USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 21
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The provisions of that act. and the reason given for it, develop in fact the whole theory of the mission establishments. It was passed "in consequence of a complaint by the Bishop elect of Guiana of the evils that afflicted that province, on account of the Indian settlements in charge of missions not being delivered to the ecclesiastical ordinary, though thirty, forty and fifty years had passed since the reduction and conversion of the Indians." The Cortes therefore decreed :-
1. That all the new reducciones y doctrinas (that is, settlements of Indians newly converted, and not yet formed into parishes), of the provinces beyond the sea, which were in charge of missionary monks, and had been ten years subjected, should be delivered immediately to the respective ecclesiastical ordinaries (bishops), "without resort to any excuse or pretext, conformably to the laws and cedulas in that respect."
2. That as well these missions, (doctrinas) as all others which should be
* "Collection of Decrees of the Spanish Cortes, reputed in force in Mexico." Mexico, 182 !. Page 106.
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erected into curacies, should be canonically provided by the said ordinaries (observing the laws and cedulas of the royal right of patronage), with fit min- isters of the secular clergy.
3. That the missionary monks, relieved from the converted settlements, which should be delivered to the ordinary, should apply themselves to the extension of religion in benefit of the inhabitants of other wilderness parts, . proceeding in the exercise of their missions conformnably to the directions of paragraph 10, article 335, of the Constitution .*
4. That the missionary monks should discontinue immediately the govern- ment and administration of the property of the Indians, who should choose by means of their ayuntamientos, with intervention of the superior political authority, persons among themselves competent to administer it; the lands being distributed and reduced to private ownership, in accordance with the decrce of January 4, 1813, on reducing vacant and other lands to private property."+
It has also been supposed that the act ahove alluded to of the Mexican Con- gress, (Act of August 17, 1833), was the first assertion by the Mexican gov- ernment of property in the missions, or that they by that Act first became (or came to be considered) national domain. But this is likewise an error. The Mexican government has always asserted the right of property over all the missions of the country, and I do not think that t !: supposition has ever been raised in Mexico, that they were the property of the missionaries or the Church.
The General Congress of Mexico, in a decree of August 14, 1824, concern-
* The following is the clause referred to, namely, paragraph 10, article 335, Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, 1812.
"The provincial councils of the provinces beyond sea shall attend to the order, economy, and progress of the missions for the conversion of infidel Indians, and to the prevention of abuses in that branch of administration. The commissioners of such missions shall render their accounts to them, which accounts they shall in their turn forward to the government."
This clause of itself settles the character of these establishments, as a branch of the public administration.
+ "Collection of decrees of the Spanish Cortes," etc., p. 56. This decree provides:
1. That "all the vacant or royal lands, and town reservations (propios y arbitrios, lands reserved in and about towns and cities for the municipal revenue), both in the peninsula and islands adjacent, and in the provinces beyond sea, except such commons as may be necessary for the villages, shall be converted into private property; provided, that in regard to town reserva- tions, some annual rents shall be reserved."
2. That "in whatever mode these lands were distributed, it should be in full and exclusive ownership, so that their owners may enclose them, (without prejudice of paths, crossings, watering places, and servitudes), to enjoy them freely and exclusively, and destine them to such use or cultivation as they may be best adapted to; but without the owners ever being able to entail them, or to transfer them, at any time or by any title, in mortmain."
3. " In the transfer of these lands shall be preferred the inhabitants of the villages, (or settle- ments), in the neighborhood where they exist, and who enjoyed the same in common whilst they were vacant."
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ing the public revenue, declares the estates of the inquisition, as well as all temporalities, to be the property of the nation (that is, no doubt, in contra- distinction from property of the States-making no question of their being public property). This term would include not only the mission establish- ments, but all rents, profits and income, the monks received from them. A like Act of July 7, 1831, again embraces the estates of the inquisition and temporalities as national property, and places them with "other rural and suburban estates " under charge of a director-general. The executive regula- tions for colonizing the territories, may raise an idea of territorial and native property in them, but it puts out of the question any proprietary rights in the missionaries.
The seventeenth article of these regulations (executive regulations for col- onization of the territories, adopted November 21, 1828) relates to the mis- sions, and directs that "In those territories where there are missions, the lands which they occupy shall not at present be colonized, nor until it be determined if they ought to be considered as property of the settlements of the neophyte catechumens and Mexican settlers."
The subsequent acts and measures of the general government of Mexico, in direct reference to missions and affecting those of California, are briefly as follows:
A decree of the Mexican Congress of November 20, 1833, in part analogous to the decree before quoted of the Spanish Cortes of September, 1813, direct- ing their general secularization, and containing these provisions:
1. The government shall proceed to secularize the missions of Upper and Lower California.
2. In each of said missions shall be established a parish, served by a curate of the secular clergy, with a dotation of two thousand to two thousand five hundred dollars, at the discretion of the government.
