TO INDIANOLA. 
5 
the field, I first appointed a Quarter- master and a 
Commissary, who immediately entered upon their re- 
spective duties. The former, James Myer, Esq., a 
gentleman from Texas, who had been connected with 
the Quarter-master’s department, under General Tay- 
lor, in the late Avar with Mexico, proceeded at once to 
Texas, Avith his assistant, Edward Clarke, Esq., for the 
purpose of procuring horses and mules, which were to 
be brought together at our place of landing. I next 
appointed the various engineers, surveyors, and their 
assistants, mechanics, laborers, cooks, servants, etc. ; 
and issued an order to all, to report themselves in 
the City of New York, on board the Steamer Gal- 
veston, on the 3d day of August, 1850, having char- 
tered that vessel to transport the Commission and its 
stores to Indianola, in Texas. 
In organizing the Boundary Commission, I had in 
view other objects, not directly connected with the 
survey. By the sixth article of the treaty of Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo, provision is made for the collection of 
information relative to the construction of a “road, 
canal, or railway, which shall, in whole or in part, run 
upon the river Gila, or upon its right or left bank, 
Avithin the space of a marine league from either mar- 
gin of the river.” 
To make these examinations required an additional 
force ; but besides this, my intention was to commence 
the survey with two parties simultaneously, at El Paso, 
and work towards both the Pacific and the Atlantic, 
by which means the work would be brought to a much 
speedier termination, than if a single party of engi- 
neers should take the field and carry on the work, 
