California, but also to
colonize the country. In accordance with this plan the pueblo of San
Jose was founded on the 29th of November, 1776. The second was that of
Los Angeles in 1781. Rivera was sent to secure colonists in Sonora and
Sinaloa for the new pueblo, and also for the establishments it was
intended to found on the channel of Santa Barbara.

In due time colonists were secured, and a more mongrel lot it would be
hard to conceive: Indian, Spanish, Negro, Indian and Spanish, and Indian
and Negro bloods were represented, 42 souls in all. The blood which
makes the better Spanish classes in Los Angeles to-day so proud
represents those who came in much later.

There was nothing accidental in the founding of any Spanish colony.
Everything was planned beforehand. The colonist obeyed orders as rigidly
executed as if they were military commands. According to
Professor Guinn:

"The area of a pueblo, under Spanish rule, was four square
leagues, or about 17,770 acres. The pueblo lands were divided
into _solares_ (house lots), _suertes_[5] (fields for
planting), _dehesas_ (outside pasture lands), _ejidos_
(commons), _propios_ (lands rented or leased), _realengas_
(royal lands)."

[5] _Suerte_. This is colloquial, it really means "chance" or
"haphazard." In other words, it was the piece of ground that fell to the
settler by "lot."

On the arrival of the colonists in San Gabriel from Loreto on the 18th
of August, 1781, Governor Neve issued instructions for founding Los
Angeles on the 26th. The first requirement was to select a site for a
dam, to provide water for domestic and irrigation purposes. Then to
locate the plaza and the homes and fields of the colonists. Says
Professor Guinn:

"The old plaza was a parallelogram too varas[6] in length by
75 in breadth. It was laid out with its corners facing the
cardinal points of the compass, and with its streets running
at right angles to each of its four sides, so that no street
would be swept by the wind. Two streets, each 10 varas wide,
opened out on the longer sides, and three on each of the
shorter sides. Upon three sides of the plaza were the house
lots, 20 by 40 varas each, fronting on the square. One-half
the remaining side was reserved for a guard-house, a
town-house, and a public granary. Around the embryo town, a
few years later, was built an adobe wall--not so much,
perhap