Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/402

382 Mayorga is represented to have been affable and liberal, possessing a magnanimous charitable heart, and making himself beloved by all, and yet he had to exercise much prudence as well as force of character, his position being an unfortunate one, as will be seen hereafter.

The new viceroy's arrival at the capital occurred just eleven days after the proclamation there, on the 12th, of war having been declared May 18th against Great Britain by King Cárlos III. Assistance secretly afforded by Spain to the British North American colonists to attain their independence, had much to do with the animosity of the day; in which measure Spain did not know how surely she was working her own undoing in the same direction.

The people of Mexico saw in this war nothing but misfortune; their trade would be harassed, and their coasts ravaged. Taxation, loans, and sacrifice of life would naturally follow. Nor were their fears unfounded, for very soon Mexico was called to the aid of Guatemala for the recovery of the port of Omoa in Honduras, which the English had taken. She was also required to take a prominent part in the combined Spanish and French operations against Florida. Those operations were quite active from 1779 to 1781.

Fearing an assault on Vera Cruz, the government