Bernal

The claim in this case is for a tract of land of the extent of about one square league, alleged to have been granted to the deceased husband of the claimant, as an augmentation of a tract previously granted. No title paper is produced by the party interested, nor do the archives contain any trace whatever of the pretended grant It is alleged in the petition to the board that Juan Martin, some time in 1845 or 1846, made an application to Manuel Castro, prefect of the district, for the tract in question, accompanying the petition with a map; that he was subsequently informed by Castro that the grant had been made, but that he had been unable to procure it from Castro, not having seen him until that day, viz. March 2,' 1853; that petitioner further stated that Castro had informed her attorney that he had the title in his possession, in the city of Monterey, and from whence it should be brought with all possible dispatch. In the deposition of Manuel Castro, taken nearly two years afterwards, the theory of the petition that the grant was in Monterey appears to have been abandoned. Castro testifies that Juan Martin presented a petition to him for the land in question, accompanied by a…