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482 and consulting their own convenience in the matter. Revilla Gigedo therefore determined to form general archives in which were deposited all documents of importance pertaining to the tribunals and other branches of administration, without any expense to the crown.

The intendencias established by his predecessor continued unchanged during his administration, except that he ordered the intendencia of San Luis Potosí to comprise the territories of Coahuila and Texas, the intendente himself to act as subdelegate in regard to all contentions arising on questions of exchequer and war. In accordance with instructions from the crown commissioners were sent to explore the portion of Texas near the confines of Louisiana to determine whether it were convenient to extend the limits of the latter territory to the river Sabinas.

While the viceroy, faithful to his trust, was improving the condition of New Spain, the tempest of the French revolution was raging in its greatest fury, and Louis XVI. was no more. Though most of the oidores were inimical to the viceroy, they vied with each other in representing to the people that the imprisonment and execution of the French monarch was a transgression against laws divine and human. Moreover the English colonies of North America had recently shaken off their allegiance. The authorities began to tremble; and to increase their alarm, from the mother country came secret reports that among the merchandise shipped to the colonies were {{hws|numer| {{smallrefs}}