to the two alcaldes, who were burdened also with the duties hitherto performed by the acordada, the police, and other bodies. The effect soon became manifest in an accumulation of delayed suits, neglect of court formalities and prison regulations, and a startling increase of crime; so much so that patrols had to be established, as well as a soldier police. Several of the measures led to open quarrels between the viceroy and the alcaldes, who were naturally jealous of interference. Beyond the capital the military took matters into their own hands with respect to insurgents, robbers, and others, to whom the summary proceedings of a civil war period might be safely applied.[1]
Matters were not improved by the jealous objection on the part of the newly invested authorities to all interference from the government or the now humbled Europeans. The latter retaliated by withdrawing as much as possible from any position where they might be exposed to further insult and defeat. They made their displeasure manifest during the epidemic which ravaged the plateau this year, by contributing sparingly for the relief of the sick and poor, who so far had depended chiefly on their charity. The infliction was malignant fevers, which began in the preceding year, and extended over the central provinces, from Vera Cruz to Michoacan, carrying off nearly forty thousand persons in Mexico and Puebla alone.[2]
- ↑ The audiencia seeks naturally to exaggerate the condition somewhat for its own sake. See report in Bustamante, Cuadro Hist., iv. 113-17. In their report of Feb. they showed a disposal in the sala del crímen for the preceding three years, of 9,080 cases with 14,835 criminals, of whom half were liberated. This did not include the much larger number 'quintuplicado' of cases of the junta de seguridad. Gaz. de Mex., 1813, iv. 208; Mendíbil, Resúmen Hist., 169. Eighteen cases alone remained pending at the close of 1812; and this is strong testimony against the subsequent condition.
- ↑ Alaman intimates that the capital alone lost over 14,000 'quedando desde entónces desierto el barrio de Santiago.' Hist. Méj., iii. 414. Concerning the board of health, see Id., Apuntes, 11-12. Humboldt attributes the fevers to the siege of Cuautla, but Bustamante believes they were spread by the Zamora soldiers, and originated in the humid habitations of the poor, the germ still lurking. Cuad. Hist., ii. 286-7. The southern line of San Luis Potosí to Jalisco proved the limit northward; but Oajaca also suffered.
