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of the Territory of California, to the BEACH AND WATER lots on the east front of the town of San Francisco, have been granted, conveyed, and released, to the people or corporate authorities of said town:—

'DECREE OF GENERAL KEARNY.

'I, Brigadier-General S. W. Kearny, Governor of California, by virtue of authority in me vested by the President of the United States of America, do hereby grant, convey, and release unto the town of San Francisco, the people, or corporate authorities thereof, all the right, title, and interest of the Government of the United States, and of the Territory of California, in and to the beach and water lots on the east front of said town of San Francisco, included between the points known as the Rincon and Fort Montgomery, except such lots as may be selected for the use of the United States Government by the senior officers of the army and navy now there: PROVIDED, the said ground hereby ceded shall be divided into lots, and sold by public auction to the highest bidder, after three months notice previously given; the proceeds of said sale to be for the benefit of the town of San Francisco.

'Given at Monterey, capital of California, this 10th day of March, 1847, and the 71st year of the independence of the United States.

'S. W. KEARNY.

' Brigadier-General and Governor of California.'

"In pursuance of and in compliance with the conditions of the foregoing decree, all the ungranted tract of ground on the east front of the town of San Francisco, lying and situated between Fort Montgomery and the Rincon, and known as the water and beach lots (the reservations by the general and town governments excepted), will be surveyed, and divided into convenient building lots for warehouses and stores, and offered at public sale to the highest bidder on Tuesday, the 29th day of June next, at ten o'clock, A. M. A plan of lots in connection with a general map of the town will be made out and exhibited on or before the day of sale.

"Terms of sale, one fourth cash,-one fourth in six months,- -one fourth in twelve months, and one fourth in eighteen months, the purchaser giving approved security bearing an interest of ten per cent. per annum from the day of sale.

"Other conditions will be made known on or before the day of sale.

"The site of the town of San Francisco is known to all navigators and mercantile men acquainted with the subject, to be the most commanding commercial position on the entire eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean, and the town itself is, no doubt, destined to become the commercial EMPORIUM of the western side of the American continent. The property offered for sale is the most valuable in, or belonging to the town, and the acquisition of it is an object of deep interest to all mercantile houses in California and elsewhere engaged in the commerce of the Pacific.

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"EDWIN BRYANT,

Alcalde, or Chief Magistrate, Town and District of San Francisco. "San Francisco, Upper California, March 16th, 1847.”

This great sale was subsequently postponed to Tuesday, the 20th of July following, by order of Mr. George Hyde, who was then alcalde of the town. On the day last named the sale took place, and lasted for three successive days. The lots were all contained between the limits of low and high-water mark; and four-fifths of them were entirely covered with water at flood tide. The size of the lots was sixteen and a half varas in width of front, and fifty varas deep. A vara is a Spanish yard, and is equal to about thirty-three and one-third inches of English measure. There were about four hundred and fifty of these lots in all, of which number two hundred were disposed of at the public sale above mentioned. The attendance of buyers was pretty fair; and the prices given were very considerable (ranging from fifty to one hundred dollars), considering the population and circumstances at the time. The price of some of the same lots now would somewhat astonish the projectors of the town extension of those days.

Curiously enough, we were in the act of finishing the last sentence, when we were informed of the prices obtained by the municipal authorities for other water lots which they were at this time (26th December, 1853) disposing of likewise at public auction. These last lots were situated much farther out in the bay, at places always covered with many feet of water, and measured less than one-half the size of the old ones, being only twenty-five feet in front by fifty-nine feet nine inches back. Yet they brought prices varying from eight to sixteen thousand dollars! Four small sized building blocks alone produced, in all, the enor mous sum of $1,200,000; thereby restoring the injured credit of the city. Such is one contrast between 1847 and 1853 at San Francisco!

