Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/714

698 free press, popular elections, and constitutional ayuntamientos. At first the viceroy resolved to make no alteration till he received orders from the court, withholding the news received from time to time as much as possible from the public. But a vessel which sailed from Cádiz on the 5th of April brought the information that a brig of war had sailed on the 24th of March, bringing orders to establish in New Spain the constitutional system; whereupon the merchants of Vera Cruz compelled Governor Dávila, who could not count on the support of the garrison, to proclaim the constitution in that city on the 26th of May. The same was done at Jalapa on the 28th. Fearing now that the European portion of the garrison at the capital would follow the example of their comrades in Spain, the viceroy, in accord with the real acuerdo, promulgated the constitution on the 31st, after its adoption by the sovereign had been made known in an edict. That resolve was hastened by Apodaca's knowledge of the influence freemasonry was already exercising in Mexico. There were but few masons in the country before the coming of the expeditionary forces, and these had preserved strict secrecy from dread of the inquisition. The field and nearly all the company officers of those troops, as well as of the navy, were members of the order, and it was whispered that Apodaca was one of them, though this was not divulged. He was, however, sure that the masons had effected the revolution in Spain, and feared that those in the army of Mexico had been directed to promote one in the colony. The instructions received from the court were therefore rigidly carried out. The viceroy, audiencia, and other authorities took the