CHAPTER XIV.
1771–1784.
BUCARELI Y URSUA VICEROY.—PROGRESS OF NEW SPAIN.—GOLD PLACERES IN SONORA.—MINERAL WEALTH AT THAT PERIOD.—INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY.—LINE OF PRESIDIOS.—MAYORGA VICEROY.—POLICY OF SPAIN TO ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES.—OPERATIONS ON THE SPANISH MAIN ETC.—MATIAS GALVEZ VICEROY—HIS ACTS.
Don Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursua,
Lieutenant General of the Spanish Army,
XLVI. Viceroy of New Spain.
1771–1779.
Bucareli reached Vera Cruz from Havana on the 23d of August, 1771, and took possession of the viceroyalty on the 2d of the following month. During his administration the military character of the colony was still carefully fostered, whilst the domestic interests of the people were studied, and every effort made to establish the public works and national institutions upon a firm basis. The new mint and the Monte de Piadad are monuments of this epoch. Commerce flourished in those days in Mexico. The fleet under the command of Don Luis de Cordova departed for Cadiz on the 30th of November, 1773, with twenty-six millions two hundred and fifty-five dollars, exclusive of a quantity of cacao, cochineal and twenty-two marks of fine gold, and the fleet of 1774 was freighted with twenty-six millions four hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars.
Nor was the accumulation of wealth derived at that time from the golden placeres of Cieneguilla in Sonora less remarkable. From the 1st of January, 1773, to the 17th of November of the year following, there were accounted for, in the royal office at Alamos, four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-two marks of gold, the royal duties on which, of tithe and senorage, amounted to seventy-two thousand, three hundred and forty-eight dollars. The custom house of Mexico, according to the accounts of the consulado, produced, in 1772, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand and forty-one dollars, the duty on pulque alone, being two hundred and forty-four thousand, five hundred and thirty.
In 1776, Bucareli endeavored to liberate trade from many of the odious restrictions which had been cast around it by old commercial usages, and by the restrictive policy of Spain. The consulado of Mexico complained to Bucareli of the suffering it endured by the monopoly which had hitherto been enjoyed by the merchants of Cadiz, and through the viceroy solicited the court to be permitted to remit its funds to Spain, and to bring back the return freights in vessels on its own account, Bucareli supported this demand with his influence, and may be said to have given the first impulse to free-trade. Meanwhile, the mineral resources of Mexico were not neglected. During the seven years of Bucareli's reign, the yield of the mines had every year been greater than at any period since the conquest. One hundred and twenty-seven millions, three hundred and ninety-six thousand dollars, in gold and silver, were coined during his viceroyalty. Laborde, in Zacatecas, and Terreros in Pachuca, had undertaken extensive works at the great and rich mine of Quebradilla and in the splendid vein of Vizcayna. Other mines were most successfully wrought by their proprietors. From 1770 to the end of 1778, Don Antonio Obregon presented to the royal officers, in order to be taxed, four thousand six hundred and ninety-nine bars of silver, the royal income from which amounted to six hundred and forty-eight thousand nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. The same individual had, moreover, presented to the same personage, fifty-three thousand and eighty-eight castellanos of gold, which paid thirteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-one dollars in duties. In order to work his metals, Obregon had been furnished, to that date, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine quintals of quicksilver, for which he paid a hundred and fifty-nine thousand two hundred and forty-one dollars.
In June, 1778, the mineral deposits of Hostotipaquillo, in the province of Guadalajara, now Jalisco, were discovered, and promised the most extraordinary returns of wealth. In the following year, the valuable mines of Catorce, were accidentally found by a soldier whilst searching for a lost horse. All these discoveries and beneficial labors induced Bucareli to recommend the mineral interests of New Spain particularly to the sovereign, and various persons were charged to explore the country, for the discovery of quicksilver mines, which it was alleged existed in Mexico. The extraction of quicksilver from American mines had hitherto been prohibited by Spain, but the fear of wars, which might prevent its importation from abroad, and consequently, destroy the increasing mineral industry of the nation, induced the court to send Don Raphael Heling and Don Antonio Posada, with several subordinates, who formerly wrought in the mines of Almaden, to examine the deposits at Talchapa and others in the neighborhood of Ajuchitlan, in October, 1778, under the direction of padre Alzate. But this reconnoisance proved unavailing at that time, inasmuch as the explorers found no veins or deposits which repaid the cost and labor of working.
At this epoch the Spanish government began to manifest a desire to propagate information in its American possessions. There is a gleam of intellectual dawn seen in a royal order of Charles, in 1776, commanding educated ecclesiastics to devote themselves to the study of Mexican antiquities, mineralogy, metallurgy, geology, and fossils. This decree was directed to the clergy because his majesty, perhaps justly supposed, that they were the only persons who possessed any knowledge of natural sciences, whilst the rest of his American subjects were in the most profound ignorance. Archbishop Lorenzano published in Mexico in 1770 his annotated edition of the letters of Cortéz, which is a well printed work, adorned with coarse engravings, a few maps, and the curious fac-simile pictures of the tributes paid to the Emperor Montezuma. But the jealous monks of the inquisition kept a vigilant watch over the issues of the press, and we find that, in those days, the commercial house of Prado and Freyre was forced to crave a license from the court empowering them to ship two boxes of types to be used in the printing of the calendar!
The administration of Bucareli was not disturbed by insurrections among the creoles and Spaniards, for he was a just ruler and the people respected his orders, even when they were apparently injurious to their interests. The viceroy adorned their capital built aqueducts, improved roads, and facilitated intercourse between the various parts of the country; but the Indians of the north in the province of Chihuahua harassed the colonists dwelling near the outposts during nearly all the period of his government. These warlike, nomadic tribes have been the scourge of the frontier provinces since the foundation of the first outpost settlement. They are wild hunters, and appear to have no feeling in common with those southern bands who were subdued by the mingled influences of the sword and of the cross into tame agriculturists. Bucareli attacked and conquered parties of these wandering warriors, but every year fresh numbers descended upon the scattered pioneers along the frontier, so that the labor of recolonization and fighting was annually repeated. Towards the close of his administration, De Croix, who succeeded Hugo Oconor in the command along the northern line, established a chain of well appointed presidios, which in some degree restrained the inroads of these barbarians.