250 INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 



ests of New Spain particularly to the sovereign, and various 

 persons were charged to explore the country, for the discovery of 

 quicksilver mines, which it was alleged existed in Mexico. The 

 extraction of quicksilver from American mines had hitherto been 

 prohibited by Spain, but the fear of wars, which might prevent its 

 importation from abroad, and consequently, destroy the increasing 

 mineral industry of the nation, induced the court to send Don 

 Raphael Heling and Don Antonio Posada, with several subordin- 

 ates, who formerly wrought in the mines of Almaden, to examine 

 the deposits at Talchapa and others in the neighborhood of Aju- 

 chitlan, in October, 1778, under the direction of padre Alzate. 

 But this reconnoisance proved unavailing at that time, inasmuch 

 as the explorers found no veins or deposits which repaid the cost 

 and labor of working. 



At this epoch the Spanish government began to manifest a 

 desire to propagate information in its American possessions. 

 There is a gleam of intellectual dawn seen in a royal order of 

 Charles, in 1776, commanding educated ecclesiastics to devote 

 themselves to the study of Mexican antiquities, mineralogy, metal- 

 lurgy, geology, and fossils. This decree was directed to the 

 clergy because his majesty, perhaps justly supposed, that they were 

 the only persons who possessed any knowledge of natural sciences, 

 whilst the rest of his American subjects were in the most profound 

 ignorance. Archbishop Lorenzano published in Mexico in 1770 

 his annotated edition of the letters of Cortez, which is a well 

 printed work, adorned with coarse engravings, a few maps, and 

 the curious fac-simile pictures of the tributes paid to the Emperor 

 Montezuma. But the jealous monks of the inquisition kept a 

 vigilant watch over the issues of the press, and we find that, in 

 those days, the commercial house of Prado and Freyre was forced 

 to crave a license from the court empowering them to ship two 

 boxes of types to be used in the printing of the calendar ! 



The administration of Bucareli was not disturbed by insurrec- 

 tions among the Creoles and Spaniards, for he was a just ruler and 

 the people respected his orders, even when they were apparently 

 injurious to their interests. The viceroy adorned their capital, 

 built aqueducts, improved roads, and facilitated intercourse between 

 the various parts of the country ; but the Indians of the north in 

 the province of Chihuahua harassed the colonists dwelling near the 

 outposts during nearly all the period of his government. These 

 warlike, nomadic tribes have been the scourge of the frontier 

 provinces since the foundation of the first outpost settlement. 



