The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 15

History of Texas Geography.

the United States Congress in 1850, corresponded in many respects
with this. The parallels and meridians of Humboldt's map were
more than 170 miles from their true location, as since ascertained,
but, taking the natural objects called for, they corresponded in
most essentials, as far as the lines went, with the royal map of
1805.*
Such were the western boundaries of Texas in 1803, when the
dispute as to the eastern boundary of Texas was again taken up by
the United States and Spain.
The sale of Louisiana was bitterly opposed by Spain, and formal
delivery of possession of the territory had not been made when Na-
poleon sold it to the United States, and only twenty days elapsed
between the delivery by Spain to France and the delivery by France
to the United States.
Spanish forces were reluctantly withdrawn from New Orleans
and transferred to the western border of Louisiana. Much diplo-
matic correspondence ensued touching the boundaries, but no prac-
tical results followed until late in 1806, when the United States
mobilized troops west of Red river. To counteract this, Spanish
troops were mobilized east of the Sabine, when, on the 5th of No-
vember, 1806, the two armies confronted each other. An armed
conflict seemed imminent, when an armistice was agreed upon, by
which hostilities were to cease until such time as the two nations
should otherwise settle the question of boundary. It was agreed
between the respective commanders that a strip of country, since
famous as the "Neutral Ground," should not be encroached upon
by either nation. The eastern limit of this neutral ground was a
line equidistant between Adaes and the Arroyo Hondo, and the
western limit the Sabine. Northern and southern limits were not
fixed. The matter of the eastern boundary remained in this state
for about thirteen years. Spain conceded nothing beyond what she
had virtually conceded to France seventy years previously. In the
*1. Prieto's History of Tamaulipas contains the map compiled by Escan-
don and deposited with his official report among the archives at Mexico
in 1755.
2. The royal map of 1805 seems to be confined to natural objects, leaving
the matter of meridians and parallels for further determination.
3. To Col. B. Coopwood, Laredo, Texas, I am indebted for the sources of
much of the information concerning the western boundary of Texas.