San Luis Obispo to Bodega, two-thirds of the crews of his boats to be natives of the country. There are many others who get licenses, whose names are familiar to the oldest of the living pioneers. Edward McIntosh got his on January 9, 1834, William Wolfskill his September 21, 1833; and many of the old Californians embarked in the same business, as Angel Castro, March 25, 1833, and Juan Bandini on the 9th of April, 1833.

Internal disturbances seem to have commenced in California about the year 1830. The liberal Spanish Cortez of 1813, in carrying out the constitution which they had adopted for the Spanish monarchy the year before, decreed the secularization of all the missions in the Spanish dominions. The design was to make general what had always been done before by special authority-to liberate the Indians from the control of the missionary fathers, and divide amongst them, as their separate property, the land, cattle, and whatever else they had owned in common; to establish secular priests in the place of regular priests or monks of the religious orders among them, for their spiritual guidance, and in every respect to convert the Indian villages of the missions into Spanish pueblos-the process by which, in so great a degree, society was constructed in all Spanish-American countries, and the ultimate fulfilment of the purpose of the King, everywhere so prominently put forth in colonizing California.

The decrees of the Cortez, not incompatible with the republican form of government, continued after the establishment of her independence to be the laws of Mexico, but very few, if any, of them had been put into operation in California. With the rest, that of secularization remained a dead letter. Enchandia, the political chief, (as the governor was then entitled,) in 1830, very hurriedly, and without consulting the supreme government, published, as the custom of the government was, a set of regulations for carrying this old law into effect. At that moment he was superseded by Victoria, who suppressed the regulations, and put a peremptory stop to the secularization of the missions. Victoria's conduct was approved by the supreme government, but there was a party here warmly in favor of the secularization, and disturbances which were considered serious and threatening ensued, although I do not know that they resulted in bloodshed. The chief promoter of the scheme was sent out of the country by Victoria; and thus, I think, civil strife commenced in California. The occasion was the disposition to be made of the missions, which, we have seen, were once, and for so long a time, so nearly all of California. It was the beginning of the downfall of those ancient establishments, so difficult for us to comprehend, and now so entirely passed away that to recall them is like recalling the images of a dream. What the government of Mexico was opposed to was not the secularization of the missions, but the manner in which it was attempted. The agitation which had been thus commenced resulted in the passage, by the Mexican congress, of the law of the 17th of August, 1833, to secularize the missions of the Californias. Under it the work was begun by Figueroa, the best and ablest of the Mexican governors. At the same time he had two other laws, most fundamentally subversive of the old order of things, to carry into execution. They were the law for the political organization of the Territory, being another of those decreed by the Spanish Cortes in 1813, and the law of colonization, passed by the Mexican congress, August 18, 1824, with the executive regulations, prescribing the manner of its application, dated November 21, 1828. It is evident that this is the true era of revolution in Mexican California. Observing the ancient limits of the presidial jurisdictions, municipal governments were established for each district. Authority was exercised by elective bodies called ayuntamientos, of which the head was an alcalde or judge. This body regulated the economy of the whole district, directly of the pueblo in which it resided, and of every other pueblo in the district, through the intervention of local and subordinate ayuntamientos. This was the separation of the civil functions from the military functions, both of which had been continued in the hands of the commanders

of the presidios, as in the Spanish times. Here in San Francisco, and for all the region north of San Mateo creek, east indefinitely, and west to the ocean, the separation of powers took place in December, 1834, at which time the ayuntamiento was established for the civil government of this presidial district, and General M. G. Vallejo, then in command of the presidio, was left with only his military command. In the secularization of the missions, Figueroa advanced so far as to put administrators in possession in place of the fathers, at which stage his proceedings were arrested by a decree of the Mexican President. Ruin was inevitable; it was as rapid as spoliation could make it, and it was soon complete. Governor after governor adopted regulations upon regulations, to secure a faithful administration of the property of the missions, i. e., of the Christian Indians, who inhabited them, and by whose labor all had been built and accumulated. It was to no purpose; and of as little avail was the partial restoration of the missions to the charge of the fathers, by Micheltorena in 1843. The Indian was by nature a very little above the brute; the fathers were not able to elevate him in spite of nature; the administrators stripped him without compunction; and, when the United States conquered the country, he was already exterminated, his destruction complete in ten years. When emancipation began, Figueroa says there were twenty thousand Christian Indians in the missions of California.

