USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Volume I > Part 13
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ARTICLE I.
"The Mexican Republic agrees to designate the following as her true limits with the United States for the future: Retaining the same divid- ing line between the two Californias as already defined and established, according to the 5th article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the limits between the two republics shall be as fol- lows: Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, as provided in the fifth article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; thence, as defined in the said article, up the middle of that river to the point where the parallel of 31° 47' north lati- tude crosses the same; thence due west one hun- dred miles; thence south to the parallel of 31º 20' north latitude; thence along the said parallel of 31° 20' to the 111th meridian of longitude west of Greenwich; thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado twenty English miles be- low the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers; thence up the middle of the said river Colorado until it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico.
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"For the performance of this portion of the treaty, each of the two Governments shall nomi- nate one commissioner, to the end that, by com- mon consent, the two thus nominated having met in the city of Paso del Norte, three months after the exchange of the ratification of this treaty, may proceed to survey and mark out upon the land the dividing line stipulated by this article, where it shall not have already been surveyed and established by the mixed commission, ac- cording to the treaty of Guadalupe, keeping a journal and making proper plans of their opera- tions. For this purpose, if they should judge it necessary, the contracting parties shall be at lib- erty each to unite to its respective commissioner scientific or other assistants, such as astronomers and surveyors, whose concurrence shall not be considered necessary for the settlement and rati- fication of a true line of division between the two republics; that line shall be alone established upon which the commissioners may fix, their con- sent in this particular being considered decisive and an integral part of this treaty, without necessity of ulterior ratification or approval, and without room for interpretation of any kind by either of the parties contracting.
"The dividing line thus established shall, in all time, be faithfully respected by the two Gov- ernments, without any variation therein, unless of the express and free consent of the two, given in conformity to the principles of the law of na- tions, and in accordance with the constitution of each country, respectively.
"In consequence, the stipulation in the 5th article of the treaty of Guadalupe upon the
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boundary line therein described is no longer of any force, wherein it may conflict with that here established, the said line being considered an- nulled and abolished wherever it may not coin- cide with the present, and in the same manner remaining in full force where in accordance with the same.
ARTICLE II.
"The Government of Mexico hereby releases the United States from all liability on account of the obligations contained in the eleventh arti- cle of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; and the said article and the thirty-third article of the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation be- tween the United States of America and the United Mexican States, concluded at Mexico on the fifth day of April, 1831, are hereby abro- gated.
ARTICLE III.
"In consideration of the foregoing stipula- tions, the Government of the United States agrees to pay to the Government of Mexico, in the city of New York, the sum of ten millions of dollars, of which seven millions shall be paid immediately upon the exchange of the ratifica- tions of this treaty, and the remaining three millions as soon as the boundary line shall be sur- veyed, marked and established.
ARTICLE IV.
"The provisions of the 6th and 7th articles of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo having been rendered nugatory for the most part by the ces- sion of territory granted in the first article of this treaty, the said articles are hereby abrogated
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and annulled, and the provisions as herein ex- pressed substituted therefor. The vessels and citizens of the United States shall, in all time, have free and uninterrupted passage through the Gulf of California, to and from their possessions situated north of the boundary line of the two countries. It being understood that this pas- sage is to be by navigating the Gulf of California and the river Colorado, and not by land without the express consent of the Mexican Government ; and precisely the same provisions, stipulations and restrictions, in all respects, are hereby agreed upon and adopted, and shall be scrupu- lously observed and enforced by the two con- tracting Governments, in reference to the Rio Colorado, so far and for such distance as the middle of that river is made their common boundary line by the first article of this treaty.
"The several provisions, stipulations, and re- strictions contained in the 7th article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo shall remain in force only so far as regards the Rio Bravo del Norte, below the initial of the said boundary provided in the first article of this treaty ; that is to say, below the intersection of the 31° 47' 30" parallel of latitude, with the boundary line estab- lished by the late treaty dividing said river from its mouth upwards, according to the 5th article of the treaty of Guadalupe.
