514 RINGGOLD BARRACKS 
all on the spot with their instruments, camp-equipage, 
wagons, animals, provisions, etc. In fact every thing 
required to ensure the speedy completion of the work 
was at hand, except boats, which would be necessary 
when near the Gulf. But all my plans were frustrated 
by the despatches from Washington. 
The despatch of the 15th October, 1852, received 
by me at Encantada, advised me that to the appropria- 
tion of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars made 
by Congress for defraying the expenses of the Boundary 
Commission, a proviso was added that it should not be 
used ‘‘until it should be made satisfactorily to appear 
to the President of the United States that the southern 
boundary of New Mexico is not. established by the 
‘Commissioner and the Surveyor of the United States fur- 
ther north of the town called Paso than the same is laid 
down in Disturnell’s map, which is added to the treaty.” 
In communicating to me this act of Congress, the 
Secretary of the Interior says, that the President and 
himself ‘‘ have been forced to the conclusion that, in 
view of this restriction, the money cannot legally be 
drawn from the treasury.” The Honorable Secretary 
expressed a strong desire that the work shall go on if 
I already have the means of maintaining the parties 
long enough to complete the survey of the river; 
but if otherwise, the Commission must retire from the 
field.* 
* Here folllows the despatch itself : 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 
Wasurneton, Oct. 15, 1852. 
Sir :—In the Deficiency Bill of the last session, which was approved 
21st July, Congress appropriated for the Mexican Boundary Survey the 
