"The advantages of such a thoroughfare are obvious. Five years would hardly elapse before inestimable benefits would be realized; and, should war threaten our Pacific possessions, a few days would suffice to send from the Mississippi valley an army that would defy any force that the most formidable power could array against us. The fine cotton region of the Gila, the rich copper, silver, and gold mines of New Mexico and Sonora would be at once developed, bringing a vast district of country into cultivation which now presents a fruitless waste, owing to Indian depredations and the absence of means of communication and protection. Mexico has tried for a century past to insure safety to her inhabitants in this region, but notwithstanding the expense she has incurred in keeping up her garrisons, she has failed to afford them protection. "The deserted appearance of the country from El Paso to the Colorado is no criterion by which to judge of its value. The beautiful valley of San Xavier, or Santa Cruz, some two years ago when I passed through it, was entirely deserted. The once thriving towns of Tumacacori and Tubac had not the sign of a living soul about them except the recent moccasin track of the Apaches. The orchards and vineyards of the once highly cultivated fields and gardens bore the marks of gradual decay and destruction. The ranchos of Calabazas, of San Bernardino, and numerous other places on this frontier, presented the same melancholy aspect, the result of the inability of Mexico to protect this portion of territory from the inroads of the savages. There are now but a few settlements throughout this district of country, but were it protected by a power that could and would defend it, what is now a waste in the hands of the savages might become a thriving country, with safety insured to its inhabitants." Senate Ex. Doc. No. 55, 33rd Congress, 2nd Sess. I quote the following language of Gray, from subsequent explorations made by him, three years after his first expedition, and contained in his report to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. It was chiefly from the discoveries made by Gray, in this adventurous expedition, through regions unknown for many years past, between the Rio Grande and Gulf of California, together with the Gadsden Treaty, that induced parties at great expense to emigrate there, and commence working the vast mineral deposites, such as the Arabac silver mines, the Ajo copper mountain, and others, but which, through lack of proper protection and means of communication, have been greatly retarded in their development. After crossing the dividing ridge of the continent west of the Rio Grande, Gray thus alludes to the country: