16 



PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 



Hall 



zoological, in charge of Prof, Baird ; and the botanical, in charge of Prof. Torrey. 



Lieut. Michler was assigned to the unfinished work above Eagle Pass, Schott to the survey 

 from Laredo to Kinggold barracks, and assistant Kadziminski to the survey from Ringgold 

 barracks to the mouth of the Eio Bravo ; whilst I, with assistants Gardner and Clark, 

 determined astronomically the points along the boundary, intended as checks upon the accuracy 



of the surveys. 



Before the completion of the work, the yellow fever made its appearance, and myself and 

 several of the assistants were attacked— some on the line, and others after leaving it and 

 reaching the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, where this disease raged with unusual 



violence. 



No serious Inconvenience was experienced, however, in the prosecution of the work, from this 



cause, and nothing happened to interrupt the harmonious and rapid execution of the field 



work, but the melancholy loss of assistant Thomas Walter Jones, who was drowned in the 



Rio Bravo by the upsetting of a skiff, in which he was returning to camp from his labors In 



th€ field, on the evening of 23d July, 1853. His body was found two days after, a few miles 



down the stream, and was buried by his afflicted companions at the rancheiia of Dr. Merryman, 



on the banks of the Pao Bravo. 



This ends the narrative of the operations in the field of the various - commissions organized 



under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 



It is proper for me, however, before closing this chapter, to refer to a publication issued by 

 Mr. J. R. Bartlett, one of the late commissioners on the part of the United States, which 



professes to give an accurate 



commission. It is not my purpose 



to review that work, and expose its errors, but simply to correct some statements affecting 



myself. 



Mr. Bartlett' s principal achievement on the boundary was the agreement with General 



Conde, the Mexican commissioner, fixing the initial point on the Rio Bravo, in the parallel 

 of 32"^ 22', instead of a point as laid down on the treaty map about eight miles above El Paso, 

 which would have brought it to the parallel of 31° 52'. That agreement is no less remark- 

 able than the adroitness and success with which Mr. Bartlett convinced the authorities at 



Washin 



been so thoroushlv discussed 



It is sufficient to say, that it was disapproved by the astronomer and surveyor on the commission 

 at the time, and was finally repudiated by the government. Mr. Bartlett, in his account of 



map 



sign it. 



meaning of my signature, nor does he give my 



letter which reported the circ 

 selecting paragraphs of it to 



I here supply the deficiency by giving the 



M 



succeeded General Conde. It will be seen that the Secretary of the Interior took the 



iiakina: the action of the two commissioners final 



commission 



In view of such an interpre- 

 lerfect the official documents; 



yf the initial 



aymmissioners . ' ' 