ARTICLE V.
"All the provisions of the eighth and ninth, sixteenth and seventeenth articles of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo shall apply to the terri- tory ceded by the Mexican Republic in the first
13
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article of the present treaty, and to all the rights of persons and property, both civil and ecclesi- astical, within the same, as fully and effectually as if the said articles were herein again recited and set forth.
ARTICLE VI.
"No grants of land within the territory ceded by the first article of this treaty bearing date subsequent to the day-twenty-fifth of Septem- ber-when the Minister and subscriber to this treaty on the part of the United States proposed to the Government of Mexico to terminate the question of boundary, will be considered valid or to be recognized by the United States, or will any grants made previously be respected or be considered as obligatory which have not been located and duly recorded in the archives of Mexico.
ARTICLE VII.
"Should there, at any future period (which God forbid) occur any disagreement between the two nations which might lead to a rupture of their relations and reciprocal peace, they bind themselves in like manner to procure by every possible method the adjustment of every differ- ence; and should they still in this manner not suc- ceed, never will they proceed to a declaration of war without having previously paid attention to what has been set forth in article 21 of the treaty of Guadalupe for similar cases ; which article, as well as the 22d, is here re-affirmed.
ARTICLE VIII.
"The Mexican Government having on the 5th of February, 1853, authorized the construction
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of a plank and rail road across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and to secure the stable benefits of said transit way to the persons and merchan- dise of the citizens of Mexico and the United States, it is stipulated that neither Government will interpose any obstacle to the transit of per- sons and merchandise of both nations; and at no time shall higher charges be made on the transit of persons and property of citizens of the United States than may be made on the persons and property of other foreign nations, nor shall any interest in said transit way nor in the proceeds thereof, be transferred to any foreign government.
"The United States, by its agents, shall have the right to transport across the isthmus, in closed bags, the mails of the United States not intended for distribution along the line of com- munication; also the effects of the United States Government and its citizens, which may be in- tended for transit, and not for distribution on the isthmus, free of customhouse or other charges by the Mexican Government. Neither passports nor letters of security will be required of persons crossing the isthmus and not remain- ing in the country.
"When the construction of the railroad shall be completed, the Mexican Government agrees to open a port of entry in addition to the port of Vera Cruz, at or near the terminus of said road on the Gulf of Mexico.
"The two Governments will enter into ar- rangements for the prompt transit of troops and munitions of the United States which that Gov- ernment may have occasion to send from one
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part of its territory to another, lying on opposite sides of the continent.
"The Mexican Government having agreed to protect with its whole power the prosecution, preservation and security of the work, the United States may extend its protection as it shall judge wise to it when it may feel sanctioned and warranted by the public or international law.
ARTICLE IX.
"This treaty shall be ratified and the respec- tive ratifications shall be exchanged at the city of Washington within the exact period of six months from the date of its signature, or sooner if possible.
"In testimony whereof we, the Plenipoten- tiaries of the contracting parties, have hereunto affixed our hands and seals at Mexico, the thirti- eth (30th) day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty- three, in the thirty-third year of the Independ- ence of the Mexican Republic, and the seventy- eighth of that of the United States.
(Seal) James Gadsden.
(Seal) Manuel Diez de Bonilla.
(Seal) Jose Salazar Ylarregui.
(Seal) J. Mariano Monterde."
Mr. Gadsden returned from Mexico with the drafts of three treaties, either of which, if ac- cepted by the United States, to cause the others to be of no effect.
These treaties were numbered according to the quantity of territory and amounts mentioned in them.
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First: Starting from a point in the center of the Rio Grande, thence west on the parallel of latitude 30° north to the Gulf of California, thence to take in the whole of Lower California, for which the United States were to pay the sum of $25,000,000.
