Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 1 of 2 / A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.

CHAPTER XII.
1734–1760.

Don Juan Antonio de Vizarron y Eguiarreta,
Archbishop of Mexico.
XXXVIII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1734–1740.

This viceroy who governed New Spain from the year 1734 to 1740, passed an uneventful reign, so far as the internal peace and order of the colony were concerned. War was declared, during this period, between France and Spain, but Mexico escaped from all its desolating consequences, and nothing appears to have disturbed the quiet of colonial life but a severe epidemic, which is said to have resembled the yellow fever, and carried off many thousands of the inhabitants, especially in the north-eastern section of the territory. The viceroy was naturally solicitous to follow the example of his predecessors, in preventing the encroachments of the French on the northern indefinite boundaries of New Spain, and took measures to support the feeble garrisons and colonies which were the only representatives of Spanish rights and power in that remote quarter.

Don Pedro Castro Figueroa Salazar,
Duke de la Conquista and Marques de Garcia-Real,
XXXIX. Viceroy of New Spain.
1740–1741.

On the 17th of August the new viceroy reached the capital, and learned from the governor of New Mexico that the French had actually visited that region of the colonial possessions, yet, finding the soil and country unsuited to their purposes, had returned again to their own villages and settlements. At the same time the English, under the command of Oglethrope, bombarded the town and fort of San Agustin in Florida, but the brave defence made by the Spaniards, obliged them to raise the siege and depart.

In 1741 the sky of New Spain was obscured by the approaching clouds of war, for Admiral Vernon, who had inflicted great damages upon the commerce of the Indies, captured Porto Bello, and occupied the forts of Cartagena. New Spain, was thus in constant dread of the arrival of a formidable enemy upon her own coasts; and the Duke de la Conquista, anxious for the fate of Vera Cruz, hastily levied an adequate force for the protection of the shore along the gulf, and resolved to visit it personally in order to hasten the works which were requisite to resist the English. He departed for the eastern districts of New Spain upon the warlike mission, but, in the midst of his labors, was suddenly seized by a severe illness which obliged him to return to the capital, where he died on the 22d of August. His body was interred with great pomp, amid the lamentations of the Mexicans, for in the brief period of his government he had manifested talents of the highest order, and exhibited the deepest interest in the welfare and progress of the country committed to his charge. His noble title of "Duke of Conquest," was bravely won on the battle field of Bitonto; and although it is said that Philip slighted him during the year of his viceroyalty, yet it is certain that he was repaid by the admiration of the Mexican people for the lost favor of his king. Upon his death the Audiencia took charge of the government, and continued in power until the following November, without any serious disturbance from the enemy. Anson, with his vessels, was in the Pacific, and waited anxiously in the neighborhood of Acapulco to make a prize of the galeon which was to sail for the East Indies, laden with a rich cargo of silver to purchase oriental fabrics. But the inhabitants of Acapulco and the Audiencia were on their guard, and the vessel and treasure of New Spain escaped the grasp of the English adventurer.

Don Pedro Cebrian y Agustin, Count de Fuen-Clara.
XL. Viceroy of New Spain.
1742–1746.

The Count de Fuen-Clara assumed the viceroyal baton on the 3d of November, 1742. His term of four years was passed without any events of remarkable importance for New Spain save the capture, by Anson, of one of the East Indian galeons with a freight of one million three hundred and thirteen thousand dollars in coined silver, and four thousand four hundred and seventy marks of the same precious metal, besides a quantity of the most valuable products of Mexico. This period of the viceroyalty must necessarily be uninteresting and eventless. The wars of the old world were confined to the continent and to the sea. Mexico, locked up amid her mountains, was not easily assailed by enemies who could spare no large armies from the contests at home for enterprises in so distant a country. Besides, it was easier to grasp the harvest on the ocean that had been gathered on the land. England contented herself, therefore, with harassing and pilfering the commerce of Castile, while Mexico devoted all her energies to the development of her internal resources of mineral and agricultural wealth. Emigrants poured into the country. The waste lands were filling up. North, south, east and west, the country was occupied by industrious settlers and zealous curates, who were engaged in the cultivation of the soil and the spiritual subjection of the Indians. The spirit as well as the dangers of the conquest were past, and Mexico, assumed, in the history of the age, the position of a quiet, growing nation, equally distant from the romantic or adventurous era of early settlement when danger and difficulty surrounded the Spaniards, and from the lethean stagnation into which she fell in future years under Spanish misrule.

Don Juan Francisco Guemes y Horcasitas,
Count de Revilla-Gigedo—the first.
XLI. Viceroy of New Spain.
1746–1755.

The Conde de Revilla-Gigedo, the first of that name who was viceroy of Mexico, reached the capital on the 9th of July, 1746, and on the 12th of the same month, his master, Philip V. died, leaving Ferdinand VI. as his successor. Under the reign of this enlightened nobleman the colony prospered rapidly, and his services in increasing the royal revenues were so signally successful that he was retained in power for nine years. Mexico had become a large and beautiful city. The mining districts were extraordinarily prolific, and no year of his government yielded less than eleven millions of dollars;—the whole sum that passed through the national mint during his term being one hundred and fourteen millions, two hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars of the precious metals! The population of the capital amounted to fifty thousand families composed of Spaniards, Europeans and creoles,—forty thousand mestizos, mulattoes, negroes,—and eight thousand Indians, who inhabited the suburbs. This population annually consumed at least two millions arobas of flour, about a hundred and sixty thousand fanegas of corn, three hundred thousand sheep, fifteen thousand five hundred beeves, and about twenty-five thousand swine. In this account, the consumption of many religious establishments is not included, as they were privately supplied from their estates, nor can we count the numerous and valuable presents which were sent by residents of the country to their friends in the capital.

