PUTEGNAT, Foreman to The State of Texas , County of Cameron, ss: I, Robert B. Foster, clerk of the district court in and for the county of Cameron, fifteenth judicial district, State of Texas, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the report of the grand jury for Cameron County, impaneled at the August term, 1871. Read in open court August 28, 1871, and ordered filed. In testimony whereof, witness my hand and seal of said court this 21st day of September, A. D. 1871. [s. s.] R. B. FOSTER, Clerk District Court, Cameron County, Texas, August 28, 1871

Report of the grand jury of Cameron County, Texas.

To the Hon. Wm. H. Russell, judge of the district court in and for the county of Cameron, State of Texas:

The grand jury beg leave to report that two-thirds of the time they have been in session has been devoted to inquiring into the wholesale stealing of cattle which has been, and is, constantly carried on to an alarming extent on this frontier. We have had before us fifty or sixty of the leading rancheros, living on the river, many of whom live in the vicinity of the various places where stolen cattle are driven across the Rio Grande into the republic of Mexico, and the facts elicited are such as to convince us that unless the United States Government interposes its strong arm, the stock interests will be so injured as to cause the depopulation and abandonment of all the stock ranches between the Rio Grande and the Nueces.

Undoubted evidence has also been adduced to the effect that all of those depredation have their origin on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande; that it is there the thieve organize and arm, and it is from there that our State is invaded by bands of Mexican citizens sufficiently large and sufficiently well-armed and mounted to defy capture and to contemn attack.

It would appear that the parties engaged in this illicit traffic are protected by the authorities of Mexico, from the well-known fact that no attempts are made to arrest the thieves, and that stolen cattle find a ready sale in open market there.

The jury found great difficulty in obtaining evidence, for the reason that there is no protection afforded the inhabitants by the military, and no State force adequate for the emergency, the witnesses knowing that the giving of information that would lead to indictments is equivalent to signing their own death-warrants; but sufficient information has reached us to warrant us in the statement that the whole section of country as far up the river as Hidalgo County, and as far back as Santa Gertrudes, in Nueces County, is completely under the control of armed thieves whose homes are in Mexico; who carry on their depredations and cross stolen cattle in immense numbers into Mexico in broad daylight, overawing the people into silence regarding their depredations by threatening death to all informers, and protecting the crossing when necessary by force of arms, as in one instance of late occurrence. This took place on the morning of the 29th of July last, after sun-up, at the Calabozo ranch in this county, some twelve or fifteen miles from Brownsville, where a party of well-disposed rancheros disputed the crossing of about one hundred and fifty head of stolen cattle, and were fired on from the Mexican bank by the party in charge, some twenty in number, who had previously succeeded in making their escape to the Mexican bank with a part of their booty. The fire was returned by the rancheros, and it is believed that three of the thieves were wounded.

It is the opinion of this jury that the above engagement, which lasted fully half an hour, is a flagrant violation of the neutrality laws, and a violent outrage against the peace, dignity, and sovereignty of the State and of the United States, and merits the prompt attention of the United States Government. It is broadly asserted that these armed miscreants have allies in these transactions residing in this city. The constant movement of transient persons belonging to the other side of the Rio Grande into and out of this city, renders it probable enough that this is true, but there has been no evidence of the fact presented to our attention in such a manner as to lead to their detection.

The want of an agent or agents on this frontier, duly authorized to represent the interest of stock-raisers at a distance in the recovery of stolen hides and animals, and the active prosecution of the thieves, is felt to be a serious drawback to all movements for their protection. The remedy for this is in the hands of the stock-raisers themselves.

Its frontier position renders this county a sort of outpost for the protection of the more interior counties of the State. The amount of local crime, or the number of criminals permanently resident here, is comparatively insignificant. Our jail is filled with foreign criminals, from whom our people are entitled to be protected by the State or Federal authorities. Instead of this our people are compelled to pay, in addition to the ordinary State taxes, an annual sum equally large for the support and prosecution of offenders for whose existence or crimes this county is in no way responsible. Its relation to the offenses of these criminals arises solely from our geographical position.

If we are to stand on duty as sentinels for the interior portions of the State, we should not be required to pay the State for not performing that duty for us.

The county jail is entirely inadequate for the purpose of keeping these criminals securely; but, for the reasons already stated, added to the destruction of the former jail in the storm of 1867, the financial condition of the county will not admit of an outlay for the improvement of the present temporary building, or the construction of a new one. An appropriation of the State tax for two years would enable the county to erect a jail adequate to the demands of its frontier position. This, and the regular assumption by the State of the annual expenditure of the county for the maintenance and prosecution of foreign criminals, would be an act of simple justice on the part of the legislature, and place the county on an equal footing with others more favorably situated in geographical position.

The sheriff is unable to maintain the prisoners confided to his charge at the rates now allowed by law, when he is compelled to receive at par county scrip that can only be sold at thirty-five to forty cents on the dollar. He must either starve the prisoners or feed them at his personal expense. This demands a remedy at the hands of the county court. The prisoners are better provided for than either the accommodation furnished by the county or the compensation allowed the sheriff, under the circumstances, demand or justify.