Second: Starting, as now, from the center of the Rio Grande some eight miles above El Paso, north latitude 31° 37'; thence west one hundred miles ; thence south to north latitude 31° ; thence west to the Gulf of California, for which the United States were to pay Mexico the sum of $15,000,000.
Third : This was the "Skeleton Treaty," finally agreed to, which embraced all the country ceded by Mexico to the United States under what is generally known as the "Gadsden Pur- chase" for which the United States were to, and did, pay the sum of $10,000,000.
The argument advanced for the adoption of the treaty which gave us the land embraced in the Gadsden Purchase, was that the United States would have a port on the Colorado River. At that time the Gila River was also supposed to be navigable, and the land embraced within the purchase, according to the surveys which had been previously made, and the expedition of Capt. P. St. George Cooke, with his wagon train, proved it to be easily adapted for a railroad. The whole country was thought to be barren; great statesmen of that day declared that Ari- zona was almost exclusively a desert, and so also was New Mexico; that neither of these great States could ever support any large population. This, however, was the argument advanced by
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those who were opposed to the extension of slav- ery and regarded all territory that might be ac- quired by the United States, south of the 33rd parallel, as future slave territory. Could they have realized that in the short period of twelve years thereafter slavery would have been abol- ished in the Southern States, there is little doubt but that the first treaty submitted by Gadsden would have been adopted. This would have given to us the port of Guaymas on the Gulf of California, and the major portion of what is now Sonora and Chihuahua, and all of Lower Cali- fornia.
The war with Mexico, conceding that it was one of conquest, changed the map of the Amer- ican continent very much in favor of the United States. There is no doubt that had not Presi- dent Polk acted with promptness in the outset of his administration toward the settlement of the disputes between the United States and Eng- land, the colonization of Oregon and the annexa- tion of Texas and the vast territory ceded by Mexico to the United States as a war indemnity, that England would have acquired a permanent holding in California, and, possibly all the West- ern States adjacent thereto. In her magna- nimity, she may have left Arizona and New Mexico to the Republic of Mexico. The United States would have acquired a much larger slice of what is now Mexican territory, and a harbor upon the Gulf of California, and all of Lower California, had it not been for the slavery ques- tion, which obtruded itself at that time into all legislation by Congress.
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CHAPTER XII. TROUBLES WITH THE INDIANS.
SKILL AND CRAFTINESS OF THE APACHES-INEZ GONZALES-HER CAPTURE AND RESCUE -- PO- SITION TAKEN BY INDIANS WITH REFERENCE TO CAPTIVES - INTERVIEWS BY COMMIS- SIONER BARTLETT WITH MANGUS COLORADO, DELGADITO AND PONCE.
From the very commencement of the American occupation of Arizona, the Indian began to give trouble. The United States had pledged itself, as has been seen, by the 11th Article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to protect the Mexican border as far as possible from Indian encroach- ments, and, also, whenever Mexican citizens were made captives by the Indians, the United States was to restore them to their homes. This was rather a mammoth undertaking, for at that time, exclusive of the Navajo nation, which was fre- quently at war with the whites, and which was a part of the Apache nation who supported them- selves principally through stock raising, there were at least five or six thousand warriors of the different Apache tribes; different entirely from the Indians of the plains in their mode of war- fare and tribal government.
These Indians never fought in the open, nor went into battle unless the odds were all in their favor. They understood the country well and from the rocky peaks, noted every wagon train and every party of whites that entered their ter- ritory. Through smoke signals, they could tele-
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graph from point to point for many miles, and could call together at any time a formidable band of warriors to concentrate at any given point. They could so disguise themselves in the grass as to become entirely invisible to the naked eye. The apparently casual turning over of a stone close to the highway had its significance; the breaking of a few branches in the forest, which seemed an accidental occurrence, had its mean- ing. "They were," says Cremony, "neither more nor less than lithographic notices by which one party could know the force of another-the direction taken-the extent and nature of the danger which threatened, and impart the sum- mons for a gathering."
