Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/310

290 with the English, little could be done to check their unlawful traffic.

On the 15th of August 1716, Linares' term of office expired, and his decease occurred during the following year. He had proved hiraself a humane and benevolent man; but it was not until after his death that the full extent of his charities was known. It then appeared that besides devoting large sums to the relief of the poor, he had established free dispensaries at the different barriers of the city, and in his will he bequeathed a further amount for similar purposes. All his bequests were faithfully carried out by his executors, and among them was one of five thousand pesos in aid of the Jesuit missions in California.

Linares' successor was Baltasar de Zuñiga, marqués de Valero and duque de Arion. The salary of the new viceroy was fixed at twenty-seven thousand pesos a year, a larger stipend than was usually paid, and its amount excited unfavorable comment from his predecessor. The condition of affairs in New Spain was not in keeping with such extravagance. The country had not yet recovered from the disasters of 1714, and two years after Valero had assumed office, tidings arrived of a severe famine in Texas. So great was the scarcity of grain that the troops stationed there threatened to desert. Provisions were at once forwarded to the governor of Coahuila, and in the hope of making that territory self-sustaining persons