Note 15 — XVI THE CALIFORNIA QUESTION 1836–1846

Although no formal meeting took place at Santa Barbara, Capt. Blake, of the British warship Juno, who went there, was appealed to for protection on the ground that Mexico and England were allied nations (12Seymour to Admiralty, Aug. 27, 1846). Some proposed, should England refuse it, to address France. About this time an Irish priest named McNamara arrived in a British vessel with a grand scheme of colonization, and obtained an immense grant of land. The scheme was much talked about, but signified nothing. The grant was illegally made. Mexico, though she treated McNamara pleasantly did not endorse the plan, and in all probability would not have confirmed such a grant, had California remained under her jurisdiction, for she was extremely suspicious of England, and could see that 10,000 British colonists would be a dangerous element. Indeed, McNamara was suspected at Mexico of acting in the interest of England. A few of the documents bearing on this subject are: Ramírez, Méx., 246; Ho. 17; 31, 1 (Halleck, Cuevas, Castillo y Lanzas); Bancroft, Pac. States, xvii, 215–23; Sen. Report 75; 30, 1 (testimony of Frémont and others; the McNamara papers); Royce, California, 166; 52Larkin, no. 56, Aug. 22, 1846; 335McNamara, proposition, May 17, 1845.