Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/72

54 Padrés and Rafael Gomez were sent to California as ayudante inspector and asesor, respectively. The military command of Lower California was detached in the middle of 1829 and joined to the comandancia general of Sonora; and about the same time Colonel Antonio García was appointed to succeed Echeandía in the governorship. For reasons that I suppose to have been connected with Bustamante's accession to the presidency in January 1830, García did not come to take possession of his office; and on March 8th Lieut.-colonel Manuel Victoria was made gefe político of Alta California, the gefatura política of the peninsula being now detached as the mando militar had been before, so that now the two territories were again distinct. Victoria had been previously for a time comandante principal of Lower California; he came up from Loreto by land, arriving at San Diego perhaps in December 1830; but he did not take possession of his office until the next year. Meanwhile in these last years Echeandía was busied chiefly with mission affairs and commercial matters. He had been