It is asserted that there are extensive veins of silver, iron and copper in California; but there is no information sufficiently accurate to justify a statement of their existence or value.
The commerce of California has of course flourished in proportion to her population and wealth. The aggregate of duties paid on foreign merchandize at San Francisco from the 12th of November 1849 to the 31st of May 1850, was $755,974. At the date of the information there were in the harbor 623 sailing vessels, 12 steamers; and 140 sail vessels and 8 steamers at Sacramento City, Stockton and other places up the rivers. Of this total of 783 vessels, 120 were foreign and 663 American. The amount of tonnage at San Francisco, was 1,020,476, and 100,000 in towns and cities on the Sacramento and San Joaquin; but of this large sum 800,000 tons at least were unemployed.
The singular history of the unprecedented rise in the value of merchandize or the necessaries of life in California after the discovery of gold, is a chapter full of surprising and fantastical incidents, but our narrowing space denies us the tempting privilege of recounting it in this volume.
In all these calculations and estimates we must occasionally approach the dangerous domain of speculation, and in this category must we also place most of our information respecting the population and towns of California. Population is of course constantly augmenting under these great temptations for the rapid accumulation of fortune; yet with society in such a transition state, the true ratios or numbers of actual increase cannot be accurately obtained.
According to Baron Humboldt the population of Upper California consisted in 1802, of 7,945 males and 7,617 females, or, 15,562 individuals attached to the eighteen missions. All other classes whether whites, mestizos, or mixed castes, either in the Presidios or in the service of the Monks, were estimated at 1,300. This calculation would make the whole population, at that time, exclusive of wild Indians, 16,862. In 1831, the number of missions had increased to twenty-one, and their Indian neophytes were 18,683; all other classes in the garrisons and among the free settlers amounted to 4,342, making a total of 23,045; nor is it probable that this number was much augmented until after the cession and subsequent discoveries. At present it is quite impossible to calculate closely the wild Indians of miserable, debased tribes found in the mountains, whose numbers are variously stated by travellers and writers at 100,000, and 300,000. In the memorial of the California Representatives, already cited, the population on the 1st of January, 1849 is stated at 13,000 Californians, (which is probably too low a number,) 8,000 Americans, and 5,000 foreigners, or 26,000, in all. From that date to the 11th April, the arrivals from sea and by land were judged to be 8,000, while, according to the Harbor Masters' Record at San Francisco, 22,069 Americans and 7,000 foreigners arrived there from sea, between the 12th of April and the 31st of December 1849. Of these 28,269 were males, and only 800 women! In addition to the immigration by sea at this single port, it may be presumed that not less than 1,000 individuals landed elsewhere in California during the same period. By Santa Fé and the Gila nearly 8,000 entered the country. From Mexico 6,000 or 8,000 were supposed to have come, though only about 2,000 remained in the territory. Adding to these amounts 3,000 deserting sailors, and computing the overland immigration at 25,000, we have 107,000 inhabitants in California on the 1st of January 1850. It would probably not be unsafe to add fifty thousand for the immigration of the current year, so as to give the new State at least 150,000 citizens in January 1851.
As gold and people increased so miraculously, the tents and encampments of the adventurers gave place to houses and towns whose materials and construction were almost as frail. When the precious metal became abundant, land of course quickly grew into speculative importance and value. Men who disliked the toil of draining gold from the rivers or digging it among rocks, resorted to the easier mines of their own ingenuity, and, obtaining titles to advantageous locations near the great rivers, or, on important bays and straits, laid out magnificent plans for the gorgeous cities of the Pacific Empire. The list of some of these "Cities," given in a note at the bottom of the page, comprises the leading locations north of San Francisco and on the routes to the principal placeres.[87] Some of these towns, and probably many more, will prosper permanently because they are admirably situated to aid in the development of the interior of the great valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. If this valley is to be annually deluged and converted into a lake, as it was last year during the rainy season, the agricultural prosperity of California must be seriously affected, and the rising cities will probably suffer with it, unless the placeres and the mines shall continue to pour their bountiful supplies into the hands of all who seek them.
The old Spanish and Mexican towns and villages, will in all likelihood continue to assert their importance. The chief of these are the ancient Presidences or Presidios of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara and San Diego. In all of these, Europeans and Americans are already establishing themselves as residents who desire to make California their permanent home. The old pueblos of Los Angeles, situated about eight miles from the mission site of San Gabriel;—of San José about fifteen or twenty leagues from the bay of San Francisco, near Santa Clara;—and of Branciforte about a mile from the mission of Santa Cruz, and a mile and a half from the bay of Monterey,—are still in existence, and having been built on well selected sites, may flourish long after the fragile castles erected in the golden region have passed away like the scenery of a drama. The Monks, every where, possessed an instinctive sagacity for nestling in the best locations, and time will doubtless do justice to their discretion in California.
The increased value of land of course indicated to our government the necessity of promptly examining the titles of property in California; and accordingly, Mr. W. Carey Jones, a lawyer accomplished in the Civil and Spanish laws, was despatched thither by the authorities in Washington, to examine the grants from the Spanish and Mexican governments. His full, learned, and satisfactory report has been published by congress, and declares that these grants are mostly perfect titles, or have unquestionably the same equity as those that are perfect.[88]
All the grants of land in California, except pueblo or village lots and some grants north of the bay of San Francisco, subsequent to the independence of Mexico, and after the establishment of that government in California, were made by the different political governors. These personages possessed the exclusive faculty of making grants of eleven leagues or sitios to individuals, which were valid when sanctioned by the Territorial Deputation; but colonization grants to Empresarios or contractors, required the sanction of the Supreme National Authorities.
The supposition, usually entertained, that the mission lands were grants held as the actual fee-simple property of the church, or of the mission establishments as corporations, is entirely erroneous. All the missions in Upper California, established under the direction of the Spanish Viceroyal Government and partly at its expense, never had any other right than that of occupation and use, the whole property being either resumable or otherwise disposable, at the will of the crown or its representatives. The right of the Supreme Powers to remodel these establishments at pleasure, and convert them into towns and villages, subject to the known policy and law which governed settlements of that kind, was a fundamental principle controling them from the beginning.