Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/346

328 June. The result of his investigations was to convince him that any general measure of secularization would be ruinous, and that a change of system, though necessary, must be very gradually effected. So he reported to the Mexican government, and to President Duran and Prefect García Diego in July. To the secretary of the interior he described the character and circumstances of the neophytes, representing them as totally unfit by nature and training for sudden emancipation. To the prelates he stated that the partition of lands at San Diego would be only partial and provisional, though insisting that all qualified neophytes must be freed from missionary control, and calling for their views on the general subject. He also issued a series of regulations on gradual emancipation, to go into effect provisionally until approved by the diputacion and by the supreme government.