CHAPTER IV.
VICEROYS GARIBAY AND LIZANA.
1808-1810.
Garibay's Character — A Badge of Loyalty — Reorganization of the Army — Bonapartist Intrigues — Lampoons and Seditious Sheets — Effect of Reverses in Spain — Establishment of a Junta Consultiva — Pretensions to the Throne of Mexico — Archbishop Lizana Appointed Vice roy — Remittances to Spain — Lizana's Character — The Junta de Seguridad — Revolution at Valladolid — Spanish American Representation in the Córtes — Lizana Removed from Office — Weak Administration of the Audiencia — French Emissaries — Arrival of Viceroy Venegas — His Antecedents, Character, and Personal Appearance — Titles and Honors from Spain
When the chaquetas conceived the design of seizing and deposing the viceroy, they imagined that they would thus be cutting off the hydra's head, that by one bold stroke they would annihilate the monster of disloyalty. But they erred in their calculations. The Creole party, disappointed that their hope should fail in a season so fair for its accomplishment, were doubly embittered. They believed that as matters stood in the mother country, they, and not the Span iards, were the power in the land. Rivalry and hatred between the two factions increased, and henceforward the revolutionary spirit spread silently and far with rapidity.[1]
At a time so fraught with difficulties, arising from violent political change, no more incompetent man
- ↑ In 1811 the Mexican deputies to the Spanish córtes represented that the imprisonment of Iturrigaray had provoked the rivalry between the Spaniards and Creoles, 'difundiéndose sordamente por el Reyno, y creciendo de dia en dia.' Diputac., Amer. Rep., 1° de Agosto de 1811, 3.
