The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-09
RRAYIS AND
PERALTA LAND

he confession or James ADDISON
Peralta) Reavis gives TO the public
the details of the most gigantic fraud
ever planned against the United
States Government, says the ArgOnaut,
and makes plain the mysteries OF man
ufactured evidence which all the de-
tectives employed in the case We're I'M
able to solve Had the scheme been
carried through successfully-and 1t
was on the verge Of success when the
exposure came-Reavis would have
received from the government title 10
twelve million acres of land in Arizo-
IA, valued at one hundred million dol
lars His story is here condensed from
special article in a recent issue Of
the San Francisco Call.
Reavis was a Missouri boy and en-
listed in the Confederate army in 1861
Afterward he was a real-estate agent
in ST. Louis, and there met DIR. George
Nj. Willing, who had in his possession
the forged Perajta grant as first crude
ly drawn. Reavis was not taken
at first with the idea of estab-
fishing the title, and neglected the
sckeme for several years, during which
time he visited California and while
doing newspaper work made some ac
qEaintances who proved of great SER
vice afterwards.
''The contest between jay Gould and
the Southern Pacific Railroad was then
at its height. The Southern Pacific
right of way, as surveyed, ran through
the Peralta grant. | went to Hunting
ton, Stanford, and Crocker with the
Willing title, and they advanced me
money to trace its authenticity. l went
Immediately to Arizona, and there.
after much patient research and trip
to Mexico, learned that the Willing
title was purely mythical. The way Of
it was this: October 20, 1864, in Black
Canon, Yavapai County, Arizona,
there existed a mining camp, the prin-
cipal persons of the camp being DR..
George NJ. Willing, of st. Louis, Don
Antonio Pablo Peralta, his son Miguel
L
Guinness, Don Rafael Machado, Don
Manuel Ramon, and Charles Lovejoy
friend Of Willing. Among these orr
ginated the idea of the Peralta grant.
Another mythical person executed a
deed of this parole grant to DR.. Will
ing, the paper reciting that the grant
had been coded to the father OF the
maker of the deed by the King of Spain
for military services in 1853, and that
he had been forced to abandon it on &C
count of hostile Indians. 1T embraced
three hundred square leagues Of land
located along the ella River"
Having convinced himself that the
Willing paper was fraudulent, Reavis
had plain duty to perform in making
known the fact TO those who had as
sisted him in the search But his in
clination was in another direction. He
returned to San Francisco prepared to
embark on his fraudulent scheme: =
Il made a satisfactory showing Of a
partial title (Which 1 had forged with
w. Mackay stood sponsor for me To go
to Spain for the purpose of completing
the title and determining Of what lands
the grant actually consisted. l had
guarantee of five hundred dollars per
month and earned additional money as
a correspondent for the newspapers.
In Spain / gained admittance to the
archives under the preteXt that | was
hunting UP newspaper stories. 1 found
that the Peralta family was extinct
and that the Peraltas in Arizona and
Mexico were descendants of the ser
wants of the family who had taken the
name of the house. Then l selected
another defunct family named Silva
and made my hero the issue of these
families and called him Silva de Pc
rata
Reavis had undoubted qualifications
for his work. His ingenuity and patti
ence were monumental:
All my work was characterized by
absolute simplicity. By going to differ
ent scribes and using caution none OF
them suspected the purpose to which l
put their writings. Recurring to the
work in Spain, recall that l had stuff
fed the archives there in two cities
Madrid and Seville-before I sought
any copies; in other words, 1 always
did my work in that line before I be-
gan an investi CATION, depending upon
the investigation to develop the work
that I had deposited in the archives
He now seemed to be on the high
road to success The mass of docu-
ments he brought back from Spain and
Mexico impressed all who saw them.
He gained the confidence and made use