Many witnesses were examined, both at San Gabriel and San Diego. On the 28th of December the vicar rendered his decision, Christi nomine invocato, that the fiscal had not substantiated his accusations; that the marriage at Valparaiso, though not legitimate, was not null, but valid; that the parties be set at liberty, the wife being given up to the husband; and that they be velados the next Sunday, receiving the sacraments that ought to have preceded the marriage ceremony. "Yet, considering the great scandal which Don Enrique has caused in this province, I condemn him to give as a penance and reparation a bell of at least fifty pounds in weight for the church at Los Angeles, which barely has a borrowed one." Moreover, the couple must present themselves in church with lighted candles in their hands to hear high mass for three dias festivos, and recite together for thirty days one third of the rosary of the holy virgin. Let us hope that these acts of penance were devoutly performed. The vicar did not fail to order an investigation of the charges against Padre Menendez, who had acted irregularly in advising the parties to leave the country; but nothing is recorded of the result.[1]
Only seventeen vessels are named in the records of 1830, besides four that rest on doubtful authority; so that commercial industry would seem to slow diminished prosperity; yet the records of this final year of the decade are less complete than before.[2] A Mexican report makes the revenue receipts at San Diego for
- ↑ Fitch, Causa Criminal seguida, en el Juzgado Eclesiástico y Vicaría Foránea de la Alta California, contra Don Enrique Domingo Fitch, Anglo-Americano, por el matrimonio nulo contraido con Doña Josefa Carrillo, natural de San Diego. Año de 1830, MS. This most interesting collection of over 30 documents, of which I have given a brief résumé, is the original authority on the whole matter. Jan. 9, 1831, Fitch writes from San Gabriel to Capt. Cooper, denying the rumors current at Sta Bárbara that he was doing penance; says P. Sanchez treated him very well, and seemed anxious to let him off as easy as possible. He has had trouble with the parents of Doña Josefa, who abused her, and he will not leave his wife with them. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxx. 171.
- ↑ See list at end of this chapter. The vessels of 1830 were the Ayacucho, Brookline, Catalina (?), Chalcedony (?), Convoy, Cyrus, Danube, Dryad, Emily,
