138 



EXCUSES FOR MALADMINISTRATION. 



and influential miners or land holders, always discovered pliant 

 tools who were ready by intrigue and corruption to smother the cry 

 of discontent, or to account plausibly for the murmurs, which upon 

 extraordinary occasions, burst through all restraints until they 

 reached either the Audiencia or the representative of the sovereign. 

 These slender excuses may, in some degree, account for and pal- 

 liate the maladministration of Spanish America from the middle of 

 the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. 



The ensuing chapters of this book contain the annals of New 

 Spain from the foundation of the viceroyal system to the beginning 

 of the revolution that grew out of its corruptions. The materials 

 for this portion of Mexican history are exceedingly scant. During 

 the jealous despotism and ecclesiastical vigilance of old Spanish 

 rule, and the anarchy of modern miscalled republicanism, few 

 authors have ventured to penetrate the gloom of this mysterious 

 period. The Jesuit Father Cavo, and Don Carlos Maria Busta- 

 mante have alone essayed to narrate, consecutively, the events of 

 the viceroyalty ; and although no student of the past is attracted by 

 their crude and careless style, yet we may confidently rely on the 

 characteristic facts detailed in their tedious work. 1 



1 " Los Tres Siglos de Mejico, durante el Gobierno Espanol, " 1521 to 1766, 

 written by Father Andres Cavo, of the Society of Jesus ; 1767 to 1821, written by 

 Don Carlos Maria Bustamante. 



