Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican Part 15

[Footnote 39: The Calzada of San Cristoval was originally erected, according to good authority, in the year 1605. See Liceo Mexicano, vol. 2, p. 6.]

[Footnote 40: Ward, vol. 2, p. 283, et seq.]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER VII.

1621-1624.

MARQUES DE GELVES VICEROY--HIS REFORMS--NARRATIVE OF FATHER GAGE.--GELVES FORESTALLS THE MARKET--THE ARCHBISHOP EXCOMMUNICATES MEXIA, HIS AGENT.--QUARREL BETWEEN GELVES AND THE ARCHBISHOP.--VICEROY EXCOMMUNICATED.--ARCHBISHOP AT GUADALUPE--HE IS ARRESTED AT THE ALTAR--SENT TO SPAIN.--MEXIA THREATENED.--MOB ATTACKS THE PALACE--IT IS SACKED.--VICEROY ESCAPES.--RETRIBUTION.

DON DIEGO CARILLO MENDOZA Y PIMENTEL, COUNT DE PRIEGO AND MARQUES DE GELVES, XIV. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN. 1621-1624.

Upon the removal of the Marques of Guadalcazar, and until the 21st of September, 1621, the Audiencia again ruled in Mexico, without any interruption however, upon this occasion, of the public peace. The six months of the interregnum might, indeed, have been altogether forgotten, in the history of the country, had not the Audiencia been obliged to announce the reception of a royal _cedula_ from Philip IV., communicating the news of his father's death, and commanding a national mourning for his memory. In September, the new viceroy arrived in the capital, and immediately caused the royal order to be carried into effect and allegiance to be sworn solemnly to Philip IV.

as king and lord of Old and New Spain.[41]

The Marques de Gelves was selected by the sovereign for the reputation he bore in Spain as a lover of justice and order,--qualities which would ensure his utility in a country whose quietness, during several of the last viceroyal reigns, had indicated either a very good or a very bad government, which it was impossible for the king to examine personally. Accordingly Gelves took the reins with a firm hand. He found many of the departments of government in a bad condition, and is said to have reformed certain abuses which were gradually undermining the political and social structure of the colony. In these duties the two first years of his viceroyalty pa.s.sed away quietly; but Gelves, though an excellent magistrate so far as the internal police of the country is concerned, was, nevertheless, a selfish and avaricious person, and seems to have resolved that his fortune should prosper by his government of New Spain.

The incidents which we are about to relate are stated on the authority of Father Gage, an English friar who visited Mexico in 1625; and whose pictures of the manners of the people correspond so well with our personal knowledge of them, at present, that we are scarcely at liberty to question his fidelity as a historian.[42]

In the year 1624, Mexico was, for a time, in a state of great distraction, and well nigh revolted from the Spanish throne. The pa.s.sion for acquiring fortune, which had manifested itself somewhat in other viceroys, seems in Gelves unbounded. He resolved to achieve his end by a bold stroke; and, in 1623, having determined to monopolize the staff of life among the Indians and creoles, he despatched one of the wealthiest Mexicans, Don Pedro de Mexia, to buy up corn in all the provinces at the rate of fourteen reales, the sum fixed by law at which the corn was sold in times of famine. The farmers, who, of course, knew nothing of Mexia's plan readily disposed of their corn, with which the artful purveyor filled his store houses all over the country. After the remnant of the crop was brought to market and sold, men began to compare notes, and suddenly discovered that corn was no where to be procured, save from the granaries of Mexia. "The poor began to murmur, the rich began to complain; and the tariff of fourteen reales was demanded from the viceroy." But he, the secret accomplice of Mexia, decided, that as the crops had been plentiful during the year, it could not be regarded as one of scarcity according to the evident intention of the law, so that it would be unfair to reduce the price of grain to that of famine. And thus the people, balked in their effort to obtain justice from their ruler, though suffering from extreme imposition, resolved to bear the oppression, rather than resort to violence for redress.

