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tion, in order that they may declare whether the terms of the contract have 
been complied with by the latter; and in case these shall disagree, the surveyors 
shall nominate an umpire who shall settle the dispute. No kind of question 
or difference shall prevent the line of communication from coming into opera¬ 
tion as soon as it shall be ready ; nevertheless the Negotiation is always bound 
to fulfil the contract in every particular. 
Tenth. In case it should hereafter be found practicable to join the two seas 
by a cut, and that propositions to this effeet should be made by any individual 
or any company, they shall not be admitted during the period of fifty years for 
which the privilege is granted to Don Jos§ Garay, without his previous consent 
or that of those who may have acquired his rights. 
Eleventh. The contract between the Government and Don Jos§ Garay shall 
be drawn out in writing according to the tenor of the articles forming the basis 
of this decree, with all the form lities required by the law. 
Therefore I command that it be printed, published and circulated, and duly 
carried into effect. Given at the palace of the National Government this 1st 
day of March, 1842.— Antcnio Lopez de Santa Anna.=Jose Maria 
Bocanegra. 
No. 3. 
Decree by which the Government declares that all the lands granted 
previous to the decree of the 1 st, of March , both to natives and 
foreigners, and which are neither tenanted nor cultivated, belong to 
Don Jose Garay. 
Office of Foreign Affairs. 
To their Excellencies the Governors of Oajaca and Vera Cruz. 
[Copy.]—His Excellency the Provisional President has been pleased to publish 
the following decree: 
Nicholas 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 favour 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 already 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 Supreme Government, to declare the following: 
