which sum is designed to pay for subsistence and transportation for myself to San Diego, and is to be refunded to the commissioner or covered by proper vouchers." This he returned without comment. I then wrote to Major Vinton, desiring to know from what appropriation my transportation should be paid under the circumstances stated. He returned a verbal message, merely referring me to Major McKinstry, who is now on the steamer, out of my reach. Should I, therefore, be left here without funds to pay my expenses here, and obtain transportation for myself and servant to San Diego; and should my communication with you, my commanding officer, be cut off, I shall be compelled to write the circumstances to Colonel Abert, and have the matter brought before the government, that the responsibility may rest where it belongs. In case the person designated by the commissioner as a quartermaster promptly pays the expenses which I may deem necessary, I shall acquiesce. Otherwise, it will be necessary to inquire from higher authority whether an officer of the army must be subject to the control of an irresponsible person, without a commission and unknown to the gov ernment of the United States. I am, very respectfully, yours, &c., Major EMORY, A. W. WHIPPLE. Chief Assistant and Top. Eng. Boundary Survey. PANAMA, May 17, 1849. DEAR SIR: In Washington I was detailed for duty upon the boundary between the United States and Mexico. Will you please to inform me from what appropriation I am to receive my mileage or travelling expenses to San Diego? If from the appropriation for the boundary survey, please refer me to the regulation which authorizes it. If from the quartermaster's department, I would be glad to know whether you are prepared to pay it. Necessity is my excuse for troubling you so soon after your ill SIR: The enclosed copy of instructions from Major Emory to myself will show you the position I occupy with reference to the United States and to the boundary commission. The plan of operations upon the boundary line, submitted by Major Emory to the Secretary of State, requires immediately, at San Diego, the presence of not only myself, but also the civil assistants who have been assigned to duty in his department. I therefore, as an officer of the army of the United States, feel it my duty to look to you, as consul for the same government, for assistance in obtaining passage for myself and servant in the first steamer which sails hence for San Diego. The civil assistants referred to above, are: Dr. Charles Parry, computer; Mr. Edward Ingraham, recorder and assistant computer; Mr. G. Clinton Gardner, do.; Mr B. B. Ludlum, do.; Mr. R. Rust; Mr. Francis Holly, employee. The services of the six persons above mentioned are important to the commission, and I shall much regret to leave any of them behind. But should it be impossible to obtain passage immediately for all, I would designate Assistants Parry, Ingraham, and Gardner, and employee Holly, as indispensable for the performance of the astronomical duty, on which the cominencement of the survey of the United States and Mexican boundary line depends; and must, therefore, in behalf of the boundary commission, request your influence to secure for them a passage to San Diego in the steamer Oregon, which is about to sail from this place. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. W. WHIPPLE. WM. NELSON, Esq., Consul of the U. S., Panama, New Grenada. PANAMA, May 23, 1849. SIR: Colonel Weller informed me that he left "a quartermaster behind," and that when this quartermaster sailed for San Diego, funds would be left to defray all the necessary expenses of those of my party remaining Should I be right in supposing you to be the quartermaster referred to by Colonel Weller, I have to request you to inform me in whose hands funds will be left after your departure in the Oregon, and who will be responsible for the payment of the necessary expenses here, and transportation hence, of those now under my charge. At the same time, while I must, for the want of funds, submit, I strongly protest against your decision of yesterday, in refusing to pay for the passage of those young gentlemen of the commission whom the United States consul, at my request, agreed to add to the number of those designated by you for passage to San Diego in the steamer Oregon. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, O. S. WITHERBY, Esq., &c., &c., Panama. A. W. WHIPPLE. PANAMA, May 23, 1849. DEAR SIR: Mr. Kaufman will act as quartermaster from this, and will defray all necessary expenses of the members of the commission. He will assign quarters to Messrs. Ingraham, Gardner, and Parry. Your accounts up to this day will be paid by me. You are right in supposing I am quartermaster. I should suppose you would have found it out before. Kaufman will have the full control of all matters hereafter. Your obedient servant, Mr. Lieutenant WHIPPLE. O. S. WITHERBY, PANAMA, May 23, 1849. SIR: Your note of the 22d instant has been received. An arrangement had previously been made between Mr. O. S. Witherby and myself, by which it was determined that a certain number of persons attached to the boundary commission could be accommodated upon the steamer Oregon; that number was designated by Mr. Witherby, and the list arranged to his satisfaction. Upon the strength of your recommendation, and the apparent necessity to the commission for the services of those designated by you, their names were added by me to the number already upon the list, although much against my desire, the boat being already too much crowded, and his list, with the prices of passage attached, was sent to Mr. Witherby, for a draft to cover the amount. This he refused, alleging he was the person designated by the commissioner to make the selection of those who were to go, and that a Mr. Comer, carpenter, and others, were more necessary to the service of the commission than those designated by you. He was willing to pay for their extra tickets, provided he could select the persons to receive them; but when informed that the steamer was already crowded, that tickets for the persons in question were only issued upon the supposed necessity of their presence in San Diego being indispensable, he preferred detaining the whole until the arrival of the steamer California, rather than any should go other than those selected by himself. For yourself and servant I have secured passage. In haste, respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieutenant WHIPPLE, United States Army, &c., §'c. W. NELSON. