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Rh action of some troops who had sustained the Indians rather than the padres, and of new troubles, not explained, which had come upon himself. "The Indians should not be entirely subjected nor entirely free," yet he saw no practicable middle course, and begged Figueroa to take counsel of unprejudiced persons such as foreigners. Prefect García Diego received in May from the guardian of his college a copy of the secularization law, with orders to obey its provisions and instructions on the methods of surrender to curates. He congratulated the Zacatecanos on the adoption of a measure which would enable them to retire. About the same time he received and circulated an order forbidding the padres to take any part in politics, or to criticise the policy of the government.

Duran seems to have made a report on the plan embodied in the provisional reglamento, which is not extant, but which, on being presented to the diputacion, was referred to a committee, and resulted in a series of supplementary regulations adopted in the extra session of November 3d and issued in a bando by Figueroa on the 4th. No radical changes were introduced by this document, which seems to indicate that Duran and the other friars were inclined to look somewhat favorably on the new system as administered by the governor, or at least, that it was more favorable to their interests than any substitute likely to be obtained.