126 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



outside world than would one whose title was Yerba 

 Buena. When Vallejo and Semple brought their 

 contract to be recorded, as, according to Spanish 

 law, a contract to be legal had to be recorded in the 

 office of the nearest Alcalde, Bartlett informed them 

 that he had just issued a proclamation on January 

 30, 1847, changing the name of the town of Yerba 

 Buena to San Francisco, and he advised them to 

 change the name of their town to something less 

 confusing. They fussed and stormed. Each side 

 drew adherents. Even the wise Thomas Larkin 

 joined his friends Vallejo and Semple, and declared 

 that, as it was known ahead that the name of their 

 town was to be Francisca, the fact that it was not 

 legally recorded before January 30 should not rob 

 them of the title. The editor of the one newspaper 

 in the territory refused to recognize the change, and 

 for several weeks still headed his sheet, "Yerba 

 Buena." Under Spanish law, and it still reigned 

 in California in 1847, the decree of the Alcalde was 

 final. So our city gained the name of its Bay and 

 of the Patron Saint whose sons had introduced civi- 

 lization into the West, and Francisca, the dreamed- 

 of metropolis on the Straits of Carquinez, took an- 

 other name from the baptismal list of Senora Val- 

 lejo, and has come down to us today as the town; of 

 Benicia. But Yerba Buena is not banished from 

 our geographies. It still is the legal title of the 



