Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/393

Rh, and that even foreign vessels had taken away loads without paying duties.

In 1835 Abel Stearns was suspected of carrying on extensive contraband operations at San Pedro. He had a warehouse near the shore never inspected by any revenue officers, and used, as was believed, for the storing of hides purchased of settlers who paid no slaughter tax, and goods illegally landed from vessels. The pueblo was so far away that on the arrival of a ship there was plenty of time for smuggling goods ashore at San Pedro or Sta Catalina before Receptor Osio could arrive on the spot. In March the citizens of Los Angeles complained to the governor, and asked that Stearns' establishment be suppressed. An investigation was ordered, but all we know of the result is that a committee reported in September against the spoliation of Stearns' property and the blotting-out of San Pedro as a prospective settlement. It was recommended rather that guards be established to prevent smuggling, and that the complainants present some proof of Don Abel's guilt if they had such proof.

Financial topics are not very distinct from those of commerce, and the personnel of treasury and revenue officials may be taken as a connecting link. Their names may be presented with a greater approximation to accuracy than their exact titles and powers, to say nothing of their accounts. Juan Bandini had received in 1830 the appointment of comisario principal ad interim, virtually the same position that Herrera had held; but he in reality exercised no authority, and, as he himself confessed, was prevented "by many circumstances" from carrying out superior orders or organizing his department. Victoria refused to recognize Bandini's authority except locally at San Diego,