*****

It has been already said that this viceroy augmented largely the income of Spain. The taxes of the capital, accounted for by the Consulado, were collected yearly, and amounted to three hundred and thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three dollars, whilst those of the whole viceroyalty reached seven hundred and eighteen thousand, three hundred and seventy-five. The income from pulque alone,—the favorite drink of the masses,—was one hundred and seventy-two thousand dollars, while other imposts swelled the gross income in proportion.

The collection of tributes was not effected invariably in the same manner throughout the territory of New Spain. In Mexico the Administrador-General imposed this task on the justices whose duty it was to watch over the Indians. The aborigines in the capital were divided into two sections, one comprising the Tenochas of San Juan, and the other the Tlaltelolcos of Santiago, both of which had their governors and other police officers, according to Spanish custom. The first of these bands, dwelling on the north and east of the capital, was, in the olden time, the most powerful and noble, and at that period numbered five thousand nine hundred families. The other division, existing on the west and south, was reduced to two thousand five hundred families. In the several provinces of the viceroyalty the Indian tributes were collected through the intervention of one hundred and forty-nine chief alcaldes who governed them, and who, before they took possession of their offices, were required to give security for the tribute taxed within their jurisdiction. The frontier provinces of this vast territory, inhabited only by garrisons, and a few scattered colonists, were exempt from this odious charge. In all the various sections of the nation, however, the Indians were accurately enumerated. Two natives were taxed together, in order to facilitate the collection by making both responsible, and, every four months, from this united pair, six reales were collected, making in all eighteen in the course of the year. This gross tax of two dollars and twenty-five cents was divided as follows: eight reales were taxed as tribute;—four for the royal service;—four and a half as commutation for a half fanega of corn which was due to the royal granary;—half a real for the royal hospital, in which the Indians were lodged when ill; another half real for the costs of their law suits; and, finally, the remaining half real for the construction of cathedrals.

*****

In 1748, the Count Revilla-Gigedo, in conformity to the orders of the king, and after consultation in general meeting with the officers of various tribunals, determined to lay the foundation of a grand colony in the north, under the guidance of Colonel José Escandon, who was forthwith appointed governor. This decree, together with an account of the privileges and lands which would be granted to colonists, was extensively published, and, in a few years, a multitude of families and single emigrants founded eleven villages of Spaniards and mulattoes between Alta-Mira and Camargo. The Indians who were gathered in this neighborhood composed four missions; and, although it was found impossible to clear the harbor of Santander, or to render it capable of receiving vessels of deep draft, the government was nevertheless enabled to found several flourishing villages which were vigilant in the protection of the coast against pirates.

In 1749 the crops were lost in many of the provinces where the early frost blighted the fields of corn and fruit. The crowded capital and its neighborhood, fortunately, did not experience the want of food, which in other regions of the tierra adentro amounted to absolute famine. The people believed that the frown of Heaven was upon the land,—for, to this calamity, repeated earthquakes were added, and the whole region, from the volcano of Colima to far beyond Gaudalajara, was violently shaken and rent, causing the death of many persons and the ruin of large and valuable villages.

In 1750, Mexico was still free from scarcity, and even able, not only to support its own population, but to feed the numerous strangers who fled to it from the unfruitful districts. Yet, in the cities and villages of the north and west, where the crops had been again lost, want and famine prevailed as in the previous year. From Guanajuato, a city rich in mines, to Zacatecas, the scarcity of food was excessive, and the enormous sum of twenty-five dollars was demanded and paid for a fanega of corn. Neither man nor beast had wherewith to support life, and, for a while, the labors in the mines of this rich region were suspended. The unfortunate people left their towns in crowds to subsist on roots and berries which they found in the forests. Many of them removed to other parts of the country, and, as it was at this period that the rich veins of silver at Bolaños were discovered, some of the poor emigrants found work and food in a district whose sudden mineral importance induced the merchants to supply it liberally with provisions. The end of the year, however, was fortunately crowned with abundant crops.

*****

In 1755,—after founding the Presidio of Horcasitas, in Sonora, designed to restrain the incursions of the Apaches into that province,—the Count Revilla-Gigedo, was recalled, at his own request, from the Mexican viceroyalty in order that he might devote himself to the management of his private property, which had increased enormously, during his government. In the history of Mexican viceroys, this nobleman is celebrated as a speculative and industrious trader. There was no kind of commercial enterprise or profitable traffic in which he did not personally engage. His palace degenerated into an exchange, frequented by all kinds of adventurers, while gaming tables were openly spread out to catch the doubloons of the viceroyal courtiers. The speculations and profits of Revilla-Gigedo enabled him to found Mayorazgos for his sons in Spain, and he was regarded, throughout Europe, as the richest vassal of Ferdinand the VI. His son, who subsequently became a Mexican viceroy, and was the second bearing the family title, labored to blot out the stain which the trading propensities of his father had cast upon his name. He was a model of propriety in every respect; but, whilst he made no open display of anxiety to enrich himself corruptly through official influence or position, he, nevertheless, exhibited the avaricious traits of his father in requiring from his butler, each night an exact account of every cent that was spent during the day, and every dish that was prepared in his kitchen.

