Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 1 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.Mayer, Brantz
History
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 1 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.
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 assumed 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 Nassau 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 assault 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.
* * * * *
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