Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/679

Rh the most prominent citizens, all with lighted tapers in their hands. For nine days consecutively masses were chanted, prayers sent up, and offerings made to the virgin, invoking her intercession with the son, for mercy upon the anguished community. When the disease had spent itself, and half the natives were dead, then it was affirmed that the prayers had been heard. In Michoacan the suffering was not so great owing to the hospitals already provided by Bishop Quiroga and others. In some cases the Indians were accused of attempting wilfully to contaminate the Spaniards with the disease, either by throwing dead bodies into the ditches of running water, or by mixing diseased blood with the bread they made for the white families. The Indians were furious because only they were taken. The mortality is said to have exceeded 2,000,000 souls.

After the disappearance of the epidemic there was a scarcity of the necessaries of life, the fields having been so long deserted, and the survivors among the poor would have suffered from famine but for the efforts of the more favored. The viceroy temporarily exempted the Indians from the payment of tributes, and caused the public granaries to be as well supplied as possible, in order that the poor might purchase their corn and wheat at reasonable prices.

In 1580, after a succession of heavy rains, the lake of Mexico flooded a large portion of the valley, including the capital. The viceroy, after a consultation with the ayuntamiento and with persons having a knowledge of hydrostatics, ordered the drainage of the lakes