Forbes has a chapter on ‘Upper California considered as a field for foreign colonization,' written as early as 1835, though published later. He is enthusiastic in praise of the natural advantages of the country; but while he deprecates the Mexican restrictive policy and lack of energy, and indulges in brilliant dreams of what California would be under the rule of such a power as England, he evidently believes that there was no immediate danger of encroachment by any foreign power. He believes, however, that Russian policy on the Pacific coast should receive some attention from the American and European powers.[1]
Spaniards were still regarded as foreigners; but the attempts to enforce Mexican restrictions on the subject in California were so few and slight as hardly to merit mention. Victoria brought instructions to expel the Spaniards not legally entitled to remain, and he issued a circular on the subject in October 1831, a document not intended to apply to the padres, and not enforced at all, except that Cáceres, the only Spaniard in the San Francisco district, was ordered by Vallejo to leave the republic. Moreover, a citizen granted a license to take otter was forbidden to employ a Spaniard in his crew. That Victoria had failed to carry out his orders in this respect was one of the charges presented against him by the diputacion in 1832; but Figueroa adopted no more radical policy, though for political reasons he recommended the expulsion of padres Sarría and Duran, and his orders from Mexico seem not to have required any greater precautions in the case of Spaniards than other foreigners.[2]
- ↑ Forbes' Hist. Cal., 146-9, 309-25.
- ↑ Dept. Rec., MS., ix. 60, 113; Vallejo, Doc., MS., i. 278; Leg. Rec., MS., i. 250; Dept. St. Pap., MS., vi. 24.
one of the finest naval positions of the world,' and the editor thinks the Times mistaken about the date, and that the proposition was made earlier by President Adams, the price including Texas. He says: 'At that time Mexico was revelling in an unlimited credit with English capitalists, and for the sake of a few millions would not entertain a project for dismembering her empire.'
