of weeks preceding my arrival from the Pacific, intelligence 

 reached the department that the affairs of the new commission had fallen into great disorder 

 at El Paso, and the Secretary of the Interior applied to the Department of War for me, by 

 name, to be reassigned to the duty of astronomer, &c., to the boundary ; but the intervention 

 of the Bureau of Topographical Engineers caused another officer to he named in my place. I 

 was quite satisfied to have nothing more to do with a mixed commission, governed by persons 

 wholly unused to public affairs, and ignorant of the first principles of the scientific knowledge 

 involved in the questions to be determined by them ; but in little less than a year from this 

 time, (September 13, 1851,) I was directed to proceed to El Paso and resume my duties, by 

 taking charge of the survey of the boundary. 



On the 15th I left Washington, and, after a dreary march across the prairies and uplands of 

 Texas, reached El Paso in November, and resumed my duties in the field on the 25th of that 

 month. 



Having in view the difficulties of transportation over such a vast extent of country, unin- 



of 



commission, that the number 



g of offi 



This recommendation was seemingly approved. 



yet on reaching the boundary commission I found that this number 



ma 



I reached the scene of operations there were still a great many, the most of whom wel-e unem- 



