uld have been permitted to
restrain, they were blown up with gunpowder by mistaken friends who
expected to rebuild the church with the same material, but never did so.

This earthquake of 1812 was felt almost the whole length of the Mission
chain, and it did much damage. It occurred on Sunday morning December 8.
At San Juan a number of neophytes were at morning mass; the day had
opened with intense sultriness and heaviness; the air was hot and seemed
charged with electricity. Suddenly a shock was felt. All were alarmed,
but, devoted to his high office, the padre began again the solemn words,
when, suddenly, the second shock came and sent the great tower crashing
down upon one of the domes or vaults, and in a moment the whole mass of
masonry came down upon the congregation. Thirty-nine were buried in the
next two days, and four were taken out of the ruins later. The
officiating priest escaped, as by a miracle, through the sacristy.

It was in 1814 that Padre Boscana, who had been serving at San Luis Rey,
came to reside at San Juan Capistrano, where he wrote the interesting
account of the Indians that is so often quoted. In 1812, its population
gained its greatest figure, 1361.

In November, 1833, Figueroa secularized the Mission by organizing a
"provisional pueblo" of the Indians, and claiming that the padres
voluntarily gave up the temporalities. There is no record of any
inventory, and what became of the church property is not known. Lands
were apportioned to the Indians by Captain Portilla. The following year,
most probably, all this provisional work of Figueroa's was undone, and
the Mission was secularized in the ordinary way, but in 1838 the Indians
begged for the pueblo organization again, and freedom from overseers,
whether lay or clerical. In 1840 Padre Zalvidea was instructed to
emancipate them from Mission rule as speedily as possible. Janssens was
appointed majordomo, and he reported that he zealously worked for the
benefit of the Mission, repairing broken fences and ditches, bringing
back runaway neophytes, clothing them and caring for the stock. But
orders soon began to come in for the delivery of cattle and horses,
applications rapidly came in for grants of the Mission ranches, and
about the middle of June, 1841, the lands were divided among the
ex-neophytes, about 100 in number, and some forty whites. At the end of
July regulations were published for the foundation of the pueblo, and
Don Juan Bandini soo