Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/260

240 vestiges of the late conflicts in the city, rebuilding the plaza Volador, and causing the erection of a new theatre to bear his name. He must also be credited with having fostered education, trade, and industries in several directions, establishing mercantile tribunals and juntas de fomento for general development in departmental capitals and ports, reinstalling the old mining tribunal and forming a legislative junta to edit the code. A contract was entered into to open the Tehuantepec Isthmus for interoceanic traffic, although nothing came of it; steps were taken to plant European colonies in Tamaulipas, with little success; and Mexican territory was swelled by the incorporation of Soconusco, a province formerly belonging to Chiapas, but which, refusing to join her when she separated from Guatemala to become part of the newly formed Mexican republic, had maintained independence of both neighbors. Aggressive