An Apache never attacked unless fully con- vinced of an easy victory. They would watch for days, scanning every move, observing every act, and taking note of the party under espion- age and of all their belongings. Their assaults were never made on the spur of the moment by bands accidentally encountered; they were inva- riably the result of long watching-patient wait- ing, careful and rigorous observation and anxious counsel.
For the most part they were truthful and in- clined to observe their treaty stipulations. Their women were chaste, and polygamy, to some extent, was practiced among them. Horses were the evidence of wealth among them, and they were the most adept thieves known in any land, always on the alert to drive off horses, cat- tle and four-footed beasts of any kind.
Commissioner Bartlett, in his "Personal Nar- rative," gives accounts of interviews with the Indians, which I quote elsewhere.
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It was the habit of the Indians to capture Mexicans and execute the males of age to bear arms with the most savage torture; adopting the children into the tribe, and selling the women to a class of human brutes who shipped them to Santa Fe, where they were sold for immoral purposes.
The case of Inez Gonzales, an instance of this sort, is described by Bartlett as follows:
"On the 27th June an incident occurred, which will long be remembered by every one connected with the Boundary Commission. It was such as to awaken the finest sympathies of our nature; and by its happy result afforded a full recompense for the trials and hardships attend- ing our sojourn in this inhospitable wilderness.
"On the evening of the day alluded to, a party of New Mexicans came in for the purpose of procuring provisions, etc., having with them a young female and a number of horses and mules. By what dropped from them, in the course of conversation, it was ascertained that the female and animals had been obtained from the In- dians, and that they were taking the girl to some part of New Mexico, to sell or make such dis- position of her as would realize the most money. As all traffic of this kind, whether in mules or captives, was strictly forbidden by the treaty with Mexico, I deemed it my duty, as the near- est and highest representative of the government of the United States in this region, to interfere in the matter. My authority for so doing, is contained in the second and third sections of the eleventh article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo referred to, where it is declared that :-
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" 'It shall not be lawful, under any pretext whatever, for any inhabitant of the United States to purchase or acquire any Mexican, or any foreigner residing in Mexico, who may have been captured by Indians inhabiting the terri- tory of either of the two republics, nor to pur- chase or acquire horses, mules, cattle, or prop- erty of any kind, stolen within Mexican territory by such Indians.
" 'And in the event of any person, or persons, captured within Mexican territory by Indians, being carried into the territory of the United States, the government of the latter engages and binds itself, in the most solemn manner, so soon as it shall know of such captives being within its territory and shall be able to do so through the faithful exercise of its influence and power, to rescue them and return them to their country, or deliver them to the agent or representative of the Mexican Government. The Mexican au- thorities will, as far as practicable, give to the Government of the United States notice of such captures; and its agent shall pay the expenses incurred in the maintenance and transmission of the rescued captives, who, in the meantime, shall be treated with the utmost hospitality by the American authorities at the place where they may be. But if the government of the United States, before receiving such notice from Mex- ico, should obtain intelligence through any other channel of the existence of Mexican captives within its territory, it will proceed forthwith to effect their release and delivery to the Mexican agents, as above stipulated.' "
"With this authority before me, I addressed a note to Lieut. Colonel Craig, commander of the
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escort, requesting him to demand the surrender of the female, and to prohibit the men, who in- tended departing at early dawn, from leaving their encampment until further orders. This request, which was made late in the evening, was promptly complied with under the immediate directions of Lieutenant D. C. Green.
"The ensuing day the three principal traders of the party were brought up to the fort, and separately examined, in reference to the manner in which they had obtained, and the right they had to the possession of the captive girl and the animals. These three persons were Peter Blacklaws, a trader in Santa Fe, Pedro Arche- veque, a laborer of Algodones, and Jose Faustin Valdez, a laborer of Santa Fe.
