Page 7 - ladwp_kinsey1932

CHAPTER I.
Spanish Settlers

woman with an

uting system.
To the inhabitants of the
Pueblo Los Angeles in those
early days, . the India~ water-
carrier was the most impor-
tant of all civic function-
aries. Then, as now, every activity depended upon and
revolved about the maintenance of an adequate supply of
water and water power.
It was, in fact, the discovery of the Los Angeles River
that brought about the establishment of Los Angeles· in
1 781. Here it was that Gaspar de Portola, on August 2,
1769, found water on his historic march of exploration
from San Diego to Monterey. When Governor Philip
de Neve of Alta California, some ten years later, came
to inspect this water-blessed area, he immediately marked
it as the site of a new settlement and sent word to
Mexico to organize a band of colonists. The colonists,
consisting of eleven families, arrived in 1781.
In recognition of the vital importance of the Los
Angeles River, as the basis of the new community's life
and growth, ownership to all the water of this stream
was officially granted to the pueblo for all time in a royal
proclamation signed by King Carlos III of Spain, the same
year the pueblo was founded. Since that distant day the
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