 After the secularizing of the Missions, many of the surviving Mission Indians switched from being unpaid workers for the missions to unpaid laborers and vaqueros (cowboys) of the about 500 large Californio owned ranchos.Before Alta California became a part of the Mexican state, about 30 Spanish land grants had already been deeded in all of Alta California to Presidio soldiers and government officials and a few friends and family of the Alta California Governors, some of whom were grandchildren of the original 1775 Anza expedition settlers.The 1824 Mexican Colony Law established rules for petitioning for land grants in California; and by 1828, the rules for establishing land grants were codified in the Mexican Reglamento (Regulation).