The Newly independent government of Mexico became concerned in 1821 about the lack of progress made by the Franciscans in preparing the California mission Indians to take their place in the new nation. The government feared that Upper California might well be lost to the encroachments of the Russians or the Americans if it were not settled by a thriving community of Mexican citizens able to exploit its great natural resources. Influenced by the new egalitarian and humanitarian concepts of the day, the authorities felt that the mission Indians were more like serfs than citizens. Unimpressed by the arguments of the experienced Franciscan Fathers that the Indians would either revert to their wild life in the hills or be enslaved by the white settlers if they were prematurely released from the missions, the government decided to instigate a series of experiments, reminiscent of those made in the days of Father Bartolomé de las Casas, to see what actually would happen. A program was begun involving extensive research in the culture and civilization of the California Indians.

The names of most of the 21 California missions as they appear in the founding reports and on the title pages of the parochial books of baptisms, deaths, and marriages are not the same as the names by which they are known at present; names have been shortened for convenience, and changes have been made as the result of changed conditions, especially in the spelling and accentuation. At the time that the names were written and during the sixty-five years of the existence of the missions, there was no uniformity in spelling or punctuation. This problem of uniformity did not arise until after the publication of A. Bello’s Gramática in 1847.

Early in the year 1776 the Franciscan missionary college of San Fernando at Mexico addressed the Spanish throne with a report on “ the felicitous new discoveries (above the anciently conquered part of California) made between 1769 and the present year 1776, and contained between 30° 26′ and 57° 18′ north latitude.” In claiming His Majesty’s attention, the College felt itself justified by the importance of “ the missions founded under its charge in this space of over five hundred leagues of the South Sea coasts,” and by the fact that “its Religious have been in all the Expeditions by sea and land, everywhere observing all so much as they have judged conducive to the Service of both Majesties, and to the good of the countless unhappy Heathens who inhabit those remote regions of the North.”