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266 abandoned the idea of conquest by force of arms. The oidores, however, considered that the subjugation of the Indians could be accomplished by the Jesuits and proposed that they should make the attempt, the exlenses incurred being paid by the crown. The provincial of the order saw fit to decline the offer, alleging that the civil and temporal duties which their missionaries would be obliged to undertake would be inconsistent with the constitution of the society.

Urged by renewed instructions from Cárlos II. to omit no means of accomplishing the settlement of Lower California, the viceroy in 1690 consulted with Otondo relative to the annual cost of the maintenance of a presidio on the Peninsula. Otondo was of opinion that thirty thousand pesos a year would be sufficient, and the viceroy gave orders for an appropriation to that amount, but the demand from the court for a large sum of money prevented immediate action, and the meditated expedition was indefinitely postponed. And now notwithstanding their former action the Jesuits came forward, and in 1696 proposed to undertake the reduction of the natives, and commenced collecting alms for that purpose. Viceroy Ortega warmly approved the plan, but deemed it proper to consult the audiencia as to the advisability of extending the necessary license. The oidores displayed an inconsistency almost equal to that of the Jesuits, and long debated whether it would be right to intrust such a matter to a religious order.

This hesitation caused much astonishment, but it was finally arranged that the commission should be granted on condition that the society should not make any demand upon the royal treasury, and that they should take possession of the country in the name of Cárlos II. The audiencia, however, conceded to fathers Salvatierra and Kino, the promoters of the enterprise, and to their successors, the right to select the troops and officers which might be required, and to discharge them when they deemed it necessary, after