Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina, was born in 1798; and after serving in the state legislature was member of Congress (1835-41). In 1842 he was made minister to Mexico, which position he filled but two years. Upon his return he published _Recollections_ (New York, 1846). Going to Mexico as an advocate of Texas annexation, he returned its opponent, convinced that slavery could not be maintained on soil acquired from Mexico. The latter years of his life were devoted to cotton-raising in Florida, where he died in 1868.--ED. [148] The following is the substance of Santa Anna's decree, dated at his Palace of Tacubaya, August 7, 1843: "Article 1st. The frontier custom-houses of Taos, in the department of New Mexico, Paso del Norte and Presidio del Norte in that of Chihuahua, are entirely closed to all commerce. "Art. 2d. This decree shall take effect within forty-five days after its publication in the capital of the Republic." It should be understood that the only port in New Mexico for the introduction of foreign goods was nominally Taos, though the custom-house was at Santa Fé, where all the entrances were made.--GREGG. [149] These northern ports have since been reopened by decree of March 31, 1844; and about ninety wagons, with perhaps $200,000 cost of goods, (and occupying 150 to 200 men), crossed the plains to Santa Fé, during the following summer and fall.--GREGG. CHAPTER XXVI {X} GEOGRAPHY OF THE PRAIRIES Extent of Prairies -- Mountains -- _Mesas_ or Table-lands -- _El_ _Llano Estacado_ -- _Cañones_ -- Their Annoyance to the early Caravans -- Immense Gullies -- Coal Mines and other geological Products -- Gypsum -- Metallic Minerals -- Salines -- Capt. Boone's Exploration -- 'Salt Plain' and 'Salt Rock' -- Mr. Sibley's Visit -- Saline Exudations -- Unhabitableness of the high Prairies -- Excellent Pasturage -- Rich border Country sufficient for two States -- Northern Texas -- Rivers of the Prairies -- Their Unfitness for Navigation -- Timber -- Cross Timbers -- Encroachments of the Timber upon the Prairies -- Fruits and Flowers -- Salubrity of Climate. While I have endeavored in the preceding pages to give the reader some general idea of life upon the Prairies, I feel that I have wholly failed thus far to convey any adequate notions of their natural history. I propose in the following pages to repair this deficiency as far as I am able, and to present a rapid sketch of the vastness of those mighty territories; of their physical geography; and of the life, as well vegetable as animal, which they sustain. It is to be regretted that this ample field for observation should have received so little of the consideration of scientific men; for there {179} is scarcely a province in the whole wide range of Nature's unexplored domains, which is so worthy of study, and yet has been so little studied by the natural philosopher.