ERROR to the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas; the case being thus:
In 1776, Salvador de la Garza 'denounced,' that is to say, made application to the authorities of New Spain for a tract of land north of the Rio Grande, in the now State of Texas, called sometimes the 'Agostadero,' and sometimes the 'Potrero' of the Espiritu Santo. The lands asked for were described as bounded 'on the east with the lagunes (lagunas) of the sea; on the west by a thick wood; on the south by the margins of the Rio Grande, and on the north by a ravine which comes out of the sea.' In June, 1779, the proper officer proceeded to take testimony as to the possession had of the land by Salvador, and of its boundaries and character. There were five witnesses. They stated that the 'potrero' asked for had as its boundaries and outlines (linderos), the Arroyo Colorado, the lagunes, the Rio Grande, and a thicket-wood; three witnesses saying, 'the lagunes;' one saying, 'the lagunes of the sea;' and one, 'the lagunes immediately communicating with the sea.' The possession of the applicant being satisfactory to the judge, that officer proceeded, in company with Salvador, to make an actual survey. The surveyor's record of this operation first describes the nature of the ground as fit only for grazing, on account of the many marshes made by the tides of the sea, and freshets of the Rio Grande and Colorado; that Diagram.
it had in many places a sort of grass which animals would not eat, 'which usually grows on salt marshes near the coast of the sea;' on which account (with others set forth), 'it is only useful as regards horses and all other stock, by the security which and protection which is afforded, on account of the potrero having but one entrance and exit through the dense thicket which runs across it fro the Colorado to the Rio Grande.'
The record then states that the survey begins at a watering-place for cattle, on the Rio Grande, in the southwest corner of the tract, and that the first line ranged from it, course east, going in a straight line from it, 'along the banks of Rio Grande, down the stream,' 584 cords, at the river, at a slough (derrame), from it, by which in its freshets it supplies a tank with water, 'which was left lay above; bore up stream at a distance of six cords, which slough was left as a natural landmark,' and a monument fixed; there remaining-the record said on this line, to the south, recesses and elbows formed by the Rio Grande, which 'the surveyor would notice hereafter.' This was one day's work.
The second day's record of the surveyor's action was thus:
'In the said place of the slough of the river in which ended the first line, he ran the second line straight to the north, and at 206 cords we came to the head of one of the lagunes of the sea, besides others that were seen to the east, and having gone round the head of this first one and various others which succeeded, communicating with each other, following always the north course, the surveying cord came to a little pocket or meadow which the said lagunes make, these laying on the west and east until they reach 'Lagunas Madres,' which are formed by the Arroyo Colorado, and into which its waters empty, there being far within this line (something more than a league), a place improved . . .; and there being no more land on account of our having reached the said Lagunas Madres, and having nothing before us but water, the second line amounted to 993 cords in the whole.'The third day recorded that in the place on the Colorado where it expands into the broad lagunes (Lagunes Madres), the surveyor began the third line, running up the stream, course west, &c., 584 cords, the same number with the line on the Rio Grande; a part of the line, owing to impassable ravines, thicket, &c., described, being conjectural.
A fourth line, in part conjectural, to the watering-place, closed the survey.
The surveyor, nothing that he had estimated the elbows made between the first line and the Rio Grande, declared that 'within the four said lines were contained 59 square leagues (sitios de ganadas mayor) and 11 1/2 caballerias of land.'
After the survey was completed, the attorney of the treasury advised the granting of the '59 sitios de ganadas mayor and eleven and a half caballerias of the Potrero Espiritu Santo, under the natural outlines which the surveys state,' and a grant itself was made to Salvador in due time afterwards (September 26th, 1781), of the same quantity of land, described in the same words, 'within the limits of the colony of New Santander, and not exceeding its natural boundaries.'