Toro to To the Chief Clerk in charge of the Department of Foreign Relations, present. A copy. CAYETANO ROMERO, Secretary. Washington , June 12, 1884, February 4, 1880

Under date of the 18th of January last the maritime and frontier custom-house at Matamoros wrote to this department as follows: The chief officer of the customs-section at Camargo, by a communication numbered 192, and dated the 31st of December last, wrote to this custom-house as follows: I have the honor to inform you that during the month just closing nothing worthy of special remark has occurred in the section under my charge. Although diligent efforts have been made to punish smugglers, especially in the district lying west of this city, it has not been possible to arrest any of them, because, as I said in my last report, those who convey their goods to the interior via Roma take a westerly direction from Mier, having abandoned their old route of Arroyo de San Antonio and the Aldamas ranch, and making their exit near Villa de Parras, or they wait until the last part of the month, and then avail themselves of the absence of the dragoons who come to be reviewed. With the consent of the commanding officer of the federal force, which is under my control, I ordered that the party should not return this month, hoping that some of the smugglers who avail themselves of this temporary absence might thus be captured.

Of the result of my efforts I will inform the custom-house under your charge. At the request of the Mexican consul at Rio Grande City (who desired that we should go together to the little island that is nearly opposite Roma, to which I referred in my communication of June 14, No. 266), I went, in company with him, on the 24th instant, for the purpose of making an examination. The said island measures nearly 3 kilometers from east to west, and about 200 meters in its widest part; the narrowest channel, which is on the Mexican side, is 1 meter and 52 centimeters deep in its deepest part. We took more than twenty soundings, and found a depth of 71 centimeters—89, 96, 105, 132, and 152.

According to the statements made by the people at Morteritos ranch, which is situated on the right bank of the river, it has but little water, which is not the case in the north channel; and this is understood, because we found in more than twenty, soundings, which were taken in its entire length, from the western extremity of the islet to the eastern, the following depths: 1 meter 16 centimeters, 1.24, 1.47, 1.57, 1.72, 1.78, 2.35, and 2.70; the difference between the greatest depths in the two channels being 1 meter and 18 centimeters, and that between the smallest depths 45 centimeters. The island is jointly owned by residents of both sides of the river, there being two boats on the Texan side and two on the Mexican side, which are engaged in carrying passengers either to the opposite bank of the river or to the islet, which, as stated in my report, which report occasioned the examination by the consul, “favors the operations of smugglers, who can leave Roma, go to the islet, and wait there until the coast is clear.” I have the honor to transmit to you the foregoing (although your department has probably received some communication on the subject from the “consul of Mexico at Rio Grande City), in order that, as regards the joint occupation of the island by Mexico and the United States, you may be pleased to adopt such a decision as may be proper, and to inform this department thereof.