that of the presidents of the United States,[1] but this was small as compared with the profits of office, for not infrequently they retired with enormous fortunes acquired by stolen gains. Yet, as we have seen, the Spanish monarch and his representatives in New Spain often neglected to find means for the protection of the colonies from the raids of corsairs, and from invasion by foreign powers. So little confidence had the people in their rulers that even in the reign of Revilla Gigedo—one of the most able and energetic of all the viceroys—the presence of a fishing fleet in the gulf of Mexico threw the country into a panic.[2]
But other causes were also at work. The successful termination of the American war of independence, and the vast increase in material. prosperity which ensued within less than a quarter of century; the marvellous change which the genius of the First Consul had wrought in the fortunes of the French republic; the feeble administration of Cárlos IV., who in the darkest hour of his country's distress still left the control of affairs in the hands of his crafty but incapable minister, Manuel de Godoy—all these events tended to foster the spirit of disloyalty among the people, who became every year more ripe for rebellion. Though the hour had not yet come, the term of Spain's long dominion in the New World was well nigh accomplished; her days were numbered, and already the handwriting was on the wall.
- ↑ The salary of the viceroys was now 60,000 pesos a year.
- ↑ It was at first supposed that the fleet was sent for the purpose of establishing a settlement or making raids on Spanish territory, but the alarm subsided when it was known that it had sailed from Boston. To prevent such expeditions in the future a royal decree was issued in September 1789 ordering a company to be established with the exclusive right to the gulf fisheries for twenty years, and with the privilege of trading and establishing colonies in America and Asia, the king furnishing troops and arms.
