of Texcuco has greatly subsided, and the waters which surrounded
Tenochtitlan have given place to nothing more than a marsh.
The lovely river Lerma, which winds through the valley of Toluca, with
fine views of a beautiful mountain, the Nevada de Toluca, bears the name
of the worthless favorite of Philip III.
This Philip died, and his son, Philip IV., succeeded him, continuing the
line of royal favorites, and spending the imported wealth of Mexico and
Peru in the extravagances of his court, and the exhausting demands of
frequent wars with England, Holland, and France. He left the crown to
his son, Charles II., who died without an heir in 1700; and then began
the troublous wars of the Succession, which involved the whole of
Europe. This ended the reign of the house of Austria. The king whose
cause triumphed was a Bourbon, Philip V., and Bourbons continued to
reign in Spain until the latter half of the present century.
Mexico took no part in the war of succession. When Charles II. died, the
ruling viceroy was the Conde de Moctezuma, whose title was from his
wife, the great-great-great-granddaughter of the last emperor of the
name. Events in Europe caused no disturbance in his mind; he quietly
went on ruling, and awaited the result. It has been said that Philip the
Bourbon at one time thought of running away from his difficulties at
home, and taking refuge in Mexico.
Only one more of the viceroys need be mentioned, the Conde de
Revillagigedo, Don Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco de Padilla, whose
deeds are worth remembering. He found the city in 1787 in a wretched
condition, unlighted, undrained, unpaved. Even a part of the viceregal
palace was useless, being occupied by the stalls of Indian women selling
things to eat, such as tortillas, and _mole_. The viceroy corrected all
these disorders, both in the accounts and the morality of the
metropolis.
Revillagigedo was honored for his justice, renowned for his energy, and
feared for his severity; at the same time he was extremely eccentric,
and many anecdotes survive of his day. It is said he had the habit,
like Montezuma and Haroun al Raschid, of going about incognito, with one
or two aides-de-camp, to detect abuses in order to correct them. Walking
one evening in the Calle San Francisco, he met a monk taking his
pleasure much after the hour permitted for monks to be abroad. The
viceroy went directly to the convent, where, on making himself known, he
was received by the abbot with all due respect.
"How many monks, father, have you in your convent?" he asked.
"Fifty, your Excellency."
"There are now only forty-nine. Call them over and see which is the
missing brother, that his name may be struck out."
The list was produced, the roll was called, and only forty-five monks
presented themselves. By the order of the viceroy, when the five
appeared they were refused admission to the convent, and never permitted
to return.
A poor Indian came to the viceroy and told him he was in difficulty,
reproached with stealing some money. He said he had found a bag full of
golden ounces in the street, and seeing an advertisement containing the
promise of a handsome reward for the finder, he carried them to the
person therein mentioned as the owner. The Don received the bag, and
counted the ounces. In doing so, not unobserved by the Indian, he
slipped two into his pocket, and then accused the poor man of having
stolen a part of the money, and turned him out of the house as a thief
and a rascal.
The viceroy kept the Indian while he immediately sent for the Don, and
asked him to relate the circumstances.
"May it please your Excellency, I lost a bag of gold. This Indian
brought it to me in hopes of a reward, but he first stole part of the
contents, and I drove him from my house."
"Stay," said the viceroy, "there is some mistake here. How many ounces
did you have in your bag?"
"Twenty-eight."
"And how many are there here?"
"Twenty-six."
"Count them down. I see it is as you say. The case is clear, we have all
been mistaken. Had the Indian been a thief he would never have brought
back the bag and kept two ounces; he would have kept the whole. It is
evident this is not your bag, but another which this poor man has found.
Continue to search for yours. Good-morning."
And sweeping up the gold pieces he gave them to the Indian to keep for
himself.
Many such tales are still current of this kind, eccentric viceroy. He
rendered substantial services to the country, and especially to the city
of Mexico, which continued to maintain the better standard for
cleanliness and order he introduced. Revillagigedo was calumniated and
persecuted by certain enemies, and withdrew to Spain in 1794.
Mexico during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries offers no
picturesque situations to describe at length. In fact, the history of
the country is like some pictures with admirable background and sky
full of clouds and light, the foreground crowded with emotional detail,
all of great interest, but absolutely lacking in middle distance.
