[3] General information concerning the island may be obtained from the following: Martin, _The British Possessions in Africa_, Vol. IV.; Unienville, _Statistique de l'ile Maurice et ses dependances_; Epinay, _Renseignements pour servir a l'histoire de l'ile de France_; Decotter, _Geographie de Maurice et de ses dependances_; Chalmers, _A History of Currency in the British Colonies_; Anderson, _The Sugar Industry of Mauritius_; Keller, _Madagascar, Mauritius, and other East African Islands_; _The Mauritius Almanac_; _The Mauritius Civil Lists_; and _Annual Colonial Reports_. A NEGRO COLONIZATION PROJECT IN MEXICO, 1895 The Negro question touched the relations of the United States and Mexico at several points. For instance, the escape of runaway slaves into Mexico where slavery was legally forbidden, was a factor in causing disturbances along the Rio Grande between 1850 and 1860.[1] Again, during the following decade when the colonization of the freedmen became a vital issue, there was at least one proposal to settle them on the border between the United States and Mexico. It was urged that a strip of land extending from the Rio Grande to the Colorado and westward to the mountains of New Mexico be set apart by the national government for this purpose. On January 11, 1864, Honorable James H. Lane of Kansas actually introduced a bill looking to this end, which received favorable consideration from the Committee on Territories, but so far as has been ascertained never came to a vote in Congress.[2] In support of his proposal Lane urged, among other things, that the colonization of the Negroes on this frontier would prove beneficial to Mexico and tend to promote friendship between that country and the United States. "We can thus plant at the door of Mexico," he said, "four million good citizens, who can step in at any time, when invited, to strengthen the hands of that Republic."[3] In similar vein the territorial committee, of which Lane was chairman, declared: "It is desirable to cultivate friendly relations with the people of Mexico. It is known to us that among that people there are no prejudices against the black man, and that intermarriage is not prohibited either by law or custom.... It is confidently believed that the colony provided for in this bill, by intermarriage with the people of those Mexican States, and friendly intercourse with them, would so Americanize them as that they would be prepared and seek an annexation to our then glorious free republic."[4]