Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/42

26 favor of this great man. In return for homage received, Iturrigaray magnificently granted the town of Celaya the privilege to celebrate occasional bull fights to defray the expenses of a bridge over the Laja.

In the matter of material improvements, we find little during this administration not started under former viceroys. There was the completion of two roads to Vera Cruz; one of them, passing through Orizaba and Cordova, begun by Branciforte, was in charge of the consulado. Credit, however, must be given Iturrigaray for his exertions to secure the capital against inundation. To inspire zeal, he deigned occasionally to labor on the works with his own hands, and by his care the city was saved from inundation in 1806. Yet this praiseworthy caprice eventually gained for him the enmity of the fiscal de lo civil, Zagarzurieta, as well as of Aguirre and the other oidores. Funds being required to carry on the works, Iturrigaray increased the impost on cattle, and to this Zagarzurieta raised objections, to which the viceroy would not listen; because, he said, Zagarzurieta was connected with the family of the greatest cattle-dealer in the country, and therefore was not disinterested.

Existing literary and benevolent institutions were favored to some extent, not, however, in a manner sufficiently effective to reflect unusual credit on the viceroy. Mining, internal commerce, and agriculture