Pico

The claim in this case was confirmed by the board, and it is submitted to this court on substantially the same evidence as that on which it was decided by the commissioners. 1 The original grant by Pio Pico, dated May 5, 1846, is produced, and its genuineness testified to by Pio Pico himself. The claimants have also produced an original communication from the minister of war and marine, dated March 10, 1846, to Pio Pico, which the latter alleges he received prior to making the grant in this case, and which contains, as he states, the authority under which he acted. There is also produced a receipt from Gov. Pico for $6,000, on account of the $12,000 for which the mission was sold; and one from Gen. Jose Castro for a like sum—the first dated May 15, 1846, the last July 28th of the same year. The claimants have also produced a document signed by Pio Pico, in which he recites an order from himself to the father president of the missions of the north, and dated May 5. 1846. In this order the governor informs the father that the government, in view of the urgent necessities of the nation, as communicated in the official note of the minister of war and marine of the 10th March, 1846,…