30. [BORDERLANDS]. UNITED STATES. CONGRESS. HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES. SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON TEXAS FRONTIER
TROUBLES. Texas Frontier Troubles....Report: The Special
Committee Who Were Appointed under a Resolution of the
House of Representatives, Passed January 6, 1876....
Washington: HRR343, 1876. xxi [1] 180 pp., lithographed
folding map : Map of the Lower Rio Grande, Accompanying
Report of the Special Committee on Texas Frontier
Troubles.... 25.7 x 34.4 cm (10 x 15-1/2 inches). 8vo,
new tan cloth, gilt-lettered black calf label. Light wear
and chipping to blank margins of first and last leaves
(usually encountered on these government reports of the
era, printed on cheap paper). Rare, especially with the map
(which is fine).
First
edition. Adams, Guns 2262; Herd 2273:
"Rare." Eberstadt, Texas 162:124: "Neither Adams nor
Howes calls for the important map which is here present."
Howes T143 (aa). Reese, Six Score 108: "An important
government document dealing with cattle theft along the
Mexican border. The testimony contains much on rustling
problems and on cattle in South Texas generally. The
Mexican government had issued a similar report a year
earlier, the Informe de la Comisión
Pesquisidora, 1875." The map is wonderful and detailed,
locating remote Texas outposts, as Lagartoville and Charco
Fandango, and with hand-written lithographed notes such as
"Paso Selos Arrieros—good food." I would imagine that
this map is considerably rarer than a 1598 Ortelius La
Florida...or even Austin or DeCordova! Pingenot: The
fine folding map of South Texas and Northern Mexico
delineates Texas from the Rio Grande from its mouth to
above Fort Duncan in Maverick County, indicating trails,
frontier forts, Mexican outposts and towns, geographical
notations, ranches, etc. An excellent chronicle of border
depredations, including that of Juan N. Cortina, along with
a first-hand report by Texas Ranger Captain L. H. McNelly.
The Committee’s report blamed much of the problem on
Mexico and urged that U.S. forces be allowed to pursue
bandits across the border.
($400-800)