The early study of Mexico is, to those who can view it from its romantic
side, and put up with its troublesome, unpronounceable names, as
attractive as the landscape of the plateau, where the two lofty
volcanoes, snow-capped, are enhanced by the movement of heavy clouds,
and the play of sunshine on their lineaments. In the foreground may be
seen well-built cities, with the domes and towers of many a church,
regular streets, pleasant _plazuelas_ shaded with trees, bright and
perfumed with flowers. Between, there is nothing but a level plain, its
monotony scarcely relieved by rows of maguey with stiff, bristling
leaves. We will hasten over the uninteresting plain, and come to the
emotional foreground.
There were in all sixty-four viceroys, beginning with Don Antonio de
Mendoza, 1535, and ending with Juan O'Donojú in 1822. For nearly three
centuries they ruled New Spain, and ruled it pretty well, according to
their lights and those from whom they received their authority.
XXIII.
HUMBOLDT.
In the time of Iturrigaray, very near the close of the viceregal period,
a little while before Napoleon invaded Spain, Alexander von Humboldt
visited Mexico. He was a close observer of men and customs, as well as
of the natural phenomena belonging to his scientific explorations. His
account of the country gives a good idea of the state of society in
Mexico at the time he was there, and records the progress it had reached
under Spanish rule, in the hands of the viceroys. The revolutions, then
so soon about to begin, destroyed much of this civilization; from the
ruin brought by many a battle and riot, the country is yet but slowly
recovering. We may study the description of Humboldt as we might an old
daguerreotype, somewhat faded, but preserving forms and images in
reality passed away.
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF XOCHICALCO.]
Humboldt and his friend, Bonpland, a botanist, left Europe in the early
summer of 1799, armed with all sorts of scientific instruments, with
letters and passports to admit them everywhere, for an extended journey
of scientific exploration in America. After nearly three years in South
America, they left it for Mexico, arriving by water at Acapulco at the
beginning of 1803. Acapulco is on the Pacific Coast in the state of
Guerrero. Humboldt had letters from the court of Spain, which gave him
every facility then accessible for travelling in Mexico. They passed
through Cuernavaca, stopping to see the monument of Xochicalco in its
vicinity. Humboldt notes the heads of crocodiles spouting water carved
among the ornaments of this temple, with the comment that it was strange
to find such figures employed on a plain four thousand feet above the
sea and away from the haunts of these creatures, instead of the plants
and animals belonging to the neighborhood.
Without delay Humboldt and his companion reached the capital, where they
were delighted with all they saw. The Academy of Fine Arts was then in a
flourishing condition. Government had assigned it a spacious building,
and it had a collection of casts, finer, Humboldt says, than was at that
time to be found in Germany.
A small school of engraving was opened in the Mint, as early as 1779, by
royal order. General interest in this school became so great as to lead
the Viceroy Mayorga to project an academy of the three fine arts,
painting, sculpture, and architecture. In 1783, under the rule of the
good Galvez, royal approval was granted, and license was given for the
existing institution under the name of: "Academia de las Nobles Artes de
San Carlos de la Nueva España."
The academy was formally opened with suitable ceremony in 1785, removed
a few years later to the building it still occupies. Charles III.
himself sent the collection of casts admired by Humboldt. For twenty
years it flourished in the hands of competent artists sent from the
mother country. Then the end of that protection, and the turbulent days
of civil war, disturbed its even tenor.
Humboldt says that every night in its spacious halls, well illumined by
Argand lamps, hundreds of young men were assembled, some sketching from
plaster-casts or from life, others copying designs of furniture,
candelabra, and bronze ornaments; admission was free to all; class,
colors, and races were mingled together; the Indian beside the white
boy, the son of the poorest mechanic beside that of the richest lord. In
1839 all this was changed. Madame Calderon described the casts as
mutilated, the engravings injured, and the building in disorder and
abandoned. In this state it remained until the return to power of
Juarez, since when, with an annual allowance of $35,000, the institution
is doing fairly well. The name is changed to the "National School of
Fine Arts"; prizes are given for good work; all teaching is free.
