256 CHAPULTEPEC GALVEZ DIES HIS DAUGHTER. 



architectural combination of fortress and palace, was a costly 

 luxury to the Spanish government, for the documents of the period 

 declare that, up to the month of January, 1787, one hundred and 

 twenty-three thousand and seventy-seven dollars had been expend- 

 ed in its construction. Nor was the ministry well pleased with so 

 lavish an outlay upon this royal domain. Placed on a solitary hill, 

 at a short distance from the capital, and built evidently for the 

 double purpose of defence and dwelling, it created a fear, in the 

 minds of some sensitive persons, that its design might not be 

 altogether so peaceful as was pretended. An ambitious viceroy, 

 surrounded by troops whose attachment and firmness could be 

 relied on, might easily convert the palace into a citadel ; and it was 

 * noted that Galvez, had upon various occasions played the dema- 

 gogue among the military men who surrounded him in the capital. 

 All these fears were, however, idle. If the count, in reality, enter- 

 tained any ambitious projects, or desired to put himself at the head 

 of an American kingdom independent of Spain, these hopes were 

 soon and sadly blighted by his early death. He expired on the 

 30th of November, 1786, in the archiepiscopal palace of Tacubaya. 



His funeral ceremonies were conducted by the archbishop, and 

 his honored remains interred in the church of San Fernando. At 

 the period of the viceroy's decease his wife was pregnant ; and it 

 is stated, in the chronicles of the day, — and we mention it as a 

 singular illustration of Spanish habits, — that the daughter, of 

 which she was delivered in the following month of December, 

 received the names of, Maria de Guadalupe Bernarda Isabel Felipa 

 de Jesus Juana JVepomucena Felicitas, to which was joined at the 

 period of the lady's confirmation, the additional one of Fernanda ! 

 The Ayuntamiento of Mexico, in order to show its appreciation of 

 the viceroy's memory, offered to become god-father of the infant, 

 and the ceremony of its baptism was performed with all the splen- 

 dor of the Catholic church, in the presence of the court and of a 

 portion of the army. The defunct viceroy had become popular 

 with the masses, and the people strove to manifest their love for 

 the dead by their affectionate courtesy to his orphan daughter and 

 . desolate widow. 



The Audiencia Real assumed the government of Mexico, 

 inasmuch as the Spanish ministry had provided no successor in 

 the event of the count's death. Its power continued until the 

 following February, during which period no event of note occurred 

 in New Spain, save the destruction by fire of valuable mining 

 property at Bolanos, and a violent hurricane at Acapulco, accom- 



