Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/349

Rh to their missions," the author having of course little doubt that they would eventually be thus returned.

While Figueroa's plan was not so radical as to greatly excite the opposition even of friars, yet when he attempted its execution he encountered obstacles and found no popular enthusiasm in its favor. It was tolerated by the padres as an experiment not seriously interfering with the mission system, nor very destructive to their interest in the mission property, but sure to result in proving the utter incapacity of the Indians for self-government. But, for the same reasons largely, it was only passively approved by the gente de razon, who saw in it no direct avenue to the mission lands and herds and servants, while the neophytes themselves were ambitious only to have the property to dispose of as they pleased, and could see little that was attractive in pueblo life under authority, in a living that was to be earned, in having fields that must be tilled, and cattle that could not be bartered. The governor, however, made an earnest effort to give the Indians the civil liberty so little prized by them, but so valuable in the eyes of Mexican theorists. He visited the southern missions in person, exhorting the assembled neophytes and explaining to them the advantages of the proffered freedom. Of one hundred and sixty families at San Diego and San Luis, qualified according to the standard established, only ten could be induced to accept emancipation before Figueroa started on his return to the north. He persevered in his efforts nevertheless, appointing captains Argüello and Portilla as comisionados. The results cannot be exactly known. Some families were emancipated at San Diego and San Luis, but not enough apparently to form a new pueblo; though they received lands, managed their own property, and became citizens.