After awhile, however, the intimacy between Gelves and Mexia became more apparent as the confederates supposed they had less cause for concealment; and the poor, again, besought the viceroy for justice and the legal tariff. But the temptation was too great for the avaricious representative of the king. He again denied their pet.i.tion; and, then, as a last hope, they resorted to a higher power, which, in such conflicts with their rulers, had usually been successful.

In those days, Don Alonzo de la Serna, a man of lofty character and intrepid spirit, was archbishop of Mexico, and perceiving the avaricious trick of the viceroy and his pimp, threw himself on the popular side and promptly excommunicated Mexia. But the st.u.r.dy merchant, protected by viceroyal authority, was not to be conquered by so immaterial a thing as a prelate's curse placarded on the door of a cathedral. He remained quietly ensconced in his house, despatched orders to his agents, and even _raised_ the price of his extravagant bread stuffs. For a moment, perhaps, De la Serna was confounded by this rebellious son of the church, yet the act convinced him, if indeed, he entertained any doubt on the subject, that Mexia was backed by the viceroy, and, consequently, that any further attempts would bring him in direct conflict with the government. Nevertheless, a man like him was not to be easily alarmed or forced to retreat so quickly.

The church, supreme in spiritual power, would never yield, especially in a matter of popular and vital concern, and the archbishop, therefore, determined to adopt the severest method at once, and by an order of _cessatio divinis_, to stop, immediately, all religious wors.h.i.+p throughout the colony. This was a direful interdict, the potency of which can only be imagined by those who have lived in Catholic countries whose piety is not periodically regulated upon the principle of a seven day clock, but where wors.h.i.+p is celebrated from hour to hour in the churches. The doors of chapels, cathedrals and religious buildings were firmly closed. A death-like silence prevailed over the land. No familiar bells sounded for matins or vespers. The people, usually warned by them of their hours of labor or repose, had now no means of measuring time. The priests went from house to house, lamenting the grievous affliction with which the country was visited and sympathizing cordially with the people. The church mourned for the unnatural pains her rebellious son had brought upon her patient children. But still the contumacious Mexia sold his corn and exacted his price!

At length, however, popular discontent became so clamorous, that even among this orderly and enduring people, the life of the viceroy's agent was no longer safe. He retreated therefore from his own dwelling to the palace, which was strongly guarded, and demanded protection from Gelves. The viceroy admitted him and took issue with the archbishop. He immediately sent orders to the priests and curates of the several parishes, to cause the orders of interdict and excommunication to be torn from the church walls, and all the chapels to be thrown open for service. But the resolute clergy, firm in their adherence to the prelate, would receive no command from the viceroy.

Finding the churches still closed, and the people still more clamorous and angry, Gelves commanded De la Serna to revoke his censures; but the archbishop answered, that "what he had done was but an act of divine justice against a cruel oppressor of the poor, whose cries had moved him to compa.s.sion, and that the offender's contempt for his excommunication had deserved the rigor of both of his censures, neither of which he would recall until Don Pedro de Mexia submitted himself reverently to the church, received public absolution, and threw up the unconscionable monopoly wherewith he had wronged the commonwealth." "But," says the chronicle of the day, "the viceroy, not brooking the saucy answer of a churchman, nor permitting him to imitate the spirit of the holy Ambrose against the Emperor Theodosius," forthwith sent orders to arrest De la Serna, and to carry him to Vera Cruz, where he was to be confined in the castle of San Juan de Ulua until he could be despatched to Spain. The archbishop, however, followed by a long train of his prebends, priests, and curates, immediately retired from the capital to the neighboring village of Guadalupe, but left a sentence of excommunication on the cathedral door against the viceroy himself! This was too much for the haughty representative of the Spanish king to bear without resentment, and left no means open for conciliation between church and state.

