The Arizona sentinel., 1894-05-12
A Sea Port for Arizona.

] Mexico. 1t IS claimed that the act uaI boundary agreed upon by the United States and Mexico at the time of the Gadsden purchase would send the line far enough south to bring Port Isabel, at the head of the Gulf of Mexico, within American territory. Whether this is so or not, the United States ought to acquire by purchase enough territory in Lower Califor- nia to give a gulf outlet to Arizona.
 It has always been a puzzle to intelligent Americans why the peace commissioners who managed the convention between the United States and Mexico at the close of the Mexican war which resulted in the treaty of Guadalupe de Hidal- go, did not insist upon the cession of the two Californias, giving us the Gulf of Cortez as the line ofsepara- tion between the countries on the Pacific side. This would have been a natural boundary and given us the free navigation of the gulf, with Lower California on one side, whilst the Mexicans states of Sin alba and Sonora would have bor- dered it on the other. A number of good harbors would then have come to us in the gulf, and a com merce of considerable magnitude would have sprung up in Lower California from Cape St. Lucas to the mouth of the Colorado. To the $10,O00, ,00O we then gave Mexico for the cession of California and other territory, we might have ad- ded few millions more and ac- quired the entire peninsula of Lower California with its gulf frontage on the east side and the Pacific ocean frontage on the west side. That would have made our territorial possessions on this coast symmetrical and have given us lines of natural separation. Mex ico would have been benefited by such cession, for American enter prise and energy would have built up large and fiourishing trade in Lower California, which would have reacted favorabiy upon the commerce of San Bias, Mazatfan and Guaymas, and given decided impetus to the interior prosperity of Sinaloa and Sonora. It was a great blunder, which has done as much harm to Mexico as 1t has to the United States.
 Any one who consults the map will see that the boundary line is run in straight westerly direction until it reaches the 34th degree of longitude west from Washington, when it is deffected by a diagonal course northward to the Pacific ocean, reaching that point about in 32 30 deg. of latitude If the line were strengthened out so as to reach the Pacific ocean at about 31.30, it would give tEe territory of Arizona fine ocean outlet at the head of the gulf and enable that territory to have one or more seaports of inestimable value to her commerce.
 | Arizona is now developing into a territory of great importance. She has put forth an energy within the past few years with results that are attracting the attention of the whole country. Whilst her mining resources are in the process o1 energetic develodment, agriculture has received an impetus that bids fair to make the territory more, re-
 nowned in a few years for the abundance and variety of her pro- ducts of the soil than of the mines
 Some of the most gigantic schemes .. of irrigation have been entered up . on successfully, and 1t is probably that in the near future irrigating
 canals as large as ordinary rivers
 will traverse hundreds of miles o ) the territory, turning the now desert places into blooming fields
 The Colorado river furnishes al 1 unlimited supply of water for sucf { canals, and the topography of tht l country is very favorably to theil l extension indefinitely. The evi dences exist everywhere in th' : desert portions of Arizona that l