Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/422

402 dragoon companies, a few soldiers in Acapulco, a small body of artillerymen, and the two companies of the palace guard.

The militia troops consisted of urban companies, mostly made up of white men and mestizos. In the capital there were some companies of laboring men, and about thirteen or fourteen others composed of merchants and tradesmen. In Puebla, as in Mexico, was a regimiento del comercio, which had been created about 1693. These troops lacked a knowledge of the use of weapons, and to enable them to acquire it, the viceroy asked the crown for experienced officers and a supply of arms, urging likewise the construction in Perote of warehouses for the safe-keeping of military stores, so that the viceregal government might afford prompt aid to Vera Cruz and the Antilles. These suggestions were acted upon at court, and on the first of November, 1765, Lieutenant-general Juan de Villalba arrived at Vera Cruz, commissioned as commander and inspector of the forces, having with him several mariscales de campo, and a number of field and company officers, being the nucleus of an infantry regiment to be known as the America, and nearly two hundred non-commissioned officers and drummers for organizing provincial infantry and cavalry regiments.