Gelves could as little yield now, as De la Serna could before, and of course, nothing remained for him but to lay violent hands on the prelate wherever he might be found. His well paid soldiers were still faithfully devoted to the viceroy, and he forthwith committed the archbishop's arrest to a reckless and unscrupulous officer named Tirol. As soon as he had selected a band of armed men, upon whose courage and obedience he could rely, this person hastened to the village of Guadalupe. In the meantime the archbishop was apprised of his coming and prepared to meet him. He summoned his faithful clergy to attend in the sanctuary of the church, clad in their sacred vestments. For the first time, after many a long and weary day, the ears of the people were saluted by the sound of bells calling them to the house of G.o.d. Abandoning their business, some of them immediately filled the square, eagerly demanding by what blessed interposition they had been relieved from the fearful interdict,--while others thronged the doors and crowded the aisles of the long forsaken chapel.

The candles on the altar were lighted; the choir struck up a solemn hymn for the church; and, then, advancing along the aisle in gorgeous procession, De la Serna and his priestly train took up their position in front of the tabernacle, where, crowned with his mitre, his crozier in one hand, and the holy sacrament in the other, this brave prelate awaited the forces which had been sent to seize him. It is difficult to say, if De la Serna designed by so imposing a spectacle to strike awe into the mind of the sacrilegious soldier, or whether he thought it his duty to be arrested, if arrested he must be, at that altar he had sworn to serve. It is probable, however, from his exalted character and courage, that the latter was the true motive of his act, and if so, he met his fate n.o.bly in the cause of justice and religion.

Tirol was not long in traversing the distance between Mexico and Guadalupe. As soon as he arrived, he entered the church accompanied by his officers and seemed appalled by the gorgeous and dramatic display round the shrine. Not a whisper was heard in the edifice as the crowd slowly parted to make way for the soldiers, who advanced along the aisle and humbly knelt, for a moment, at the altar in prayer. This done, Tirol approached De la Serna, and with "fair and courteous words" required him to lay down the sacrament, to quit the sanctuary, and to listen to the orders issued in the royal name. The archbishop abruptly refused to comply, and answered, that "As the viceroy was excommunicated he regarded him as beyond the pale of the church and in no way empowered to command in Mexico;" he, therefore, ordered the soldiers, as they valued the peace of their souls, to desist from infringing the privileges of the church by the exercise of secular power within its limits, and, he finally declared "that he would, on no account, depart from the altar unless torn from it with the sacrament." Upon this Tirol arose, and read the order for his arrest, describing him as a "traitor to the king, a disturber of the peace, and a mover of sedition in the commonwealth."

De la Serna smiled contemptuously at the officer as he finished, and taunted him with the viceroy's miserable attempt to cast upon the church the odium of sedition, when his creature Mexia was, in fact, the shameless offender. He conjured Tirol "not to violate the sanctuary to which he had retreated, lest his hand should be withered like that of Jeroboam, who stretched forth an arm against the prophet of the Lord at the altar!"

Tirol seems to have been a man upon whose nerves such appeals had but little effect. He was a blunt soldier, who received the orders of his superiors and performed them to the letter. He had been ordered to arrest the archbishop wherever he found him, and he left the ecclesiastical scandal to be settled by those who sent him. Beckoning to a recreant priest who had been tampered with and brought along for the purpose, he commanded him in the king's name, to wrest the sacrament from the prelate's hand. The clergyman, immediately mounting the steps of the altar, obeyed the orders, and the desecrated bishop at once threw off his pontifical robes and yielded to civil power. The cowardly Mexicans made no attempt to protect their intrepid friend, who, as he left the sanctuary, paused for a moment and stretched his hands in benediction over the recreants. Then bidding an affectionate farewell to his clergy, whom he called to witness how zealously he had striven to preserve the church from outrage, as well as the poor from plunder, he departed as a prisoner for Vera Cruz, whence he was despatched for Spain in a vessel expressly equipped for his conveyance.

