confused. Here, we must mention perhaps the most deplorable incidents of
this period, incidents to which in spite of ourself we have so often
alluded, namely the Acts of Secularization of the missions. First, we
will mention that some writers accuse Spain of having passed an Act of
Secularization of Mission property in 1813, but such an assertion is
considered unfounded by good authorities, perhaps it had rise from the
fact that disturbances against Spanish rule were felt in Mexico as early
as that period and echoes of it reached the small Mexican faction of
California, causing much uneasiness to the missionaries. But three Acts
of Secularization of the missions were passed in the years 1826, 1829
and 1835. And what did not the good fathers with their neophytes and
converts suffer! And what did not the many loyal friends of these
beloved fathers not suffer with them through sympathy! Indeed no
Spaniard or his descendants can speak of those Acts without the crimson
of just indignation mounting to the cheek. But Spaniards were powerless
to check the lawlessness of the times. The missions were gradually but
slowly dispossessed of their lawful property, and all their wealth
confiscated, several times were many of the dear Spanish fathers
deported; they returned to Spain where a warm welcome awaited them, but
how sad to leave their missions reared by the most heroic labors of the
"martyr stuff" within them or their immediate predecessors, Serra,
Lasuen, Lopez, Dumetz, Crespi, Palou, names "held in benediction;" and
what would become of their poor converted Indians who clung to them so
faithfully and whom they had raised to the plane of christian men and
women from nakedness, savagery and paganism! Besides the missionaries,
many other Spaniards, too, were put on a list of those to be deported,
among these there would not have been much resistance offered, as the
changes of the government were sad enough, but before the resolution was
carried out, while many of them were settling their affairs and
preparing to leave, a few of the better class of Mexicans interposed,