Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/107

Rh Meanwhile the missions got nothing from the pious fund through the Mexican treasury, in addition to the stipends of 1819-22, the payment of which has already been noted. It is not certain even that any of the latter amount, about $24,000, ever came to California, but probably some cargoes of mission goods were paid for by the síndico at Tepic out of that sum. Only fragments of the mission accounts have been preserved for these years.

We have seen that the padres as a rule refused to take the oath of obedience to the constitution of 1824, or to solemnize by religious exercises any act of the republican government; and that Prefect Sarría had been put under arrest, though it had not been deemed wise to carry into effect the orders requiring the reverend prisoner to be sent by the first ship to Mexico. In fact, the friars were yet, in a great measure, masters of the situation, because they could keep the neophytes in subjection, and above all make them work. The great fear was that the missionaries