The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 557
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Mexzcan Commisszon
the winter and spring of 1851, Jose Salazar Ilarregui and Capt. Francisco
Jimenez were employed in astronomical and topographical work on
the upper river. In the spring and summer of 1852, another team of
Mexican engineers directed by Lt. Agustin Diaz and his brother Luis
operated on the river in the El Paso del Norte (Ciudad Juirez) area. In
1853,Jimenez and the Diaz brothers worked along the lower river below
Laredo; and Salazar was on the river at Presidio del Norte (Ojinaga) with
another team working to that point from El Paso, but little is known of
this activity. Salazar planned to continue downriver, but it does not ap-
pear he completed much if any of this section. It is important to note,
however, that Mexican scientific teams on the river produced a large,
significant body of astronomic, topographic, and scientific data. Good
maps were also made and several are available today (fig. 1).5 The
Mexican scientists, as well as their American counterparts, deserve rec-
ognition for the creditable role they played on the river.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 1848) provided that
scientific teams appointed by the two governments begin the survey in
San Diego, California, in May 1849, and, under the direction of the com-
missioners, continue in the field until reaching the mouth of the Rio
Grande. In February 185o, however, the commissioners, Gen. Pedro
Garcia Conde and John B. Weller, agreed to disband the work in Cali-
fornia and resume it the following November in El Paso del Norte.6
The principle reason for stopping was the substantial pressure put on
the commissions by the flood of people drawn to California by the gold
rush. Resources were very difficult to obtain, prices were exorbitant,
and neither country provided sufficient finances to carry out its respon-
5A problem arises in trying to determine the quality of the maps produced by the Mexican
commission scientists because there are very few available to study There is clear evidence that
a good number of maps existed in the Archivo General de la Nacion (AGN) at one time. See
Herbert E. Bolton, Guide to the Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives
of Mexico (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1913), 365; and Manuel
Orozco y Berra, Materzales para una cartografia mexzcana (Mexico. Imprente del Gobierno,
1871), 243-252. Several efforts to locate the Mexican boundary survey maps at the AGN have
proven fruitless. Similarly, no boundary survey maps were discovered in the cartographic col-
lection of the Socledad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica. Investigation to date has un-
covered one quality map of the Rio Grande survey that can be attributed to the Mexican sur-
veyors (see map 1). This topographic map was derived from survey data determined by
Agustin and Luis Diaz during their work on the upper river in 1852 Maps produced by Sala-
zar in Cahfornia appear in his Datos de los trabaos astron6micos y topogrdficos, dispuestos en forma de
diaro ... (Mexico, D.F.: J. R. Navarro, 1850). Salazar also produced a small general map of the
entire frontier.
6Minutes of the Joint Boundary Commission, Feb. 15, 1850, S. Exec. Doc. 119, Report of the
Secretary of the Interior, 32nd Cong, 1st Sess., 1852 (Serial 626), 65; Comis16n Internacional
de Limites entre Mexico y los Estados Unidos, Memorza documentada del juzco de arbitraje del
Chamizal . . . (3 vols., Mexico: Artes Graficas Granja Experimental de Zoqulpa, 1911), II,
94-95. This work is particularly interesting and important because even though it pertains
largely to the Chamizal problem, it provides a good deal of background information on the
earlier boundary survey. It includes a Spanish version of the minutes of the Joint Commission
between July i849 and September 1852 and a journal of Lt. Agustin Diaz's work on the upper
Rio Grande in 1852557
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/635/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.