4. The mission churches with the sacred vessels and ornaments, shall be devoted to the use of the parish.
5. For each parish, the government shall direct the construction of a cem- etery outside of the village.
7. Of the buildings belonging to each mission, the most fitting shall be selected for the dwelling of the curate, with a lot of ground not exceeding two hundred varas square, and the others appropriated for a municipal house and schools.
On December 2, 1833, a decree was published to the following effect:
" The government is authorized to take all measures that may assure the colonization, and make effective the secularization of the missions of Upper and Lower California, being empowered to this effect, to use, in the manner most expedient, the fincas de obras pias (property of the piety fund) of those territories, to aid the transportation of the commission and families who are now in this capital destined thither."
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
The commission and emigrants, spoken of in this circular, were a colony under the charge of Don Jose Maria Hijar, who was sent out the following Spring (of 1834) as director of colonization, with instructions to the following effect: That he should " make beginning by occupying all the property per- tinent to the missions of both Californias;" that in the settlements he formed, special care should be taken to include the indigenous (Indian) popu- lation, mixing them with the other inhabitants, and not permitting any settle- ment of Indians alone; that topographical plans should be made of the squares which were to compose the villages, and in each square building lots to be distributed to the colonist families; that outside the villages there should be distributed to each family of colonists, in full dominion and ownership, four caballerias* of irrigable land, or eight, if dependent on the seasons, or sixteen, if adapted to stock raising, and also live stock and agricultural implements; that this distribution made, (out of the moveable property of the mission) one- half the remainder of said property should be sold, and the other half reserved on account of government, and applied to the expenses of worship, mainte- nance of the missionaries, support of schools, and the purchase of agricultural implements for gratuitous distribution to the colonists.
On April 16, 1834, the Mexican Congress passed an act to the following effect :
1. That all the missions in the Republic shall be secularized.
2. That the missions shall be converted into curacies, whose limits shall be demarked by the governors of the States where said missions exist.
3. This decree shall take effect within four months from the day of its publication.
November 7, 1835, an act of the Mexican Congress directed that "the curates mentioned in the second article of the law of August 17, 1833 (above quoted), should take possession, the government should suspend the execution of the other articles, and maintain things in the condition they were before said law."
I have, so far, referred to these various legislative and governmental acts in relation to the missions, only to show, beyond equivocation or doubt, the rela- tion in which the government stood toward them, and the rights of owner- ship which it exercised over them. My attention was next directed to the changes that had taken place in the condition of those establishments, under the various provisions for their secularization and conversion into private property.
Under the act of the Spanish Cortes of September, 1813, all the missions in New Spain were liable to be secularized; that is, their temporalities delivered to lay administration; their character as missions taken away by their con- version into parishes under charge of the secular clergy; and the lands perti-
* A caballeria of land is a rectangular parallelogram of 552 varas by 1,10₺ varas.
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nent to them to be disposed of as other public domain. The question of put- ting this law in operation with regard to the missions in California, was at various times agitated in that province, and in 1830 the then governor, Echandrea, published a project for the purpose, but which was defeated by the arrival of a new governor, Victoria, almost at the instant the plan was made public. Victoria revoked the decree of his predecessor, and restored the missionaries to the charge of the establishments, and in their authority over the Indians.
Subsequent to that time, and previous to the act of secularization of August 1833, nothing further to that end appears to have been done in California. Under that act, the first step taken by the Central Government was the expc- dition of Hijar, above noticed. But the instructions delivered to him were not fulfilled. Hijar had been appointed Governor of California, as well as Director of Colonization, with directions to relieve Governor Figueroa. After Hijar's departure from Mexico, however, a revolution in the Supreme Govern- ment induced Hijar's appointment as political governor to be revoked; and an express was sent to California to announce this change, and with directions to Figueroa to continue in the discharge of the governorship. The courier arrived in advance of Hijar, who found himself on landing (in September, 1834) deprived of the principal authority he had expected to exercise. Before consenting to cooperate with Hijar in the latter's instructions concerning the missions, Figueroa consulted the Territorial Deputation. That body protested against the delivery of the vast property included in the mission estates-and to a settlement in which the Indian pupils had undoubtedly an equitable claim-into Hijar's possession, and contested that his authority in the matter of the missions depended on his commission as Governor, which had been revoked, and not on his appointment (unknown to the law) as Director of Co'- onization. As a conclusion to the contestation which followed, the Governor and Assembly suspended Hijar from the last mentioned appointment, and returned him to Mexico .*
Figueroa, however, had already adopted (in August. 1834) a project of sec- ularization, which he denominates a "Provisional Regulation." It provided that the missions should be converted partially into pueblos, or villages, with a distribution of lands and moveable property as follows: To each individual head of a family, over twenty-five years of age, a lot of ground, not exceeding four hundred nor less than one hundred varas square, in the common lands of the mission, with a sufficient quantity in common for pasturage of the cattle of the village, and also commons and lands for municipal uses; likewise, among the same individuals, one-half of the live stock, grain, and agricultural implements of the mission; that the remainder of the lands, unmoveable prop-
*Manifesto a la Republica Mejicana, que hace el General Jose Figueroa, commandante general y gefe politico de la Alta California. Monterey, 1835.
