dragoon companies, a few soldiers in Acapulco, a small body of artillerymen, and the two companies of the palace guard.
The militia troops consisted of urban companies, mostly made up of white men and mestizos. In the capital there were some companies of laboring men, and about thirteen or fourteen others composed of merchants and tradesmen. In Puebla, as in Mexico, was a regimiento del comercio, which had been created about 1693. These troops lacked a knowledge of the use of weapons, and to enable them to acquire it, the viceroy asked the crown for experienced officers and a supply of arms, urging likewise the construction in Perote of warehouses for the safe-keeping of military stores, so that the viceregal government might afford prompt aid to Vera Cruz and the Antilles. These suggestions were acted upon at court, and on the first of November, 1765, Lieutenant-general Juan de Villalba arrived at Vera Cruz, commissioned as commander and inspector of the forces, having with him several mariscales de campo,[1] and a number of field and company officers, being the nucleus of an infantry regiment to be known as the America, and nearly two hundred non-commissioned officers and drummers for organizing provincial infantry and cavalry regiments.
- ↑ Cavo, Tres Siglos, ii. 184. Panes, Vir., in Monum. Dom. Esp., MS., 120, gives their arrival in 1762, naming four of them, Juan Fernando Palacios, Cristóbal de Zayas, Antonio Ricardos, and the marqués de Rubí.
i. 100. In 1692, at the time of the riots, were formed two companies of 50 men each, that had, contrary to royal orders, not been disbanded in 1694, which brought down a second and peremptory command to break them up. Reales Cédulas, MS., 75-6. In 1745 there were 14 companies of militia in the city of Mexico, of merchants and tradesmen, who served on occasions when the regulars had to march out. These regulars were two companies, one of infantry and one of cavalry, to guard the viceroy's palace, which still existed at the time of the marqués de Cruíllas' rule. The infantry company had a captain-governor, a major, second engineer, lieutenant, second lieutenant, alférez, adjutant, eight sergeants, 12 corporals, two drummers, 188 privates, 10 artillerymen; the cavalry company had a captain, lieutenant, second lieutenant, alférez, two sergeants, four corporals, one bugler, and 96 privates. Their cost was 46,168 pesos a year. There was also in 1758 a company of 24 halberdiers under a captain, who formed the viceroy's guard of honor, the yearly expense of which was 5,161 pesos. Villa-Señor, Theatro Am., i. 37, 50. In that same year, 1758, there was also a battalion of negroes and mulattoes, with a white colonel. Certificacion de las Mercedes, MS., 53-5.
