secularize the missions, and on November 20, 1833, the Mexican Congress 

 issued a Decree of Secularization. On April 16, 1834, the Congress passed an 

 act putting secularization into effect. Between 1834 and 1846 the mission 

 possessions rapidly slipped into private ownership, as the Mexican Governors 

 granted more than 500 ranches, most of which were carved out of mission lands 

 and stocked with mission horses, cattle and sheep. 9 



Foreign visitors to California in the late 1830s and 1840s frequently 

 characterized the California rancheros as indolent, pleasure-loving people. To 

 the American, British, and French, these cattlemen neither farmed nor 

 manufactured products for their own use because they simply preferred to let 

 their cattle bring them an income. In 1844, Sir George Simpson remarked on 

 the great decrease in sheep in California and suspected that the loss was due to 

 the rancheros' laziness and to their slaughter of sheep to increase their stock of 

 horned cattle. 



The rancho herds served a dual purpose by providing the rancheros with 

 hides and tallow to trade with foreign merchant ships and beef, the main staple 

 of their diet. Some rancheros raised small patches of corn, beans, and grain for 

 bread or tortillas, and some home industries on the ranches provided them with 

 harness, leather, soap, oil, wool, and other items of daily use. For the most 

 part, however, the rancheros depended on trade with foreign ships to supply 

 their manufactured products and to satisfy their taste for elegant accessories. 



Foreign criticism of the Californio rancheros usually went hand-in-hand 

 with an admiration for the Californios' open and abundant hospitality, their 

 joyful celebrations of dancing, singing, and feasting, and their exceptional 

 equestrian skills. 



The ranches made up small pockets of population in a countryside that 

 had been sparsely settled to allow for the vast grazing ranges needed to feed 

 the large cattle herds. Even though they were physically isolated, the 

 rancheros gathered frequently to observe religious and political holidays, to 

 enjoy bull and bear fights, rodeos, births, and weddings. The rancheros' 



"Senate, Jones Report. 31st Cong., 1st Sess., 1951, p. 3; California, Surveyor General, Special 

 Report of the Surveyor General of the State of California ([Sacramento]: Eugene Casserly, State 

 Printer, 1852), pp. 28-29; Paul W. Gates, ed., California Ranchos and Farms 1846-1862 (Madison: 

 The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1967), p. 3; Bancroft, History 2: 663. Bancroft also notes 

 here that only one or two of the fifty ranches granted followed the 1828 regulations. John Walton 

 Caughey, History of the Pacific Coast (Los Angeles: Privately published by the author, 1933), pp. 

 165-66; Dwinelle, Colonial History, p. 63; Robinson, Land in California, pp. 30-31, 61. 



9 



