methods lawful, and the good fortune of Padrés in securing the aid of the government was not in itself an evidence of corruption. As a matter of course, the empresarios intended to make money; it was certainly not wise to intrust to them such unlimited powers, and it is quite likely that such powers would have been abused by them had they been able to carry out their plans. It is perhaps well for their reputation that they were not submitted to the temptation; but they are entitled to the benefit of the doubt; and in view of subsequent developments charges of contemplated robbery do not altogether become the party which largely controlled the final disposition of the mission estates.[1]
The rendezvous of the colonists at the capital was at the abandoned convent of San Camilo, where a grand ball was given just before the departure, in April 1834. Among the lower classes of the Mexican population — the léperos — there seems to have prevailed an idea that California was a land inhabited exclusively by savage Indians and Mexican convicts, and that families from the capital were being in some way deceived or exiled to that dangerous country against their will. Janssens, Coronel, Ábrego, Híjar, and others agree that hostile demonstrations were made by the mob, which attempted to prevent the departure of the colonists. I think this action was one not likely to have originated with the léperos, but that it must have been prompted by persons, possibly the friars,
- ↑ Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 223-30, is particularly violent in his denunciation and ridicule, giving full credence to every rumored accusation against Híjar and Padrés of deception towards the colonists, of schemes of plunder, and of political plots. Osio, Hist. Cal., MS., 224-30; and Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 309-10, 349-50, take substantially the same view. The animus of these writers on the subject will be more apparent later. By writers generally who have mentioned the colony the scheme has been more or less emphatically condemned, by most on account of the supposed worthless character of the colonists, by some on account of its connection with secularization, and by others because of the personal and political aims of the promoters. Naturally Juan Bandini, Hist. Cal., MS., 59-66, is an earnest defender of the project. Valle, Lo Pasado de Cal., MS., 40-1; and Machado, Tiempos Pasdos, MS., 31, state that Bandini was commonly regarded in southern California as the author of the scheme.
