Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/248





viceroy who governed New Spain from the year 1734 to 1740, passed an uneventful reign, so far as the internal peace and order of the colony were concerned. War was declared, during this period, between France and Spain, but Mexico escaped from all its desolating consequences, and nothing appears to have disturbed the quiet of colonial life but a severe epidemic, which is said to have resembled the yellow fever, and carried off many thousands of the inhabitants, especially in the north-eastern section of the territory The viceroy was naturally solicitous to follow the example of his predecessors, in preventing the encroachments of the French on the northern indefinite boundaries of New Spain, and took measures to support the, feeble garrisons and colonies which were the only representatives of Spanish rights and power in that remote quarter.