Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/106

88 all mission products was exacted, citizens having presumably to pay this also in addition to their ecclesiastical tithes. The method of collection was to exact from each mission the largest possible amount of supplies for escoltas and presidial garrisons, and at the end of each year to give credit on account for the excess of amounts thus furnished over the taxes. I find no evidence that any part of the balance was paid in any instance. The padres gave less willingly than in former years, when there had been yet a hope of Spanish supremacy, but the quarrels in local and individual cases were much less frequent than might naturally be expected, or at least such controversies have left little trace in the records.