Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/414

 408 [A. D. 1803.] In the same year there arrived in Mexico, by way of the Pacific, coming up from South America, one whose name will survive that of all the viceroys of New Spain. The illustrious Humboldt set foot on Mexican soil in March, 1803, and spent a year in an examination of Mexico's resources and her historic monuments. His work, a "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain," caused an awakened interest in that country, and first pointed out to the Spaniards themselves the exceeding richness of the territory they were about to lose forever.

[A. D. 1808.] When, in 1808, Napoleon forced the corrupt Charles IV. to abdicate, and his equally despicable son to relinquish all claims to the Spanish throne in favor of Joseph Bonaparte, the French usurper was better received in Spain than in Mexico. The Spanish-born residents of Mexico were, as a rule, in favor of Bonaparte as against the Spanish Bourbons; but the Creoles, the natives, were to a man faithful in their allegiance to the son of Charles IV., the Prince of Asturias, known as Ferdinand VII. They burned the proclamations sent out by Joseph, and arrested and sent prisoner to Spain the viceroy, Iturrigaray, for manifesting a tendency to recognize the Bonapartes. As yet, it seems, the inhabitants of Mexico had no thought of disloyalty to their sovereign; but they were perplexed to know who their sovereign was. Charles IV. had abdicated in favor of his son and then reclaimed the throne, while the mighty Napoleon had stepped in and wrested it from both, placing the crown upon his brother's brow. Proclamations and demands for treasure came pouring in from Spain, coming from the French king, from the deposed Ferdinand, and from the Junta, that assumed to rule in the name of the people. It was in the midst of this perplexing condition of affairs that people began to inquire as to the necessity of their being governed by Spain at all.