The Secularization of the Missions
55
The survey and subdivision of the farm lands for San Jose took longer than for the other missions. Pedro Huizar reported on July 22, however, that he had completed the task. The following day Governor Munoz, Father Pedrajo, Huizar, Herrera, and twenty-eight others, heads of families and bachelors, went to the lands surveyed for the formal assignment. The plats, it is to be noted, were larger than those of the two previously secularized missions, for these were two hundred by three hundred varas each. After giving each Christian Indian one plat, Governor Munoz granted to the six heads of the gentile Indians, who were still under instruction, two similar plats which would enable them to acquire habits of industry. For the communal lands, eight plats were set aside, each one four hundred by two hundred varas. The governor and the other officials then returned to the mission where the rest of the property was distributed to the neophytes. This consisted of sixteen plows, eight harrows, and two plowshares weighing sixcy-two pounds; six hoes, seven axes, one chisel, two crowbars weighing twenty- four pounds; four bucksaws, one handsaw, an English saw, eighteen adzes, and fifty-two pairs of shears. The mission had fourteen yoke of oxen, thirteen yoke of young bullocks partially trained to work, and thirty-four milk cows with their calves. One cow was given to each Indian and to Fermin Ramirez who had married a Creole woman and had left the mission pueblo but returned to claim his share; the other six were given to the gentile Indians in the mission. Twenty-seven horses belonged to the mission, likewise seven mares, of which five were given to the gentile Indians. The field planted with two bushels of corn was almost ready to harvest, and another field with seven bushels would be harvested later; four fields were planted with sugar cane in one hundred eight rows. The granary contained ninety cargas (sacks) of wheat, calculated to be about five hundred forty bushels. Included in the list were a branding iron, three looms fully equipped, five pairs of carders, and twenty-three arrobas (five hundred seventy-five pounds) of raw wool. Two droves of mares, each of forty-five head, and a stallion, were in the inventory. A completely equipped blacksmith shop with its bellows. anvils, hammers, tongs, files, and other tools were mentioned. There were other miscellaneous articles, such as a mason's hammer, two stone picks, a bushel measure and a peck measure, a plane, a large bit, and a large wooden tool box with two latches. They were also given the deed to eleven sitios of land which had been purchased by the mission on November 22, 1766, from Francisco
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