Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/605

Rh nor is it possible to determine whether the charges made at this time were well founded. Both Ramirez and Mercado were detained for some time at San Antonio, it being Alvarado's intention to send them both out of the country. Perhaps Don Angel escaped to the Tulares and spent some months in the rancherías of gentile tribes. He returned, however, to live again for a time at the missions, and died early in the next year at San Luis Obispo. He had suffered long from a terrible disease, and died at last without receiving the rites of the church. His had been a strange eventful career as friar, soldier, customs officer, and conspirator. He was known in California as an able and brilliant man, but without a redeeming trait in respect of honor and morality. There is nothing in the record to show that his most unenviable reputation was undeserved.