The want of good roads from the interior, and good harbors on the Gulf, essentially render the eastern portion of Mexico, an inland country. The Alvarado, Guasacualco, and Tobasco, are almost the only exceptions. The States north and east of the Sierra Madre, comprising those which we now hold, although not yet completely subdued, have no water transportation to the coast, excepting by means of the Rio Grande. The want of a carriage road is exemplified by the fact, that the British company engaged in working the mines of Catorce, which are not more than three hundred miles in a direct line from Tampico, having landed their engines at that place, could not transport them direct to San Luis, but were obliged to go north towards Matamoras, and then take the direction of Monterey and Saltillo. From the latter place, after ascending to the table land, they proceed to San Louis, making a circuit of more than twelve hundred miles, and which consumed four months. The delightful country which I have described, as the States of New Leon, Coawilla, and Tamaulipas, is equal in extent to the eastern parts of Virginia and North and South Carolina, and large enough for a kingdom. It is, in general a plain, but not flat; on the contrary, picturesque, with a fine soil, admirably adapted to all the productions of the temperate climates, but free from frosts. This country we shall be compelled to hold, even if our conquests should extend no further. We cannot abandon it _without a treaty of peace and boundaries_, and to which, from present appearances, Mexico will not agree. We shall not give it up unless for a complete cession of California and New Mexico, with the boundary of the Rio Grande. The population of those States is, now, perhaps, equal to that of our Southern States during our revolutionary war, and would easily contain four or five millions. For defence, it ought now to bring fifteen or twenty thousand fighting men into the field, in guerrilla parties, and poorly armed. If supported by some regular troops, the rancheros might give us trouble. But cut off from all supplies, with no rallying points or fortified places, we could by pushing the war vigorously, effectually subdue them. If we fall back on the Rio Grande, we leave the whole country west of it, open to the operations of Santa Anna; and we shall be compelled to establish a chain of fortifications along the great river, for at least two thousand miles. On the other hand, the table land of the Sierra Madre, and on the west, towards the Pacific, being only accessible by a few passes, the inhabitants once completely subdued, must remain so. That mountain boundary is, infinitely, more easy to defend, than the line of the river; a river, which would be bordered in its whole length by an