In 1837 secularization was effected by Ramon Estrada. In 1839-1840 reports show that two-thirds of the cattle and sheep had disappeared. The downfall of the Mission was very rapid. The neophyte population in 1832 was 1125, in 1834 about 800, and at the end of the decade about 290, with 150 more scattered in the district. [Illustration: ONE OF THE DOORS, SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.] [Illustration: IN THE AMBULATORY AT SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.] [Illustration: MISSION SANTA CLARA IN 1849.] [Illustration: CHURCH OF SANTA CLARA. On the site of old Mission of Santa Clara.] The total of baptisms from 1777 to 1874 is 8640, of deaths 6950. The old register of marriages records 3222 weddings from January 12, 1778, to August 15, 1863. In 1833 Padre Viader closed his missionary service of nearly forty years in California by leaving the country, and Padre Francisco García Diego, the prefect of the Zacatecan friars, became his successor. Diego afterwards became the first bishop of California. In July, 1839, a party called Yozcolos, doubtless after their leader, attacked the neophytes guarding the Santa Clara wheat-fields, killing one of them. The attackers were pursued, and their leader slain, and the placing of his head on a pole seemed to act as a deterrent of further acts for awhile. In December of the same year Prado Mesa made an expedition against gentile thieves in the region of the Stanislaus River. He was surprised by the foe, three of his men killed, and he and six others wounded, besides losing a number of his weapons. This Indian success caused great alarm, and a regular patrol was organized to operate between San José and San Juan Missions for the protection of the ranches. This uprising of the Indians was almost inevitable. Deprived of their maintenance at the Missions, they were practically thrown on their own resources, and in many cases this left them a prey to the evil leadership of desperate men of their own class. Santa Clara was one of the Missions immediately affected by the decree of Micheltorena, of March 29, 1843, requiring that the padres reassume the management of the temporalities. They set to work to gather up what fragments they could find, but the flocks and herds were "lent" where they could not be recovered, and one flock of 4000 sheep--the padre says 6000--were taken by M.J. Vallejo, "legally, in aid of the government." Pio Pico's decree of June 5, 1845, affected Santa Clara. Andrés Pico made a valuation of the property at $16,173. There were then 130 ex-neophytes, the live-stock had dwindled down to 430 cattle, 215 horses, and 809 sheep. The padre found it necessary to write a sharp letter to the alcalde of San José on the grog-shops of that pueblo, which encouraged drinking among his Indians to such extent that they were completely demoralized.