Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/473

Rh these grants are mostly perfect titles, or have unquestionably the same equity as those that are perfect.

All the grants of land in California, except pueblo or village lots and some grants north of the bay of San Francisco, subsequent to the independence of Mexico, and after the establishment of that government in California, were made by the different political governors. These personages possessed the exclusive faculty of making grants of eleven leagues or sitios to individuals, which were valid when sanctioned by the Territorial Deputation; but colonization grants to Empresarios or contractors, required the sanction of the Supreme National Authorities.

The supposition, usually entertained, that the mission lands were grants held as the actual fee-simple property of the church, or of the mission establishments as corporations, is entirely erroneous. All the missions in Upper California, established under the direction of the Spanish Viceroyal Government and partly at its expense, never had any other right than that of occupation and use, the whole property being either resumable or otherwise disposable, at the will of the crown or its representatives. The right of the Supreme Powers to remodel these establishments at pleasure, and convert them into towns and villages, subject to the known policy and law which governed settlements of that kind, was a fundamental principle controlling them from the beginning.

After the secularization of the missions the principal part of the church lands were cut off by private grants. Some of them still retain a portion of their original territory, but others have been converted either into villages and subsequently granted in the usual form in lots to individuals and heads of families, or have become private property. A few are either absolutely at our government's disposal now, or, being rented at present for a term of years, will become so when the tenant's contracts expire.

The gold of California is a modern disclosure, though, probably, It is not altogether a modern discovery. There are documents in existence which show that it was known to the Mexican government; and, as far back as 1790, a certain Captain Shelvocke obtained in one of the ports, a black mould which appeared to be mingled with golden dust. Specimens of California gold were exhibited privately by the authorities in the city of Mexico not long before the late war; and a memoir prepared by the congressional representative, imparts the fact that it had been taken in