Colonization was another idea introduced by the Spanish Cortes in 1813. It was embodied in the Mexican law of colonization of 1824. The scheme was to reduce all the public lands of the State to private property. The Spanish rule before 1813 had ever been to make such grants the exception, and to retain all lands, generally speaking, as the domain of the King. Other Mexican governors may have made informal grants of which nothing appears, but Figueroa was the first to inaugurate the system of which we find the records in the archives. He established a course of proceeding in exact accordance with the law and the regulations, and adhered to it strictly, and executed it conscientiously, and with great intelligence. From the lands subject to be granted are excepted such as belong to pueblos and missions. Of pueblos, i. e., villages, there were but two, San José and Los Angeles, or three, including the unprosperous Villa de Branciforte. Whatever lands these owned were at their foundation surveyed, marked out, and set apart to them, and then recorded. The same course was followed with such of the presidios as were converted into pueblos, as at Monterey, and would have been pursued with the missions when converted into pueblos, if that change had not been arrested. In these cases there could have been no uncertainty as to what lands the governor could grant. With the missions untouched, or incompletely secularized as they were left, there was difficulty. The title of the Indian who had consented to become a Christian and a civilized man, binding as it was upon the king, had always been indefinite as to quantity, and as to the situation of his lands, save that it should be at and about the mission; in which essential particulars it rested altogether in the King's discretion, exercised by the proper officers of his government. The Mexican republic stepped into the same relation to these Christian Indians. That no injustice might be done them, every petition was referred to the priests, and afterwards to the administrators of the missions. They were asked whether the grant could be made without prejudice to the Indians. As they replied so were the grants given or withheld. So it was at least in Figueroa's day, and that, no matter how far the land petitioned for was from the nearest mission. Other governors were neither so exact nor so conscientious as Figueroa. And as, in the hands of the administrators to whom they were delivered over, the missions went rapidly down to complete ruin, it is evi dent that the lands required for the Indians would become continually lesssuch would be, and was, the answer of their new guardians to the inquiries of the governor-and finally all was granted, and in some cases, it is alleged, even

the missions themselves. Their cattle without the aid of a grant from the governor took the same course. It is not too much to say that when the United States in 1846 took possession of the country they found it passing through a conquest still raw and incomplete. It was the conquest of the missions and the Christian Indians by the settlers of the presidios and pueblos, who at first had been introduced into the country mainly for their benefit, to aid the king and the church in carrying out their pious and humane intentions towards them. Yet it was well that it was so. Who that looks upon the native Digger Indian could wish that a superior race should be sacrificed or postponed for his benefit? We contemplate a miserable result of the work begun with so much zeal and heroism in 1769. But because they failed, we none the less respect the motives and the laborers, whether of church or state.

The unworthiness of the Californian Indian did not altogether deprive him of sympathy. Every government expressed some feeling at seeing him hasten so rapidly to his wretched end. And the just and kind-hearted Figueroa battled for him manfully. In the midst of the complex labors of his administration he was almost crushed by the arrival of three hundred persons, for whom he had to make provision, without resources, and who came under the charge of a director of colonization, instructed by the supreme government, at that time radically democratic, to begin operations by taking possession of the property of the missions and admit the new colonists to a division of it with the Indians. During the winter of 1834-'35 Figueroa and the director carried on an animated discussion in writing, on the subject of the last of these propositions. Figueroa maintained that the missions were the private property of the Indians, and protected from invasion by the constitution. The director insisted upon the letter of the order of the supreme government. Figueroa said it was improvident, and refused to obey it until he could make a representation to the supreme government on the subject. The end was that some of the partisans of the director attempted an insurrection at Los Angeles, in the spring of 1835, which was easily suppressed, but furnished Figueroa the opportunity to send the director and the heads of his faction back to Mexico. Of these, the principal was the same man who had been sent out of California by Victoria for the same cause, a desire to have a part in the secularization of the missions. The colony, however, remained, and, though numbering but three hundred, was a great addition to the population of California in those days. Among them we find the names of several persons who afterwards became conspicuous in the country, amongst them José Abrego, José Ma. Covarrubias, Augustin Olvera, and Francisco Guerrero.