Notwithstanding the notorious and corrupting habits of the first count, that personage contrived to exercise an extraordinary influence or control over the masses in Mexico. The people feared and respected him; and, upon a certain occasion, when they were roused in the capital and gathered in menacing mobs, this resolute viceroy, whose wild and savage aspect aided the authority of his determined address, rode into the midst of the turbulent assemblage without a soldier in attendance, and immediately dispersed the revolutionists by the mere authority of his presence and command.

Don Agustin de Ahumada y Villalon,
Marques de las Amarillas,
XLII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1755–1760.

The government of the Marques de las Amarillas commenced on the 10th of November, 1755; and he immediately devoted himself to the task of reforming many of the abuses which had doubtless crept into the administration of public affairs during the reign of his trafficing predecessor. Valuable mineral deposits were discovered in New Leon, whose veins were found so rich and tempting that crowds of miners from Zacatecas and Guanajuato flocked to the prolific region. Great works were commenced to facilitate the working of the drifts, but the wealth which had so suddenly appeared on the scene as if by magic, vanished amid the interminable quarrels and law suits of the parties. Many of the foremost adventurers who imagined themselves masters of incalculable riches were finally forced to quit their discoveries, on foot, without a dollar to supply themselves with food.

In 1759 a general mourning was proclaimed in Mexico for the queen of Spain, Maria Barbara of Portugal, who was speedily followed to the tomb by her husband Ferdinand VI. His brother Charles III. ascended the throne, and whilst the mingled ceremonies of sorrow and festivity for the dead and living were being performed in Mexico, the worthy viceroy was suddenly struck with apoplexy which his physicians thought might be alleviated by his residence in the healthful and lower regions of Cuernavaca. But neither the change of level nor temperature improved the condition of the viceroy, who died of this malady on the 5th of January, 1760, in the beautiful city to which he had retreated. He was a remarkable contrast to his predecessor in many respects, and although he had been viceroy for five years, it is stated, as a singular fact in the annals of Mexico, that he left his widow poor and altogether unprovided for. But his virtuous conduct as an efficient minister of the crown had won the confidence and respect of the Mexicans who were anxious to succor those whom he left dependant upon the favor of the crown. The liberality of the archbishop Rubio y Salinas, however supplied all the wants of the gentle Marquesa, who was thus enabled to maintain a suitable state until her return to the court of Spain, where the merits of her husband, as a Spanish soldier in the Italian wars, doubtless procured her a proper pension for life.

As the death of the Marques de las Amarillas was sudden and unexpected, the king of Spain had not supplied the government with the usual pliego de mortaja, or mortuary despatch, which was generally sent from Madrid whenever the health of a viceroy was feeble, so as to supply his place by an immediate successor in the event of death. The Audiencia, of course, became the depository of executive power during the interregnum, and its dean Don Francisco Echavarri, directed public affairs, under its sanction, until the arrival of the viceroy, ad interim, from Havana.

Don Francisco de Cagigal,
XLIII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1760—April to October.

The government of this personage was so brief, and his tenure so completely nominal, that he employed himself merely in the adornment of the capital and the general police of the colony. He was engaged in some improvements in the great square of Mexico, when his successor arrived; but he left the capital with the hearty regrets of the townsmen, for his intelligence and affability had won their confidence and induced them to expect the best results from his prolonged reign.

CHAPTER XIII.
1760–1771.

Don Joaquim de Monserrat, Marques de Cruillas,
XLIV. Viceroy of New Spain.
1760–1766.

In 1761, soon after the entrance of the Marques de Cruillas into Mexico, the ceremony of proclaiming the accession of Charles III. to the throne, was performed with great pomp, by the viceroy, the nobles, and the municipality. But the period of rejoicing was short, for news soon reached Mexico, that war was again declared between Spain and England; a fact which was previously concealed, in consequence of the interception of despatches that had been sent to Havana. Don Juan de Prado was the governor of that important point, and he, as well as the viceroy of Mexico, had consequently been unable to make suitable preparations for the attacks of the British on the West Indian and American possessions of Spain.

In the meantime an English squadron, which had recruited its forces and supplied itself with provisions in Jamaica, disembarked its troops without resistance, on the 6th of June, two leagues east of the Moro Castle. The Havanese fought bravely with various success against the invaders until the 30th of July, when the Spaniards, satisfied that all further defence was vain and rash, surrendered the Moro Castle to the foe. On the 13th of August the town also capitulated; private property and the rights of religion being preserved intact. By this conquest the English obtained nine ships of the line, four frigates, and all the smaller vessels belonging to the sovereign and his subjects, which were in the port; while four millions, six hundred thousand dollars, belonging to the king and found in the city, swelled the booty of the fortunate invaders.

Whilst this was passing in Havana it was falsely reported in Mexico that the British, being unsuccessful in their attacks on Cuba, had raised the siege, and were about to leave the islands for the Spanish main. The important port of Vera Cruz and its defences were of course not to be neglected under such circumstances. This incorrect rumor was, however, soon rectified by the authentic news of the capture of the Moro Castle and of the city of Havana. The Marques de Cruillas immediately ordered all the militia to be raised in the provinces, even six hundred miles from the eastern coast, and to march forthwith to Vera Cruz. That city and its castle were at once placed in the best possible condition of defence; but the unacclimated troops from the high and healthy regions of the interior who had been brought suddenly to the sickly sea shore of the tierra caliente, suffered so much from malaria, that the viceroy was obliged to withdraw them to Jalapa and Peroté.

