tember of the year last named that the strife began, and which was marked by reprisals as vindictive and cold-blooded as the annals of any Christian nation can record, as we shall see.[1] With these preliminary remarks on the political attitudes of the two classes, and on the origin of their divergence, I now proceed to narrate the historical events which preceded the final rupture.
The fifty-sixth viceroy of Mexico, Jose de Iturrigaray, arrived with his family at Guadalupe, and took charge of the government on the 4th of January, 1803. He held the rank of lieutenant-general in the royal army, as had nearly all those who filled this office during the rule of the house of Bourbon in Spain. A veteran soldier and sexagenarian, he still retained a youthful energy and vigor.[2]
Iturrigaray was a native of Cádiz, descending from a genteel but not illustrious family. With an honorable record in the Spanish militia, he had served with some distinction as a colonel of carabineers in the campaign of Roussillon, at the beginning of the French revolution in 1792. His reputation, however, as a military commander was not of the best;[3] and his elevation to the viceregal office was due to the favor of Godoy, the Prince of Peace, who still maintained influence over the weak and incompetent king.[4] His reception at Guadalupe and in the capital was,
- ↑ The same causes were at work in all the Spanish colonies in America; and it is significant to note the unanimity of the feeling entertained everywhere by the Creoles, as well as the synchronism of their start for the goal of freedom. In this same year five revolutions broke out in South America: that, of Caracas on April 19, 1810; that of Buenos Aires on the 25th of May following; that of New Granada on the 3d of July; that of Bogota on the 20th of the same month; that of Cartagena on the 18th of August; and that of Chile on the 18th of September. Diputac. Amer. Rep. 1811, 2-3.
- ↑ As a Mexican writer says, 'Con el arrebatamiento y fuego de un francés atolondrado.' Medidas, Pacif., MS., 57.
- ↑ 'Hombre de una mediana reputacion militar en su patria.' El lndicador, iii. 215. Compare also Disposicions Varias, i. 120; Bustamante, Cuad. Hist. , i. 10-11; Ratzel, Aus. Mex., 344-5; Gazeta Mex., xi. 222-3.
- ↑ 'No fueron estos meritos los que lo elevaron al vireinato, sino el favor de D. Manuel Godoy.' Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. 40. Favorecido del principe de la Paz.' El Indicador, iii. 215.
