Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/472

394 and probably many more, will prosper permanently because they are admirably situated to aid in the development of the interior of the great valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. If this valley is to be annually deluged and converted into a lake, as it was last year during the rainy season, the agricultural prosperity of California must be seriously affected, and the rising cities will probably suffer with it, unless the placeres and the mines shall continue to pour their bountiful supplies into the hands of all who seek them. The old Spanish and Mexican towns and villages, will in all likelihood continue to assert their importance. The chief of these are the ancient Presidences or Presidios of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara and San Diego. In all of these, Europeans and Americans are already establishing themselves as residents who desire to make California their permanent home. The old pueblos of Los Angeles, situated about eight miles from the mission site of San Gabriel;—of San José about fifteen or twenty leagues from the bay of San Francisco, near Santa Clara;—and of Branciforte about a mile from the mission of Santa Cruz, and a mile and a half from the bay of Monterey,—are still in existence, and having been built on well selected sites, may flourish long after the fragile castles erected in the golden region have passed away like the scenery of a drama. The Monks, every where, possessed an instinctive sagacity for nestling in the best locations, and time will doubtless do justice to their discretion in California.

The increased value of land of course indicated to our government the necessity of promptly examining the titles of property in California; and accordingly, Mr. W. Carey Jones, a lawyer accomplished in the Civil and Spanish laws, was despatched thither by the authorities in Washington, to examine the grants from the Spanish and Mexican governments. His full, learned, and satisfactory report has been published by congress, and declares that