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On the 28th of October, 1845, Governor Pico advertised for sale, to the highest bidder, five of the missions, and directed that, as soon as certain edifices of four other missions were selected for specified objects, the remaining edifices of these four establishments should also be sold at public auction. The day of sale and the manner of giving notice are specified in the regu lations. Four other missions were to be rented to the highest bidder for the term of nine years. All the lands, vineyards, orchards, workshops, implements of agriculture, and other property of these missions, were to be included in the renting; but the principal edifice of the mission of Santa Barbara, and the churches, with the appurtenances, the court houses, curates' houses, school-houses, and the small portions of land occupied by certain Indians in each of the missions, were excepted in the order for renting. The proceeds of these rents were to be divided into three parts, and disposed of as has already been mentioned.

The renters were to pay their rents punctually and quarterly; and, at the expiration of the nine years, were to deliver back, with improvements, and in a serviceable order, the property of the missions. They were to return the same number and description of cattle as received, and of such an age as not to embarrass the procreation of the following year. Before they could receive these establishments they were to give bonds to the satisfaction of the government, conditioned on the fulfilment of their obligations, and the payment of such damages as the government should find against them. The government reserved to itself the right of taking care that these establishments should prosper; in virtue of which right, it would take such measures as might be necessary to prevent their distribution, ruin, or decline, during the period of their renting. Six other missions, whose names are given, were to be rented in the same manner, as soon as their debts could be arranged.-(Vide appendix No. 21.)

A decree of the departmental assembly, April 3, 1846, authorized the application of the laws of bankruptcy to certain missions; and if necessary, to prevent their total ruin, their sale at public auction, the customary notice being previously given.

A portion of the lands and other property of these missions, were to be set apart for the maintenance of the priests, and the support of public worship. But this act was in no way to interfere with what had already been done under the previous decrees of the assembly. Six months at farthest were allowed for its fulfilment.-(Vide appendix No. 22.)

In 1846, after the adjournment of the departmental assembly, for want of a quorum, and the flight of Governor Pico from the country, Captain Flores, who assumed to be governor ad interim, organized a kind of provisional legislature, which body, on the 30th of October, passed a decree annulling the sales of missions made by Pico, and authorizing the governor ad interim to mortgage these establishments for the purpose of raising loans of

money to carry on the war. But, as these proceedings took place several months after the United States had taken possession of the country, they were evidently illegal, and of no force.-(Vide appendix No. 23.)

It appears from the documents and laws to which I have referred

1. That since the 17th of August, 1833, the missions of California have been regarded as national property, and held at the disposal of the govern

ment.

2. That, when thus made the property of the nation, they could be disposed of by the territorial government only in accordance with the colonization laws of 1824 and 1828, or under the authority of some special law of the Mexican Congress.

3. That the territorial or departmental legislature, basing its authority on the laws of the Mexican Congress, has authorised the governor, on specified conditions, to convert certain of these missions into pueblos, to sell some, and rent others.

4. That the territorial or departmental governors, acting under the authority of the legislature, has converted certain of these missions into pueblos, and sold and rented others, establishing certain conditions or regulations for the conversion, sale, or renting of these establishments.

5. That where any of these missions have been regularly converted into pueblos, the municipal lands, or lands lying within the limits of the town grant, (fundo legal para pueblo,) are to be disposed of in solares, or building lots, according to the provisions of the law applicable to such cases. The common lands, granted to these towns, must remain as such until the legislature converts them into municipal lands, or otherwise authorizes their sale; and all lands lying without these town limits can be disposed of only in accordance with the laws and regulations of 1824 and 1828.

6. That the land set apart for the priest, in each mission, could not exceed two hundred varas square; nor could more than four hundred varas square be granted to any one individual.

7. That the lands granted to Indians were merely for the use of themselves and of their descendants; that they could in no way be disposed of by them, but when abandoned they reverted to government.

8. That all sales of mission property by the Indians are null and void. 9. That no civil agent or administrator could dispose of mission property, or contract debts in the name of the missions, without the previous authority of the government.

10. That no lease of a mission or of mission property is made in conformity to law, unless bonds have been given to the satisfaction of the gov ernment, conditioned for the fulfilment of the obligations of the lessee.

12. That the renters of the missions are bound by certain regulations, respecting the care and preservation of the mission property.

13. That the rents are to be paid punctually and quarterly, one-third (in

Santa Barbara one-half) to the padres, prefects, or their authorized agents, and the other two-thirds into the public treasury, to be expended for certain specified objects.

14. That government has reserved to itself the right to take such mea sures as may be necessary to prevent "the destruction, ruin, or decline" of the missions" during the period of their renting," and that, therefore, if the renters, previous to the expiration of their leases, be found injuring or destroying the mission property, the government may eject them.

