in behalf of their faith, commenced a regular system of instructing the Indian population. Under the government of Don Pedro's successor, Mexico suffered severely from the depredations of the bucaniers, who ravaged portions of the western coast and plundered the rich galeons freighted with precious metal, or with cargoes of rare goods from the East, bound for Mexican ports. The names of Drake and Cavendish, among others, were a terror to the defenceless population, who, from the restrictions against bearing arms imposed by the government, were prevented from opposing any effectual resistance. A galeon laden with commodities from the Philippine islands, and destined for the port of Acapulco, was captured by Drake near the entrance of the gulf of California, and, after being plundered, was set on fire and abandoned. This loss was heavily felt, as the restrictive policy of Spain precluded any commerce with the East Indies, further than the cargo of a single vessel in the course of a year. Such tyrannical ordinances necessarily induced an extensive system of smuggling, which was conducted, especially in later times, with extraordinary boldness, by armed vessels from different European countries. These illicit traders were often sufficiently strong to cope successfully with the Spanish guarda costas, whose employment was the protection of the revenue and the exclusion of forbidden traffic. The year 1607 was memorable for the commencement of the gigantic works by which the city of Mexico has been secured against the disastrous inundations to which it was formerly liable. Enrique Martinez, a distinguished engineer, was commissioned for the undertaking by the viceroy, Don Louis Velasco. The waters of the upper lakes, Zumpango and San Christoval, had been with partial success excluded by dikes from overflowing the city, when swollen by the rise of their tributary streams. It was proposed to carry off the excess of water by a canal through the lower portion of the elevated or mountainous region which hems in the Valley of Mexico. Some fifteen thousand Indians were compelled to enter upon the labours of this stupendous undertaking, and the main obstacle, the hill of Nochistongo, was tunnelled in less than a year. The canal was finished, and might have fully answered its purpose but for the imperfect construction of the subterraneous works. Becoming repeatedly clogged and out of repair, it was abandoned for a series of years, and the old dikes were rebuilt. In 1629 Martinez was agair. directed to open the canal. While the work was in progress, this engineer caused the entrance of the gallery to be closed, in order, as he afterwards averred, to protect his unfinished works from destruction by an anticipated rise of water. "In one night," says Ward, "the whole town of Mexico was laid under water, with the exception of the great square and one of the suburbs. In all the other streets the water rose upwards of three feet; and during five years, from 1629 to 1634, canoes formed the only medium of communication between them. The foundations of many of the principal houses were destroyed; trade was paralyzed; the lower classes reduced to the lowest state of misery; and orders were actually given by the court of Madrid to abandon the town, and build a new capital in the elevated plains between Tacuba and Tacubaya, to which the waters of the lakes, even before the Conquest, had never been known to extend." At a subsequent period an immense embankment or dyke was constructed between the lakes of Tezcuco and San Christoval, and the gallery of Nochistongo was converted into an open channel, by removing an enormous amount of superincumbent earth. To complete this canal, known as the Desague of Huehuetoca, and the dam which separated the two lakes, involved an immense expenditure of life and suffering. In the words of the writer above quoted: "In those days the sacrifice of life, and particularly of Indian life, in public works, was not regarded. Many thousands of the natives. perished before the desague was completed; and to their loss, as well as to the hardships endured by the survivors, may be ascribed the horror with which the name of Huehuetoca is pronounced by their descendants." Little of general interest pertains to Mexican history from this time until the occurrence of the events connected with the first revolution. The resources of the country were still constantly drained to supply the demands of Spain; the bloody sacrifices of the inquisitorial system were enacted where in earlier times the altars smoked with human offerings to the Aztec divinities; and tyranny and misrule only became the more open and the more insufferable. Until the year 1670, the warlike Tarahumaras made a stand against the Spaniards, waging a desultory but vexatious war with the white settlers. They were at last surprised and defeated through the treachery of one of their own people. Ten years later a more serious revolt occurred among the Indians of New Mexico. With the aid of the rude mountain tribes, they overran the country, destroying the unprotected and scattered plantations and settlements of the colonists, and reduced Santa Fe by siege. The garrison and inhabitants made their escape by night, but the place was plundered and completely destroyed. An expedition, sent out in the following year by the Marquis de Laguna, then viceroy, found no enemies to encounter, as the Indians had retired to their own quarters in the wilderness. The only means which proved effectual in regaining possession of the country was the establishment of numerous garrisons at various military posts provided for the protection of the inhabitants. A force was thus constantly in readiness to meet and ward off an unexpected attack. Towards the close of Laguna's viceroyalty Mexico suffered unusual loss by the seizure of the richly freighted galeons laden with treasure for the old world, by English and French