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burned most of the town some years ago when it consisted of the ordinary grass-thatched jacales & the town officials then made an ordinance that no more wooden buildings should be built in the town. Many of the houses are still grass-thatched although many use tiles. This locality is especially good for rice a very fine quality of which is grown on the hill slopes all about. The dense growth of the bushes and low trees is cut away & burned leaving the ground free for one or two crops before the weeds become troublesome and then the ground is abandoned & a new clearing made. The lands are still held in common here. An enormous tract is held thus by these people & by a recent decision of the president of the Republic a large tract formerly sold by the town officials (in 1857) & held ever since by different owners is now declared the property of the town owing to some technical error in the former transfer. This strikes the Degyues family of San Geronimo who hold most of these lands & have considerable improvements there. Others who hold under them are also out of their property. A Mr. T. H. Woolrich, an Englishman in Teh. is another one injured by this decision. (See copy of this document among my papers)-

The Degyues family and Woolrich say they had no notification of any adverse trial or hearing in regard to these lands but that the first news they had was the receipt of the copy of the judgment against them and a notice from  

Transcription Notes:
The next page appears to give his first name as Thos. (Thomas). [[Teh?]] is likely an abbreviation for Tehuantepec, a city in Oaxaca near places he's mentioned before like Salina Cruz