e surveying accomplished, part of an irrigating canal
dug, and temporary houses partially erected. In August, after the
viceroy had seen the estimated cost of the establishment, further
progress was arrested by want of funds. Before the end of the century
everybody concerned had come to the conclusion that the villa of
Brancifort was a great blunder,--the "settlers are a scandal to the
country by their immorality. They detest their exile, and render
no service."

In the meantime the Mission authorities protested vigorously against the
new settlement. It was located on the pasture grounds of the Indians;
the laws allowed the Missions a league in every direction, and trouble
would surely result. But the governor retorted, defending his choice of
a site, and claiming that the neophytes were dying off, there were no
more pagans to convert, and the neophytes already had more land and
raised more grain than they could attend to.

In 1805 Captain Goycoechea recommended that as there were no more
gentiles, the neophytes be divided between the Missions of Santa Clara
and San Juan, and the missionaries sent to new fields. Of course nothing
came of this.

In the decade 1820-1830 population declined rapidly, though in
live-stock the Mission about held its own, and in agriculture actually
increased. In 1823, however, there was another attempt to suppress it,
and this doubtless came from the conflicts between the villa of
Brancifort and the Mission. The effort, like the former one, was
unsuccessful.

In 1834-1835 Ignacio del Valle acted as comisionado, and put in effect
the order of secularization. His valuation of the property was $47,000,
exclusive of land and church property, besides $10,000 distributed to
the Indians. There were no subsequent distributions, yet the property
disappeared, for, in 1839, when Visitador Hartwell went to Santa Cruz,
he found only about one-sixth of the live-stock of the inventory of four
years before. The neophytes were organized into a pueblo named Figueroa
after the governor; but it was a mere organization in name, and the
condition of the ex-Mission was no different from that of any of
the others.

The statistics for the whole period of the Mission's existence,
1791-1834, are: baptisms, 2466; marriages, 847; deaths, 2035. The
largest population was 644 in 1798. The largest number of cattle was
3700 in 1828; horses, 900, in the same year; mules, 92, in 1805; sheep,
8300, in 1826.

In January