"Their evidence was somewhat conflicting- more particularly with respect to the female. It appeared that there was a party of about fifty men who had been trading with the Indians north of the Gila; a portion of them still re- mained there, whilst another portion (about twenty ) were here, on their way back to Santa Fe. The whole had been trading under one and the same license, although it was acknowledged that the name of none of them, save Peter Blacklaws, was inserted in it; he, however, declared that he was authorized-which is hardly probable-to add to his party as many as he chose. This license was called for, but not produced, it being, as was stated, in the possession of the other por- tion of the party. They seemed to consider themselves fully authorized, by virtue of the license, to purchase any species of the property held by Indians, and this without any regard to the manner in which the latter obtained it.
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They seemed surprised that I should question their rights on the strength of a treaty, the stipu- lations of which they knew nothing about.
"As respects the captive girl, who it was ac- knowledged was bought of the Pinal Indians, even placing their conduct in the most favorable light, it was quite apparent that she was pur- chased, like any other article of merchandise, as a matter of speculation. According to part of the testimony, the expedition was fitted out for the express purpose of buying her; while others declared that the purchase was an incidental matter. It appeared that her apprehensions at being taken by these men still further from her home, instead of being restored to her natural protectors, had been quieted by assurances that her purchaser was acquainted with relatives of hers at Santa Fe; although his testimony showed, as might have been anticipated : that he had no such acquaintances at all.
"The girl herself was quite young, artless and interesting in appearance, prepossessing in man- ners, and by her deportment gave evidence that she had been carefully brought up. The pur- chaser belonged to a people with whom the sys- tem of peonage prevails, and among them, as a general thing, females are not estimated as with us, especially in a moral point of view. The fate that threatened her under these circumstances, being too apparent, I felt under no necessity of regarding the protestations of Blacklaws, as to the honesty of his intentions, inasmuch as the treaty prohibits purchases of this kind 'under any pretext whatever.' I therefore deemed it to be my duty-and a pleasant one it certainly was,
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to extend over her the protection of the laws of the United States, and to see that, until delivered in safety to her parents, she should be 'treated with the utmost hospitality' that our position would allow.
"The substance of the following brief state- ment was furnished by this young captive :
"Her name is Inez Gonzales, daughter of Jesus Gonzales, of Santa Cruz, a small frontier town near the River San Pedro, in the State of Sonora. She was then in the fifteenth year of her age. In the September preceding, she had left her home, in company with her uncle, her aunt, another female, and a boy, on a visit to the fair of San Francisco, in the town of Magdalena, about 75 miles distance. They were escorted by a guard of ten soldiers, under the command of an ensign named Limon. When one day's jour- ney out, viz., on the 30th of September, 1850, they were attacked by a band of Pinal Indians, who lay in ambush in a narrow wooded canyon or pass. Her uncle was killed, and all the guard, save three persons, who made their es- cape. She, with her two female companions, and the boy, Francisco Paschecho, were carried away into captivity. She has been with the In- dians ever since. The other captives she under- stands were purchased and taken to the north by a party of New Mexicans who made the Indians a visit last winter. No improper freedom was taken with her person, but she was robbed of her clothing, save a skirt and under linen, and was made to work very hard. She spent the whole period of her captivity at two of the regular rallying spots or planting grounds of the Pinals.
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"This tribe, known as the Pinal, or Pinal- enos, embraces about five hundred souls, and ranges over an extensive circuit between the Sierra Pinal and the Sierra Blanca, both of which mountains are near the Upper San Fran- cisco River, about five days' journey north of the Gila. Within this space the young girl knew of at least twelve female captives, besides numer- ous males. Generally, the Indians are very willing to sell, that being their object in making the captives. The men spend their time in hunt- ing and depredating, and the women are re- quired to do all the work in their wigwams, and generally in the field. All females in this re- spect being treated alike, their own faring no better than captives. Their food consists almost exclusively of the root of the maguay, baked as I have before described.
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