Figueroa died at Monterey, on the 29th of September, 1835, his death being probably hastened by the effect of the anxiety and vexation of this controversy upon a constitution already broken. At that time his manifesto to the Mexican republic, in which he gives a clear and forcible statement of the whole affair, and an able vindication of his conduct, was going through the press at Monterey. His death seems to have been very greatly deplored at that time, and he is still recognized as the ablest and most upright of the Mexican governors. His work of the political organization of California lasted but a little while; it fell with the overthrow of the federal constitution of 1824, by Santa Anna, in 1836. California then became a department; political chief was changed into governor, and territorial deputation into departmental assembly.

These changes, however, were not fully completed in California until 1839. The department of the Californias was then divided into three districts; the first extending from the frontier of Sonoma to San Luis Obispo, its principal point or seat of administration being the old Mission of San Juan, on the Pajaro river; the second district included the rest of Upper California, the seat of its administration being the city of Los Angeles, which had been promoted to that rank from the original condition of a pueblo, in the year 1835; and the third comprised Lower California, which, after a separation, was now reunited with

Upper California. These districts were divided each into two partidos, of which, consequently, there were four in Upper California. Ayuntamientos were abolished, and a justice of the peace substituted in each partido. For the whole district there was a prefect, who resided at the seat of the administration of one of the partidos, and a sub-prefect, who resided at that of the other partido. In 1843 Micheltorena, acting under extraordinary powers, made some changes in this system, but it was substantially restored by Pio Pico, in 1845, but when again Lower California was thrown off.

With Figueroa everything like stability, and indeed order, passed away. The next year after Figueroa's death, the Californians drove away the governor, and Don Juan B. Alvarado being at that time president of the territorial deputation, was declared governor. After this was done the deputation went one step further and on the 7th of November, 1836, passed these resolutions : (1.) "California is declared independent of Mexico until the re-establishment of the constitution of 1824."

(2.) “California is erected into a free and sovereign State, establishing a congress," &c., &c.

Public documents for a while were headed "Free and Sovereign State of California." This anomalous state of things lasted until 1838. The demands of the free and sovereign state were not complied with, nor on the other hand was the central government disposed or perhaps able to push the controversy to extremes. In 1838 Alvarado was appointed governor ad interim; and constitutional governor in 1839, when we have seen that the innovations of Santa Anna took effect. Whilst California was in rebellion the president of Mexico commissioned Carlos Antonio Carillo as governor. Alvarado refused to recognize him, and accepted the aid of a party of Americans who since the time of Jedediah Smith seem to have found their way into the country. Alvarado prevailed over Carillo; and his appointment as governor ad interim compromised the difficulties of those times. Here is a document relating to this contest, which will serve to illustrate California warfare. It is the report of General José Castro to Governor Alvarado, dated the 28th of March, 1838:

I have the honor to announce to your excellency, that after two days' continual firing without having lost but one man, the enemy took to flight, under cover of night, numbering one hundred and ten men; and I have determined to despatch one company of mounted infantry, under the command of Captain Villa, and another of cavalry lancers, under the command of Captain Cota, in their pursuit, remaining myself, with the rest of the division, and the artillery, to guard this point," &c., &c.