But the principal part of the town was laid out in lots of fifty varas square; six of them making a building block, bounded on the four sides by streets. In August, 1847, there had been about seven hundred of this description of lots surveyed, of which number nearly four hundred and fifty had been applied for and disposed of by the alcalde at a fixed price, which now seems to have been merely nominal. This price was twelve dollars per lot,

and when the office fees for deed and recording (three dollars and sixty-two and a half cents) were added, the total cost was less than sixteen dollars. The conditions of sale were that the buyer should fence in the ground, and build a house upon it within one year; failing which, the lot and improvements were to revert to the town.

The south-eastern portion of the town was laid out in lots of one hundred varas square, six of which also formed a building block, bounded by regular streets at the four sides. The part of the town formed by these last lots was supposed to be the least valuable, and the lots themselves were expected to be the last taken up and improved by purchasers. The price established by law for these lots, which were four times the size of the fifty vara ones, was only twenty-five dollars each, and when the deed and recording fees were added (three dollars and sixty-two and a half cents), the total cost was under twenty-nine dollars. In August, 1847, about one hundred and thirty lots of this description were surveyed and laid out, of which number about seventy had been sold. The conditions of the sale were similar to those applicable to the fifty vara lots.

The proceeds of all these sales made up a considerable sum, and saved the necessity of levying municipal taxes for a short time. Real estate has advanced so rapidly in value since those days, that it would only be ridiculous to compare the prices obtainable now with those fixed by the alcalde in 1847. In many cases, however, an immense sum has been actually expended in first bringing the ground into building condition.

In Mr. O'Farrell's plan, the streets are all regularly laid out at right angles with each other, and are seventy-five and eighty feet wide. One, however, is one hundred and ten feet in width. The streets in the oldest part of the town-that portion surveyed by Capt. Juan Vioget, as stated in the previous chapter—are only about sixty feet broad.

There was at one time a municipal regulation, by which individuals were prevented from purchasing and holding more than a single fifty or one hundred vara lot. The object of this appears to have been to exclude speculators from jobbing in the lots, and

to insure their speedy improvement by the real owner. By procuring lots, however, in the names of third parties, speculators soon contrived to evade this regulation, and thus a few individuals became possessed of a large portion of the extension of the town. The alcalde and town council therefore, shortly afterwards, did away with this restriction upon purchasers.

CHAPTER IV.

1846-1847.

Captain Montgomery hoists the American flag on Portsmouth Square.-Arrival of the ship Brooklyn from New York, with a large company of Mormon and other immigrants.-Disputes among her passengers, leading to the first jury trial in San Francisco.-Grand ball at the residence of Wm. A. Leidesdorff.-Nautical fête given by Capt. Simmons.-Public reception of Com, Stockton.Attempts to establish a public school.-Name of town changed to San Francisco.-Number of buildings and inhabitants.-Suffering immigrants in the Sierra Nevada.-Trustees of the proposed school chosen.-Delegates to represent the District of San Francisco in the new legislative council.-Arrival of Col. Stevenson and New York Volunteers.-Vessels in the harbor, 18th March, 1847.-"The California Star" adopts the name of San Francisco.-Mails established between San Francisco and San Diego.-Proposed erection of a church.-Grand illumination in honor of Gen. Taylor's victory at Buena Vista.-Celebrations of Anniversaries,-Public meeting to consider the claims of Col. Fremont to the office of Governor of the Territory.-Sale of beach and water lots.-Election of the first town council.-The first public school.-Gales in San Francisco Bay.The first steamboat.-Thanksgiving Day.-Commercial Statistics.

HAVING got the new town of San Francisco fairly planned, and given some general notion to the reader of the elementary composition of its inhabitants, shortly before the time when the discovery of gold was altogether to change its appearance and character, we shall now turn back a little in the order of time, and detail such few scattered notices of previous events as may seem to us worthy of being recorded among the "Annals" of the place.

1846.

JULY 8th.-The American flag was, on the morning of this day, hoisted in the plaza, or public square of Yerba Buena, by Capt. Montgomery, of the United States sloop-of-war Portsmouth, then Iying in the bay. Two days before Commodore Sloat had despatched a messenger to Capt. Montgomery, informing him of his intention to raise the American flag at Monterey, and commanding him to do the same in the northern parts of the province around the Bay of San Francisco. This Montgomery did at the above

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