for free suburban homesteads, and water-lots without
pay, was always prevalent among the land-hungry of
San Francisco, and recent grants made by the legis-
lature seemed to have fired afresh their insane desires.
The water-lots thus seized belonged to the state, and
many piles were driven along the city front for which
the greedy grabbers never received visible compensa-
tion.
There was a difficulty in Marin county in August 1854, which threatened to assume a serious aspect. Certain mission lands near San Rafael, which had been set apart by the Mexican authorities for religious purposes, were seized and staked off by an organized band of squatters, who determined to hold the prop- erty vie et armis. One wing of the mission buildings at San Rafael was, in 1849, used as a church, and the other as court and jury rooms ; other apartments were occupied by Mexican families with their dogs, hogs, and cattle. By order of the alcalde, William Rey- nolds, the city was surveyed in 1850 and laid off in town lots with a Mexican title. The price of lots was fixed at thirty dollars each, and a day appointed by the alcalde for the sale, the first applicant to receive tJie first choice. A great rush was made for lots by those who had failed to make their fortunes in San Francisco sand-hills ; but the town, developing more slowly than was anticipated, many of them were al- lowed to fall into the hands of the tax-gatherer. The land in dispute bordered upon the town, and was part of the old mission orchard and vineyard, which had been neglected by the church and by its rightful own- ers for many years, and had at length fallen a prey to preemptors. On the 7th of August the church party, to the number of about twenty -five, appeared against the squatters with sticks and staves, and drove them from their shores.
So habituated had the people of California become to trusting only to themselves for the accomplishment of their purpose, that mob law became the too f
