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Rh At least certain officials, civil and military, are made to appear in the legislative records of the next year as having signed the plan, with remarks of approbation on the dates mentioned. Rafael Gomez, the asesor, apprehensive of personal danger to himself as a partisan of Victoria, went on board the Russian bark Urup and tried to induce the captain to carry him to Sitka; but as he had no passport, his request was denied and he was set on shore at San Francisco. The northern members, Vallejo and others, with Secretary Alvarado, started late in December for the south in response to Echeandía's summons to be present at the meeting of the diputacion.

Minor local events, with general remarks on such institutions and topics as are not very closely connected with or necessary to a full understanding of general annals, I propose to present once for all for the whole period of 1831-40, at the end of this volume. Another class of general topics, more purely historical in their nature, and more readily adapting themselves to chronological treatment, such as mission affairs, commerce, foreign relations, and Indian affairs, I shall group as before in chapters covering each a period of five years, deeming this arrangement a much more satisfactory and convenient one for the reader than would be a more minute chronological subdivision. I shall of course refer to these topics as often and as fully as may be necessary to illustrate the annals of any particular year; but for 1831 I find no need for such reference, beyond what I have already said of