Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/41

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HER GEOGRAPHY.

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been established by any legitimate authority.^[1] The statistical information furnished by Pike, in the narrative of his expedition undertaken in 1807, was deemed very valuable, though it added nothing to the accuracy of the geographical knowledge of the country. The northern portion was inhabited by the Camanches, Apaches, Mescaleros, and other predatory tribes of Indians; and the few white inhabitants at the south were careless and indifferent as to its cultivation, and appeared entirely ignorant of its resources and its capacity for improvement. It was quite natural, therefore, that the most erroneous ideas should have been entertained with regard to its fertility and productiveness, by the people of other countries. The skirt bordering on the coast was supposed to be a barren waste, or desert prairie; and the interior cold, sterile, and mountainous. Later historians and travellers represent the level strip lying along the Gulf, as resembling that in the other southern states, in all its principal features; as being well adapted to the culture of sugar and cotton, and remarkably fertile in the vicinity of the numerous creeks and rivers.^[2] North of the 32nd

↑ Atlas Geographique et Physique, du Royaume de La Nouvelle Espagne. Puris, 1808.
↑ The country lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande has been generally understood to be a desert prairie, and is sometimes called "the stupendous desert." Probably there has been some confusion in relation to the precise locality of the great desert of Muerto, lying west of the Guadalupe mountains. In a speech delivered by Mr. Sevier, of Arkansas, in the Senate of the United States, on the 4th of February 1848, the "desert" between the two rivers is stated to be, in fact, "a large fertile prairie, resembling the famous blue-grass pastures of Kentucky." After traversing 119 miles, near three fourths of the distance from Corpus Christi to Point Isabel, General Taylor, in his letter to the adjutant general, dated at "El Sauce," March 18th, 1846, represents his command to be "in fine condition and spirits." The march was

[1] Atlas Geographique et Physique, du Royaume de La Nouvelle Espagne. Puris, 1808.

[2] The country lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande has been generally understood to be a desert prairie, and is sometimes called "the stupendous desert." Probably there has been some confusion in relation to the precise locality of the great desert of Muerto, lying west of the Guadalupe mountains. In a speech delivered by Mr. Sevier, of Arkansas, in the Senate of the United States, on the 4th of February 1848, the "desert" between the two rivers is stated to be, in fact, "a large fertile prairie, resembling the famous blue-grass pastures of Kentucky." After traversing 119 miles, near three fourths of the distance from Corpus Christi to Point Isabel, General Taylor, in his letter to the adjutant general, dated at "El Sauce," March 18th, 1846, represents his command to be "in fine condition and spirits." The march was

[1]

[2]