10 



SUPERFICIAL EXTENT OF MEXICAN TERRITORY. 



most cases, stood the test of criticism during near half a century, we 

 may still safely appeal to him, and to his industrious countryman, 

 Muhlenpfordt, 1 as the most reliable authorities upon these topics. 



According to Humboldt, Mexico presented a surface of one hun- 

 dred and eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-eight square 

 leagues, of twenty-five to the degree, yet this calculation did not in- 

 clude the space between the northern extremity of New Mexico and 

 Sonora, and the American boundary of 1819. Thirty-six thousand 

 five hundred square leagues, comprising the States of Zacatecas, 

 Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, 

 Oajaca, Tabasco, Yucatan, Chiapas, were within the torrid zone ; 

 while New Mexico, Durango, New and Old California, Sonora and 

 a great part of the old Intendancy of San Luis Potosi, containing 

 in all eighty-six thousand square leagues, were under the tempe- 

 rate zone. 2 



A more recent, and, generally, an accurate writer, 3 has estimated 

 the boundaries of Mexico, prior to the treaty of 1848, at Guada- 

 lupe, between the United States and Mexico, to have embraced an 

 area of one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, 

 including Texas. By the treaty just mentioned we acquired an 

 undisputed title to Texas, and a territorial cession of New Mexico 

 and Upper California. 



Texas is estimated to contain, 325,520 square miles. 

 New Mexico " " 77,387 " " 



Upper California " 448,691 " " 



851,598 " " 4 

 If we, therefore, deduct from the preceding estimate of one mil- 

 lion six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, the sum of eight 

 hundred and fifty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight 

 square miles, we shall have, as the best approximate calculation, 

 that we can now make, seven hundred and ninety-eight thousand 

 four hundred and two square miles, for the total superficial extent 

 of the Republic of Mexico, as at present bounded since the ratifi- 

 cation of our recent international treaty. By that negotiation it 

 consequently appears that we have obtained one half the former 

 territory of Mexico and twenty-six thousand five hundred and 

 ninety-eight square miles besides. 



1 Muhlenpfordt — Die Republik Mexico : Hanover, 1844, 2 vols. 



2 Ward, vol. 1, p. 7. 3 Folsom's Mexico in 1842, p. 29. 



4 See maps and tables of areas of the several states of our Union accompanying 

 the President's message of December, 1848. 