For a while the people were panic struck at this high-handed movement against the archbishop, but when the momentary effect had pa.s.sed away and they began to reflect on the disgrace of the church as well as the loss of their protector, they vented their displeasure openly against Mexia and the viceroy. The temper of the ma.s.ses was at once noticed by the clergy, who were still faithful to their persecuted bishop, nor did they hesitate to fan the flame of discontent among the suffering Indians, Mestizos and Creoles, who omitted no occasion to express their hatred of the Spaniards, and especially of Tirol, who had been the viceroy's tool in De la Serna's arrest. A fortnight elapsed after the occurrences we have just detailed, and that daring officer had already delivered his prisoner at Vera Cruz, and returned to Mexico.

Popular clamor at once became loud against him; whenever he appeared in public he was a.s.sailed with curses and stones; until, at last, an enraged mob attacked him in his carriage with such violence that it was alone owing to the swiftness of the mules, lashed by the affrighted postillion, that he escaped into the viceroyal palace, whose gates were immediately barred against his pursuers. Meantime the news had spread over town that this "Judas,"--"this excommunicated dog,"--had taken refuge with Gelves, and the neighboring market place became suddenly filled with an infuriated mob, numbering near seven thousand Indians, negroes and mulattoes, who rushed towards the palace with the evident intention of attacking it. Seeing this outbreak from a window, the viceroy sent a message to the a.s.sailants desiring them to retire, and declaring that Tirol had escaped by a postern. But the blood of the people was up, and not to be calmed by excuses. At this juncture several priests entered the crowd, and a certain Salazar was especially zealous in exciting the mult.i.tude to summary revenge. The pangs of hunger, were, for a moment, forgotten in the more bitter excitement of religious outrage. By this time the mob obtained whatever arms were nearest at hand. Poles, pikes, pistols, guns, halberds, and stones were brought to the ground, and fierce onsets were made on every accessible point of the palace. Neither the judges nor the police came forward to aid in staying the riot and protecting Gelves:--"Let the youngsters alone," exclaimed the observers, "they will soon find out both Mexia and Tirol, as well as their patron, and the wrongs of the people will be quickly redressed!" A portion of the mob drew off to an adjacent prison, whose doors were soon forced and the convicts released.

At length, things became alarming to the besieged inmates of the palace, for they seemed to be entirely deserted by the respectable citizens and police. Thereupon the viceroy ascended to the azotea or flat roof of the palace with his guard and retainers, and, displaying the royal standard, caused a trumpet to be sounded calling the people to uphold the king's authority. But the reply to his summons was still in an unrelenting tone--"_Viva el Rey! Muera el mal gobierno; mueran los dos comulgados!_" "Long live the king! but down with the wicked government, and death to the excommunicated wretches!" These shouts, yelled forth by the dense and surging mob, were followed by volleys, discharged at the persons on the azotea, who, for three hours, returned the shots and skirmished with the insurgents. Stones, also, were hurled from the parapet upon the crowd, but it is related in the chronicles of the time, that not a single piece of ordnance was discharged upon the people, "for the viceroy, in those days, had none for the defence of his palace or person, neither had that great city any for its strength and security."

So pa.s.sed the noon and evening of that disastrous day; but, at night fall, the baffled mob that had been unable to make any impression with their feeble weapons upon the ma.s.sive walls of the palace, brought pitch and inflammable materials, with which they fired the gates of the viceroyal palace. The bright flames of these combustibles sent up their light in the still evening air, and, far and wide over the town spread the news that the beautiful city was about to be destroyed. Frightened from their retreats, the judges and chief citizens who had influence with the people rushed to the _plaza_, and, by their urgent entreaties, efforts were made to extinguish the fire. But the palace gates had already fallen, and, over their smouldering ruins, the infuriated a.s.sailants rushed into the edifice to commence the work of destruction.

The magistrates, however, who had never taken part against the people in their quarrels, soon appeared upon the field, and, by loud entreaties, stopped the _saqueo_. It was soon discovered that Mexia and Tirol had escaped by a postern, whilst the conquered viceroy, disguised as a friar, stole through the crowd to the Franciscan cloister, where, for many a day, he lay concealed in the sanctuary which his rapacious spirit had denied to the venerable De la Serna.