15. That the mission lands and other property which have not been sold in accordance with the provisions of law, are still the property of government, and may be disposed of accordingly. Such was the legal condition of the missions of California when, on the 7th of July, 1846, the American flag was raised in Monterey, and the country taken formal possession of in the name of the United States. Nor has this condition been in any way changed by the American authorities since the conquest. Soon after General Kearny assumed the civil government in California, representations were made to him, from the most respectable sources, that the grants and sales of mission property by Governor Pico, just as he was leaving the country, were without the authority of law, and that, though actually made after the 7th of July, 1846, they had been antedated in order to give them the semblance of legality. These titles were not recorded in the usual book of records in the government archives; but purported to be recorded in some other book, which, as yet, has never been found. Speculators had bought up these doubtful titles, and now demanded to be put in possession of their property. Under these circumstances, General Kearney issued a decree on the 22d of March, 1847, directing that certain missions, so claimed, be left in the hands of the priests until the proper tribunal should be organized to determine on the validity of these titles.-(Vide appendix No. 24.) In other cases, where the claimants were in actual possession, they were allowed to remain, but with the express understanding that this permission should in no way affect the legality of their titles. Those, also, who were found holding mission property on lease were left in quiet possession, except the renter of the mission of San Buenaventura, who, being detected in selling and destroying the property of the mission, to its injury and almost total ruin, was ejected by the commanding officer of the southern military district. Towards the close of 1847, it was reported to the governor that the priest of the mission of Sante Clara was selling the lands of that mission. He was immediately called upon for his authority for making such sales, and being unable to give any that was deemed satisfactory, the governor declared all sales made by him of mission lands to be illegal, null and void.-(Vide appendix No. 25.)

Again, in 1848, it being reported that the alcalde of Sante Barbara had attempted to give legal possession to some of the owners of doubtful titles

to mission property, notice was given both to the alcalde and the claimants that this act of the alcalde was null and void; no alcalde in California having authority to give any legal force to claims to public lands in this territory.-(Vide appendix No. 26.)

APPENDIX NO. 1.

Extracts from" the instructions to be observed by the commandant appointed to the new establishments of San Diego and Monterey," given by El. Bailie Frior Don Antonio Bucareli y Urusu, dated Mexico, 17th August, 1773.

ARTICLE 2. The confusion which has reigned in the accounts, and the want of order which I have observed in everything else, have compelled me to establish this new method, and to appoint Captain Don Fernando Rivèra y Moncada commandant of San Diego and Monterey, because I am well informed of his good conduct or manner of proceeding, and of his knowledge of the new establishments, acquired in the employments and offices which he has therein obtained and in the presidios of California for many years.

ARTICLE 12. With the desire to establish population more speedily in the new establishments, I for the present grant the commandant the power to designate common lands, and also even to distribute lands in private to such Indians as may most dedicate themselves to agriculture and the breeding of cattle, for having property of their own, the love of it will cause them to radicate themselves more firmly; but the commandant must bear in mind that it is very desirable not to allow them to live dispersed-each one on the lands given to them-but that they must necessarily have their house and habitation in the town or mission where they have been established or settled.

ARTICLE 13. I grant the same faculty to the commandant with respect to distributing lands to the other founders (pobladores) according to their merit and means of labor-they also living in the town and not dispersed, declaring that in the practice of what is prescribed in this article and the preceding 12th, he must act in every respect in conformity with the provisions made in the collection of the laws respecting newly-acquired countries and towns, (reducciones y poblaciones,) granting them legal titles for the owner's protection without exacting any remuneration for it or for the act of possession.

ARTICLE 14. The commandant must be carefully attentive that the founders who go to the new establishments have the requisite arms for their de

fence and for assisting the garrisons of the presidios or missions in case of necessity, binding them to this obligation as a thing necessary for their own safety and that of all their neighbors.

ARTICLE 15. When it becomes expedient to change any mission into a pueblo, the commandant will proceed to reduce it to the civil and economi nal government which, according to the laws, is observed in the other pueblos of this kingdom, giving it a name, and declaring for its patron the saint under whose auspices and venerable protection the mission was founded.

APPENDIX No. 2.

Extracts from the regulations for the government of the province of California, by Don Felipe De Neve, governor of the same, dated in the royal presidio of San Carlos de Monterey, 1st June, 1779, and approved by his Majesty in a royal order of the 24th October, 1781.

TITLE THE FOURTEENTH.-POLITICAL GOVERNMENT, AND INSTRUCTIONS RESPECTING COLONIZATION.

1st. The object of greatest importance towards the fulfilment of the pious intentions of the King, our master, and towards securing to his Majesty the dominion of the extensive country which occupies a space of more than two hundred leagues, comprehending the new establishment of the presidios, and the respective ports of San Diego, Monterey, and San Francisco, being to forward the reduction of, and as far as possible to make this vast country (which, with the exception of seventeen hundred and forty-nine Christians of both sexes in the eight missions on the road which leads from the first to the last named presidio, is inhabited by innumerable heathens) useful to the State, by erecting pueblos of which people, (gente de razon-literally, people of reason,) who, being united, may encourage agriculture, planting, the breeding of cattle and successively the other branches of industry; so that some years hence their produce may be sufficient to provide garrisons of the presidios with provisions and horses, thereby obviating the distance of transportation and the risks and losses which the royal gov ernment suffers thereby. With this just idea, the pueblo of San Jose has been founded and peopled; and the erection of another is determined upon, in which the colonists and their families, from the provinces of Sonora and Sinuloa, will establish themselves, the progressive augmentation of which, and of the families of the troops, will provide for the establishment of other towns, and furnish recruits for the presidio companies, thus freeing the royal revenue from the indispensable expenses at present required for these pur

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