Galicia, and Arredondo in the Oriente provinces—the other two viceroys, he calls them—which frustrated many of his plans for fostering trade, swelling the revenue, and so forth.[1]
It must be admitted that these plans did succeed to a great extent, as shown by the increasing returns from custom-houses and treasury, and the crowning achievement must ever be accorded to him by Spain that he did break the revolution, even if he failed to extinguish it, thus practically saving the colony for his king, and leaving the way and means for a successor to complete the task.[2] The king recognized the service by bestowing on him the title Conde de Calderon, in commemoration of his great victory over Hidalgo;[3] in New Spain his name stands connected with everything that is cruel and relentless.[4]
The fact that Calleja had been appointed by the regency assisted no doubt to magnify the insinuations against him for having failed to suppress the revolution, and to dispose the monarch for a change. This
- ↑ The former maintained direct trade with Panama, through San Blas, tho other through Tampico with the open ports of Yucatan, thus flooding the country with goods on which the proper duty had not been paid. Calleja's measures succeeded, however, in swelling the custom-house revenue, and the coinage at Mexico was again rising from its low figure in 1812 of $4,490,000 to $9,276,000 for 1816. In 1811 it had been $10,000,000. Lerdo, Comercio Ester., ap. 120, etc.; Arrillaga, Informe, in Cedulario, iv. pt i. 38.
- ↑ Alaman is too unqualified in his praise. He does not look sufficiently at his neglect. Had the colony not been ultimately lost, he concludes, 'Calleja debia ser reconocido como el reconquistador de la Nueva España, y el segundo Hernan Cortés.' Hist. Méj., iv. 477. Zamacois, with his Spanish proclivities, merely copies him. Hist. Méj., x. 161; and so does Arrangoiz. Méj., i. 321-30. Bustamante breaks out, as may be expected, in uncontrolled abuse of his cruelty, hostility to Mexicans, etc., and concludes his special edition on this reign, Campañas del General D. Felix María Calleja, Mex., 1828, 200 pp. and sup., by calling Calleja 'malvado extrangero:' 'execrado sea su nombre por las edades venideras como los de los Corteses, Almagros, y Pizarros.' Id., Cuad. Hist., ii. 252-5, etc. Guerra, Rev. N. Esp., i. 337, 352, ii. 491, etc.; Zerecero, Rev. Mex., 116 et seq.; Ward, Mex., i. 199, etc., join in condemning his cruelty, direct and indirect. Much of Calleja's neglect may be ascribed to his confidants, Secretary Villamil, Canon Beristain, and the poet Roca.
- ↑ And the great crosses of Isabel and San Hermenegildo. See previous titles in Disposic. Varias, ii. 19.
- ↑ 'Esta fiera,' wild beast, is a term applied even in Diario del Congreso, 1824, ii. 497.