privateers. These lawless and audacious rovers did not confine their operations to the plundering of vessels at sea, but kept the towns upon the coast in continual terror. In May, 1683, Vera Cruz was seized upon by Nicholas Agramont and his companions, who enriched themselves with an enormous booty. One of the most important events which occurred in Mexico during the eighteenth century was the expulsion of the Jesuits by order of Charles III. This zealous and powerful body of ecclesiastics was highly popular in New Spain, where its teachers had so long been engaged in extending civilization to the natives, and in the exercise of their professional duties among the whites. Whatever may have been the evils and dangers attendant upon such an extensive combination of enthusiastic devotees to a religious cause, certain it is that the conduct of the Jesuits in America was generally conscientious and benevolent. The sympathy of the Mexican populace was in vain extended towards the proscribed order, and under the viceroyalty of the Marques de Croix, the colleges of the Jesuits were seized upon by the government, and their inmates shipped to the old world, only to be superseded by a more mercenary, intolerant, and selfish priesthood. CHAPTER XIX. -ITURRIGARAY. COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST REVOLUTION.- PANZINGO.-DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.-RE- THE overthrow of the Spanish monarchy by Napoleon, and the establishment of his brother Joseph upon the throne of Charles IV., gave the original impulse to that independent movement which resulted in the first Mexican revolution. Don Jose Iturrigaray, who came out as viceroy in 1803, distracted by contradictory orders from the different claimants of authority in Spain, attempted to secure himself by sharing the responsibility of making choice with a body of the principal inhabitants, whom he proposed to assemble as an extraordinary council. This convention was to be composed partly of native inhabitants; and the powerful party of Spanish-born immigrants immediately took the alarm, and endeavoured to check by violence their first demonstration of independent action. They seized upon the person of the viceroy, and sent him, a prisoner, to Spain. The Creole population of Mexico had by this time begun to perceive that Spain was no longer invincible; that, instead of being, as they had ever been taught, the mightiest kingdom of the earth, she was fast sinking to insignificance; and, for the first time, they began to indulge hopes of freedom. It is to be observed, however, that upon the deposition of Ferdinand VII., the Spaniards in Mexico, conscious that their own supremacy must depend upon their support of the actual government, generally favoured the cause of Joseph, and acquiesced in the authority of his ministers; while the Creoles retained their loyalty to the legitimate monarch, and forwarded immense sums, raised by voluntary contribution, to assist his adherents in Old Spain. Between the two races, the natives and the Spanish immigrants, old feelings of jealousy and enmity now became greatly embittered by political differences, and in 1810 a conspiracy was formed among the Creoles for the purpose of overthrowing the Authority of their foreign tyrants. A premature development of the plot only hastened the uprising. The secret of the contemplated outbreak having been communicated to the government by a priest, who had learned the particulars by the confession of a dying man, the viceroy immediately took measures to secure the principal persons concerned in the rebellion. The most noted of these was one Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, an ecclesiastic, residing near the town of San Miguel el Grande in Guanajuanto. Hidalgo received intimation of his danger in time to avoid arrest. and, with the aid of Ignacio Allende, a military commandant at San Miguel, instantly put himself at the head of a motley force of Indians and Creoles, and openly marched into the neighbouring town, and proclaimed his revolutionary purpose. A civil war ensued, which, for the ferocity and cruelty exhibited by both parties, has seldom been surpassed in the history of the world. The Spaniards were the first objects of attack by the insurgents; but so large a portion of these were of aboriginal descent, and so reckless and unsparing was the conduct of the revolted faction, that the Creole population, to no small extent, united in opposing their progress. The city of Guanajuanto first fell before the rebellious army, and, after a terrible scene of slaughter, was delivered over to be plundered. The followers of Hidalgo already amounted, it is said, to twenty thousand men. At Las Cruces, the At Las Cruces, the army of the government, under Truxillo, was completely routed, and nothing but an overestimate of its defences appears to have prevented Hidalgo from seizing upon the city of Mexico. After having encamped for a few days in the vicinity of the capital, he drew off his forces, leaving leisure and opportunity to the viceroy for the collection and equipment of a formidable army. The royal troops, under command of the notorious Calleja, were soon in pursuit of the insurgents. A pitched battle took place at Aculco, in which the artillery and discipline of the Spaniards more than compensated for their inferiority in numbers. The Indians fought with their usual desperate courage, but after immense loss were compelled to retreat. Pushing on to Guanajuanto, Calleja wreaked his vengeance upon those among the inhabitants who were supposed to favour the rebellion, by a brutal massacre of men, women and children. Thousands of these wretched victims, we are told, were led into the public square, and put to death by cutting their throats. Hidalgo's party retaliated by the commission of similar atrocities whenever Spaniards or those of pure Spanish descent fell into their hands. |