Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/113

Rh and searched by Alcalde Carrillo of Los Angeles, on suspicion of complicity in smuggling. Sanchez was indignant at what he deemed an insult, and demanded his passport; but Echeandía, by declaring the suspicions unfounded, and by conciliatory methods, succeeded in calming the worthy president's wrath.

The law of 1827 on the expulsion of Spaniards from Mexican territory, reaching California in 1828, had no other effect on the status of the missionaries than to give them another safe opportunity to demand their passports, as many of them did, some perhaps really desiring to depart. There was no disposition to enforce the decree, for reasons known to the reader. Meanwhile the Spanish friars had been actually expelled from Mexico, and a most disheartening report came respecting the state of affairs at the college of San Fernando.

There would seem to have been some complaint against Echeandía for not having enforced the law of 1827, for in June 1829, apparently before the arrival of the law of March 20th, he sent to Mexico a list of