or uninfluential reached the ear of their Mexican governors, he placed a locked case in one of the halls of his palace into which all persons were at liberty to throw their memorials designed for the viceroy's scrutiny. It was, in reality, a secret mode of espionage, but it brought to the count's knowledge many an important fact which he would never have learned through the ordinary channels of the court. Without this secret chest, whose key was never out of his possession, Revilla-Gigedo, with all his personal industry, might never have comprehended the actual condition of Mexico, or, have adopted the numerous measures for its improvement which distinguished his reign.
Besides this provident measure for the internal safety and progressive comfort of New Spain, the count directed his attention to the western coast of America, upon which, he believed, the future interests of Spain would materially rely. The settlement of the Californias had engaged the attention of many preceding viceroys, as we have already related, and their coasts had been explored and missionary settlements made wherever the indentures of the sea shore indicated the utility of such enterprises. But the count foresaw that the day would come when the commercial enterprises of European nations, and, especially of the English, would render this portion of the Mexican realm an invaluable acquisition. Accordingly he despatched an expedition to the Californias to secure the possessions of Spain in that quarter; and has left, for posterity, an invaluable summary or recopilacion of all the enterprises of discovery made by the Spaniards in that portion of the west coast of America. This document,—more useful to the antiquarian than the politician, now that the boundaries between the possessions of Mexico, England and the United States have been definitely settled by treaties,—may be found in the third volume of "Los Tres Siglos de Mejico," a work which was commenced by the Jesuit Father Cavo, and continued to the year 1821, by Don Carlos Maria Bustamante. Revilla-Gigedo recommended the Spanish court to avoid all useless parade or expense,