The equestrian statue of Charles IV. was completed just at the time of
Humboldt's visit. He was present when it was cast, and saw it on its way
to the plaza.
The Cathedral was then new, and its massive towers, with the fine plaza
in front of it, excited the admiration of the enthusiastic traveller. A
few years only before his visit, the great idol, Teoyamiqui, had been
discovered, in the time of the eccentric Viceroy Revillagigedo; he would
have placed it in the University, but the professors there were
unwilling to have it seen by Mexican youths, and they buried it again in
one of the corridors of the Colegio. They were persuaded to dig it up in
order that Humboldt should see and make a sketch of it.
The Aztec calendar, the stone of sacrifice, and the manuscripts in
hieroglyph much interested the great man, but more the natural
attractions of the city. One of his favorite haunts was Chapultepec,
then in good order, as it was left by the Viceroy Galvez, who first made
a pleasure-house there, where Humboldt delighted in the broad view of
plain and volcano. He loved to go, as every one does now, to the
market-place, to see the stalls of the Indians all hung with verdure. No
matter what they sell--fruit, roots, pulque--their booths are ornamented
with flowers. He describes the hedge a yard high of fresh herbs and
delicate leaves built around the fruit-stalls, and the garlands of
flowers, which divided the alleys of the market, spread upon the ground
with little nosegays stuck at intervals, making a sort of carpet of
flowers. The fruit, in small cages of wood, was ornamented on top with
flowers. He describes the pretty sight, at sunrise, of the Indians
coming along the Viga Canal in boats loaded with fruits and flowers,
from Istacalco and Chalco; and gives an account of the _chinampas_, or
floating gardens, on the marshy banks of these lakes. This invention is
attributed to the early Aztecs, who cultivated the ground on loose
tracts of earth, bound together by roots which were either driven about
by the winds or moored to the shore. Similar ones, he says, are to be
met with in all the zones. In our day the _chinampas_ do not float, but
have the appearance of low, wet gardens, intersected by many channels of
water; they are, however, pretty patches of gay flowers cultivated, with
vegetables, for the city market, and a trip to Santa Anita, over the
still waters of the Viga, must not be omitted from the excursions around
Mexico; the scene is charming in itself, and haunted moreover by the
long succession of gentle Indians, who for centuries have heaped their
boats with flowers, and floated over the dark water chanting low songs.
Humboldt went to inspect the pyramids of the sun and moon at
Teotihuacan, and afterwards gave a prolonged study to mines, visiting
first Moran and Real del Monte, northeast of the capital, and afterwards
Guanajuato. Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, the natives of
Mexico were acquainted with the working of subterranean veins to find
metal. Cortés says that gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin were all
sold in the markets of Tenochtitlan. They either collected grains of
native gold in small baskets of slender rushes, or melted the metal into
bars, like those now used in trade, represented in Mexican paintings.
Humboldt found the methods of mining not advanced from the sixteenth
century, without any of the improvements known in his time. The hard
work was performed by Indians, the beasts of burden of the mines. They
carried out the metal in bags on their backs, going up and down
thousands of steps, in long files of fifty or sixty, men of seventy
years old, and children of ten or twelve.
The mine of Valenciana, in Humboldt's time the most celebrated of
Guanajuato, and the richest then known in Mexico, was not much wrought
until the end of the eighteenth century, although it had been somewhat
worked by the early Indians and the first Spanish settlers. In 1760, a
poor man named Obregon, a Spaniard, began to explore a new vein. As he
was a worthy man, he found friends willing to advance small sums from
time to time to carry on his work. For several years the cost was much
greater than the produce, but the pit grew rich as it became deep, and
at last yielded quantities of sulphuretted silver. When Obregon, or, as
he came to be called, the Count of Valenciana, began to work the vein,
goats were browsing over the hill-tops all about the ravine of San
Xavier. Ten years after, on the same spot, the climbing streets of
Guanajuato sheltered a large population; and at present it is a
flourishing city, surrounded by a region all rich in minerals. The
produce from the mine at Valenciana has fallen behind that of other
later veins, and scarcely covers the outlay.
