Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/493

Rh $1,500, the tratamiento of 'excellency' and a secretary at $1,000, to which position Cosme Peña was soon appointed. Of Alvarado's inauguration, of the speech that he may have made, and the proclamation he may have issued, there is no record.

Three important decrees were issued the 9th of December. By the first, each ayuntamiento was directed to choose at its next session a diputado to join the members of the congress and aid in the formation of a constitution. A second divided the state temporarily into two cantons, or districts, the first that of Monterey, including the municipalities of San Francisco and San José; the second that of Los Angeles, including Santa Bárbara and San Diego. Each canton was to have a gefe político, to be the governor in the first, and in the second a man subordinate to the governor and appointed by him from a trio to be elected at Los Angeles January 15th by comisionados named by the ayuntamientos. As no such election was ever held, and as the system never went into effect for reasons that will appear later, it seems unnecessary to go further into details. By the third decree some of the late restrictions on commerce were removed; duties were fixed at forty per cent on foreign