CHAPTEK XIV. 

 1771 — 1784. 



BUCARELI Y UKSUA VICEROY. PROGRESS OF NEW SPAIN. GOLD 



PLACERES IN SONORA. MINERAL WEALTH AT THAT PERIOD. 



INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. LINE OF PRE- 

 SIDIOS. MAYORGA VICEROY. POLICY OF SPAIN TO ENGLAND 



AND HER COLONIES. OPERATIONS ON THE SPANISH MAIN, 



ETC. MATIAS GALVEZ VICEROY HIS ACTS. 



Don Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursua, 

 Lieutenant General of the Spanish Army, 

 XL VI. Viceroy of New Spain. 

 1771 _ 1779. 



Bucareli reached Vera Cruz from Havana on the 23d of 

 August, 1771, and took possession of the viceroyalty on the 2d of 

 the following month. During his administration the military char- 

 acter of the colony was still carefully fostered, whilst the domestic 

 interests of the people were studied, and every effort made to es- 

 tablish the public works and national institutions upon a firm basis. 

 The new mint and the Monte de Piadad are monuments of this 

 epoch. Commerce nourished in those days in Mexico. The fleet 

 under the command of Don Luis de Cordova departed for Cadiz 

 on the 30th of November, 1773, with twenty-six millions two hun- 

 dred and fifty-five dollars, exclusive of a quantity of cacao, coch- 

 ineal and twenty-two marks of fine gold, and the fleet of 1774 was 

 freighted with twenty-six millions four hundred and fifty-seven 

 thousand dollars. 



Nor was the accumulation of wealth derived at that time from 

 the golden placeres of Cieneguilla in Sonora less remarkable. 

 From the 1st of January, 1773, to the 17th of November of the 

 year following, there were accounted for, in the royal office at 



