<P> "Mission Carmel", as it came to be known, was Serra's favorite and, because it was close to Monterey, the capital of Alta California, he chose it as his headquarters . When he died on August 28, 1784, he was interred beneath the chapel floor . After Serra's death, Father Fermin Lasuén replaced the adobe structure with one made of stone quarried from the nearby Santa Lucia Mountains . </P> <P> Eight months later, in August 1833, the newly independent Mexican government secularized the mission and all its lands . It stipulated that half the mission lands should be awarded to the native people, but this purpose was never accomplished . Most mission property was bought by government officials or their wealthy friends . The priests could not maintain the missions without the Indians' forced labor and the mission and lands were soon abandoned . The Indians were forced from the mission . Some attempted to return to their native ways, and others found work as ranch hands or servants on farms and ranches . </P> <P> By 1850, the mission was nearly a ruin . The stone chapel building was deteriorating while most of the adobe buildings were eroding away . The roof collapsed in 1852 . The U.S. federal government returned the mission and its lands to the Catholic Church in 1859 . </P> <P> When Mexico ceded California to the United States following the Mexican--American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored, but required that the owners provide legal proof of their title . As required by the Land Act of 1851, Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany filed a claim on February 19, 1853 on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church . He sought return of all former mission lands in the State . The state agreed to return the original mission buildings, cemeteries, and gardens to the church . </P>

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