Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/195

Rh Robert J. Elwell became most prominent in California; though Bradshaw, Holmes, and Leandry were also well known men. It was during this year that the Californians were excited at the presence and actions of Jedediah Smith's trappers, their first American visitors by the overland route. As Smith arrived in December 1826, the names of his companions who settled in the country have been included in the list of that year, though they left the company of hunters, and some of them arrived, in 1827.

Orders of the Californian officials in 1828 respecting foreigners were of the same tenor as before; applications for naturalization were frequent; many strangers wished to marry Californian wives. Bands of trappers on the frontiers round about excited some apprehensions. A few immigrants of Mexican blood seem to have come in from Sonora, and all was faithfully reported to the minister of relations in Mexico. In accordance with the decree of March 12, 1828, which declared that no foreigner could remain in Mexican territory without a passport, and regulated the holding of property by naturalized citizens, a reglamento was issued by the president on May 1st prescribing in detail the methods to be observed in obtaining, granting, and using passports of various kinds. This document was doubtless forwarded to California later in the year. I find about sixty new