I 18923 Peralta-Reavis 



I San Diego, who insisted on his right to a milHon 

 acres of land in Arizona. Reavis, by hook and by 

 crook (especially by crook), became possessed of 

 this claim, which he then proceeded to extend amaz- 

 ingly by developing in the name of his Mexican 

 i wife, Sofia Maso y Silva, another one of tenfold 

 [ importance. To that end he devised for her an The 

 imposing Peralta lineage reaching back to the ^'^r^""/ 

 imaginary but very noble Spanish grandee, "Don 

 Miguel Nimecio Silva de Peralta de la Cordoba, 

 Baron of Arizona and Gentleman of the King's 

 Chamber, with access at all times to His Royal 

 Person"; half a dozen other titles were also appro- 

 priately vouched for in the records. It further 

 appeared from the documents presented that Don 

 Miguel became owner of a vast extent of Mexican 

 lands through a royal cedula, or decree, issued after 

 his appointment as Royal Inspector for New Spain 

 by PhiHp V in 1742. 



In the words of Will S. Tipton, the astute Spanish 

 scholar who finally ran him to earth, Reavis 



invented the property, the royal cedulas, the wills, the probate 

 proceedings, and a long line of noble ancestry. He brought 

 into existence a grandee and descendants for three genera- 

 tions, carried them with all a novelist's skill through the vicis- 

 situdes of life across the changes of a century and a half, and 

 came near securing the solemn confirmation by government of 

 a principality that never existed to the alleged heirs of persons 

 who never lived. ^ 



After long and persistent investigation, legal and 

 linguistic, by able experts of whom Tipton was 

 the chief, the whole scheme was unraveled, and 

 "Peralta-Reavis, Baron of Arizona," was convicted 



^ See The Land of Sunshine, February, 1898. 



n 473 3 



