MEXICO. This resolution, the principal promoters of which were the Oidores Aguirre and Bataller, was carried into execution on the night of the 15th of September, when Iturrigaray was surprised in bed, in his own palace, by a band of Europeans, (mostly merchants,) headed by Don Gabriel Yermo, a rich Spaniard, the proprietor of some of the finest sugar estates in the valley of Cuernavaca. No resistance was made by the guards, who would not fire upon their countrymen, and at midnight the Viceroy was conveyed to the prisons of the In- quisition, while his wife and family were confined in a neigh- bouring convent. To the populace, a suspicion of heresy was assigned as the cnuse of this measure ; while, to the better informed, the Audiencia attempted to justify it by one of the laws of the Code of the Indies,* by which it is provided, that in cases where the Viceroy exceeds his powers, the Audiencia has a right of interference, in order to preserve the tranquillity of the country. But all attempts at concealment were vain : the Creoles knew that the removal of Iturrigaray implied their exclusion from power, and they consequently regarded his cause as their own. These feelings were rather confirmed, than checked, by the pains which were taken by the Audi- encia to repress them. Juntas of public security were formed by its orders, and armed bands of Spaniards organized, who, under the curious denomination of Patriots, exercised a most rigorous surveillance over all whose opinions were suspected of being favourable to the imprisoned Viceroy. Many per- sons of note were arrested, who had voted in favour of a Mexican Junta in the Ayuntamiento, of whom some
- Seg. 36. tito. 15. lib. 2. which says, *' Que excediendo los Vireyes de
las facultades que tienen, las Audiencias les hagan los requerimientos que conforme al negocio pareciere, sin publicidad; y si no bastase, y no se causase inquietud en la tierra, se cumpla lo proveido por los Vireyes, b Presidentes y avisen al Rey."