Whilst Mexico was thus in a state of alarm in 1763, and whilst the government was troubled in consequence of the arrest of a clergyman who had been seized as a British spy, the joyful news arrived that peace had again been negotiated between France and England.

Pestilence, as well as war, appears to have menaced Mexico at this epoch. The small pox broke out in the capital and carried off ten thousand persons. Besides this, another malady, which is described by the writers of the period as similar to that which had ravaged the country a hundred and seven years before, and which terminated by an unceasing flow of blood from the nostrils, filled the hospitals of the capital with its victims. From Mexico this frightful and contagious malady passed to the interior, where immense numbers, unable to obtain medical advice, medicine, or attendance, were carried to the grave.

The general administration of the viceroyalty by the Marques de Cruillas was unsatisfactory both to the crown and the people of New Spain. The best historians of the period are not definite in their charges of misconduct against this nobleman, but his demeanor as an executive officer required the appointment of a visitador, in order to examine and remedy his abuse of power. The person charged with this important task,—Don José Galvez,—was endowed with unlimited authority entirely independent of the viceroy, and he executed his office with severity. He arrested high officers of the government, and deprived them of their employments. His extraordinary talents and remarkable industry enabled him to comprehend at once, and search into, all the tribunals and governmental posts of this vast kingdom. In Vera Cruz he removed the royal accountants from their offices. In Puebla, and in Mexico, he turned out the superintendents of customs, and throughout the country, all who were employed in public civil stations, feared, from day to day, that they would either be suspended or deposed. Whilst Galvez attended, thus, to the faithful discharge of duty by the officers of the crown, he labored, also, to increase the royal revenue. Until that period the cultivation of tobacco had been free, but Galvez determined to control it, as in Spain, and made its preparation and sale a monopoly for the government. Gladly as his other alterations and reforms were received by the people, this interference with one of their cherished luxuries was well nigh the cause of serious difficulties. In the city of Cordova, and in many neighboring places, some of the wealthiest and most influential colonists depended for their fortunes and income upon the unrestrained production and manufacture of this article. Thousands of the poorer classes were engaged in its preparation for market, while in all the cities, towns, and villages, there were multitudes who lived by selling it to the people. Every man, and perhaps every woman, in Mexico, used tobacco, and consequently this project of the visitador gave reasonable cause for dissatisfaction to the whole of New Spain. Nevertheless, the firmness of Galvez, the good temper of the Mexicans, and their habitual submission to authority, overcame all difficulties. The inhabitants of Cordova were not deprived of all control over the cultivation of tobacco, and were simply obliged to sell it to the officers of the king at a definite price, whilst these personages were ordered to continue supplying the families of the poor, with materials for the manufacture of cigars; and by this device the public treasury was enabled to derive an important revenue from an article of universal consumption. Thus the visitador appears to have employed his authority in the reform of the colony and the augmentation of the royal revenue, without much attention to the actual viceroy, who was displaced in 1766. The fiscal or attorney general of the Audiencia of Manilla, Don José Aréché, was ordered officially to examine into the executive conduct of the Marques de Cruillas who had retired from the city of Mexico to Cholula, and although it had been universally the custom to permit other viceroys to answer the charges made against them by attorney, this favor was denied to the Marques, who was subjected to much inconvenience and suffering during the long trial that ensued.

Don Carlos Francisco de Croix, Marques de Croix,
XLV. Viceroy of New Spain.
1766–1771.

The Marques de Croix was a native of the city of Lille in Flanders, and, born of an illustrious family, had obtained his military renown by a service of fifty years in the command of Ceuta, Santa-Maria, and the Captaincy General of Galicia. He entered Mexico as viceroy on the 25th of August, 1766.

For many years past, in the old world and in the new, there had been a silent but increasing fear of the Jesuits. It was known that in America their missionary zeal among the Indians in the remotest provinces was unequalled. The winning manners of the cultivated gentlemen who composed this powerful order in the Catholic church, gave them a proper and natural influence with the children of the forest, whom they had withdrawn from idolatry and partially civilized. But the worthy Jesuits, did not confine their zealous labors to the wilderness. Members of the order, all of whom were responsible and implicitly obedient to their great central power, were spread throughout the world, and were found in courts and camps as well as in the lonely mission house of the frontier or in the wigwam of the Indian. They had become rich as well as powerful, for, whilst they taught christianity, they did not despise the wealth of the world. Whatever may have been their personal humility, their love for the progressive power and dignity of the order, was never permitted for a moment to sleep. A body, stimulated by such a combined political and ecclesiastical passion, all of whose movements, might be controlled by a single, central, despotic will, may now be kept in subjection in the old world, where the civil and military police is ever alert in support of the national authorities. But, at that epoch of transition in America whose vast regions were filled with credulous and ignorant aborigines, and thinly sprinkled with intelligent, educated and loyal Europeans, it was deemed dangerous to leave the superstitious Indians to become the prey, rather than the flock,—the instruments, rather than the acolytes of such insidious shepherds. These fears had seized the mind of Charles III. who dreaded a divided dominion in America, with the venerable fathers. We do not believe that there was just cause for the royal alarm. We do not suppose that the Jesuits whose members, it is true, were composed of the subjects of all the Catholic powers of Europe, ever meditated political supremacy in Spanish America, or designed to interfere with the rights of Charles or his successors. But the various orders of the Roman church,—the various congregations, and convents of priests and friars,—are unfortunately, not free from that jealous rivalry which distinguishes the career of laymen in all the other walks of life.

