each occasion was proportionate to the importance of the town; and as his successor approached the capital the outgoing viceroy left the city to meet him and resign the government into his hands.
On arrival at Chapultepec the viceroys used to halt, and in the evening proceed to the city, where the ceremony of taking possession would be performed with great solemnity. Then he was conducted first to the hall of the audiencia,[1] after that to the hall of civil procedure, where the seal was delivered to him, the royal cédulas constituting his appointment were exhibited, and the oath was taken by him on the holy gospel. Then followed, on a day appointed for the purpose, his public entry into the city, on which occasion was displayed a costly magnificence in retinue and apparel. Near the church of Santo Domingo the ayuntamiento delivered to him the city keys beneath a triumphal arch, whence, under a canopy of state, he was conducted to the cathedral, where he was received by the archbishop in his pontifical robes. At the entrance another was usually erected for the occasion, beneath which a panegyric in verse was addressed to him. After the te deum the viceroy would proceed to the palace, and for several days the city would be gay with festivities, the night bright with fireworks, and the day one continuous round of bull-fights and other amusements.[2]
- ↑ Each viceroy was the bearer of a sealed letter, Called the pliego de mortaja, addressed to the audiencia, and which could be opened only in case of his death while in office. This document designated the person whom the crown appointed to succeed him under such an event.
- ↑ The expenses of these inaugurations in time became excessive, amounting to as high as 26,000 pesos. The king, by royal cédula of May 6, 1688, limited the sum to be employed for this purpose to 8,000 pesos. Ordenes de la Corona, MS., i. 9-11. On account of the disputes which occurred on the entry of the viceroy Galvez, in 1783, the court ordered that in future the procession on horseback into the city should be discontinued, and thenceforth the ceremony terminated, and the viceroy and accompanying authorities entered the city from Guadalupe in carriages, the garrison being drawn out in the streets, The respective oaths were taken in the council-chamber, and the ayuntamiento paid the expenses of banquets and other festivities. These still amounted to the great sum of 14,000 pesos, and the second count of Revilla Gigedo advised his successor to suppress them. Alaman, Disert., iii. app. 99. In former times it had been the custom for the authorities of the capital,
