Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-06-05
PERALTA-REAVIS GRANT
Mass of Documentary Evidence III
trOduced by the Government
Proof That the Alleged Grant
Was Observation-Disclosures
0fReavis for Postpone
ment Denied.

In the matter of the Peralta Reavis land
grant case, pending before the United
States court of private land claims, a
large amount of documentary testimony,
including photographs and translations
of original records of Spain, Mexico and
California, was placed before the court
by the government yesterday afternoon.
This mass of documentary evidence,
illuminated by the lucid explanations Of
United States Attorney Reynolds, Assist
ant United States Attorney Mallet-Pre-
vost and Special Agents Upton and
Hughes, who were chiefly instrumental in
collecting the same, all tends clearly to
show the gradual growth through many
years of the manifestly fabricated and
fraudulent grant claimed by the Peralta-
Reavis people; that since the origin of
the pretended CLAIM, probably quarter
of century ago, immense quantities of
time, labor and money have been ex-
pended in fabricatiug and forging rec
ords and otherwise perfecting and
strengthening the claim for presentation
to the court of private land claims; and
that a large amount of money and labor
have necessarily been expended by the
government in discovering evidence that
would establish the essentially fraudulent
character of the so-caled grant and thus
Justify the court in casting it aside as
vicious and worthless.
For this purpose the governments law
officers have patiently proceeded step by
step. It's experts and agents have gone
to Spain, Mexico, California, and every
where else that Reavis said paper could
be found, and, through the courtesies and
help of the governments indicated, have
been afforded access to the archives and
records desired. Copies of the docu-
ments and records thus procured, veri
fed by photographs and the witnesses
who took them, establish beyond per-
adventure that the alleged grant was
manufactured from beginning to end.
Among other and curious evidences of
fabrication and fraud are the clumsily
written Spanish or "American-Spanish
attributed to the kings of Spain alleged
to have royalty decreed and approved the
pretended grant; proof that the experts
were unable to translate much of this So
called Spanish because they had been un
able to find many of the words used that
the pretended will of the grandfather of
the alleged Mrs. Peralta- Reavis, said to
have been executed in 1868, is clearly a
fraud; that Reavis was caught in the act
of forging and making fraudulent in
Temptations in the records of Spain and
he and his associates we're declared guilty
of forging by the Spanish government;
that records of death and baptism, hav
ing an important bearing on the case,
we're inserted in the archives of Catho-
lie mission in California in bad Spanish
and after the book had been indexed;
that these records were clearly forged and
interpolated.
James Addison Peralta- Reavis has writ
ten the court from San Francisco, accom-
panying his letter with an affidavit, that
he has been unable to secure lawyers to
protect his interests and asking that the
hearing be postponed until November.
In view of the vast amount of land and
other property involved and the ample
time Reavis has had to prepare for the
hearing, the court declined to grant the
request, and the government will con-
tinue the work of putting its testimony
upon the record of the tribunal. Ex-
Mayor j. d. Monihon, of Phoenix, who
was one of the first men approached to
take an interest by Reavis, in what the
latter then termed "a floating grant," is
in the city as an important witness for
the government.
At 2:3O this afternoon Chief Justice
Reed received telegram from James
Addison Peralta- Reavis, dated at San
Francisco, asking that the Peralta grant
case be continued until Monday, June 10,
and saying that he would then be in
Santa Fe with counsel. The case was ac-
cordngly continued until Monday.