Humboldt went from Guanajuato to Valladolid, which had not yet changed
its name in honor of the mule-driver, Morelos, who had, however, already
begun to study in the Colegio of San Nicholas. Valladolid was a small
city of eighteen thousand inhabitants. Humboldt says it contained
nothing worthy of notice, but an aqueduct and a bishop's palace. He
could not fail to admire the lofty picturesque arches of that aqueduct
of warm yellow stone, whose long lines vanish in perspective, shaded by
great ash trees. He does full justice to the beauty of Patzcuaro, which
he declares would alone have repaid him for his voyage across the ocean.
Humboldt spent some time there, and his memory of his visit is still
preserved in the name of a lofty hill overlooking the lake, named
Humboldt's mountain. The hospitable, courteous citizens of Patzcuaro
still point out with pride his favorite points of view. They fully
appreciate, as he did, the attractions of their lovely lakes.
The volcano Jorullo, twenty leagues south of Patzcuaro, was first made
known to men of science in Europe by Humboldt's account of it.
In the middle of the eighteenth century the site of this volcano was
covered with peaceful fields of sugar-cane, cotton, and indigo, watered
by artificial means, belonging to the plantation of San Pedro de
Jorullo. In June, 1759, for the first time, hollow noises from under the
ground began to make themselves heard, and in September a tract of
ground three or four square miles in extent humped up like a bubble.
Thick vapors, smoke, and flames were seen to issue from this area, which
rose and fell like the ocean. Large masses of rock and earth sprung up
as if from a chasm, and the highest of these developed into a volcano,
which burned steadily, throwing up lava and hot ashes for several
months.
The Indians were greatly terrified by such a spectacle, as well they
might be. Flames were seen at Patzcuaro, and even at Querétaro, many
miles away. The roofs of houses were covered with ashes, and the rich
plantations of San Pedro reduced to a barren plain. They believed that
some missionary monks who were ill received at the plantation poured out
horrid imprecations upon the fertile spot, and prophesied that it should
be swallowed up by flames rising out of the earth. Whether these
vindictive monks had anything to do with it or no, the hacienda of
Jorullo was destroyed, all the trees thrown down and buried in sand and
ashes from the volcano. The field and roads were covered with sand,
crops destroyed, and flocks perished, unable to drink the infected
water.
The eruptions grew gradually less and ceased during the following year,
but the mountain, with its extinct crater, remains in the place of the
once fertile hacienda.
Humboldt and his companion inspected also the great volcano, the pyramid
of Cholula, and the picturesque town of Jalapa. They left Mexico by the
port of Vera Cruz, and went to Havana, spending nearly a year in the
United States.
XXIV.
REVOLUTIONS.
Mexico could not always remain indifferent to the current of events in
Spain. Changes which shook Europe to its uttermost limit raised a
tempest whose waves broke with violence even on the remote shores of the
province.
Spain, after Philip V., was governed by three of his sons in succession,
the last of whom, Charles III., held the throne until 1788. He was a
prince of excellent intentions and blameless morals, and through his
ministers he brought the country to a degree of prosperity to which it
was little accustomed since the days of Philip II.
His good works extended as far as Mexico, where he caused to be founded,
in the capital, the Academy of Fine Arts, still in existence. His memory
in the days of the viceroys was preserved in New Spain as that of the
greatest and wisest of monarchs. His son, Charles IV., succeeded him. It
must not be forgotten that the Emperor Charles V. was Charles I. of
Spain--fifth Charles only of those of Austria.
Charles IV., in no sense a relative of Charles V., being a Bourbon with
instincts and traditions wholly different, was a weak and pitiful
sovereign. During his reign came the French Revolution, following close
upon the Declaration of Independence of the United States of North
America, events which gave cause for reflection to all vassals of
crowned heads, and especially to all colonized provinces remote from
their heads. Yet Mexico remained loyal in spite of the petty tyranny of
the viceroy sent from the court of Charles, Branciforte, an Italian
adventurer of low bearing and reputation, who obtained his appointment
through the interest of the royal favorite Godoy, "Prince of Peace."
