 During the same period, Father Payéras held the office of "vicario foraneo" of the Bishop of Sonora, to whose jurisdiction California belonged.In 1819 the College of San Fernando elected him "Comisario-Prefecto" of the missions, in which capacity he, at various times, visited the twenty missions then existing from San Diego to San Rafael, a distance of more than six hundred miles.The zealous prelate also headed various expeditions to the territory of the savages for the purpose of finding suitable sites for new missions.