Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/362

344 evidently intended to conciliate as far as possible the good-will of the missionaries and to use all possible precautions against the evils to be feared from a sudden and radical change.

In the middle of October, after some progress had been made in carrying into effect the law under Figueroa's regulations, Híjar appeared on the scene with instructions dated April 23d which contained certain articles regulating the law of August 1833, or at least were the only regulations on the subject that the Mexican government had deigned to issue. I append those articles in a note. Their exact meaning is not quite clear, since, literally interpreted, they contain not a word to authorize the distribution of any portion of the mission property to neophytes. This fact enabled Figueroa and his friends to denounce with much plausibility the whole scheme as one of deliberate plunder. I suppose, however, that the failure of the government to define specifically the Indians' rights was but a part of the general carelessness observable in all official transactions relating to the