A growing port town

The transition from Spanish to Mexican rule changes civic authority and property administration. Los Santos’s landing, workshops, ranching trade and lodging houses expand.

Cards are played in merchants’ rooms, boarding houses and waterfront drinking establishments. Credit remains personal. An unpaid stake can cost a sailor his next berth or make a supplier unwilling to extend another month’s credit.

Respectable creditors sometimes denounce gambling while quietly purchasing the debts it produces.

The later transition to United States control creates another round of disputed titles. It changes the people empowered to recognize ownership, but does not erase older claims or the obligations attached to them.