 He soon became one of the most prosperous merchants in Alta California.He became friends with the established Californio families, and in 1841 he married María Francisca Estudillo, eldest daughter of José Antonio Estudillo, a prominent landowner.He and Francisca settled into the grand home he had built in Santa Barbara, but Francisca died within the year, in October 1842, during what would have been the birth of their first child.