Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/665

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KITE-FLYING PROHIBITED.
649

his strict orders against the arbitrary execution of captives, combined with the most liberal offers of pardon to those who submitted. Such efforts by so pious a man were eagerly assisted by the clergy, headed by Archbishop Fonte, the obsequious Bishop Perez of Puebla, and other prelates,[1] and by the restored Jesuits.[2] Others were encouraged in loyalty and cooperation by bestowal of the Isabel order,[3] and an increased liberality was shown toward the army in promotions and badges of honor, the latter granted also to widows. On the other hand, Apodaca issued certain ridiculous decrees, one against kite-flying, which drew upon him ineffaceable ridicule from the banter-loving population.[4]

The new ruler gave impulse to the campaign plans of his predecessor,[5] and as the officers could not ven-

  1. Pedro Fonte, an able man of less than forty years of age, late canon of the cathedral, came in June, 1815, to replace Bergosa y Jordan, whom the regency had promoted from the see of Oajaca. Bergosa, unconfirmed also by the pope, had to return to his southern diocese. In the following June he consecrated his rival. Perez, late president of the córtes, was rewarded with the mitre of Puebla for assisting to dissolve this body. He arrived early in 1810, and made himself conspicuous by his panegyrics of his royal patron. In July 1816 the Marqués de Castañiza was consecrated as bishop of Durango. See Sosa, Episcop. Mex., 214-15, 239-40, etc.; Fernando VII., Decretos, 136-7; Puebla, Pastoral, 1-47; Pap. Var., Ixvi. pt i.
  2. Restored by act of Sept. 16, 1815. They were escorted into Mexico with great ceremony on May 19, 1816, as described in Gaz. de Mex., 1816, vii. 514-16, and installed in the old college of San Ildefonso. Buildings and novitiates fell rapidly into their hands as formerly. Castañiza, brother of the marquis bishop of Durango, took possession as rector, assisted at first only by P. Canton. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., v. 45-7; Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, iii. 306-8; Mendizabal, Carta; Pap. Var., clxv. pt xvii.; Jesuitas en Mex., 4.
  3. Real Orden Americana de Isabel la Católica, instituted March 24, 1815. Cruz, Yermo's son, and four Spanish traders were among the loyal ones who received it, but also Adalid exiled for disloyalty, while Iturbide and others were passed by. Gaz. de Mex., 1815, vi. 719-23.
  4. The decree came out because a careless child fell off the roof in flying a kite. Notlcioso Gen., Aug. 26, Nov. 11, 1816. For references to pardons, see Gaz. de Mex., 1816, vii. 1092; 1817, viii. 28-30, 40; Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., v. 810, urging leniency; Arrillaga, Recop., 1836, 290-2; Pap. Var., clx. pt Ixviii. 5-6, on benevolence to the poor.
  5. Calleja departed for Spain with the convoy, leaving Mexico in October, after having retired from the palace Sept. 16th—a day on which his appointment as viceroy had been dated, four years before, and on which Hidalgo raised the war-cry for freedom—and surrendered the staff of office on the 19th at Guadalupe. Apodaca's entry took place on the following day, as described in Noticioso Gen., Sept. 23, 27, 1866; Orizava, Ocurrenc., 113-25.