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ORIENTAL TRADE SPANISH JEALOUSY. 



to the old sovereign continued unabated ; and during the unusually 

 long and successful government of this viceroy, the greatest cor- 

 diality and confidence was maintained between himself and his 

 royal master. 



Casa-Fuerte despatched a colony of emigrants from the Canary 

 Isles to Texas, and establishing a town for their occupation, he 

 modestly refused the proffered honor of bestowing upon it his name, 

 but caused it to be called San Fernando, in honor of the heir of 

 the Spanish crown. Nor did he neglect commerce whilst he 

 attended to a discreet colonization in the north which might encoun- 

 ter and stay the southern progress of the English and the French. 

 In 1731, the oriental trade of New Spain had become exceedingly 

 important. The galeons that regularly passed across the Pacific, 

 from the East Indies, and arrived every year in America about 

 Christmas, had enjoyed almost a monopoly of the Indian trade in 

 consequence of the wars which continually existed during that 

 century and filled the northern and southern Atlantic with pirates 

 and vessels of war. The Pacific, however, was comparatively free 

 from these dangers, and the galeons were allowed to go and come 

 with but little interruption. The American Creoles, in reality, 

 preferred the manufactures of China to those of Europe ; for the 

 fabrics of silk and cotton, especially, which were sent to Mexico 

 from Asia, had been sold at half the price demanded for similar 

 articles produced in Spain. The galeon of 1731, which discharged 

 its cargo in Acapulco, bore a freight of unusual value, whence we 

 may estimate the Mexican commerce of that age. The duties 

 collected upon this oriental merchandise exceeded one hundred 

 and seventy thousand dollars, exhibiting an extraordinary increase 

 of eastern trade with Mexico, compared with thirty-five years 

 before, when the impost collected on similar commerce in 1697, 

 amounted to but eighty thousand dollars. The anxiety to preserve 

 the mercantile importance of Cadiz and to prevent the ruin of the 

 old world's commerce, interposed many difficulties in the trade 

 between the East Indies and New Spain ; but the influence of 

 Spanish houses in Manilla still secured the annual galeon, and the 

 thrifty merchants stowed the vessels with nearly double the freight 

 that was carried by similar ships on ordinary voyages. Acapulco 

 thus became the emporium of an important trade, and its streets 

 were crowded with merchants and strangers from all parts of 

 Mexico in spite of the dangerous diseases with which they were 

 almost sure to be attacked whilst visiting the western coast. 



