APPENDIX. 
273 
(No. 5.) 
Decree by which the Government declares that all the Lands granted pre- 
vious to the Decree of the 1st March, both to Natives and Foreigners, 
and which are neither tenanted nor cultivated, belong to Don Jos6 de 
Garay. 
Office of Foreign Affairs. 
To their Excellencies, the Governors of Oaxaca and Vera Cruz. 
(Copy.) His Excellency, the Provisional President, has been pleased 
to publish the following decree : 
Nicolas Bravo, General of Division, Benemeritus of the Country, and 
Provisional President of the Republic of Mexico, to all the inhabitants be 
it known : That a grant having been made in favor of the undertaking 
to open a communication between the two oceans, through the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec, of the untenanted lands lying within ten leagues on both 
sides of the line of communication, which, according to the surveys al- 
ready made, must pass through the River Coatzacoalcos, and, wishing to 
remove every obstacle which might prevent or retard the realization of 
the undertaking, I have deemed it necessary, in right of the faculties 
which the 7th Article of the Convention signed at Tacubaya, and sworn 
to by the Representatives of the various Departments, awards to the Su- 
preme Government, to declare the following : 
All the grants of land made either to natives or foreigners previous to 
the decree of the 1st March, 1842, from among the untenanted lands 
mentioned in the 3d Article of the said decree, and which actually re- 
main uninhabited and uncultivated, are comprehended in the concessions 
made in behalf of the undertaking for the communication of the two seas ; 
therefore I do order this to be printed, published, and circulated, for the 
purpose of being 1 fulfilled. 
Palace of the Government of Mexico, February 9, 1843. 
Nicolas Bravo. 
J. M. de Bocanegra, Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
A true copy of the original document transmitted to the Governors of 
Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, which I inclose to you for your intelligence. 
God and Liberty, Mexico, February 9, 1843. 
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