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ernment to visit Mexico and California, in order to obtain information, " as early as practicable, of the character and extent of the titles and claims to lands within the limits of the tract of country acquired by the United States by the late treaty with Mexico, purporting to have emanated from the former authorities of that country." At the same time, the Secretary has requested that such instructions and information may be given to you as the objects in view may render necessary. It is a principle of public law, now acknowledged and recognised by the usage of modern nations, that, though the sovereignty changes, private rights remain unaffected by that change; and consequently that the relation of the people to each other under such circumstances, and "their rights of property, remain undisturbed." This principle is explicitly recognised and sanctioned in the treaty between the United States and Mexico, as ratified on the 4th July, 1848, which in the most solemn form, and as the supreme law of the land, makes it obligatory upon our government to respect the valid and bona fide titles of individuals; and, in reference to the future management of the public domain within the limits of our newly acquired territories, to make it incumbent upon us to take such measures as will enable our government to separate from the mass of public lands all private property resting upon such titles derived from the former government. To this end, therefore, and in view of the directions. from the Secretary, you are hereby instructed:

1. To proceed without delay to Upper California, and visit such places as Monterey on the Pacific, San Francisco, San Diego, or any other points you may deem necessary, in order to obtain full and authentic information to enable you to have access to all the provincial, departmental, or other records and archives connected with titles and claims to land in California, seeking facilities and aid from the United States military officers in command there, or from such persons as may be officiating judicially or in other civil capacities, for the time being, under the existing customs of the community.

2. Having gained access to those archives, you will then, after a careful and thorough examination of them, prepare a complete and perfect abstract, in such a form, as to arrangement and classification, as will exhibit the particulars

First. As to all grants or claims in the territory derived from the government of Spain when her authorities held dominion over the country, showing the dates of such; the names of the original grantees; the area of each claim, with its front and depth; the name of the water-course, or other natural object indicating locality; whether or not surveyed; the date of survey, with the name of the officer making the grant, stating whether such grants have been sanctioned; and if so, when and by what officer or authority under the Mexican government, designating such as are in regular and legal form and appear prima facie to be bona fide valid titles, and such as are fraudulent or

suspicious, reporting the reasons and grounds of the discrimination you may make.

Second. A similar abstract of such titles as were derived from the authorities of Mexico since the separation of that country as an independent republic from Old Spain, indicating the names of the granting officers in each case; dates of, &c., of each element of title from the inceptive to the survey, and to the concession or title in form, showing whether the same emanated direct from the supreme government of Mexico, or from the departmental authorities, with information as to the titles and powers of the granting officers; dates of their commissions and periods of incumbency, with such data as you may be able to procure touching their powers, and how derived, for alienating the national property; specifying such grants as appear to be regular and valid, and such as are of an opposite character. You will be pleased to discriminate between such as are perfect titles, clothed with all legal formalities, and such as are inceptive or inchoate, and in all cases designating the names of the parties appearing in the archives, land or judicial records, as "present claimants," or whom, from authentic and reliable sources, you may find to be so, with a reference to the evidence you may have before you of present proprietorship.

Third. You will also make a separate classification and abstract of all grants or titles made about the time of the revolutionary movements in Californiasay in he months of June and July, 1846—and up to the period when actual hostilities between the United States and Mexico were known in California, and also of any which may have been subsequently made; showing the dates of sales; area of tracts; names of original grantees; when and by whom made; whether surveyed or not; whether to residents, non-residents, or foreigners; whether or not clothed with the usual legal formalities, specifying such as may have been made without legal authority, with an abstract of the evidence of transfer by the grantors, and of such evidence to others from the grantees.

Fourth. You will obtain a copy of all the different authentic forms of title, from the first element up to the consummation of the grant-such as the petition, decree, order of survey, return of actual survey, concession grant, with the denomination of the various allotments, from a square league "un sitio de granado mayor," or square league of 4,428 acres, down to the smallest farm, or village, or town lot, with the ratios usual between the fronts and depths, and will prepare a comparative statement of the land measures formerly used in California under Spain and Mexico, and those now employed in the United States.

Fifth. You will direct particular attention to the extensive tracts or bodies of land covered by what are known as "missions." You will ascertain as fully as possible the extent, locality, and value of each of them, and of the buildings or improvements thereon; will trace out their early history,

origin, and date of the establishment of them, respectively, and their transition, and under what authority from the ecclesiastical to the civil power, or national authorities; their condition as to the title and possession at the commencement of hostilities between the two republics; the dates of any sales made about that time, previously or subsequently; the circumstances under which, to whom and by whom made, and under color of what authority, with the dates of any subsequent sales by parties claiming under grants from the California authorities; with the particulars in each case as to date, consideration, &c., accompanied by plats or sketches exhibiting their actual location and relative position to places now laid down on maps of the country.

Sixth. You will carefully examine and report all the information you can obtain as to whether any titles were granted to "mines," either of the precious metals, quicksilver, or other minerals; when and to whom made; the considerations; conditions; whether or not surveyed; localities; and all matters in regard to the same, particularly in respect to the validity or invalidity of any individual titles or claims which may be alleged to the same.

