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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
distance of the travel the enormous expenses of transportation the dangers of ,the high-way, infested by s'avages & Mexican banditti with the difficulty of carrying provisions have all served to restrict the most profitable commerce in the world. A caravan of Merchants from St. Louis could not return from an expedition to Santa Fe short of six months, most generally prolonged to eight. That city howeve:r has drawn the most valuable poTtion of the trade to the Mississippi river from the superior energies of the Western pioneers & trappers. ·The difficulty of obtaining supplies thro' Matamoras, the revolutionary state of JUexico and the extortions made upon the Santa Fe traders have driven a la-rge portion of the metals & furs from that town to St Louis. In addition to these valuable articles of commerce, the natives would enter largely into the Mule trade, which will be of immense value in the cultivation of our fertile lands. At the head-waters of the Colorado, along the chain of mountains, which constitute the Cordelleras, are to be found large quantities of those animals from which the furs a're taken. They are as fine and as valuable .as those carried from the Rockey Moun- tains between St. Louis & Santa Fe. The trappers now engaged in that trade would soon place themselves under the protection of our government and gladly resort to the New Capital of the Western Empire of North America for the disposal of those •rich and useful commodities. Besides these I might enumerate the profits of our own trade with the population of New :Mexico in provisions and goods of foreign growth & manufacture, which would pass thro' our ports. But these advantages are well understood by yourself and I am satisfied that every effort will be made to secure them to this country. Whilst in the City of Houston and at the time of my appointment in the Regiment aga,inst the Comanchies, I suggested to yon the impor- tance of a politico-military mission to Santa Fe with a view to the in- troduction of the trade of New Mexico thro' the natural outlet within the limits of this Republic. Perhaps my information obtained from the most veracious sources since my arrival in the West may materially aid the operations of the government and I shall continue my search into the history of the proper route to Santa Fe till the arrival of the volunteers from this river now out against the Com- anchies, and the return of Col. Karnes, who is at this moment .at th~ Canon De Ubalde above San Antonio. I have every reason to believe that the seat of government will be located on the Colorado between this place and the mountains, probably at their foot and I have no doubt the selection will be the most judicious which can be made within the limits assigned the Commissioners by the law. In that event the Capital of the Nation may command the entire trade of New Mexico. The Colorado River beyond the mountains, thirty miles above the probable location of the seat of government, is said to be a wider and deeper steam to the Pasigono than from the mountains to its mouth. In addition to the river, there is a trace from the foot of the Colorado mountains to Santa Fe, which may be travelled by waggons and does not exceed five hundred miles. Should the
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