Vanderslice

delivered the opinion of the court, with whom Anderson, Justice, concurred.

This was an action of ejectment for lands in Santa Clara County. The plaintiffs derive title from Augustin Narvaez, who derives from a grant of the Mexican Governor Micheltoreno, which is in the following words:—

To this grant is attached a diagram or plat, with the following certificate:

It was objected to the sufficiency of this grant:—

This grant was made while the country was under the dominion of Mexico, and must be tested by the rules of law which then prevailed, and which authorized its execution. The cession of the country to the United States has worked no change in the legal rights of private persons. By the law of nations they are equally protected without any treaty stipulations; and this principle has been in many cases recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States. In Mitchell etal. v. the United States, 9 Peters, the-court says: “ By the law of nations the inhabitants of a ceded *38 country retain all rights of property.” And again: “ A treaty of cession is a grant by one sovereign to another, which transferred nothing to which he had no right of property. By the treaty with…