And here is another of the same period. It now appears that the Americans who sided with Alvarado had fallen under suspicion and into disfavor at about the time that their chief made up his differences with the central government and received his commission as governor ad interim. They were all arrested, some fifteen or twenty, perhaps, it is said, by surprise, and sent to Mexico. Amongst them was Mr. Isaac Graham, of Santa Cruz. This paper will also serve as a specimen of California eloquence at that period, and I commend it at the present moment as a model to our political orators.

Proclamation made by the undersigned.

"Eternal glory to the illustrious champion and liberator of the department of Alta California, Don José Castro, the guardian of order, and the supporter of our superior government.

"Fellow citizens and friends: To-day, the eighth of May of the present year of 1840, has been and will be eternally glorious to all the inhabitants of this soil in contemplating the glorious expedition of our fellow-countryman, Don José Castro, who goes to present himself before the superior government of the

Mexican nation, carrying with him a number of suspicious Americans, who under the mask of deceit, and filled with ambition, were warping us in the web of misfortune; plunging us into the greatest confusion and danger; desiring to terminate the life of our governor and of all his subalterns; and finally to drive us from our asylums, from our country, from our pleasures, and from our hearths. “The bark which carries this valorous hero on his grand commission goes filled with laurels and crowned with triumphs, plowing the waves and publishing, in distinct voices to the passing billows, the loud vivas and rejoicings which will resound to the remotest bounds of the universe. Yes, fellow-citizens and friends, again we say that this glorious chief should have a place in the innermost recesses of our hearts, and be held as dear to us as our very breath. Thus we desire, and in the name of all the inhabitants, make known the great rejoicings with which we are filled, giving, at the same time, to our superior government the present proclamation which we make for said worthy chief; and that our governor may remain satisfied that if he (Castro) has embarked for the interior of the republic, there still remain under his (the governor's) orders all his fellowcountrymen, companions in arms," &c., &c.

The foregoing is signed by seven citizens of note and respectability in the country. When this laurel-laden vessel reached San Blas the Mexican authorities took a different view of the matter. They put General Castro in prison and Graham and his companions in the best hotel in the place, (he says a palace,) and entertained them handsomely until they could send them back to California, which they did at the expense of the government.

In 1839 Captain John A. Sutter, a man who had seen many vicissitudes and adventures in Europe and the wilds of America, arrived in California from the Sandwich islands. By permission of Governor Alvarado he established himself in the valley of the Sacramento, then the extreme northern frontier. He engaged to protect the Mexican settlements extending in that direction under the colonization law (the only vital thing left of the Mexican rule for many years) from the incursions of the Indians, and he kept his word.

In 1841 he obtained a grant of land himself and built a fort, which soon became the refuge and rallying point for Americans and Europeans coming into the country. Over all these Sutter, by virtue of an appointment as justice of the peace, exercised whatever government there was beyond the law of the rifle. Practically his powers were as indefinite as the territorial limits of his jurisdiction. Among those who early gathered around Sutter we find the names of John Bidwell, who came in 1841, and Pearson B. Reading and Samuel J. Hensley, who came in 1843, and many others well known at the present day.

The pioneers of that day all bear testimony to the generosity of Captain Sutter at a time when his fort was the capital and he the government for the American colony in the valley of the Sacramento. In 1844 the numbers of this population had come to be so considerable as to be a power in the State. In the revolution which then occurred Sutter took the side of Governor Micheltorena. But before he marched he took the reasonable precaution, so obviously required by justice to his men, to obtain from Micheltorena a grant of the land for which they had respectfully petitioned. Micheltorena then issued the document known as the General Title.

In this document he declares that every petition upon which Sutter, in his capacity of justice of the peace, had reported favorably, should be taken as granted, and that a copy of this document given to each petitioner should serve in lieu of the usual formal grant. This done, he marched to the south, but was unfortunate, for he was taken prisoner, and Micheltorena expelled from the country. This is the last of the civil wars of California.

In the spring of 1846 General Castro in the north, and Pio Pico, the governor, in the south, were waxing hot against each other, and preparing for new conflicts, when the apparition of Captain Frémont, with his small surveying party