Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/762

742 dishonest. Frequent were the quarrels that resulted, leading often to bloodshed, and fostering a certain disloyalty which became manifest during such episodes as the Cortés-Ávila conspiracy, the overthrow of Gelves, and the burning of the palace in 1692. The whites indeed early divided themselves into two national parties, the creoles, or native-born, and chapetones or gachupines nicknames applied to those from Spain.

Many viceroys took special care to smooth the ruffled feelings, but this availed little against the insolence of the favored party and the measures of a distrusting government, at times blinded, at times clearly revealing a disposition to sow discord so as to strengthen itself at the expense of factions. This relined policy was brought into play also among Indians, and to keep apart the dangerous negroes. The party spirit raged with actual bitterness even among the religious orders, some provincias excluding creoles, others Europeans, from higher positions, and still others alternating or quarrelling when it came to the election of prelates.

While the nickname for European Spaniards could