Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/356

338 and one, José Viader, left the country. If we add to these losses the five padres who had died, and one who had left California in 1831-2, we have a gain of only one during the three years covered by this chapter, notwithstanding the coming of the Zacatecanos.

Narciso Duran succeeded Sanchez as president of the missions in June 1831, being also prelate, vicar, ecclesiastical judge, and apparently vice-prefecto, there being no change in 1834-5 or the period included in the following chapter. Duran's authority was confined to the missions south of San Antonio after the coming of the Zacatecanos in March 1833. Padre Sarría, as already noted, had held the office of comisario prefecto down to 1830; but while there is no record of his ceasing to hold that office or that a successor was appointed, neither is there any evidence that he or any other friar performed any duties of the position after 1830, and he is spoken of in 1833 as ex-prefect. Therefore we must conclude that the office of prefect was abolished during these years so far as the Fernandinos were concerned. It is to be noted that Padre Sanchez issued several papers after he left the presidency in 1831, which by their tone would indicate that he still held some authority over the friars, but there is no other evidence that such was the case. In the north, García Diego was comisario prefecto of the Zacatecanos during the period covered by this chapter and the next, Rafael Moreno being president and vice-prefect from the beginning of 1834.