Seventh. You will also extend your researches so as to ascertain whether any claim has been set up or alleged to the islands or keys, or any of them, on the coast, or in the bays or harbors; and if so, the nature of such claims; whether or not in legal forms and from competent authorities of the former governments, or whether invalid, as against the title of the United States to all the public property under treaty-this inquiry being special, in view of the importance which some of these islands may be to the United States for fortifications and light-houses.

Eighth. You will make an inquiry into the nature of the "Indian rights" as existing under the Spanish and Mexican governments, and as subsisting when the United States obtained the sovereignty, indicating from authentic data the difference between the privileges enjoyed by the wandering tribes and those who have made "actual settlemen's" and established "rancherias," and will report their general form, extent, and localities; their probable number, and the manner and form in which such rights have been regarded by the Spanish and Mexican governments.

In returning you are authorized, if you can do so without protracting too long your stay, to proceed to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, and there obtain access to the archives of that country, and to furnish similar information as to all titles which have emanated from the authorities when New Mexico was a province of Spain, and subsequently under the govern. ment of the Mexican republic.

Information has reached here that the perfecto at El Paso del Norte, since we acquired the country, had been actually engaged in disposing, for his own benefit, of the most valuable lands on the Rio Grande bottom, antedating titles to purchasers. You will, therefore, make a thorough inquiry

and report in this matter, and prepare a complete abstract of such fraudulent grants.

An important object in your appointment is to obtain for our government reliable and authentic information in regard to the whole land system of the former governments while operating in the country comprised within the limits of our new acquisitions; and to this end, you are authorized, either in going or returning, to visit the city of Mexico, for the purpose of examining the archives and obtaining the data desired, and will regard the points specified as intended to guide, but not confine your powers, which you will consider sufficiently expansive to accomplish all the purposes contemplated.

You will keep a journal of all your proceedings as the confidential agent of the government, noting the places in which the archives are deposited, and in whose custody, with minutes of every transaction or incident con. nected with the subject which you think would be important or useful to the government in determining upon an enlightened and just policy, not only in respect to individual titles, but in the management and disposal of the public domain.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. BUTTERFIELD,

WM. CAREY JONES, ESQ., Confidential Agent, &c.

Commissioner.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

July 12, 1849.

SIR: I have examined and approved the instructions prepared for you in the General Land Office, and I desire information on all the matters therein named; but it is important that your report should come in prior to the termination of the next session of Congress, and you are charged with duties so extended and deversified, that you will probably not be able to make, in time, the detailed examination contemplated by those instructions.

You will, however, obtain all the information in your power on all the subjects referred to therein; but direct your attention, in the first place, to the mode of creating titles of land, from the first inception to the perfect title, as practised by Mexico within the province of California; what kind of paper issued in the first instance, from what officer, when filed, and how and by whom recorded. So also with the subsequent steps, embracing the proceedings as to survey up to the perfecting of the titie; and if there be record books, files, or archives of any kind whatsoever, showing the nature, character, and extent of these grants, endeavour to find and secure them, so that they may be placed in the hands of the acting governor of the Territory for safe custedy and future reference. In descending to details, you will examine chiefly the larger grants, as the missions, and find whether the title

to them be in assignees, or whether they have reverted and vested in the sovereign.

It is also understood that there are large grants, and grants of islands, keys, and promontories, points of great value to the public, which purport to have emanated just prior to the occupation of the territory by the United States, but which are probably fictitious and really entitled to a later date. These you will examine carefully, and note down fully all the information. which can be had on the spot which will throw light on those when they shall be hereafter the subject of investigation, stating the nature of the alleged title, whether purporting to be inchoate or complete. If there be any alleged grants of land covering a portion of the gold mines, you will also give to that your careful consideration. It will be a question worthy of examination when in the city of Mexico, whether in all grants in general, or in California in particular, there are not conditions and limitations, and whether there is not a reservation of mines of gold and silver, and a similar reservation as to quicksilver and other minerals.

It is also important in all large grants, or grants of important or valuable sites, or of mines, to ascertain whether or not they were actually surveyed and occupied under the government of Spain, or Mexico, and when publicity was first given to such grants, particularly as to such as are of a suspicious or doubtful character.

The department has no authority to pay you anything on account of your services; but you will be paid out of the contingent fund of the General Land office a sum sufficient to cover your expenses while in California, and also your necessary expenditures in procuring information, and finding and putting in place of security any books of records of land titles or other archives relating thereto, for which your drafts, not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars in the whole, accompanied by a letter stating the special objects to which it has been, or is about to be, applied, will be duly honored. You will be pleased to keep an account of your personal expenses, and also of the expenditures required in the execution of your duties, and make a rendition of the same to this department, to which, as to titles, &c., in California, you will make your report; and in reference to your examinations in Mexico you will make a separate communication to the State Department, a notice of which should be given in your report to this department. An application will be made by the department to Congress for an appropriation as an allowance to you of a fair compensation for your services.

Wishing you a pleasant voyage, and health and success in your arduous undertaking,

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. CAREY JONES, ESQ.

T. EWING.

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