Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/326

308 the old system. On account of Victoria's arrival the matter went no further than the election of comisarios; nor is there any record that it went so far in the districts of San José and San Francisco.

For the rest of 1831, during the exciting epoch of the revolt against Victoria, there is little to be said of mission history, and the project of secularization was at a stand-still. There is a notable absence in the archives of missionary correspondence for the year; and the padres have thus evaded — whether to any extent voluntarily or through accidental loss of papers I am not quite sure — a definite record of their attitude in the quarrel that distracted the territory; though there can be no doubt that their sympathies were strongly in Victoria's favor. The bishop replied in March, by stating briefly that he had no curates at his disposal, and by requesting information upon all that concerned the welfare of California. It would seem that even Victoria had some instructions not altogether opposed to secularization, for in August President Duran issued a circular, in which he asked of the padres, apparently by the governor's order, their opinions of a scheme for emancipating the neophytes and distributing the estates on a basis including the maintenance of religious service, the support of the padres, and the retention of community property