PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. H 



certain privileges which were enjoyed under the old 

 system. At that time soldiers entered for a term of 

 ten years, at the expiration of which they were allowed 

 to retire to the Pueblos — villages erected for this pur- 

 pose, and attached to the missions, where the men 

 have a portion of ground allotted to them for the sup- 

 port of their families. This afforded a competency to 

 many ; and while it benefited them, it was of service 

 to the government, as the country by that means 

 became settled, and its security increased. But this 

 privilege has latterly been withheld, and the applicants 

 have been allowed only to possess the land and feed 

 their cattle upon it, until it shall please the govern- 

 ment to turn them off. The reason of this, I believe, 

 was that Mexico was be2:innin£;' to turn her attention 

 to California, and was desirous of having settlers there 

 from the southern districts, to whom it would be ne- 

 cessary to give lands ; and until they could see what 

 would be required for this purpose and for the govern- 

 ment establishments, and had the limits of the pro- 

 perty already allotted, defined, they did not wish to 

 make any new grants. The real cause, however, was 

 not explained to the soldiers ; they merely heard that 

 they would not have the land ceded to them for life as 

 usual, and they were consequently much dissatisfied. 



The same feeling of discontent that was experienced 

 by the garrison, pervaded the missions, in consequence 

 of some new regulations of the republican govern- 

 ment, the first and most grievous of which was the 

 discontinuance of a salary of 400 dollars per annum, 

 heretofore allowed to each of the padres : the support 

 the former government had given to the missions 

 amounted, according to Langsdorff, to a million 

 piastres a year. Another grievance was, the requisi- 



