colonels and lieutenant-colonels, and the inspector might select the other officers with the viceroy's sanction. The only able-bodied men excluded from the ranks were negroes and Indians. The castas, or various grades of mixed breeds, might be admitted to the number of one third in each company, and regiments of any certain color might be formed,[1] The different localities were to pay for the clothing and other needed articles, the government furnishing arms.
The two companies of the viceroy's guard were mustered out of service, and the palace was thereafter guarded by the troops of the garrison, the halberdiers being retained.[2] Dissension soon arose between the viceroy and General Villalba, the latter assuming independent powers, in which he seemed to have been upheld by some of the officers brought by him from Spain,[3] and even failed to pay the viceroy honors that were due him. His course was disapproved by the crown, and an order issued for him and the mariscales Zayas and Ricardos to return to Spain,[4]
- ↑ The provincial regiments were intended to replace the old urban companies. Colored men serving in them were exempted from personal taxation. Ordenes de la Corona, MS., i. 134-5. All military officers were exempt from taxation by royal decree of May 4, 1760. Providencias Reales, MS., 52. The task of raising white troops was not an easy one. As late as 1775, a committee appointed by the government to aid in developing the military defences, declared both the old Spaniards and their descendants unreliable; for at the least rumor of war they would disappear, there being in them none of the old Roman or Greek spirit. Plan de Defensa, MS., 424, in Col. Diar. The white natives had no taste for the military service. Of the enlisted men many deserted, despite the measures adopted from time to time, between 1773 and 1810, to uphold discipline, and to check vice and desertions, and other violation of the articles of war, which were not very successful. Reales Ordenes, i. 254-8; Arrillaga, Recop. (1836), 323-4, (1839), 298-300; Gaz. Méx. (1788-9), iii. 339-41; (1792-3), v. 529-31; (1802-3), xi. 37-8, 211-15; Revilla Gigedo, Bandos, ii. no. 6; Diario Méx., ix. 319-20, xiii. 505-6. It is not surprising that desertions were common when we consider that the government forced and accepted into the service some very bad characters. Real Cédula (May 7, 1775), in Cédulario, MS., iii. 15-23; Estalla, xxvi. 334-5. The natives either could not endure the strict discipline, or disliked the dress or food, or may be, 'el aseo, como poco acostumbrados á él desde su nacimiento.' Villarroel, Enferm. Polít., in Bustamante, Voz de la Patria, v. 166-7.
- ↑ Reales Cédulas, MS., i. 10.
- ↑ A colonel was suspended and placed under arrest in consequence, and was released and reinstated only by Cruillas' successor. Vir. Instruc., MS., 1st ser. no. 9, 1-8.
- ↑ The marqués de Rubí was sent to inspect the provincias internas, and