So ended this base attempt of a Spanish n.o.bleman and representative of royalty in America, to enrich himself by plundering the docile Mexicans. The fate of Mexia and Tirol is unknown. But Spanish injustice towards the colonies was strongly marked by the reception of the viceroy and the archbishop on their return from Madrid. Gelves, it is true, was recalled, but, after being graciously welcomed at court, was made "master of the royal horse;" while the n.o.ble hearted De la Serna was degraded from his Mexican arch-prelacy; and banished to the petty bishopric of Zamora in Castile!

[Footnote 41: "Como Rey y Senor de las Espanas," says the authority.]

[Footnote 42: "A new survey of the West Indies, or The English American, his Travels by land and sea; by Thomas Gage, London, 1677, see p. 176." It is due to impartial history and to the memory of the Marques de Gelves to state that a different account of these occurrences is given by Ramon J. Alcaraz, a modern Mexican writer in the Liceo Mexicano, vol. 2, p. 120. Alcaraz fortifies his views by some doc.u.ments, and by a justificatory commentary of the Marques himself. But he, like Gage, does not state his _authorities_. The story as related by the English friar is very characteristic of the age, and, _si non e vero e ben trovato_. Those who are anxious to discover the innocence or guilt of the viceroy, with certainty, will have a difficult task in exploring the Spanish ma.n.u.scripts of the period. The British traveller Gage, _was on the spot in the year after the events occurred_, and his subsequent abandonment of the Catholic church would not be likely to lead him into the espousal of the archbishop de la Serna's cause against the viceroy.

CAVO in his work ent.i.tled--"Tres Siglos de Mexico,"--states that the account he gives of this transaction is taken from _five_ different narratives of it which were published at the time of its occurrence--three in favor of the viceroy and two sustaining the cause of the archbishop. In the last two, he alleges, that all the imputations against the archbishop were disproved, and that all the charges against the viceroy were sustained by solid argument.]

CHAPTER VIII.

1624-1642.

THE AUDIENCIA RULES IN THE INTERREGNUM.--CARILLO VISITADOR.--INQUISITORIAL EXAMINATION.--ACAPULCO TAKEN.--ATTACKS BY THE DUTCH.--REMOVAL OF THE CAPITAL PROPOSED.--ARMENDARIZ VICEROY.--ESCALONA VICEROY.--PALAFOX'S CONDUCT TO THE VICEROY.--PALAFOX VICEROY--HIS GOOD AND EVIL.

DON RODERIGO PACHECO OSORIO, MARQUES DE CERRALVO, XV. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN. 1624-1635.

Upon the violent expulsion of the viceroy Gelves by the popular outbreak, narrated in the last chapter, the government of New Spain fell once more into the hands of the _Audiencia_ during the interregnum. This body immediately adopted suitable measures to terminate the disaffection. The people were calmed by the deposition of one they deemed an unjust ruler; but for a long time it was found necessary to keep on foot in the capital, large bands of armed men, in order to restrain those troublesome persons who are always ready to avail themselves of any pretext for tumultuary attacks either against property or upon people who are disposed to maintain the supremacy of law and order.

As soon as Philip IV. was apprised of the disturbances in his transatlantic colony, he trembled for the security of Spanish power in that distant realm, and immediately despatched Don Martin Carillo, Inquisitor of Valladolid, with unlimited power to examine into the riots of the capital and to punish the guilty partic.i.p.ants in a signal and summary manner. It is not our purpose, at present, to discuss the propriety of sending from Spain special judges, in the character of Visitadores or Inquisitors, whenever crimes were committed by eminent individuals in the colony, or by large bodies of people, which required the infliction of decided punishment. But it may be regarded as one of the characteristic features of the age, and as demonstrative of the peculiar temper of the king that an Inquisitor was selected upon this occasion for so delicate and dangerous a duty. It is true that the church, through the late archbishop, was concerned in this painful affair; but it little accords with the ideas of our age to believe it necessary that a subject of such public concern as the insurrection against an unjust and odious viceroy should be confined to the walls of an inquisition or conducted by one of its leading functionaries alone.

