[Footnote 38: The metre is equal to thirty-nine thousand three hundred and seventy-one English inches.] [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.] [Illustration] 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 passed 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]