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ifornia-"is of fertile lands, peopled with an immensity of "gentiles, from whose docile and peaceable dispositions it was hoped they would be immediately converted to our holy faith, and gathered in Catholic pueblos (villages,) that thus living in sub"jection to the royal crown they might secure the coasts of this "Southern or Pacific Ocean." The first grant of land made in California was a tract one hundred and forty varas square, at the Mission of San Carlos, Nov. 27, 1775, to one Manuel Butron, a soldier, in consideration that he had married Margarita, a daughter of that mission. Father Junipero recommends this family, to wit: the soldier and the native Indian woman, to the Government, and all the other ministers of the King, “as be"ing the first in all these establishments which have chosen to "become permanent settlers of the same." The Indian appears in everything.

In tranquility, this California of the Indians remained for more than fifty years. The Fathers built new Missions, and continually replenished their stock of converts, which at one time amounted to at least twenty thousand. They planted vineyards, orchards and the olive. They taught the Indians to some extent, agriculture and the mechanic arts. They made flour, and wine, and cloth, and soap, and leather, adobes and tiles, and with their villages of disciples about them, lived at ease as well as in peace. There was but one obstacle in their way. A great law of Nature rose up to oppose them. The Indian of California was not equal to those of Mexico. He was but a brute. The time never came when he could be enfranchised and trusted to himself, and converted into a Spanish subject as so many races had been further south. The Fathers must continue to hold their converts in subjection, or they would return to the heathen state, or even worse would befall them. If the world could have afforded to devote a paradise to such a purpose, and for the Indian certainly, it would have been well if the Missions could have lasted forever. I will endeavor to present some of the features and some of the events of this Indian period, as briefly as possible. And here for whatever of interest I may be able to awaken in the subject, I shall be indebted to Mr. R. C. Hopkins, the

accomplished and learned gentleman who has charge of the Spanish Archives in the Surveyor General's office.

An American audience will of course desire to know something of the form of the political government. Constitution or Charter there was none. The Government was purely military, outside of the Missions. All functions, civil and military, judicial and economical, were united in the person of the commandante of a Presidio, in due subjection to his superior, and so on up to the King, an autocrat, whose person was represented and whose will was executed in every part of his dominions. In the archives is to be found a REGLAMENTO, which as the name imports, is a set of regulations for the Peninsula of the Californias, Lower and Upper. Its caption expresses that it is for the government of the Presidios, the promotion of the erection of new Missions, and of the population and extension of the establishments of Monterey. It was drafted at Monterey by the Governor, in 1779, sent to Madrid, and approved by the King in 1781. When examined, it is found to adopt the Royal Reglamento for the government of all the Presidios, with such small variations as the circumstances of California required. There are minute provisions for paying, clothing and feeding the officers and troops, and for supporting the families of the troops, and other persons dependent on the Presidios. The number of pack mules to be kept at the Presidios, and how the horses are to be pastured, and that four are always to be kept in the Presidio ready saddled by day, and eight by night, is prescribed. Another Pueblo was to be founded, as was done, namely, Los Angeles. The Pueblo of San José had already been founded, two years before. The intent of these Pueblos is declared to be to fulfill the pious designs of the King for converting the Gentiles, and to secure his dominions. At that date, says the Reglamento, the country was filled, from San Diego to Monterey, with an immense number of Gentiles, and only one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine Christians, of both sexes, in the eight Missions, strung along through all that distance. The manner in which Pueblos are to be founded is given; each settler to have his building lot and sowing field of two hundred varas square, that being supposed to be enough

to sow two bushels of grain; and the whole together to have commons for wood, water and pasturage; also a certain number of horses, mules, oxen, cows, sheep, chickens, ploughs, hoes, axes, etc., are to be furnished to each; and the amount of pay, for a settler had his salary for a little while as well as his outfit, his exemptions and his obligations are all minutely detailed. Of the first we observe, that for the first five years he is to be free from the payment of tithes; of the latter, that all the excess of his productions beyond his support he must sell at a fixed price to the Presidios, and that he must keep a horse and saddle, carbine and lance, and hold himself in readiness for the service of the King. Also, we note that the building lot is a homestead, and cannot be alienated or mortgaged, and descends to the son or (in default of a son, I suppose,) to the daughter, provided she is married to a settler who is without a lot of his own; and that after the first five years are past each settler and his descendants must, in recognition of the absolute property of the King, pay a rent of one-half fanega of corn for his sowing lot. The only trace of a political right that we find in the Reglamento is the allowance to the Pueblos, of Alcaldes and other municipal officers, to be appointed by the Governor for the first two years, and afterwards to be elected by the inhabitants. These officers were to see to the good government and police of the Pueblos, and the administration of justice, to direct the public works, apportion to each man his share of the water for irrigation, and generally to enforce the provisions of the Reglamento. This, perhaps, was as much as they ought to have had, for we see in the proceedings on the foundation of San José, that neither the Alcalde nor any one of the eight other settlers could sign his name. As a check upon the abuse of their privileges the elections were subject to the approval of the Governor, who had also the power to continue to appoint the officers for three years longer if he found it necessary.

