272 
APPENDIX. 
• 
ing, at the same time, that your Excellency will do all in your power not 
only to render effective the grant of lands as far as your Department is 
concerned, but also to give the assistance and protection promised by the 
Supreme Government to Don Jose de Garay, so as to remove every ob- 
stacle likely to prevent or retard the execution of the plan. 
" It is essential that the Commissioners and other agents employed in 
the opening of this road, which must extend from the bar of the Coatza- 
coalcos on the north to that of San Francisco on the south, should be pro- 
tected against every thing that may prevent the performance of their du- 
ties, and in case any claims ,to ownership of lands should be put forth by 
private individuals, your Excellency will regulate your proceedings ac- 
cording to the obligation which the 4th Article of the decree imposes 
upon Don Jose de Garay. Full liberty must also be allowed him to 
give a different course to the River Coatzacoalcos and its tributaries, or 
any other rivers, lakes, or creeks, to clear their borders, and use the tim- 
ber when not required to be felled on private ground. 
" To know how far it will be necessary to make use of private prop- 
erty, as well as to mark out the limits of the grant of territory awarded 
to Don Jose de Garay in the above-mentioned decree, that gentleman is 
authorized to appoint land surveyors, who will be subject to no control 
but that of the officer whom your Excellency may be pleased to appoint, 
and intrust with instructions agreeably to this order, and the attendance 
of the adjoining land-owners, whose measurement will fix and determine 
his right of claim to possession. In case any proprietor of land refuses 
to give up his property in conformity with this decree, a valuation will 
immediately be set on foot, and according to it the land purchased for 
the undertaking. 
" The greatness of this enterprise merits every effort to promote its 
realization; and it is with this object that I have the honor to transmit 
this communication from his Excellency, the Provisional President, avail- 
ing myself of the opportunity to assure your Excellency of my deep re- 
spect and consideration." 
God and Liberty, Mexico, 9 February, 1843. 
BoCANEGrRA 
Senor Don Jose de Garay. 
