played ability in their written arguments, besides using some severe language; but they went, much further than was necessary or than I have space to follow them, beyond the real question at issue into the rights of the Indians, the equities of secularization, and the constitutional powers of national and territorial authorities. A private conference of leading men was held the 25th, at which Híjar's letter was read, and arguments in support of Figueroa's position were made by the lawyers Luis del Castillo Negrete and Rafael Gomez. Another conference was to be held the next day; but meanwhile Híjar invited Figueroa to breakfast, and tried to bribe him — so says the governor — to deliver the mission property, offering to enrich him, not only with that very property, but with credit and influence in Mexico and $20,000 or more from Jalisco.[1] Figueroa does not appear to have deemed that his honor required anything more than a refusal of the offer; and after a long argument, offered not to oppose, if the diputacion would consent, the delivery of the mission property, on condition that no part of it should be disposed of until a decision could be obtained from Mexico. This proposition was not accepted at the conference that followed, at which Híjar and Padrés are said to have finally given up the contest, admitted the justice of all that the diputacion had done, and announced their purpose to take the colony to Baja California. All protested against this project as ruinous to the colonists, and begged the directors to remain, which they finally consented to do, some slight modifications in the resolutions of the 21st being agreed upon, which modifications, with Híjar's letter of the 23d, were submitted by Figueroa to the diputacion on the 29th.
The diputacion on November 3d, while administering to Híjar a severe reprimand for his "jumble of erroneous ideas, unfounded imputations, and gratuitous
- ↑ Figueroa, Manifiesto, 92.
