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Statement of the case.

it is joined by a mountain stream called the Arroyo Seco,* a point which the reader must observe.

Nearly in the centre of this valley stands a little hill,Loma, as it is called in Spanish,-its side or skirt sloping irregularly by a series of graceful undulations towards the plain; its descending curve thus forming that which it required no great imagination to call a “lap.”

Such is the valley, its boundaries and its features, as they strike the eye.

In the eastern part of it, an old Mexican, Sergeant Don José Reyes Berreyesa, fixed himself, about 1834, by leave of Governor Figueroa. Adjoining him on the west, and holding the western part, was another Mexican, Leandro Galindo. They both built their houses and made their chief improvements at the base of the Pueblo Hills; that is to say, opposite and away from the Mining and the Azul Ranges, their exposures to the south. Neither of them had any title but such provisional ones as were usual in California while it yet belonged to Mexico, in anticipation of a final grant. In time Galindo went away, and was succeeded by Justo Larios, who continued his improvements at the foot of the Pueblo Hills, and granted a small piece of land, at the western extremity of the hills and near the junction of the Capitancillos and Alamitos, far off from the southern ridges, to a certain Foster.† Larios and Berreyesa, however, got along less amicably than had done Galindo and his military neighbor. Berreyesa complained to the Governor that Larios claimed land that was his, and had actually removed his house and set it on the dividing line. Larios, he said, had "room to extend himself outside of the Canada;" while he, Berreyesa, "had absolutely nowhere to enlarge." Larios, about the same time presented his petition,

The meaning is a dry creek; this sort of arroyo being common in a country of hills and plains; sometimes filled with water from the mountains, and sometimes a mere stony bed or "gulch." In this case we have two arroyo secos; one of them, however, always designated as the " arroyo seco on the side of Santa Clara."

† Marked F. on the map at p. 651.

Statement of the case.-Diseño of Berreyesa.

complaining of Berreyesa as overbearing, and disposed to be rapacious. The matter disturbed the happy valley, and threatened to become a feud. Governor Alvarado referred

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Statement of the case.

both petitions to the Prefect, the highest judicial officer in his department, and directed him to call the parties before him, to confront them with one another, hear their proofs, and to report the result of his investigation. The Prefect did this. The parties came before him, and he succeeded in conciliating them. Berreyesa produced a diseño, and with that before them they agreed upon a division-line as follows:

"A straight line (una recta, &c.), from the angle which the Alamitos forms with the Arroyo Seco, direction southward, passing by the eastern base or over the eastern skirt, OR lap (the meaning was not clear), of the loma* (rumbo al Sul LA FALDA de la loma), in the centre of the valley TO THE Sierra."

Upon this diseño the Prefect traced a dotted line, which showed what had been agreed upon. He then reported the whole matter to the Governor; and the map, with the dotted line or "L-i-n-d-e-r-o" upon it, went to the archives. A copy is opposite.

The controversy being settled, Larios petitioned the Governor for a grant. Alvarado made it. Thus it ran :

"I declare Justo Larios owner of the tract called 'Los Capitancillos,' bounded by THE Sierra, by the Arroyo Seco on the side of Santa Clara, and by the tract of Berreyesa, which has for boundary a line running from the junction of the Arroyo Seco and the Alamitos, southward to THE Sierra, passing by the eastern base, OR over the eastern skirt or lap (rumbo al Sul La FALDA) of the loma, in the centre of the valley.”

The grant was subject to these ordinary conditions:

"2d. He shall solicit the proper judge to give him juridical possession in virtue of this decree, by whom the boundary shall be marked out, &c.

"3d. The land herein referred to is one league of the larger size, a little more or less. The judge who shall give the possession shall have it measured in conformity to law, leaving the

* Called indifferently "loma" and "lómita.”.

Statement of the case.-Diseño of Larios.

surplus which remains to the nation for the purposes which may best suit him."

Lindene dele For. Bexxeyeson.

Cornalerry's del Pinda
Macamo

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Statement of the case.

The diseño submitted by Larios appears on the page opposite.*

About this same time Berreyesa applied for a grant. His petition prays for a grant of two sitos, to extend from the dwelling-house of Larios up to the matadero,†“with all the lomas (hills), that pertain to the Cañada." The dispute having been in the meantime settled, the Governor (August 20, 1842) made the concession. The grant recites the petition of Berreyesa for a part of the place called the Cañada de los Capitancillos, bounded on the north by the lomas bajas of the Pueblo San José; on the south by the Sierra; on the west by the rancho of Larios, which has for boundary the angle formed by the Arroyo Seco, and that of the Alamitos course south, the base (or skirt) of the hill situated in the centre of the Cañada until arriving at the Sierra: (el cual tiene por lindero en angulo que forma el Arroyo Seco y el de los Alamitos, rumbo Sur, la falda de la loma, situada en el centro de la Cañada.)

To the reader who has been able to get before his mind. the topographical nature of this place, it will be obvious that questions might arise on the language of the grant to Larios. There were two ridges, or two parts of one ridge; either of which ridges, or parts of a ridge, might be styled à Sierra. Sierra means a saw, and is a term applicable, in some sense, to any range or ridge of hills, serrated as every one naturally is. In certain aspects-geologically, perhaps, or possibly, topographically may be as well-the Mining Range was part of the Azul Range. Was it so within the meaning of the Governor and grant? And bearing on this question

* The diseño of Berreyesa is a very good one; better thar forty-nine in fifty of the Mexican diseños. That of Larios is less good, and justifies the title of "daub" given by Grier, J., supra, p. 448, to Mexican diseños in general. The arroyo, or stream called Alamitos, on the map, at p. 651, is on this called Capitancillos, as indeed it sometimes was; and the Arroyo Seco, on the side of Santa Clara, called simply "Arroyo Seco," is made the west. boundary.

+ Slaughter-house.

VOL. II.

The diseño is supra, at page 654.

42

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