WANDERIXG ISLANDS OF THE RIO GRANDE 



:-5S5 



that have crowded the dockets of the 

 Texas Federal courts and piled high our 

 official correspondence with Mexico. 



Oftentimes surrounded by a deep 

 bayou, which marks the lazy trail of the 

 river as it followed the line of least re- 

 sistance through the loose soil, the banco, 

 like a moated castle of medieval days, 

 has become a stronghold for murderers, 

 thieves, and smugglers. Here criminals 

 have been able to defy the operation of 

 the laws of both countries. Convictions 

 are rarely possible when witnesses are 

 always at hand ready to swear that the 

 banco belongs to either Mexico or the 

 United States, as the exigencies of the 

 case may require. 



The zeal of a revenue officer oftener 

 than not only means new difficulties — 

 fresh strain on our relations with Mex- 

 ico, with the silent work of the stiletto, 

 perhaps, added to complicate the affair. 



HOW THE PROBLEM WAS SOLVED 



A resur\^ey of the river made by the 

 engineers attached to the boundary com- 

 mission showed these "cut-offs"' in every 

 stage of existence. Some were still sur- 

 rounded by water ; around others the 

 old bed of the river, though dry, could 

 be plainly followed ; while still others 

 showed scarcely a trace of the old chan- 

 nel, which had filled up with alluvium 

 and become in some instances covered 

 with brush or heavily timbered. Many 

 of the bancos appearing on the map of 

 the original survey made in 1853 were 

 gone ; many new ones and some in pro- 

 cess of formation appeared in the new 

 survey. 



To follow this devious line and mark 

 it as the boundary between the two coun- 

 tries, according to the latest treaty stipu- 

 lation, would entail upon both a pro- 

 tracted and costly work. 



Thoroughly familiar, from boyhood, 

 with the Rio Grande and having also in 

 later years given it the careful study of 

 an engineer, General Mills knew that in 

 the course of another 50 years the great, 

 stealthy river would make still a different 

 map — obliterating old bancos and form- 

 ing new ones, sweeping away many of the 

 boundary monuments and necessitating a 

 repetition of the whole laborious work. 



It was here that the General drew his 



pencil through the troublesome little "cut- 

 offs" and sent in his recommendation to 

 the department that they be forever elim- 

 inated from the boundary line, all those 

 occurring on the right of the river to pass 

 to the jurisdiction of Mexico, those on 

 the left bank to that of Texas. The in- 

 habitants, if any, should retain their citi- 

 zenship in the country from which they 

 had been so suddenly and violently de- 

 tached, or they might acquire the na- 

 tionality of the country to which the 

 banco would now belong. .\ny cut-off 

 exceeding 650 acres in area and having 

 a population of over 200 souls was not 

 to be considered a banco, and the old bed 

 of the river should remain the boundary. 



AN EFFECTIVE AND EQUITABLE DECISION 



By this arrangement neither country 

 suffered any appreciable loss of territory, 

 for the bancos migrate with great im- 

 partiality from one side or the other. 



The effectiveness of this plan was so 

 apparent that it was promptly approved 

 by our State Department. In Mexico the 

 proposition, though heartily indorsed by 

 the Mexican Commissioner, was held up 

 upon the constitutional ground that the 

 ^Mexican State Department had no right 

 to cede any portion of Mexico's territory 

 to another country, and it was referred 

 to a Senate committee for consideration. 



But legislative action followed so slowly 

 that it was several years before ^Mexico, 

 having in the meantime exhausted every 

 possible effort to find a dift'erent way out 

 of the difficulty, agreed to the elimination 

 of the bancos. A convention was finally 

 negotiated and sent to the United States 

 Senate for ratification. There it was met 

 by a protest from citizens of Texas living 

 in Brownsville : and although this proved 

 upon investigation to be nothing more 

 than the cry of some questionable char- 

 acters, whose activities in the field of 

 smuggling would thereby be curtailed, it 

 succeeded in delaying action upon the 

 treaty for two years. 



During the closing days of the 60th 

 Congress the convention was at last rati- 

 fied by the United States Senate. Two 

 days later the Mexican Senate confirmed 

 it. Today it stands in both countries as 

 the supreme law on the much-agitated 

 boundary question. 