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erty, stock, and other effects, should be in charge of mayor domos, or other persons appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the general Government; that from this common mass should be provided the mainte- nance of the priest, and expenses of religious service, and the temporal expenses of the mission; that the minister should choose a place in the mission for his dwelling; that the emancipated Indians should unite in common labors for the cultivation of the vineyards, gardens and field lands, which should remain undivided until the determination of the Supreme Government; that the donees, under the regulation, should not sell, burthen, or transfer their grants, either of land or cattle, under any pretext; and any contracts to this effect should be null, the property reverting to the nation, the purchaser los- ing his money; that lands, the donee of which might die without leaving heirs, should revert to the nation; that rancherias (hamlets of Indians) sitna- ted at a distance from the missions, and which exceeded twenty-five families, might form separate pueblos, under the same rules as the principal one. This regulation was to begin with ten of the missions (without specifying them) and successively to be applied to the remaining ones.
The Deputation, in session of the 3d of November of the same year (1834), made provision for dividing the missions and other settlements into parishes or curacies, according to the law of August, 1833, authorized the missionary priests to exercise the functions of curates, until curates of the secular clergy should arrive, and provided for their salaries and expenses of worship. No change was made in this act, in the regulations established by Gov. Figueroa, for the distribution and management of the property.
Accordingly, for most or all of the missions, administrators were appointed by the governor; and in some, but not all, partial distributions of the lands and movable property were made, according to the tenor of the regulation. From this time, however, all tracts of lands pertinent to the missions, but not directly attached to the mission buildings, were granted as any other lands of the territory, to the Mexican inhabitants, and to colonists, for stock farms and tillage.
The act of the Mexican Congress of 1835, directing the execution of the decree of 1833 to be suspended until the arrival of curates, did not, as far as I could ascertain, induce any change in the policy already adopted by the territorial authorities.
On January 17, 1839, Governor Alvarado issued regulations for the gov- ernment of the administrators of the missions. These regulations prohibited the adininistrators from contracting debts on account of the missions; from slaughtering cattle of the missions, except for consumption, and from trading the mission horses or mules for clothing for the Indians; and likewise provided for the appointment of an inspector of the missions, to supervise the accounts of the administrators, and their fulfillment of their trusts. Art. 11 prohibited the settlement of white persons in the establishments, "whilst the Indians
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should remain in community." The establishments of San Carlos, San Juan Bautista and Sonoma were excepted from these regulations, and to be governed by special rules.
On March 1, 1840, the same Governor Alvarado suppressed the office of administrators, and replaced them by mayor domos, with new and more stringent rules for the management of the establishments; but not making any change in the rules of Governor Figueroa regarding the lands or other property.
By a proclamation of March 20, 1843, Governor Micheltorena, "in pursu- ance (as he states) of an arrangement between the Governor and the prelate of the missions," directed the following-named missions to be restored to the priests "as tutors to the Indians, and in the same manner as they formerly held them," namely, the missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Cap- istrano, San Gabriel, San Fernando, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynes, La Purisima, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San José. The same act set forth that "as policy made irrevocable what was already done," the missions should not reclaim any lands thitherto granted, but should collect the cattle and movable property which had been lent out either by the priests or administrators, and settle in a friendly way with the creditors; and likewise regather the dispersed Indians, except such as had been legally emanci- pated, or were at private service. That the priests might provide out of the products of the missions for the necessary expenses of converting, subsisting and clothing the Indians, for a moderate allowance to themselves, economical salaries to the mayor domos, and the maintenance of divine worship, under the condition that the priests should bind themselves in honor and conscience to deliver to the public treasury one-eighth part of all the annual products of the establishments. That the Departmental government would exert all its power for the protection of the missions, and the same in respect to individuals and to private property, securing to the owners the possession and preserva- tion of the lands they now hold, but promising not to make any new grants without consultation with the priests, unless where the lands were notoriously unoccupied, or lacked cultivation, or in case of necessity.
