value, to recur to the ancient divisions of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Nevertheless, there are readers who are naturally anxious to trace the territorial aggrandizement as well as the recent curtailment of Mexico, and we have, therefore, thought it proper to present a picture of the limits and apportionment of the country at several periods.

The territorial limits of that region generally called New Spain, were comprised between the degrees of 15° 58´ and 42° of north latitude; and between 89° 4´ and 126° 48´ 45´´ west longitude from Paris,—calculating from the easternmost point of Cape Catoché, in Yucatan, to the extreme western limit of the land at Cape Mendocino, in California. The Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean Sea bounded this country on the east and south-east; the Pacific Ocean on the west; Guatemala on the south; and the United States, on the north. There was a multitude of islands comprehended under this territorial dominion. On the east coast of Yucatan were the isles of Holvas, Comboy, Mugeres, Cancun, Cozumel and Ubero;—in the Gulf of Mexico, the island of Bermejos and several smaller ones;—in the Pacific, the isles of Revilla-gigedo, of Maria, Cedros, San Clemente, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Bernardo, San Miguel;—and in the Gulf of California, or Cortéz, the isles of Cerralvo, Espiritu Santo, San José, Santa Cruz, Carmen, Tortugas, Tiburon, Santa Iñez, and numerous insignificant islets or keys.

The limit between the United States and New Spain was defined by a treaty negotiated between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister at Washington, and John Quincy Adams, American Secretary of State, after long and learned historical as well as legal discussions of territorial rights and limits, which the student will find, at large, in the second and fourth volumes of "American State Papers," published by the government of the United States. This treaty was signed on the 22d of February, 1819, and, according to its third article, the boundary between Mexico and Louisiana, which was then ceded to the Union, commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, at about latitude 29°, west longitude 94°, and followed its course as far as its juncture with the Red river of Natchitoches, which then served to mark the frontier up to the 100th degree of west longitude, whence the line ran directly north to the river Arkansas, which it followed to its source at the 42d° of north latitude,—whence another straight line was drawn upon the said 42d parallel, to the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

This line, it was supposed, would interpose a perpetual barrier of wilderness, tenanted only by Indians and wild animals, between the republic of the north and the treasured colonies of the Spanish crown. But subsequent events have shown in the course of little more than the quarter of a century, how rapidly the population of the old world and the new has swelled beyond the limits prescribed by statesmen, until the savage and the beast have been made to yield their hunting grounds and forests for the use of civilized man.

At the earliest period of which we have any authentic information, this territory of Spain was divided into the kingdoms of Mexico, New Galicia, and New Leon; the colony of New Santander; and the provinces of Coahuila, Texas, New Biscay, Sonora, New Mexico and the two Californias. This arrangement was extremely indefinite; but, in 1776, the country was divided into twelve intendancies: Merida, Oajaca, Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Valladolid, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, New Biscay, and Sonora; and the three provinces of New Mexico, and Alta and Nueva California. The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, included New Leon, New Santander, Coahuila and Texas, and San Luis Potosi, proper;—the intendancy of New Biscay embraced the provinces of Durango and Chihuahua; and the intendancy of Sonora took in the provinces of Sinaloa, Ostimuri, and Sonora. Each intendancy was subdivided into subdelegaciones. Another division cut off New Spain, proper, from the Provincias Internas. These last named provinces included all the territory lying north and northwesterly of the intendancies of Zacatecas and Guadalajara, or the kingdom of Nueva Gallicia. The "Provincias Internas del Vireynato," must be distinguished from the "Provincias Internas de la Commandancia de Chihuahua," which, in 1779, were comprised in a General-Captaincy. The two intendancies New Biscay and Sonora, then part of San Luis Potosi, belonged to the provinces of Coahuila and Texas. The interior provinces of the viceroyalty were the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, including the provinces of New Leon and New Santander. The actual kingdom of New Spain was composed of the intendancies of Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Guadalajara, Valladolid, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Oajaca, Merida, and San Luis, proper, and the two Californias. In the year 1807, the "Provincias Internas" were divided into western and eastern, and two general commandancies created.

1st. The Provincias Internas Occidentales, or Western, were the intendancies of Sonora, Durango, with Chihuahua (new Biscay); the province of New Mexico, and the two Californias.

2d. The Provincias Internas Orientales, or Eastern, were, Coahuila, Texas, New Santander and New Leon.

Such were the main territorial divisions of New Spain during the concluding years of the Spanish government,—whilst the revolution was in progress,—and until the nineteen provinces of the empire of Iturbide were erected by the federal constitution of 1824 into the nineteen States of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Texas, Durango, Guanajuato, Mexico, Michoacan (Valladolid), New Leon, Oajaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Jalisco (Guadalajara,) Yucatan, and Zacatecas,—and the Territories of Old and New California, Colima, New Mexico, and Tlascala. In 1830 the State of Sinaloa and Sonora, separated into its natural divisions, since which each has been a distinct, independent State. In 1836, the revolution which destroyed this federal constitution, changed these States into Departments; by which name they were recognized until the month of May, 1847, when the old federal constitution of 1824, with some amendments, was reenacted, and the departments once more converted into states; whilst provision was made for the creation of the new state of Guerrero, to be composed of the districts of Acapulco, Chilapa, Tasco and Talpa, and the municipality of Coyucan—the three first of which pertain to the state of Mexico, the fourth to Puebla, and the fifth to Michoacan,—provided these three states gave their consent within three months from the 21st of May, 1847, at which period the act reforming the constitution of 1824 was passed.

The war between Mexico and the United States was happily terminated by the treaty negotiated at the town of Guadalupe, by Mr. Trist, on the 2d of February, 1848; and, by this compact, the limit between our respective territories was greatly changed from that which had been fixed by the treaty with Spain in 1819. According to the convention of Mr. Trist, the boundary between the republics commences in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence it passes up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, when it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico, thence, westerly, along the