274 DEFENCES AGAINST U. STATES MIRANDA HUMBOLDT. 



orders from the court to put the country in a state of complete 

 defence, and accordingly, he gatheredj in haste the troops of 

 Mexico, Puebla, Perote, Jalapa and Vera Cruz, and, descending 

 several times to the latter place, personally inspected all the en- 

 campments and garrisons along the route. Besides this, he made 

 a rapid military reconnoissance of the country along the coast and 

 the chief highways to the interior. The road from Vera Cruz to 

 Mexico was constructed in the best manner under his orders, and 

 the celebrated bridge called El Puente del rey, now known as El 

 Puente National, was finally completed. 



These preparations were designed not only to guard New Spain 

 from the invasions of the English, but also, from a dreaded attack 

 by the people of the United States. This fear seems to have been 

 fostered by the Marques de Casa Irujo who was Spanish envoy in 

 Washington at this epoch, and informed the government that the 

 menaced expedition against Mexico, would throw twenty thousand 

 men upon her shores. Nor was the attention of Iturrigaray divert- 

 ed from the enterprise which was projected by Don Francisco 

 Miranda to secure the independence of Caraccas ; and although the 

 scheme failed, it appears to have aroused the whole of Spanish 

 America to assert and maintain its rights. 



It was during the government of this viceroy, that the celebrated 

 Baron Humboldt, visited Mexico, — by permission of the patriotic 

 minister D'Urquijo, — authorized, by the home government, to 

 examine its dominions and their archives, and to receive from 

 the colonial authorities all the information they possessed in regard 

 to America. He was the first writer who developed the resources 

 or described the condition of the Spanish portion of our continent, 

 which, until that time, had been studiously veiled from the exami- 

 nation of all strangers who were likely to reveal their knowledge to 

 the world. 



In 1806, the news of the destruction of the combined fleets in 

 the waters of Cadiz became known in Mexico, and the resident 

 Spaniards, exhibiting a lively sympathy with the mother country in 

 this sad affliction, collected upwards of thirty thousand dollars for 

 the widows of their brave companions who had fallen in action. 

 Meanwhile, the war in Europe was not only destroying the sub- 

 jects of the desperate belligerants, but was rapidly consuming their 

 national substance. In this state of things America was called 

 upon to contribute for the maintenance of a bloody struggle in 

 which she had no interest save that of loyal dependence. Taxes, 

 duties, and exactions of all sorts were laid upon the Mexicans, and, 



