Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/275

Rh and dying beggar, plunders the widows and orphans of their substance as well as their virtue, and casts such a horoscope of horrors around the death-bed of the dying millionaire that the poor superstitious wretch is glad to purchase a chance for the safety of his soul by making the Church the heir to his treasures."

All the viceroys but one—who was always known as the "great governor of New Spain"—were foreigners. It was the policy of the mother-country to surround this shadow of a king with a privileged class similar to the old nobility of Europe. They were all of pure Castilian blood and natives of Europe. Their children, if born in Mexico, were Creoles. To these foreigners were granted certain privileges (fueros) which in time created a great and impassable barrier between them and the Creoles. The Indians called these people gatzopins, or centaurs, afterward corrupted into gachupines—a word which may be traced back to the old idea that Spanish horses and men were one animal. These gachupines were always looked upon as aliens, as they truly were. All the honors and emoluments in Church and in State were reserved for this privileged class; every law was intended to benefit them. The system of fueros which elevated the gachupines was extended also to certain classes among the Creoles. Special privileges were thus granted to the army which lifted a soldier almost entirely out of the reach of the civil law and made both officers and men responsible to their commander alone. The clergy owed obedience only to the bishops, and these in turn to the pope of Rome, who kept his hold on the keys of this great treasure-house by entering into a business partnership with the king of Spain. The schools, the engineers, the revenue-officers, and others employed by the