am of the opinion that the best place for a location is on the sea coast, say at, or about Monteray, as the strip of land at Gautamalia [Guatemala] is narrow, and would make the whole western coast easy of access from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, having all the coast open to , and three fourths of the people are Lamanites or creoles. About Monteray is a good country. There is a perpetual grazing country, there is thousands of cattle already there, and the climate is congenial to our natures. It is sufficient to produce in abundance all the necessaries of life. If we can find a location there, and should find those creoles there, they would come over to us. They are half Lamanite and probably would soon join in with us. We could occupy that country without hindrance. We cannot get into a worse place then these . If we get into that country three fourths of the inhabitants are Indians [p. [22]]
Because Miller connected “Monteray” with Guatemala and access to both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, he appears to be referring to the capital of the Mexican state of Nuevo León (Monterrey), not the capital of the Mexican territory of Alta California (Monterey). One contemporary publication stated that Nuevo León “exhibits a good deal of fertility, but is little cultivated” and described how “large herds of cattle pasture on the plains” of that state. (Long, Geography of America and the West Indies, 177; see also [Folsom], Mexico in 1842, 98.)
Long, George, ed. The Geography of America and the West Indies. London: Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1841.
[Folsom, George]. Mexico in 1842: A Description of the Country, Its Natural and Political Features, with a Sketch of Its History, Brought Down to the Present Year. To Which Is Added, an Account of Texas and Yucatan; and of the Santa Fé Expedition. New York: Charles J. Folsom, 1842.