The Conde de Montezuma arrived in Mexico on the 18th of December, 1696. Early in the ensuing January the annual galeon from the Philipine islands reached the port of Acapulco, and this year the advent of the vessel, laden with oriental products seems to have been the motive for the assemblage of people not only from all parts of Mexico, but even from Peru, at a fair, at which nearly two millions of dollars were spent by inhabitants of the latter viceroyalty in merchandise from China. Hardly had the festivities of this universal concourse ended when a violent earthquake shook the soil of New Spain, and extended from the west coast to the interior beyond the capital, in which the inhabitants were suffering from scarcity, and beginning already to exhibit symptoms of discontent, as they had done five years before, against the supreme authorities, who they always accused of criminally withholding grain or maintaining its exorbitant price whenever the seasons were inauspicious. But the Conde de Montezuma was on his guard, and immediately took means to control the Indians and lower classes who inhabited the suburbs of the capital. In the meanwhile he caused large quantities of corn to be sent to Mexico from the provinces, and, as long as the scarcity continued and until it was ascertained that the new crop would be abundant, he ordered grain to be served out carefully to those who were really in want or unable to supply themselves at the prices of the day. [44]
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In 1698 the joyful news of the peace concluded in the preceding year between France, Spain, Holland and England, reached Mexico, and gave rise to unusual rejoicings among the people. Commerce, which had suffered greatly from the war, recovered its wonted activity. The two following years passed over New Spain uneventfully; but the beginning of the eighteenth century was signalized by a matter which not only affected the politics of Europe, but might have interfered essentially with the loyalty and prosperity of the New World.
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In 1701, the monarchy of Spain passed from the house of Austria to that of Bourbon. The history of this transition of the crown, and of the conflicts to which it gave rise not only in Spain but throughout Europe, is well known at the present day. Yet America does not appear to have been shaken in its fidelity, amid all the convulsions of the parent state. Patient, submissive and obedient to the authorities sent them from across the sea, the people of Mexico were as willing to receive a sovereign of a new race, as to hail the advent in their capital of a new viceroy. Accordingly the inhabitants immediately manifested their fealty to the successor named by Charles II., a fact which afforded no small degree of consolation to Philip V. during all the vicissitudes of his fortune. It is even related that this monarch thought at one period of taking refuge among his American subjects, and thus relieving himself of the quarrels and conflicts by which he was surrounded and assailed in Europe.
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The public mourning and funeral obsequies for the late sovereign were celebrated in Mexico with great pomp according to a precise ritual which was sent from the Spanish court, and, whilst the people were thinking of the festivities which were to signalize Philip's accession to the throne, the Conde de Montezuma returned to Spain after four years of uneventful rule.
Don Juan de Ortega Montañez,
Archbishop of Mexico,
His Second Viceroyalty.
XXXIII. Viceroy of Mexico.
1701–1702.
The brief period during which the archiepiscopal viceroy exercised his functions in Mexico for the second time, is chiefly, and perhaps, only, memorable, for the additional efforts made by the worthy Jesuits in California to subdue and settle that distant province. The colonists and clergymen who had already gone thither complained incessantly of their sufferings in consequence of the sterility of the coasts. But Salvatierra remained firm in his resolution to spread the power of Spain and of his church among the wild tribes at the feet of the western sierra along the Pacific coast. His labors and those of his diligent coadjutors were slow but incessant. Trusting confidently in Providence, they maintained their post at the Presidio of Loreto, and gathered around them, by their persuasive eloquence and gentle demeanor, large numbers of natives, until the success of their teachings threatened them with starvation in consequence of the abundance of their converts, all of whom relied upon the fathers for maintenance as soon as they abandoned their savage life. Yet there was no other means of attaching the Indians to the Spanish government. The authorities in Mexico had refused and continued obstinate in their denial of men or money to conquer or hold the country; so that, after various efforts to obtain the aid of the government, the pious mendicants resolved to return again to their remote missions with no other reliance than honest zeal and the support of God. At this juncture Philip V., and a number of influential people in the capital, volunteered to aid the cause of christianity and Spain, by supplies which would ensure the final success of the Jesuits.