10 
VALLEY OF THE RED RIVER.—MILITARY POSTS. 
have ever seen, in Texas or elsewhere, is that watered by the Trinity and its tributaries. Occu¬ 
pying east and west a belt of one hundred miles in width, with about equal quantities of prairie 
and timber, intersected hy numerous clear, fresh streams and countless springs, with a gently 
undulating surface of prairie and oak openings, it presents the most charming views, as of a 
country in the highest state of cultivation, and you are startled at the summit of each swell of 
the prairie with a prospect of groves, parks, and forests, with intervening plains of luxuriant 
grass, over which the eye in vain wanders in search of the white village or the stately house, 
which seem alone wanting to the scene. 
The delusion was so perfect, and the recurrence of these charming views so constant, that 
every swell of the ground elicited from the party renewed expressions of surprise and admira¬ 
tion. 
It may seem strange that a region suggestive of such florid description should still remain so 
nearly uninhabited; hut it must he remembered that this part of Texas is yet hut partially 
explored, that it is far from the markets, and that it is still infested hy hands of hostile Indians. 
A full knowledge of its startling beauty, and of its amazing fertility, and the construction of 
facilities of communication with a market, will soon convert this charming region into a reality, 
of which nature has exhibited so beautiful a presentment. 
Over a very gentle dividing ridge we descended upon the tributaries of the Eed river, and a 
great increase in quantity and size of timber was immediately apparent. At least four-fifths of 
the country drained by the tributaries of Eed river is covered with timber of a size and quality 
to be favorably compared with any timbered region on this continent. 
The immediate valley of Eed river is from two to five miles in width, without prairie in its 
whole extent in the neighborhood of Preston, covered with large timber of every description, 
and possessed of a soil of amazing fertility. At some points the surface is covered with a white 
or red sand, about three inches in depth, below which is a fat, dark, vegetable mould, from 
three to six feet thick, and of the most astonishing richness. 
The valley is being rapidly settled by cotton-planters from Tennessee and Mississippi; and 
although the immediate bottom-lands along the river are exceedingly difficult of settlement and 
culture, from the immense size and quantity of the timber, they are nevertheless preferred to 
the prairie lands in the vicinity, in consequence of the exceeding fertility of the soil. The 
river, at the 34th parallel, is about eight hundred yards wide, and is susceptible of steamboat 
navigation for five or six months of the year. 
Proceeding from this point to the eastward, over a country well watered, well timbered, and 
of great fertility, and inhabited by whites and partially civilized Indians, who cultivate the 
soil, we reach, at a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, the western frontier of Arkansas. 
Of the seven hundred and eighty miles of distance from the western line of Arkansas to the 
valley of the Eio Grande, at El Paso, nearly five hundred miles traverse a fertile, well-watered, 
and abundantly timbered region; and of the remaining two hundred and eighty, one hundred 
and sixty are through a country which, although of little agricultural value, except in the 
immediate valley of the Pecos, is nevertheless admirably adapted to the raising of stock, and 
offers every desirable facility for travel, at any season of the year. 
There is but one military post (Fort Belknap, on the Brazos) along the immediate line of 
this route—the chain of frontier posts in Texas gradually departing from it to the south. In 
the southern part of New Mexico there is no post east of the valley of the Eio Grande; and 
the distance between the nearest posts in Texas and New Mexico is five hundred and eleven 
miles. 
A brief review of these remarks exhibits the fact that by procuring water on the Staked 
Plain, a route for emigration or for military purposes is presented, from the frontiers of 
Arkansas to the valley of the Eio Grande, which, for more than half the entire distance, tra¬ 
verses a region fertile, well watered, well timbered, and of mild climate. 
The vast importance of such a route, and one which can be thus protected, cannot too forcibly 