It may be that some of the pious brethren, whose education, manners, position, wealth or power, was not equal to the influence, social rank and control, of the Jesuits, had, perhaps, been anxious to drive this respectable order from America. It may be, that the king and his council were willing to embrace any pretext to rid his colonial possessions of the Jesuits. But certain it is, that on the 25th of June, before the dawn of day, at the same hour, throughout the whole of New Spain the decree for their expulsion was promulgated by order of Charles. The king was so anxious upon this subject, that he wrote, with his own hand, to the viceroy of Mexico, soliciting his best services in the fulfilment of the royal will. When the question was discussed in the privy council of the sovereign, a chart of both Americas was spread upon the table,—the distances between the colleges of the Jesuits accurately calculated,—and the time required for the passage of couriers, carefully estimated, so that the blow might fall simultaneously upon the order. The invasion of Havana by the English and its successful capture, induced the king to supply his American possessions with better troops, and more skilful commanders than had been, hitherto, sent to the colonies. Thus there were various, veteran Spanish regiments in Mexico capable of restraining any outbreaks of the people in favor of the outraged fathers who had won their respect and loyal obedience.

At the appointed hour, the order of Charles, was enforced. The Jesuits were shut up in their colleges, and all avenues to these retreats of learning and piety were filled with troops. The fathers were despatched from Mexico for Vera Cruz on the 28th of June, surrounded by soldiers. They halted awhile in the town of Guadalupe, where the Visitador Galvez, who governed the expedition, permitted them to enter, once more, into the national sanctuary, where amid the weeping crowds of Mexicans, they poured forth their last, and fervent vows, for the happiness of a people, who idolized them. Their entrance into Jalapa was a triumph. Windows, balconies, streets, and house tops were filled with people, whose demeanor manifested what was passing in their hearts, but who were restrained by massive ranks of surrounding soldiery from all demonstration in behalf of the banished priests. In Vera Cruz some silent but respectful tokens of veneration were bestowed upon the fathers, several of whom died in that pestilential city before the vessels were ready to transport them beyond the sea. Nor did their sufferings cease with their departure from New Spain. Their voyage was long, tempestuous and disastrous, and after their arrival in Spain, under strict guardianship, they were again embarked for Italy, where they were finally settled with a slender support in Rome, Bologna, Ferrara and other cities, in which they honored the country whence they had been driven by literary labors and charitable works. The names of Abade, Alegre, Clavigero, Landibares, Maneyro, Cavo, Lacunza and Marques, sufficiently attest the historical merit of these Mexican Jesuits, who were victims of the suspicious Charles. For a long time the Mexican mind was sorely vexed by the oppressive act against this favorite order. But the Visitador Galvez imposed absolute silence upon the people,—telling them in insulting language that it was their "sole duty to obey," and that they must "speak neither for nor against the royal order, which had been passed for motives reserved alone for the sovereign's conscience!"

Thus, all expression of public sentiment, as well as of amiable feeling, at this daring act against the worthiest and most benevolent clergymen of Mexico was effectually stifled. It had been well for New Spain if Charles had banished the Friars, and spared the Jesuits. The church of Mexico, in our age, would then have resembled the church of the United States, whose foundation and renown are owing chiefly to the labors of enlightened Sulpicians and Jesuits, as well as to the exclusion of monks and of all the orders that dwell in the idle seclusion of cloisters instead of passing useful lives amid secular occupations and temporal interests. If the act of Henry VIII. in England was unjust and cruel, it was matched both in boldness and wickedness by the despotic decree of the unrelenting Charles of Spain. Nor can the latter sovereign claim the merit of having substituted virtue for vice as the British king pretended he had done in the suppression of the monasteries. Henry swept priest and friar from his kingdom with the same blow; but the trimming Charles banished the intellectual Jesuit whilst he saved and screened the lazy monk.

The pretext of Charles III. for his outrageous conduct was found in an insurrection which occurred on the evening of Palm Sunday, 1766, and gave up the capital of Spain, for forty-eight hours, to a lawless mob. It was doubtless the result of a preconcerted plan to get rid of an obnoxious minister; and, as soon as it was known that this personage had been exiled, the rioters instantly surrendered their arms, made friends with the soldiers, and departed to their homes. In fact, it was a political intrigue, which the king and his minister charged on some of the Spanish grandees and on the Jesuits. But as the former were too powerful to be assailed by the king, his wrath was vented on the Fathers of the Order of Jesus, whose lives, at this time, were not only innocent but meritorious.

"Some years preceding, on a charge as destitute of foundation, they had been expelled from Portugal. In 1764, their inveterate foe, the Duke de Choiseul, minister of Louis XV., had driven them from France; and, in Spain, their possessions were regarded with an avaricious eye by some of the needy courtiers. To effect their downfall, the French minister eagerly joined with the advocates of plunder; and intrigues were adopted which must cover their authors with everlasting infamy. Not only was the public alarm carefully excited by a report of pretended plots, and the public indignation, by slanderous representations of their persons and principles; but, in the name of the chiefs of the order, letters were forged, which involved the most monstrous doctrines and the most criminal designs. A pretended circular from the general of the order, at Rome, to the provincial, calling on him to join with the insurgents; the deposition of perjured witnesses to prove that the recent commotion was chiefly the work of the body, deeply alarmed Charles, and drew him into the views of the French cabinet." [46]

Spain was thus made a tool of France in an act of gross injustice, not only to the reverend sufferers, but to the people over whose spiritual and intellectual wants they had so beneficially watched.

