Heading: (Mexico & California)
Author: [Lafragua, José Maria]
Title: Reglamento de la Dirección de Colonización [bound with another work on colonization in Mexico]
Place Published: Mexico
Publisher:
Date Published: 1846 & 1848
Description:

Comprises:

• 
  [Lafragua, José Maria]. Reglamento de la Direccio?n de Colonizacio?n. [2], 22 pp. Signed in type on final page, "Lafragua." Imprenta del Aguila, 1846.


• 
  [Gálvez, Mariano]. Proyectos de colonizacion, presentados por la Junta Directiva del ramo, al Ministerio de Relaciones de la Repu?blica Mexicana en 5 de Julio de 1848. 40 pp.; folding table. Imprenta de Vicente Garci?a Torres,1848.

2 volumes in 1. 14.5x9.5 cm (5¾x3¾"), modern leather-backed marbled boards, spine lettered in gilt. First Editions.

Significant pair of publications on colonization in Mexico, and into the lands comprising Alta California and the Southwest that were slipping away under the weight of the U.S. juggernaut. The first is a compilation of all of the Mexican laws relating to colonization, including both of the Californias. Streeter allows that "I have listed under California since these regulations, which were promulgated December 4, 1846, nominally prevailed in California at the time, and the price of lands in Upper and Lower California is specifically given." Soon, of course, California of the North would be taken over by the government of the United States and inundated with gold seekers from around the world. The second work, of which only four copies are listed in OCLC, lays out the project to encourage the immigration of foreigners to the country, for which religious tolerance and the distribution of land without cost was proposed. The transfer of vagrants to the military colonies of the North was also proposed. They sought to stabilize the Nation and prevent future losses of territory such as the one that had just happened.

Fine or nearly so.