At first California formed a part of the Kingdom of New Spain, and was governed directly by the Viceroy at Mexico. In 1776 it was attached to the COMMANDANCIA GENERAL of THE INTERNAL PROVINCES, which included, also, Sonora, New

Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Texas. Afterwards it was a part of the COMMANDANCIA GENERAL OF THE INTERNAL PROVINCES OF THE WEST, when Coahuila and Texas, New Leon and the Colony of New Santander had been erected into another jurisdiction, under the title of the INTERNAL PROVINCES OF THE EAST. The Commandante General seems to have had no fixed residence, but to have gone from place to place, wherever his presence might be wanted, and so his orders are sometimes dated from Arispe, and sometimes from Chihuahua, both of which now obscure places, may be said in their time to have been the capital of California. The Apache and Comanche Indian has watered his horse in their Plazas since then. This arrangement did not last many years, and California reverted to the Viceroy again. Laws came from the King, in his Council of the Indies, at Madrid, as orders are issued by the commander-in-chief of an army; to the second in command, to wit., the Viceroy at Mexico, from him to his next in rank, we will say the Commandante General at Arispe or Chihuahua, from him to the Governor of California at Monterey, and from him to the Captain or Lieutenant in command of a Presidio. They took effect only as they were published, spreading as the courier advanced, and from place to place in succession, like a wave, from center to circumference. They came slowly, but in time every order of a general nature would find its way into the archives of every Province, Presidio or Pueblo in North and South America, and of every island of the ocean, which owned the dominion of the King of Spain. The archives of this State contain a great many, and their counterparts are to be looked for in every public office from Havana to Manila, and from Chihuahua to Valparaiso. When wars, or the accidents of navigation, or the urgency of the case, interrupted or rendered impossible communication with Madrid, each Viceregent of the King in his department exercised the royal authority. Therefore, in the nature of things, the powers of every Governor in his Province were practically despotic. And not only the laws, but every other expression of the wishes of the King were transmitted in the same way, traveled through the same circuitous channels, and were received and published

and executed with the same dignity and formality. Here is an example from the archives:

The King heard that the neighborhood of the Presidio of San Francisco abounded with deer of a very superior quality, and desiring to have some for his park, issued an order to the VICEROY OF MEXICO, who in his turn ordered the COMMANDANTE GENERAL OF THE INTERNAL PROVINCES OF THE WEST, who despatched an order to the GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF CALIFORNIA, who ordered the CAPTAIN OF THE PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, who finally ordered a soldier to go out and catch the deer, two years after the order was given by the King at Madrid. Allowing a reasonable time for the hunt, and for sending the animals to Spain, it will be seen that the King had to wait sometime for the gratification of his royal wishes.

Another instance, and the more striking, as the subject matter belongs to the latitude of the Equator, and as it serves to illustrate that the arbitrary government of his Catholic Majesty was paternal and thoughtful as well, I give a translation of the original, complete :

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Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola, COMMANDANTE GENERAL OF THE INTERNAL PROVINCES, writes to Pedro Fages, Govenor of California, as follows:

On the 20th of November last past, His Excellency the Marquis of Sonora, (Viceroy of Mexico) was pleased to communicate to me the following Royal Order

"The Archbishop Viceroy of Sante Fé, (in South America) on the 2d of July last, gave me an account of a remedy happily discovered by his confessor, against the ravages "of the Jigger (Nigua) in the hot countries of America, which "consists in anointing the parts affected by the Jiggers with "cold olive oil, which causes them to die, and the sacs con"taining them can be easily extracted-which the King desires "should be published as a Bando (Proclamation) in the district "under your government, in order that it may reach the notice "of all; and you shall take care that all those who are afflicted "with said insect shall use said remedy, which is as effectual "as it is simple."

And I insert the same to you in order that you may cause it