HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, March 5, 1848. SIR: I last evening received your letter of the 22d February, together with the lease to certain lands on the waters of the "American fork," a tributary of the Sacramento, made by certain Indians of the Yalesummy tribe to yourself and Mr. James W. Marshall. The United States do not recognise the right of Indians to sell or lease the lands on which they reside, or to which the tribe may have a claim, 'to private individuals. It would therefore be improper in me to sanction any lease of lands made by Indians to individuals, because, after the war, should the United States extinguish the Indian titles to these lands, they would find them encumbered with private claims, which certainly would not be recognised; for, as soon as the Indians' titles to any lands are extinguished, they are at once a part of the public domain. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Captain J. A. SUTTER, Sub-Indian Agent, New Helvetia. P. S.-I return to you the lease, with an endorsement upon it. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your application of the 3d instant, to be put in possession of the orchard at the mission of San Juan. General Kearny, my predecessor in office, by his decree of the 22d March last, put the mission of San Juan (gardens, orchard, &c., appertaining thereto) in the possession of the Catholic priest having charge of that mission. This possession, however, was not at all to operate to the prejudice of the claim of any one when the proper time arrives for the settlement of those claims. I cannot, therefore, with propriety, disturb that decree; but if the priest is willing for you to take the orchard, then so am I. It is believed to be of no use to him. It is not enclosed, and is. open to pillage by every one. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR Herewith you have a copy of my letter to Lieutenant Clift, at San Diego, concerning the settlement of his custom-house accounts, that you may look to this settlement when he is mustered out of service. No returns have been received by him for either the last or present quarter; nor have any monthly statements been rendered of revenue received from the customs since he relieved the late collector. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieutenant J. W. DAVIDSON, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, commanding. 1st Dragoons, A. A. Quartermaster, Los Angeles. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: I wish to know the amount of funds in your possession due the government for customs collected at the port of San Diego, and with this view have been expecting for some time to receive your account current with the civil government of California for the 4th quarter 1847. It appears from an examination of Pedrorena's account current, rendered up to November 4, 1847, (the day he vacated the office of collector,) that you receipted to him for $702 874, which was the amount of funds returned by José Antonio Cot, on account of customs due the Keone Ana, as also for the balance, after settling his salary account, of $346 12. These two items, together with $348 121, the amount of Fitch's note of hand which fell due on the 7th of December, and which it is supposed has been turned over to you, make $1,397 12, which should be accounted for on your account current for the 4th quarter of last year; together with whatever sums you received in that quarter after releasing Pedrorena. You have never forwarded any monthly statement of revenue collected each month according to the printed forms. I desire that you will give this subject immediate attention, as here is the last month in the quarter, and no return has been received from you of the amount of customs that came into your hands during the last quarter. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieut. ROBERT CLIFT, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, commanding, Mormon Volunteers, A. A. Quartermaster, San Diego. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, March 9, 1848. SIR: I am in the receipt of your letters of the 4th and 6th instant. I enclose you an advertisement, offering two hundred dollars for the apprehension and delivery of Beverly; and also an advertisement offering thirty dollars for the apprehension and delivery of each deserter from the army, whether volunteer or regular soldiers. The reward will be paid for Williams alias Martin, whom you sent here; but it is necessary to have Foster's receipt for the money, as he was the individual who delivered up the deserter to me. I enclose you a certificate for the delivery, upon which the reward will be paid into the hands of Eoster upon his presenting it to the quartermaster at San Francisco or this place. A person who actually and fully denounces a mine before the 12th of February is entitled to it; but the denouncement must have been full and complete in good faith before that date. Don Manuel Diaz, of this place, as the agent of Don Augustine Narvaez, complains that certain persons are digging on the lands of Narvaez in search of mines, and prays that they be stopped from such proceedings. No person has the right to dig for mines or commit any other trespass on the lands of another, without rendering himself liable to a prosecution for such trespass; and all magistrates shall use their authority, upon a just complaint being made to them, to arrest the progress of such trespasses. I have mislaid the letter in which you speak of the sale of the school lands by the former alcalde, and of the writing, &c., recorded on the 13th of February, immediately after, on the record of the 17th instant. As I cannot reply to these subjects in a proper manner without having the letter before me, I must request that you will send me a copy of it. I thank you for the information contained in your letter of the 4th, though I do not apprehend the least danger of an attack on the prison of Monterey. Such an attempt would afford me an excellent opportunity of making an example on the spot of some of the lawless characters with which this country is infested, and I shall always have ready a halter for the neck of any one who shall attempt in any way to subvert or overthrow the authority established in California by the United States. