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Tlie Beginning of Formal Colonization
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A settler could be given as much land as he needed for his family and was able to cultivate. To prevent confusion and to afford tenure in security, the commissioner was charged with keeping a cuaderno (memorandum) in which each grant with its exact bounds was to be recorded. A duplicate ( liijuela certificada) was to be given as a title to the grantee. In the event that he lost this document, he could apply to the commissioner or the city council for another. The grants were to be made out in the name of the king for the enjoyment of the individual grantee, his heirs, and assignees. The recipient, on his part, was to agree to keep supplied with arms and mounts, be in readiness to defend the villa against all attack, and to pursue the enemy when ordered. He was, likewise, to bind himself to have his farm lands under cultivation and start building his home within two years. He was to reside with his family in the villa for at least four years, during which time he was not to alienate, transfer, mortgage, sell, or in any way encumber the lot or the lands received. Failure to keep any of these promises constituted sufficient reason for the revocation of the grant and for the assignment of the lands to more industrious settlers. Those grantees who complied with the terms were, after the four years, to obtain absolute title to the property with the consequent right to dispose of it. The one restriction on disposal forbade settlers to sell or alienate any of their property in the villa to a church, monastery, priest, ecclesiastical community, or any other organization which could hold it in mortmain. In order to prevent damage to crops from stray stock, it was provided that the city council appoint two alcaldes de campo (field watchmen)- one for day duty and the other for night duty-to drive into the city corral (pound) all livestock found in fields under cultivation. Before the owners could recover their animals, they would have to pay the damage caused by the strays. 57 These detailed ordinances reveal the foresight of the Spanish author- ities and their wisdom in formulating regulations designed to take care of many problems connected with the founding of new communities. s11nstructions for the Establishment of the New Villa of Pltlc In the Province of Sonora, Approved by His Majesty and Ordered Adopted for Other Projected New Villas to be Establli;hed In this General Commandancy. The copy In Spanish is in the Bixar Arc/Jivu. The English text is reproduced in full by Hatcher, TA, o-,,,,;,,, of T1,:as to For,ign S,ttlnn111t, Appendix 12.
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