Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/619

Rh of missions, as will be more fully explained elsewhere. Vallejo would not permit Hartnell to take possession of San Rafael in pursuance of his instructions, and even arrested the visitador, and carried him across the bay as a prisoner, for having ventured to interfere in matters concerning the northern frontier without his consent. His position was, not only that by virtue of his military jurisdiction and office of director of colonization he had exclusive control of Indian affairs north of the bay, but that San Rafael was no longer a mission, the property having once been distributed and only restored partially under his solemn promise of redistribution – a promise for the fufilment of which the Indians were clamorous, and which he would fulfil at any cost.

The distribution of the public funds continued of course to be a subject of contention. Vallejo accused Ábrego of not dividing the revenues equally as the law required between civil and military employees. He called often for exact statements of the division; he denied the governor's right to interfere in military accounts, and gave his communications the form of positive orders. Ábrego, on the other hand, delighted in the governor's interference against the 'autocrat of Sonoma,' called upon Vallejo to show his commission as comandante general or be content with a captain's pay, and refused to pay the salary of Richardson and