Note 3 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
See Farnham's Adventures. Wilkes's and Fremont's Narratives, and Emory's Report.—In 1846, Eugenio Macnamara, a Catholic priest and Missionary, obtained a grant of a large tract of land between the San Joaquin and the Sierra Nevada, the Cosumnes and the Tulares in the vicinity of San Gabriel, from Pio Pico, governor of the Californias, for the purpose of establishing upon it a large colony of Irish Catholics; but the grant was not ratified by the Central Government, and the project was not carried into effect. There is no evidence that Father Macnamara was aware of the existence of gold in the valley of the San Joaquin.