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. CHARLES WHITE, Esq., First Alcalde, Pueblo de San José. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, March 10, 1848. SIR: Since writing my letter of yesterday I have found your miṣlaid letter of the 29th February. An alcalde has no right or authority whatever to sell or in any other way to dispose of pueblo lands; and without touching the question of the legality of the late proceedings which resulted in the division of the lands of your pueblo, in which division some of them were set apart for the benefit of public schools, I say neither has he any power or authority to give, grant, or sell any of the lands so set apart. Any such gift, grant, or sale is utterly null and void, and of no sort of force or effect. I remark what you say in relation to the sale of some of the pueblo lands alluded to above being entered on the records after transactions of a subsequent date to that which purports to be the sale. This evidently shows there has been something wrong; but in this case it is a matter of no moment, because any sale of those lands made by your predecessor in office, even if not antedated and recorded at the proper time, is utterly void, and of no sort of force or effect. You will please enter this letter on your record, and file and preserve the original in your office. Also preserve on the files of your office my 'official letter of the 19th of January last, addressed to Mr. James W. Weeks, at that time alcalde in your town. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES WHITE, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. First Alcalde, Pueblo de San José. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 4th instant. I will forward your letter to the department at Washingtonan opportunity will offer in a day or two. Should it meet with the views of the authorities there, they will give me the necessary instructions for my government here. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Mr. C. V. GILLESPIE, The bearer hereof, Antonio Chervis, a Mexican citizen, but at present a resident of Monterey, California, has permission to embark on board the schooner William, now lying in this port, and to proceed to the port of San Blas, with a view to a permanent residence in that place. Given at Monterey, the capital of California, this 11th day of March, A. D. 1848, and of the independence of the United States the 72d. R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, March 14, 1848. SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 1st instant. The charge of $16 for the express I supposed would have, like the other expenses of the trial of Armijo and others, been presented to Captain Folsom for payment. In iny letter of the 10th November last, Captain F. had instructions to pay that charge. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Captain J. E. BRACKETT, R. B. MASON,.. Colonel 1st Dragoons, commanding. N. Y. Volunteers, commanding, &c., Sonoma. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, March 14, 1848. GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter without date, in which you say, "having been by you intrusted with the affairs of Mr. George Hyde, would respectfully recommend his removal from office," &c. By a reference to my letter of the 1st of October last to the town council, you will observe that the council were put in possession of distinct charges against Mr. Hyde, upon which they were requested to report the facts in the case, (that is, the result or conclusion of the council upon each charge from the hearing of the evidence, and therefore to be distinctly set forth as the council believe to be correct and true,) with their opinion thereon, (that is, from all the facts developed, whether Mr. H. was worthy of his office, or not.) Be pleased to furnish me with a report in that shape, and it shall receive my immediate attention. 'I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Messrs. HOWARD, JONES, PARKER, and LEIDESDORFF, Members of the Town Council of San Francisco. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, March 16, 1848. SIR: I return to you the affidavit and other papers in the case of Honn vs. Bellamy, enclosed to me in your letters of the 29th ultimo and 6th instant. The case was not left to the arbitrary decision of an alcalde, as has generally been done in California, but was decided by a jury. There is no court to which an appeal can be made, because there is no higher court than the one before which the case was tried. This is to be regretted; but in the present state of affairs there is no remedy. An intelligent jury of six men, in a mere matter of business and account of only a few weeks' standing between two men, can hardly be supposed to have erred much. Be pleased to show this letter to Mr. Bellamy, as I have no time to write to him. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. CHARLES WHITE, Esq., HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, GENTLEMEN: In my communication of the 14th requesting that each of the distinct charges against Mr. Hyde might be severally reported upon, I omitted to ask you to accompany the report with the record of the proceedings of the investigation, so that I might see the evidence given in |