Valenciana and Rayas, and received a present of 1,000 ounces of gold. He offered to request from Spain a sufficient amount of mercury to work the mines. Passing through Celaya, he granted permission for the Ayuntamiento (city government) there to celebrate corridas (bullfights), and to build a bridge over the Río La Laja. The bridge was to be constructed under the direction of the architect Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras. On December 9, 1803 he inaugurated Manuel Tolsá's bronze equestrian statue of Charles IV in the Zócalo in the Center of Mexico City. The first stone in the pedestal had been laid July 18, 1796 by then-Viceroy Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte, marqués de Branciforte, and the statue had been cast on August 4, 1802. On March 22, 1803 the Prussian explorer and naturalist Baron Alexander von Humboldt arrived in Acapulco from Peru in the ship Pizarro. Humboldt spent a year in New Spain, spending time in Mexico City and especially important time in the mining area of Guanajuato. Since the crown had given Humboldt unlimited access to travel and investigate New Spain, Iturrigaray directly aided Humboldt's research, first published in his Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. Humboldt estimated the population of New Spain to be 6 million. On March 18, 1804 an expedition for the propagation of smallpox vaccine under Dr. Francisco Javier de Balmis also arrived. The viceroy's reception of this expedition was less enthusiastic than the leaders had anticipated. Nevertheless, Dr. Juan Arboleya vaccinated the son of the viceroy. In March 1805 news was received in New Spain of the renewed declaration of war by Spain against Britain. Iturrigaray received orders to put the colony in a state of defense, and to increase the regular payments to Spain. To do this, he applied the Cédula de la Caja de Consolidación. This order was the equivalent of disentailment of the church because it ordered the transfer of income from the religious estates and foundations to the government. A direct result of this order was the strengthening of the Spanish opponents of the viceroyalty, who raised protests. Among them was Bishop Manuel Abad y Queipo. Popular discontent grew with the increase in taxes. So did the discontent of the Peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain), because of the favor shown by the viceroy to the Criollos (Spaniards born in America). And among the latter there began to