The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902 Page: 45

The Annexation of Texas and the Mexican Waqr. 45
without a boundary,-all of which shows that the highest authori-
ties in Mexico were totally ignorant of the actual geography of
the country.
The petition of Texas was not granted, and this proposed bound-
ary came to naught. It is cited as an illustration of the character
of knowledge the most prominent Mexican officials had so late as
1835.
When the people of Texas determined, in 1835, to rid the coun-
try of the presence of the Mexican army, they made the Rio
Grande their boundary, it being the most natural, the most con-
venient, and for nearly one hundred years the most generally recog-
nized western boundary; and from December, 1835, up to the battle
of Palo Alto, the evidence is well nigh conclusive that both Mexico
and Texas regarded and treated it as the western boundary. In
November, 1835, the Texans captured Fort Lipantitlan, the only
garrisoned fort between the Nueces and Rio Grande. In Decem-
ber they captured San Antonio and a garrison of 1600 Mexican
troops, and paroled them upon the condition, among others, that
they leave Texas,-not by going beyond the Nueces, but beyond
the Rio Grande. In April, 1836, they captured Santa Anna and
the force immediately under him, and stipulated with him that his
life (which had been forfeited by the Goliad massacre) should be
spared, and the bulk of his army be permitted to retire, unmo-
lested, across the Rio Grande, which in future should be the recog-
nized western boundary of Texas. It is true Santa Anna was a
prisoner when he made this agreement, but he obtained for himself
and his army every benefit asked, and upon principles of equity its
annulment by 1exico was not justified. Its binding force in
morals and law was recognized and insisted upon by Filisola, his
next in command, who asserted that the army was saved from
destruction and a national disgrace avoided by it.
Santa Anna's ideas as to a western boundary may be inferred
from an expression in a letter to President Houston, November 5,
1836, in which he referred to it as a matter that had been "pend-
ing many years." This period, of course, long antedated the Texas
revolution.
After the armistice between Texas and Mexico, in June, 1844,
General Woll, in command of the frontier forces of Mexico, issued
his proclamation from beyond the Rio Grande, denouncing as