Many suppose that priests still reign in Mexico. The Catholic priest who has helped to preserve the life of a nation has no more privileges in Mexico today than the Protestant minister who has helped to exterminate the natives on his domain.
In many respects Mexico is far behind other civilized countries. Their system of giving out their lands in large grants has left the country in many places comparatively unsettled. It is no uncommon thing for one man to own from a hundred thousand to a million acres of land. In fact, on the very start, all valuable lands not given as municipal grants were given to individual favorites. So there is no such conditions as in our country, where a poor man can go and locate a homestead.
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 interested in speculations in lands and will vouch for persons when their recommend is interested.
In getting titles they must be thoroughly and correctly 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 possession 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, sometimes extended beyond the lawful lines. There was often a great deal of waste land adjoining these grants. As Mexico is a dry country, no lands are of value except where water can be procured.
As the country began to be prospected by foreigners desirous of stock ranches, etc., and also the more advanced condition of the government, it became apparent that these grants should be more perfectly defined, so that what land still remained to the government could be sold. As these old grants stood there was no certainty even to a government title, as the grant could not be broken or infringed upon.
The attempt to get these government lands and the failure to get titles has given rise to the idea that there are no good titles in Mexico. Whereas the titles of these grants are so good that they cannot be broken; and when there is any controversy between the government and land grants, the grants almost invariably win.
Under the conditions it became necessary to cause a re-survey of the whole country. To bring this about the country was cut up into districts, and contracts let to persons to do the surveying, their compensation to be in part or whole or percentage of the lands left after the titled grants were defined.