PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
351 
Nov. 
1826. 
soldiers and a few artillerymen, distributed between the presidios and CHAP, 
the missions, and consequently not more than half a dozen are at any 
time in one place. 
They appeared to us to be very dissatisfied, owing not only to their 
pay being so many years in arrear, but to the duties which had been 
imposed both on the importation of foreign articles, and on those of the 
Mexican territory, amounting in the first instance to forty-two and a 
half per cent, whereas, under the old government, two ships were an- 
nually sent from Acapulco with goods, w^hich were sold duty free, and 
at their original cost in that country, and then, also, their pay being 
regularly discharged, they were able to purchase what they wanted. A 
further grievance has arisen by the refusal of the government to con- 
tinue 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 thp Pueblds — villages erected 
for this purpose, and attached to the missions, where the men have a 
portion of ground allotted to them for the support 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 allow'ed only to possess the 
land and feed their cattle upon it, until it shall please the government 
to turn them off. The reason of this, I believe, was that Mexico was 
beginning to turn her attention to California, and was desirous of 
having settlers there from the southern districts, to whom it would be 
necessary to give lands ; and until they could see what would be required 
for this purpose and for the government establishments, and had the 
limits of the property 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 could 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 government, the first and most grievous of which was the 
discontinuance of a salary of 400 dollars per annum heretofore allowed 