Micheltorena's governorship was shortly after concluded. There had been sent into the Department with him a considerable body of persons called pres- idarios, that is, criminals condemned to service-usually, as in this case, mili- tary service on the frontier-and their presence and conduct gave such offense to the inhabitants that they revolted, and expelled him and the presidarios from the country. He was succeeded by Don Pio Pico, in virtue of his being the "first vocal " of the Departmental Assembly, and also by choice of the inhabitants, afterward confirmed by the Central Government, which at the
*According to act of the Mexican Congress of May 6, 1822, to provide for supplying the place of provincial governors, in default of an incumbent.
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
same time gave additional privileges to the Department in respect to the man- agement of its domestic affairs.
The next public act which I find in relation to the missions, is an act of the Departmental Assembly, published in a prolamation of Governor Pico, June 5, 1845. This act provides: 1. "That the governor should call together the neophytes of the following named missions: San Rafael, Dolores, Soledad, San Miguel and La Purisima; and in case those missions were abandoned by their neophytes, that he should give them one month's notice, by proclamation, to return and cultivate said missions, which if they did not do, the missions should be declared abandoned, and the Assembly and governor dispose of them for the good of the Department. 2. That the missions of Carmel, San Juan Bautista, San Juan Capistrano and San Francisco Solano, should be considered as pueblos, or villages, which was their present condition; and that the property which remained to them, the governor, after separating sufficient for the curate's house, for churches and their pertinencies, and for a municipal house, should sell at public auction, the product to be applied, first to paying the debts of the establishments, and the remainder, if any, to the benefit of divine worship. 3. That the remainder of the missions to San Diego, inclu- sive, should be rented, at the discretion of the governor, with the proviso, that the neophytes should be at liberty to employ themselves at their option on their own grounds, which the governor should designate for them, in the ser- vice of the rentee, or of any other person. 4. That the principal edifice of the mission of Santa Barbara should be excepted from the proposed renting, and in it the governor should designate the parts most suitable for the residence of the bishop and his attendants, and of the missionary priests then living there; moreover, that the rents arising from the remainder of the property of said mission should be disbursed, one-half for the benefit of the church and its min- istry, the other for that of its Indians. 5. That the rents arising from the other missions should be divided, one-third to the maintenance of the minister, one third to the Indians, one-third to the government."
On the 28th October, of the same year (1845), Governor Pico gave public notice for the sale to the highest bidder of five missions, to wit: San Rafael, Dolores, Soledad, San Miguel and La Purisima; likewise for the sale of the remaining buildings in the pueblos (formerly missions) of San Luis Obispo, Carmel, San Juan Bautista, and San Juan Capistrano, after separating the churches and their appurtenances, and a curate's, municipal and school-houses. The auctions were appointed to take place, those of San Luis Obispo, Purisima and San Juan Capistrano, the first four days of December follow- ing (1845); those of San Rafael, Dolores, San Juan Bautista, Carmel, Soledad and San Miguel, the 23rd and 24th of January, 1846; meanwhile, the govern- ment would receive and take into consideration proposals in relation to said missions.
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In the same proclamation Pico proposed to rent to the best bidder for a period of nine years, and under conditions for the return of the property in good order and without waste, the missions of San Fernando, San Buena- ventura, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynes; the rentings to include all the lands. stock, agricultural tools, vineyards, gardens, offices and whatever in virtue of the inventories should be appurtenant to said missions, with " the exception only of those small pieces of ground which have always been occupied by some Indians of the missions;" likewise to include the buildings, saving the churches and their appurtenances, and the curate's, municipal and school houses, and except in the mission of Santa Barbara, where the whole of the principal edifice should be reserved for the bishop and the priests residing there. The renting of the missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Gabriel, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San José, it was further announced should take place as soon as some arrangement was made concerning their debts. It was also provided that the neophytes should be free from their pupilage, and might establish themselves on convenient parts of the missions, with liberty to serve the rentee, or any other person; that the Indians who possessed pieces of land, in which they had made their houses and gardens, should apply to the government for titles, in order that their lands might be adjudicated to them in ownership, "it being understood that they would not have power to sell their lands, but that they should descend by inheritance."
On March 30, 1846, the Assembly passed an Act-
1. Authorizing the governor in order to make effective the object of the decree of 28th May previous, to operate, as he should believe most expedient, to prevent the total ruin of the missions of San Gabriel, San Luis Rey, San Diego and others found in like circumstances.
2. That as the remains of said establishments had large debts against them, if the existing property was not sufficient to cover the same, they might be put into bankruptcy.
3. That if, from this authorization, the governor, in order to avoid the destruction to which the said missions were approaching, should determine to sell them to private persons, the sale should be by publie auction.
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