ZUNIGA AND THE AUDIENCIA OF GUADALAJARA.

169

parties. Threats were used when diplomacy failed, and at length, the disputants reached, but did not pass, the verge of civil war, for, on both sides they seem to have ordered out troops, who, fortunately never actually engaged in combat.

This ill judged act of the viceroy was fatal to his power. Letters and petitions were forthwith despatched to Madrid requiring and begging the removal of a man whose rashness was near producing a civil war. This was a charge not to be disregarded by the king, and, accordingly, we find that a successor to Zuñiga was immediately named, and that the bishop of Tlascala was appointed visitador to examine the conduct of the deposed viceroy.

On the 17th of January, 1590, this prelate, who seems to have been originally inimical to Zuñiga, and who should therefore have disdained the office of his judge, ordered him to depart from Mexico. All the property of the late viceroy, even the linen of his wife, was sequestrated; the most harassing annoyances were constantly inflicted upon him; and, after six years, poor and worn down by unceasing trials, he returned to Spain, where the influence of his friends at court procured the restoration of his property.

CHAPTER V.

1589-1607.

LUIS

DE VELASCO

THE

SECOND

LIGHT OF THE MEXICANS.

MECAS

DE

BECOMES VICEROY. FACTORIES REOPENED - CHICHI

COLONIZATION. ALAMEDA - INDIANS TAXED FOR

EUROPEAN WARS.

COMPOSITION

FOWLS

ACEBEDO VICE

ROY. EXPEDITION TO NEW MEXICO. -INDIAN AMELIORATIONS. -DEATH OF PHILIP II.-NEW SCHEME OF HIREING INDIANS.

LUIS DE VELASCO, Count de Santiago, was the son of the second viceroy of New Spain, and during the administration of his father, as well as for some years afterwards, had resided in Mexico where he filled several offices, and especially that of corregidor of Zempoala. He was not on friendly terms with the last viceroy, Zuñiga, for he had suddenly quitted New Spain in the same vessel that brought his predecessor to America. Upon his arrival at the Spanish court he was sent as ambassador to Florence; and the exaggerated news of the supposed civil war in Mexico having been received just as he returned from his mission, Philip determined to send him back to New Spain. This decision was, no doubt, founded upon Velasco's intimate acquaintance with Mexico and its people, with whom his interests had been so long bound up that he might almost be regarded as a native of the country.

On the 25th of January, 1590, Velasco entered the capital with more pomp and rejoicing than had ever attended the advent of previous viceroys, for the Mexicans looked upon him as a countryman. As soon as he was seated in power his first acts demon

FACTORIES REOPENED

CHICHIMECAS

COLONIZATION. 171

strated his good sense and mature judgment. His wish was to develope the country; to make not only its mineral and agricultural resources available to Spain, but to open the channels through which labor could obtain its best rewards. He therefore ordered the manufactories of coarse stuffs and cloths which had been established by Mendoza to be once more opened, after the long period in which the Spanish mercantile influence had kept them shut. This naturally produced an excitement among the interested foreign traders, but the viceroy firmly maintained his determination to punish severely any one who should oppose his decree.

In 1591, the troublesome Chichimecas, of whose disturbances we have already spoken in other chapters, again manifested a desire to attack the Spaniards. They were congregated in strongly armed bands in the neighborhood of Zacatecas, and menaced the Spanish population living in the neighborhood of the rich mines. Travellers could not pass through the country without a military escort. Strong garrisons had been placed by the government on the frontiers, and merciless war declared against them, but all was unavailing to stop their marauding expeditions among the whites. In this year, however, they sent commissioners to treat with the Spaniards in Mexico, and after confessing that they were tired of a war which they found useless, they consented to abstain from further molestation of the district, provided the viceroy would agree to furnish them with a sufficiency of meat for their support. lasco of course consented to this demand of the cattle stealers, and, moreover, obtained their consent to the admission among them of a body of Tlascalans who would instruct them in a civil and christian mode of life. Four hundred families of these faithful friends of the Mexicans were selected for this colony; and, together with some Franciscan friars, they settled in four bodies so as to form an equal number of colonies. One of these settlements was made on the side of a rich mineral hill and took the name of San Luis Potosi, the second formed San Miguel Mesqitic, the third San Andres, and the fourth Colotlan. Such was the origin of these towns, in which the two tribes lived for many years in perfect harmony, but without intermingling or losing their individuality.