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, June 16, 1849. SIR: I have the honor to report my arrival at this place on the 1st instant, with ten of my party. I regret that the unnecessary detention of the steamer at Panama, by the agent of Messrs. Aspinwall & Co., prevented me from complying with the requisitions of the treaty. Another portion of those engaged upon this survey came in a few days since on the Oregon, and the balance still remain at Panama. In consequence of this division, I have been subjected to much trouble and a good deal of expense, which otherwise would not have been incurred. General Garcia Condi, who, I understand, is the commissioner appointed by the republic of Mexico, has not yet arrived. I received, however, a few days since, a letter from our consul at San Blas, advising me that he sailed from that port in a British vessel for San Diego, on the 24th ultimo, with his suite and one hundred and seventy soldiers. His arrival, therefore, is daily expected. No time will be lost on our part in organizing the commission, and placing the parties in the field. In the absence of instructions, (if agreeable to the Mexican commissioner,) we will proceed with the work as if the meeting had taken place within the time prescribed by the treaty. It will require some time to secure the necessary transportation to pass from the Pacific to the Colorado, and it may be found. wholly impracticable to prosecute the work from this direction beyond that point. In the existing state of military discipline here, I apprehend the necessary escort could not be easily obtained beyond that river. Two companies have been reported to me by the commanding officer of the escort-one company of sixty-one dragoons; the other, twenty-two infantry, effective and non effective. I have no information as to the number agreed upon by the respective governments, but in my opinion this force will be entirely too small. Our expenses have already been so great, that I fear the appropriation made by the act of Congress of August 12, 1848, will be quite exhausted soon after the work is commenced. Our limited means will retard our progress very much, and in the end subject us to expenses which otherwise might have been avoided. The Congress of 1848, I am sure, could not have anticipated the state of affairs in this country, else the appropriation would have been much more liberal. As it is, I can only promise to use the means at my command to the best advantage. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. U. S. Commissioner. PUEBLO OF SAN JOSE, August, 1849. SIR: I have had the honor to receive, by the hands of Mr. Beale, United States navy, your letter conferring upon me the post of commissioner of the United States for the determination of the boundary line with Mexico. I feel much gratification in accepting the appointment, and beg to offer through you to the President my acknowledgments for the mark of confidence bestowed upon me, and which he may be assured is fully appreciated. Colonel Weller is now at San Francisco, having just arrived from the south. His reports of the actual state of the survey will probably suggest instructions for me. I will see him in a few days, and after having made myself acquainted with the condition of the work, shall be able to communicate understandingly with the department. I have the honor to be, with much respect, your obedient servant, CAMP RILEY, CALIFORNIA, September 15, 1849. SIR: General Orders No. 65, dated Adjutant General's office, Washington, December 27, 1848, placed me in command of the escort to the United States boundary commission, and directed me to report for further instructions to the Secretary of State. I did so report, and received an order transferring to my custody all the astronomical and surveying instruments destined for service on the boundary between the United States and Mexico; I received at the same time information that I was to be the chief astronomer and topographical engineer on the work. In the in structions to the United States commissioner, dated Washington, February 13, 1849, (a copy of which I obtained at my own request,) I am designated as the chief astronomer and topographical engineer. Beyond this, I have received from the Department of State no instructions, nor have I received a letter of appointment.. Being on the ground as commander of the escort, I have retained the custody of these instruments and have performed the duties above designated. It is questionable in my mind whether the Department of State has followed up its inten tions conveyed in the preliminary instructions of February 13. But if it has done so, and I am considered as occupying the position of chief astronomer and topographical engineer, I now desire, for reasons which in my judgment form an insurmountable obstacle to the proper performance of these duties, to be released from all duty with this commission. I request the person may be designated to whom the instruments in my custody shall be turned over; they are at present distributed between Captain Hardcastle, Lieutenant Whipple, Mr. A. B. Gray, and myself. In due season an account will be rendered of my astronomical determinations on this work, as well as those of the officers under my command, and the commission will be furnished with the results. By the time of receiving my recall, I hope to have finished the determination of the astronomical line forming the boundary between the Pacific and the mouth of the Gila river; and it will be a convenient point for the transfer of the work to other hands. The commissioner has been absent on business since the 16th August, and I am without the means of knowing what is to be done with the civil assistants brought out by ine; but I respectfully ask consideration for them, more particularly for the two scientific gentlemen, Professor James Nooney and Dr. C. C. Parry, and that, should their services be no longer required, directions may be given to have their expenses paid back to their homes. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, HON. J. M. CLAYTON, Secretary of State. W. H. EMORY, Brevet Major, &c., &'c. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, October 4, 1849. SIR: The sketch which accompanies this note will show you the position of the initial point of boundary between our country and that of the Mexican republic, as fixed by the survey of the southern part of the port of San Diego and measurement of the marine league, agreeable to the decision of the joint commission of July 9, and in conformity with the fifth article of the treaty with Mexico. It will also show approximately the direction that the line will take over the ridge of high lands which come down to the Pacific and across the valley of the river "Tia Juan"-the same valley up which we travelled on our recent reconnoissance-to the mountains separating the desert from the ocean. I had advised the surveyor on the part of Mexico of my having completed the surveys necessary for me to determine the southernmost point of the port, as called for in the treaty; and a few days after your departure to San Francisco, we exhibited |