From this digression to the mingled politics of Mexico and Europe we shall now return to the appropriate scene of our brief annals. The captain of so important a port as Havana, and the inadequate protection of the coast along the main, obliged the government to think seriously about the increase and discipline of domestic troops, and especially, to improve the condition of the coast defence. These fears were, surely, not groundless. The possessions of Great Britain, north of Mexico, on the continent, were growing rapidly in size and importance; and from the provinces which now form the United States, the viceroy imagined England might easily despatch sufficient troops, without being obliged to transport reinforcements from Europe. Accordingly suitable preparations were made to receive the enemy should he venture to descend suddenly on the Spanish main. The veteran regiments of Savoy and Flanders were sent to the colony in June, 1768, and the Marshal de Rubi was charged with the disposition of the army. From that period, it may be said, that Mexico assumed the military aspect, which it has continuously worn to the present time.

Besides the increase and improvement of the troops of the line, the government's attention was directed towards the fortification of the ports and interior passes. The Castle of San Juan de Ulua was repaired at a cost of a million and a half of dollars. The small island of Anton Lizardo was protected by military works at an expense of a million two hundred thousand dollars. A splendid battery was sent from Spain for the castle, and the inefficient guns of Acapulco were despatched to the Fillipine islands to be recast and sent back to America. In the interior of the country, in the midst of the plain of Peroté, the Castle of San Carlos was built in the most substantial and scientific manner; and although this fortress seems useless, placed as it is in the centre of a broad and easily traversed prairie, yet, at the time of its construction, it was designed as an entre depot between the capital and the coast, in which the royal property might always be safely kept until the moment of exportation, instead of being exposed to the danger of a sudden seizure by the enemy in the port of Vera Cruz. Many other points along the road from Vera Cruz are better calculated to defend the interior passes of the country from invasion; but as the attacks of the enemy were not expected to be made beyond the coast upon which they naturally supposed they would find the treasure they desired to plunder, it was deemed best to establish and arm the fortress of San Carlos de Peroté.

Such were some of the leading acts and occurrences in New Spain during the viceroyalty of the Marques de Croix. His general administration of affairs is characterized by justice. He lived in harmony with the rigid Visitador Galvez, and although the gossips of the day declared he was too fond of wine, yet, on his return to Spain he was named Captain General of the army, and treated most kindly by the king.

CHAPTER XIV.
1771–1784.

Don Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursua,
Lieutenant General of the Spanish Army,
XLVI. Viceroy of New Spain.
1771–1779.

Bucareli reached Vera Cruz from Havana on the 23d of August, 1771, and took possession of the viceroyalty on the 2d of the following month. During his administration the military character of the colony was still carefully fostered, whilst the domestic interests of the people were studied, and every effort made to establish the public works and national institutions upon a firm basis. The new mint and the Monte de Piadad are monuments of this epoch. Commerce flourished in those days in Mexico. The fleet under the command of Don Luis de Cordova departed for Cadiz on the 30th of November, 1773, with twenty-six millions two hundred and fifty-five dollars, exclusive of a quantity of cacao, cochineal and twenty-two marks of fine gold, and the fleet of 1774 was freighted with twenty-six millions four hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars.

Nor was the accumulation of wealth derived at that time from the golden placeres of Cieneguilla in Sonora less remarkable. From the 1st of January, 1773, to the 17th of November of the year following, there were accounted for, in the royal office at Alamos, four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-two marks of gold, the royal duties on which, of tithe and senorage, amounted to seventy-two thousand, three hundred and forty-eight dollars. The custom house of Mexico, according to the accounts of the consulado, produced, in 1772, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand and forty-one dollars, the duty on pulque alone, being two hundred and forty-four thousand, five hundred and thirty.

In 1776, Bucareli endeavored to liberate trade from many of the odious restrictions which had been cast around it by old commercial usages, and by the restrictive policy of Spain. The consulado of Mexico complained to Bucareli of the suffering it endured by the monopoly which had hitherto been enjoyed by the merchants of Cadiz, and through the viceroy solicited the court to be permitted to remit its funds to Spain, and to bring back the return freights in vessels on its own account, Bucareli supported this demand with his influence, and may be said to have given the first impulse to free-trade. Meanwhile, the mineral resources of Mexico were not neglected. During the seven years of Bucareli's reign, the yield of the mines had every year been greater than at any period since the conquest. One hundred and twenty-seven millions, three hundred and ninety-six thousand dollars, in gold and silver, were coined during his viceroyalty. Laborde, in Zacatecas, and Terreros in Pachuca, had undertaken extensive works at the great and rich mine of Quebradilla and in the splendid vein of Vizcayna. Other mines were most successfully wrought by their proprietors. From 1770 to the end of 1778, Don Antonio Obregon presented to the royal officers, in order to be taxed, four thousand six hundred and ninety-nine bars of silver, the royal income from which amounted to six hundred and forty-eight thousand nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. The same individual had, moreover, presented to the same personage, fifty-three thousand and eighty-eight castellanos of gold, which paid thirteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-one dollars in duties. In order to work his metals, Obregon had been furnished, to that date, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine quintals of quicksilver, for which he paid a hundred and fifty-nine thousand two hundred and forty-one dollars.

