LINE OF PRESIDIOS MAYORGA VICEROY. 



251 



They are wild hunters, and appear to have no feeling in common 

 with those southern bands who were subdued by the mingled 

 influences of the sword and of the cross into tame agriculturists. 

 Bucareli attacked and conquered parties of these wandering war- 

 riors, but every year fresh numbers descended upon the scattered 

 pioneers along the frontier, so that the labor of recolonization and 

 fighting was annually repeated. Towards the close of his admin- 

 istration, De Croix, who succeeded Hugo Oconor in the command 

 along the northern line, established a chain of well appointed 

 presidios, which in some degree restrained the inroads of these 

 barbarians. 



Bucareli died, after a short illness, on the 9th of April, 1779, 

 and his remains were deposited in the church of Guadalupe in 

 front of the sacred and protecting image of the virgin who watches, 

 according to the legend, over the destinies of Mexico. 



Don Martin de Mayorga, 

 XL VII. Viceroy of New Spain. 

 1779 _ 1783. 



In consequence of the death of Bucareli the Audiencia assumed 

 the government of New Spain until the appointment of his succes- 

 sor, and in the meanwhile, on the 18th of May, 1779, Charles III, 

 solemnly declared war against England. The misunderstanding 

 which gave rise to the revolutionary outbreak in the English colo- 

 nies of North America was beginning to attract the notice of Eu- 

 rope. France saw in the quarrel between the Americans and the 

 British an opportunity to humiliate her dangerous foe ; and al- 

 though Spain had no interest in such a contest, the minister of 

 Charles, Florida Blanca, persuaded his master to unite with France 

 in behalf of the revolted colonies. Spain, in this instance, as in 

 the expulsion of the Jesuits, was, doubtless, submissive to the will 

 of the French court, and willingly embraced an occasion to humble 

 the pride or destroy the power of a haughty nation whose fleets 

 and piratical cruisers had so long preyed upon the wealthy com- 

 merce of her American possessions. The Spanish minister did 

 not probably dream of the dangerous neighbor whose creation he 

 was aiding, north of the Gulf of Mexico. It is not likely that he 

 imagined republicanism would be soon and firmly established in 

 the British united colonies of America, and that the infectious love 

 of freedom would spread beyond the wastes of Texas and the 

 deserts of California to the plateaus and plains of Mexico and Peru. 



