Measure to check the Russians of Ross/Bodega — the grant of 'Santa Rosa' as a barrier. Echeandía, holding it 'de suma importancia á la seguridad é integridad del territorio nacional,' resolves to plant a settlement on the land between Mission San Rafael and the Russian establishment of the puerto de Bodega, 'que sirva de barrera' against foreign incursion 'para posesionarse de él, como lo han hecho del que ocupan' (i.e., as the Russians did at Bodega) — prompted by the San Rafael missionary's fear (after a Russian reconnaissance the prior year) and to draw in the gentile Indians. He grants the tract known as Santa Rosa to the petitioner 'D.n R. Gómez' (✅ scan-verified 2026-07-01, n65 — first name abbreviated to the initial in Savage's copy; almost certainly the asesor Rafael Gómez, but the document gives only 'R.') (with powers for agriculture & stock-raising) under Art. 12 of the 18 Aug 1824 colonization decree, expressly provisional pending the Exma Diputación (likely never perfected — the 'Cabeza de Santa Rosa' grant went to María Ignacia López de Carrillo in 1841). (Borrador.) The Mexican continuation of Solá's 1818 San Rafael barrier strategy vs. Fort Ross. Orig. pp.166–167.
| Date | 1831-01-08 (exact) |
|---|---|
| From | Echeandía |
| Place | Monterey |
| Series | Dep. State Papers, Benicia (Military) |
| Tomo | LXIX–LXXVII (volume range; this entry is not resolved to one tomo) |
| Original tomo page | 166–167 |
| Savage copy page | 64–65 |
| Scan leaf | n64–n65 |
| Document type | verbatim/correspondence |
| Source | verbatim transcription |
Read this leaf on the Internet Archive ↗ · leaf n64–n65
Echeandía, Monterey, 1831-01-08, Dep. State Papers, Benicia (Military), LXIX–LXXVII, 166–167, Archives of California, C-A 19, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. [the tomo is given as the volume’s full range: this entry has not been resolved to a single tomo within LXIX–LXXVII]Cite the document by series, tomo and original tomo page, as the literature does; the C-A number locates it in the repository. To cite this catalogue entry itself, use https://archivesofcalifornia.com/record/ca19/ca19-d70.html