In June, 1778, the mineral deposits of Hostotipaquillo, in the province of Guadalajara, now Jalisco, were discovered, and promised the most extraordinary returns of wealth. In the following year, the valuable mines of Catorce, were accidentally found by a soldier whilst searching for a lost horse. All these discoveries and beneficial labors induced Bucareli to recommend the mineral interests of New Spain particularly to the sovereign, and various persons were charged to explore the country, for the discovery of quicksilver mines, which it was alleged existed in Mexico. The extraction of quicksilver from American mines had hitherto been prohibited by Spain, but the fear of wars, which might prevent its importation from abroad, and consequently, destroy the increasing mineral industry of the nation, induced the court to send Don Raphael Heling and Don Antonio Posada, with several subordinates, who formerly wrought in the mines of Almaden, to examine the deposits at Talchapa and others in the neighborhood of Ajuchitlan, in October, 1778, under the direction of padre Alzate. But this reconnoisance proved unavailing at that time, inasmuch as the explorers found no veins or deposits which repaid the cost and labor of working.

At this epoch the Spanish government began to manifest a desire to propagate information in its American possessions. There is a gleam of intellectual dawn seen in a royal order of Charles, in 1776, commanding educated ecclesiastics to devote themselves to the study of Mexican antiquities, mineralogy, metallurgy, geology, and fossils. This decree was directed to the clergy because his majesty, perhaps justly supposed, that they were the only persons who possessed any knowledge of natural sciences, whilst the rest of his American subjects were in the most profound ignorance. Archbishop Lorenzano published in Mexico in 1770 his annotated edition of the letters of Cortéz, which is a well printed work, adorned with coarse engravings, a few maps, and the curious fac-simile pictures of the tributes paid to the Emperor Montezuma. But the jealous monks of the inquisition kept a vigilant watch over the issues of the press, and we find that, in those days, the commercial house of Prado and Freyre was forced to crave a license from the court empowering them to ship two boxes of types to be used in the printing of the calendar!

The administration of Bucareli was not disturbed by insurrections among the creoles and Spaniards, for he was a just ruler and the people respected his orders, even when they were apparently injurious to their interests. The viceroy adorned their capital built aqueducts, improved roads, and facilitated intercourse between the various parts of the country; but the Indians of the north in the province of Chihuahua harassed the colonists dwelling near the outposts during nearly all the period of his government. These warlike, nomadic tribes have been the scourge of the frontier provinces since the foundation of the first outpost settlement. They are wild hunters, and appear to have no feeling in common with those southern bands who were subdued by the mingled influences of the sword and of the cross into tame agriculturists. Bucareli attacked and conquered parties of these wandering warriors, but every year fresh numbers descended upon the scattered pioneers along the frontier, so that the labor of recolonization and fighting was annually repeated. Towards the close of his administration, De Croix, who succeeded Hugo Oconor in the command along the northern line, established a chain of well appointed presidios, which in some degree restrained the inroads of these barbarians.

Bucareli died, after a short illness, on the 9th of April, 1779, and his remains were deposited in the church of Guadalupe in front of the sacred and protecting image of the virgin who watches according to the legend, over the destinies of Mexico.

Don Martin de Mayorga,
XLVII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1779–1783.

In consequence of the death of Bucareli the Audiencia assumed the government of New Spain until the appointment of his successor, and in the meanwhile, on the 18th of May, 1779, Charles III. solemnly declared war against England. The misunderstanding which gave rise to the revolutionary outbreak in the English colonies of North America was beginning to attract the notice of Europe. France saw in the quarrel between the Americans and the British an opportunity to humiliate her dangerous foe; and although Spain had no interest in such a contest, the minister of Charles, Florida Blanca, persuaded his master to unite with France in behalf of the revolted colonies. Spain, in this instance, as in the expulsion of the Jesuits, was, doubtless, submissive to the will of the French court, and willingly embraced an occasion to humble the pride or destroy the power of a haughty nation whose fleets and piratical cruisers had so long preyed upon the wealthy commerce of her American possessions. The Spanish minister did not probably dream of the dangerous neighbor whose creation he was aiding, north of the Gulf of Mexico. It is not likely that he imagined republicanism would be soon and firmly established in the British united colonies of America, and that the infectious love of freedom would spread beyond the wastes of Texas and the deserts of California to the plateaus and plains of Mexico and Peru. The policy was at once blind and revengeful. If it was produced by the intrigue of France, the old hereditary foe and rival of England, it was still less pardonable, for a fault or a crime when perpetrated originally and boldly by a nation sometimes rises almost into glory, if successful; but a second-hand iniquity, conceived in jealousy and vindictiveness, is as mean as it is short sighted. England had no friends at that epoch. Her previous conduct had been so selfishly grasping, that all Europe rejoiced when her colonial power was broken by the American revolution. Portugal, Holland, Russia, Morocco and Austria, all, secretly favored the course of Spain and France, and the most discreet politicians of Europe believed that the condition of Great Britain was hopeless.

