OCR Text |
Show 380 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. Many persons have been deceived by the offers of government lands in Mexico, supposing they could get good lands at a nominal sum. The only way to get good lands is to purchase from the owners of undisputed tracts. To do this safely the buyer or agent must be perfectly familiar with the language, also the customs and character of the people he is dealing with. There are sharpers, speculators and deceivers in that country as well as in ours. Many of the officers of the government are inter-ested in speculations in lands and will vouch for persons when their recommend is interested. In getting titles they must be thoroughly and cor-rectly traced back to the original grant, and all adverse claims settled. From what I know of land troubles in Mexico, I would not spend much money on any land that had ever been in dispute. There are so many chances for deception that it is risky. There are many tracts of land where the titles run smoothly back to the origin where there never has been dispute or litigation. These are the lands to look for if one wishes to live in peace and security. When the grants were first allowed many times the boundaries were indefinite, the boundaries having been defined by mountains or streams, or something subject to dispute, the country not being fully explored. Those taking pos-session would set their monuments so as to take in all the country that would be considered valuable without particularly consulting the exact lines of the recorded grant. After ages of occupation these monuments come to be considered proper. Sometimes they were short, some-times extended beyond the lawful lines. There was often a great deal of waste land adjoining these grants. |