Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 1/Book 2/Chapter 12
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 galleons 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 Administrator-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 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 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.