Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/523

Rh As further precautions for defense Calleja was ordered to form a brigade of cavalry at San Luis Potosí; Nemecio Salcedo was appointed comandante general to govern the provincias internas, and the licentiate Antonio López de Santa Anna, the future general, was made subdelegate of Antigua Vera Cruz. Another appointment made by Marquina at this time was that of a corregidor for Querétaro, in the person of Don Miguel Dominguez, who, together with his wife, Josefa María Ortiz, became famous in the struggle for liberty during the revolution.

Among the most notable events during the administration of Marquina was the publication in Mexico in 1802, of the peace concluded with England, and a year previously of that with Portugal. The immediate effect was a fall in the prices of all commodities, and commerce received a new and vigorous impulse. Public treasure had accumulated, and Marquina shipped treasure to the amount of six million dollars to Habana and eighteen millions to Spain. Still the crown must have more gold, and a papal bull was obtained for the sale of new indulgences whereby all could be released from fasting during lent.

These exactions were more severe on the inhabitants as at the same time they were suffering from other calamities. During the latter portion of the viceroy's administration there occurred an extraordinary rainfall in Tamaulipas, lasting about two weeks, and. inundating many towns and ranchos. In Lampazos some hundred dwellings were destroyed; the new town of Azanza was swept away, and the river Salado overspread its banks four leagues on either side. In Nuevo Santander all the northern settlements were under water, and the inhabitants of Reinosa abandoned the town on rafts. In the town of Santa Rosa in Coahuila, only seven dwellings were saved, and in Monclova two hundred houses were destroyed.