Had the investigation been intrusted exclusively to a civil and not an ecclesiastical judge, it is very questionable whether he should have been sent from Spain for this purpose alone. Being a foreigner, at least so far as the colony was concerned, he could have scarcely any knowledge of or sympathy with the colonists. Extreme impartiality may have been ensured by this fact; yet as the Visitador or Inquisitor departed, as soon as his special function ceased, he was never responsible for his decrees to that wholesome public opinion which visits the conduct of a judge with praise or condemnation during his life time when he permanently resides in a country, and, is always the safest guardian of the liberty of the citizen.

It seems, however, that the Inquisitor administered his office fairly and even leniently in this case, for his judgments fell chiefly on the thieves who stole the personal effects of the viceroy during the sacking of the palace. The princ.i.p.al movers in the insurrection had absented themselves from the capital, and prudently remained in concealment until the Visitador terminated his examinations, inflicted his punishments upon the culprits he convicted, and crossed the sea to report his proceedings at court.

Carillo had been accompanied to New Spain by a new viceroy, Don Roderigo Pacheco Osorio, Marques of Cerralvo, who arrived in the capital on the 3d of November, 1624, and a.s.sumed the government. He left the examination of the insurrection entirely in the hands of the Inquisitor and directed his attention to the public affairs of the colony. These he found peaceful, except that a Dutch squadron, under the command of the prince of Na.s.sau attacked Acapulco, and the feeble city and garrison readily surrendered without resistance. The fleet held the city, however, only for a few days, and set sail for other enterprises. This a.s.sault upon an important port alarmed the viceroy, who, at once, sent orders to have the town immediately surrounded with a wall, and suitable forts and bastions erected which would guard it in all subsequent attacks. These fortifications were hardly commenced when another Dutch fleet appeared before the town. But this time the visit was not of a hostile nature;--it was an exhausted fleet, demanding water and provisions, after recovering which it resumed its track for the East Indies. Whilst the Spaniards were thus succoring and sustaining their enemies the Dutch, a dreadful famine scourged Sinaloa and neighboring provinces, carrying off upwards of eight thousand Indians.

During the long reign of the present monarch, Philip IV., Spain was frequently at war with England, Holland, and France; and the Dutch, who inflicted dreadful ravages on the American coasts, secured immense spoil from the Spaniards. In 1628, Pedro Hein, a Hollander of great distinction, placed a squadron in the gulf on the coasts of Florida to intercept the fleet of New Spain. The resistance made by the Spaniards was feeble, and, their vessels being captured by the Dutch, the commerce of Mexico experienced a severe blow from which it was long in recovering.

In 1629, there were ecclesiastical troubles in the colony, growing out of an attempt by the higher order of the Spanish clergy to prevent the increase of the regular priesthood from among the natives of the country. They feared that in the course of time the dominion of the establishment would thus be wrested from their hands by the power of the Mexicans. The king, himself was appealed to on this subject and caused it to be examined into carefully. In 1631, in consequence of the repeated danger of the capital from floods, the project of removing the site from its present location, to the loftier levels between Tacuba and Tacubaya, was seriously argued before the people. But the interest of property holders, and inhabitants of the city would have been so seriously affected by this act, that the idea was abandoned.

The remaining years of this viceroyalty were consumed in matters of mere local detail and domestic government, and in fact we know but little of it, save that the severe inundations of 1629 caused the authorities to use their utmost efforts in prosecuting the work of the _desague_, as we have already seen in the general account given of that gigantic enterprise. In 1635 this viceroy's reign terminated.

DON LOPE DIAZ DE ARMENDARIZ, MARQUES DE CADEREITA, XVI. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN. 1635-1640.

The five years of this personage's government were unmarked by any events of consequence in the colony; except that in the last of them,--1640,--he despatched an expedition to the north, where he founded in New Leon, the town of Cadereita, which the emigrants named in honor of their viceroy.