The declaration of this impolitic war was finally made in Mexico on the 12th of August, 1779, before the arrival of Mayorga, the new viceroy, who did not reach the capital till the 23d of the same month. The Mexicans were not as well acquainted with the politics of the world as the Spanish cabinet, and did not appreciate all the delicate and diplomatic motives which actuated Charles III. They regarded a war with England as a direct invitation to the British to ravage their coasts and harass their trade; and, accordingly as soon as the direful news was announced, prayers were solemnly uttered in all the churches for the successful issue of the contest. Nor did war alone strike the Mexicans with panic; for in this same period the small pox broke out in the capital; and in the ensuing months in the space of sixty-seven days, no less than eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-one persons were hurried by it to the grave. It was a sad season of pestilence and anxiety. The streets were filled with dead bodies, while the temples were crowded with the diseased and the healthy who rushed promiscuously to the holy images, in order to implore divine aid and compassion. This indiscriminate mixture of all classes and conditions,—this stupid reunion of the sound and the sick, whose superstitions led them to the altar instead of the hospital, soon spread the contagion far and wide, until all New Spain suffered from its desolating ravages and scarcely a person was found unmarked by its frightful ravages.

An expedition had been ordered during the viceroyalty of Bucareli to explore portions of the Pacific adjacent to the Mexican coast, and in February of 1799, it reached a point 55° 17 minutes north. It continued its voyage, until on the 1st of July, when it took possession of the land at 60° 13 minutes, in the name of Charles III. It then proceeded onwards, in sight of the coast, and on the 1st of August, arrived at a group of islands, at 59° 8' upon one of which the explorers landed and named the spot, "Nuestra Señora de Regla."

The expected assaults of the English in the Atlantic were not long withheld, for in this year, on the 20th of October, they seized Omoa in Guatemala, for the recovery of which the president, Don Matias Galvez, quitted the capital immediately and demanded succor from Mexico. The Indians, it is related, aided the British in this attack, but the assailants abandoned the captured port, after stripping it of its cannon and munitions of war, in consequence of the insalubrity of the climate. The British had established a post at a place then called Wallis, the centre of a region rich in dye-woods, and aptly situated so as to aid in the contraband trade which they carried on with Yucatan, Guatemala and Chiapas; and, accordingly Don Roberto Rivas Vetancourt attacked the settlement successfully, making prisoners of all the inhabitants, more than three hundred slaves, and capturing a number of small vessels. But just as hostilities ceased, two English frigates and another armed vessel, arrived to succor the settlement, and forced the Spanish governor to abandon his enterprise and depart with his flotilla. Nevertheless Vetancourt, burned more than forty different foreign establishments, and succeeded in capturing an English brigantine of forty-four guns. The commander believed that this signal devastation of the enemy's settlement and property would result in freeing the land from such dangerous neighbors.

About this period the Spanish government detached General Solano and a part of his squadron, with orders for America, to aid in the military enterprises designed against Florida, in which Mexico was to take a significant part. This commander was to co-operate with Don Bernardo de Galvez, and both these personages, in the years 1779, 1780 and 1781, making common cause with the French against the English, carried the war actively up the Mississippi and into various portions of Florida. The remaining period of Mayorga's viceroyalty was chiefly occupied with preparations in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz against an assault from the British, and in suppressing, by the aid of the alcalde Urizar, a trifling revolt among the Indians of Izucar. An unfortunate disagreement arose between Mayorga and the Spanish minister Galvez, and he was finally, after many insults from the count, displaced, in order to make room for Don Matias Galvez. The unfortunate viceroy departed for Spain but never reached his native land. He died in sight of Cadiz, and his wife was indemnified for the ill treatment of her husband by the contemptible gift of twenty thousand dollars.

Mayorga was the victim apparently of an ill disposed minister, who controlled the pliant mind of Charles. The viceroy in reality had discharged his duties as lieutenant of the king, with singular fidelity. All branches of art and industry in Mexico received his fostering care; but he had enemies who sought his disgrace at court, and they were finally successful in their shameful efforts. [47]

Don Matias de Galvez,
XLVIII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1783–1784.

Don Matias Galvez, hastened rapidly from Guatemala to take possession of the viceroyalty, and soon exhibited his generous character and his ardent desire to improve and embellish the beautiful capital. The academy of fine arts was one of his especial favorites, and he insisted that Charles should not only endow it with nine thousand dollars, but should render it an effective establishment, by the introduction of the best models for the students. These evidences of his munificence and taste, still exist in the fine but untenanted halls of the neglected academy. Galvez directed his attention, also, to the police of Mexico and its prisons;—he required the streets to be leveled and paved; prohibited the raising of recruits for Manilla, and solicited from the king authority to reconstruct the magnificent palace of Chapultepec on the well known and beautiful hill of that name which lies about two miles west of the capital, still girt with its ancient cypresses.

It was during the brief reign of this personage that the political Gazette of Mexico was established, and the exclusive privilege of its publication granted to Manuel Valdez. On the 3d of November Don Matias died, after a brief illness, unusually lamented by the people, from amidst whose masses he had risen to supreme power in the most important colony of Spain. Mexico had regarded his appointment as a singular good fortune, and it was fondly but vainly hoped that his reign might have been long, and that he would have been enabled to carry out the beneficent projects he designed for the country.

As the death of this officer was sudden and unexpected, no carta de mortaja, or mortuary despatch, had been sent from Spain announcing his successor, and, accordingly the Audiencia assumed the reins of government until the arrival of the new viceroy.