Another attempt was also made, as had been done previously, to gather the dispersed bands of Mexican and Otomi Indians into villages and settlements, where they would gradually become accustomed to civilized life. Velasco, like his predecessor Moya, consulted with the curas and the people who were best acquainted with the temper of these races, and learned that they still opposed

172

ALAMEDA- INDIANS TAXED FOR EUROPEAN WARS.

humane efforts for civilization, preferring the vagabond life they had so long led and which had now become necessary and natural. Nevertheless he thought it his duty to try the experiment. But the first Otomi who was reduced to the necessity of abandoning his nomadic habits and building for himself a regular habitation, not only destroyed his wife and children, but terminated his own existence by hanging. The viceroy then suspended his operations and reported the untoward result, together with the opinion of his advisers, to the court of Spain.

Velasco, ever anxious not only for the amelioration of the condition of the Indians, but for the embellishment of the capital which was now growing into considerable importance, caused the ALAMEDA OF MEXICO to be laid out and planted in 1593, for the recreation of the citizens. This magnificent grove, with its beautifully shaded avenues and walks,-embellished by fountains and filled with every thing that can give repose or comfort to the fatigued people who are anxious to steal off awhile from the toil and bustle of a large city, still exists in Mexico as an evidence of the taste and liberality of the viceroy, and will be more particularly described, hereafter, in that portion of this work which treats of the city of Mexico, and of the manners and customs of its inhabitants.

revenue.

In 1594, Philip the Second finding himself straitened for means to carry on the European wars in which he was engaged, recurred to the unfortunate and unjust system of forced loans to increase his He did not confine himself in this odious compulsory tax to the old world which was most concerned in the result of his wars, but instructed Velasco to impose a tribute of four reales or fifty cents upon Indians, in addition to the sum they already paid his majesty. Velasco reluctantly undertook the unwelcome task; but anxious to lighten the burden upon the natives as much as possible, and, at the same time, to foster the raising of poultry and cattle among these people, he compounded the whole tax of a dollar which they were obliged to pay, for seven reales, or eightyseven and a half cents and one fowl, which, at that time, was valued at a single real, or twelve and a half cents. This, it will be perceived, was amiably designed by the viceroy, but became immediately the subject of gross abuse. The Indians are slowly moved either to new modes of cultivation or to new objects of care, even of the most domestic and useful character. Instead of devoting themselves to the raising of poultry with the industrious thrift that

COMPOSITION -FOWLS

ACEBEDO VICEROY.

173

would have saved one-eighth of their taxation or twelve and a half per cent, they allowed the time to pass without providing the required bird in their homesteads, so that when the tax gatherer arrived they were forced to buy the fowl instead of selling it. This of course raised the price, and the consequence was that the Indian was obliged often to pay two or three reales more than the original amount of the whole taxation of one dollar! It is related that one of the oidores who had taken eight hundred fowls, reserved two hundred for the consumption of his house, and through an agent sold the rest at three reales, or thirty-seven and a half cents each, by which he contrived to make a profit of two hundred per cent. Various efforts were made to remedy this shameful abuse or to revoke the decree, but the system was fouud to be too profitable among the officials, to be abandoned without a severe struggle. We are unable to discover that the viceroy, in this instance, used his authority to restore the Indians to their original rights.

In 1595, it was determined to colonize the supposed kingdom of Quivara, which now received the name of New Mexico, but, before the expedition could set forth under the command of Juan de Oñate, Velasco received a despatch informing him that he had been named viceroy of Peru, and that his successor Don Gaspar de Zuñiga Acebedo, Conde de Monterey, would soon appear in the colonial metropolis.

DON GASPAR DE ZUNIGA ACEBEDO, CONDE DE MONTEREY, IX. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.

1595-1603.

The Count of Monterey arrived at San Juan de Ulua on the 18th of September, 1595, and on the 5th of the following November, entered the capital as viceroy. At first he exhibited a cold and apathetic temper, and appeared to take but little interest in the affairs of the government; but it is supposed, that being a prudent and cautious man, he was in no haste to underake the direction of affairs whilst he was altogether unacquainted both with the temper of the people and the nature of their institutions. An early measure, however, of his administration deserves to be recorded and remembered. He found the Indians still suffering and complaining under the odious fowl tax, created by his predecessor for the protection of domestic industry, but which had been perverted for the