296 LAND MONOPOLY. 



distributed among the few rancheros which had grown up under 

 their shelter, or otherwise passing into the public treasury. 

 The era of Spanish domination lasted fifty-three years; that of 

 Mexican rule and pastoral life twenty-four. During the latter 

 period men were too scarce to give any value to land. To every 

 citizen a town lot was given; and every man who wanted an 

 extensive cattle range, got it without trouble from the Mexican 

 government. Nominally, the grants were limited to eleven 

 leagues fa Mexican league contains 4,438 acres,) but practically 

 they were made to cover pretty much everything a man wanted, 

 especially after they passed from the original claimants into 

 American hands. &quot;If the history of the Mexican grants is 

 ever written, it will be a history of greed, perjury, spoliation 

 and high handed robbery, for which it will be difficult to find a 

 parallel. Indefiniteness of boundaries has given such an op 

 portunity for these spoliations, that while they have proved a 

 curse to California, their original owners have reaped no com 

 mensurate benefit; at a very early day they passed into other 

 hands.&quot;* 



Not all the great landlords of California have obtained their 

 possessions by fraudulent means; a good many of the Anglo 

 Saxon settlers were grafted upon the Spanish families by mar 

 riage. Five Carillos of Santa Barbara, and three of Santa 

 Hosa, thus endowed adventurous Americanos with their worldly 

 goods of lands and cattle. 



The able and exhaustive pamphlet we have referred to will 

 lead the curious reader through many of the devious windings 

 of our land affairs. Between bogus claims, possessory rights, 

 and the splendid opportunity thus given for the foundation of 

 lawyers fortunes, the government lands of California have cost 

 more to the settler than any equal amount in the United States. 

 The Mexican land policy is not responsible for the unnumbered 

 wrongs which it has done to the future welfare of the State, 

 any more than lawyers are responsible for sin; it has furnished 

 the pretext under which the land-grabber could thrive, to the 

 exclusion of the actual settler. 



GRANTS TO THE STATE. 



Under Section YI. of Act of Congress, passed March 3, 1853, f 

 California received from the federal government, the sixteenth 



* &quot; Our Land Policy,&quot; by Henry George. t Surveyor-General s Report for 1873. 