This viceroy requested permission to erect a statue of his royal master
in the Plaza Mayor of the Mexican capital, nominally himself assuming
the charges of the work, though nearly the whole expense finally came
upon the city and private individuals. It is an equestrian statue cast
in bronze. The king is dressed in classic style, wearing a laurel
wreath, and in his hand he holds a raised sceptre. Thus a pretentious
statue of a sovereign for whom they cared nothing was forced upon the
Mexicans, while his predecessor, Charles III., was left without such
honor.
In 1822 the statue was inclosed in a great wooden globe painted blue, so
that the sight of a tyrant in his robes need not offend the new-born
patriotism of the city. But such feelings have now passed away, and it
stands in the _plazuela_ for the observation of loyalist or rebel.
Charles had a son, Ferdinand, with whom, as is frequent in the history
of crown princes, he could not agree. Thus when Napoleon Bonaparte, who,
passing from conquest to conquest, turned his attention to Spain, both
father and son sought the aid, or at least sympathy, of the great
conqueror in their family quarrel. Accepting this pretext for
intervention, Napoleon carried his armies into the peninsula in 1808.
The king and court fled from Madrid, with the intention, very decided
for a short time, of seeking refuge in Mexico. This project fell
through. Charles abdicated in favor of his son, Prince Ferdinand, who
became Ferdinand VII. But Napoleon wanted no Ferdinand VII., and made
him renounce the crown. French troops took possession of the capital,
and Joseph Bonaparte governed Spain under the title of king until 1813.
But the Spanish people resisted the French invasion. Councils were
assembled, assuming royal authority, to govern in the name of Ferdinand.
This was the beginning of the _Juntas_ which have since played so
important a part in Spanish affairs at home and in her colonies.
We will not follow the matter in Spain further than to add that she was
freed from the burden of the Bonapartes by the aid of the English in
1814. A year after, the power of Napoleon was at an end.
The Bourbon dynasty was restored in Spain, as well as in France, and
Ferdinand VII. was reinstated, with limited powers, however, for in the
course of this period of agitation the Spanish people had tasted the cup
of independence, and the ancient arbitrary rule of monarch and favorite
was no longer tolerated by them. The Marquis of Branciforte, no longer
viceroy, declared himself in favor of Joseph Bonaparte, and emigrated to
France. His Mexican property was confiscated later and handed over to
the authorities.
Here we must leave Spain to fight her own battles.
In the beginning of the new century, Don José de Iturrigaray took
possession of the viceregal seat. He was a man of public spirit, and an
excellent ruler. He greatly improved the highroad from Vera Cruz to the
capital, built the Puente del Rey, since called the National Bridge,
protected commerce, and encouraged home industry. He organized a
militia, greatly developed the army, and showed himself devoted to the
interests of his charge.
But the audiencia then existing, and many Spaniards, as soon as the news
of Napoleon's invasion of Spain reached them, imagined that Iturrigaray,
who had thus brought the army to an available condition, had conceived
the idea of seizing Mexico, and assuming an independent crown for
himself. Acting upon this idea, they rose in revolt, took possession of
the palace and seized Iturrigaray and all his family, shutting him up in
the fortress of San Juan de Ulóa, until opportunity offered to send him
back to Spain. An old marshal of the army, Garibay, was made viceroy in
his place, but he ruled but a few months, when the central Junta of
Spain ordered him superseded by the Archbishop of Mexico. Whatever were
the rights of this question, the act of revolt set an example
persistently followed in Mexico through the first half of this century.
In this experience it was discovered how easy it was to overturn a
government; the Mexicans, delighted with their success, wondered why
they had never done it before. In this first case, it was the
Spaniards, of pure blood, who took the matter into their own hands.
Revolt, independence, were in the air. The policy of Spain had been
rigorous in the extreme. Enormous taxes oppressed the people, the
colonists had no voice in the making of the laws, which were arbitrary;
and their exaction depended on the cruelty or generosity of the reigning
viceroy. These rulers, constantly changing, had no opportunity to
incorporate themselves with the people. At the best, it was a rule of
strangers, in which the individuality of the colony had no chance. Pure
Spaniards alone constituted society in Mexico; those of mixed blood were
regarded with contempt; while the Indians, native to the soil, counted
for nothing.