Mission Santa Clara de Asís

The first day we reached Gilroy's and camped by a stream near three or four adobe huts known as Gilroy's Ranch.

The next day we passed Murphy's, San Jose, and Santa Clara Mission, camping some four miles beyond, where a kind of hole had been dug in the ground for water.

The whole of this distance, now so beautifully improved and settled, was then scarcely occupied, except by poor ranches producing horses and cattle.

The Pueblo of San Jose was a string of low adobe houses, festooned with red peppers and garlic.

about this time may and june eighteen forty eight far more importance was attached to quicksilver one mine the new almaden twelve miles south of san jose was well known and was in possession of the agent of a scotch gentleman named fortis who at the time was british consul at tepic mexico Mr. Fortis came up from San Blas in a small brig which proved to be a Mexican vessel.

The vessel was seized, condemned, and actually sold, but Fortis was wealthy and bought her in.

His title to the quicksilver mine was, however, never disputed, as he had bought it regularly, before our conquest of the country, from another British subject, also named Fortis, a resident of Santa Clara Mission, who had purchased it of the discoverer, a priest.

But the boundaries of the land attached to the mine were even then in dispute.