184 EXTENSION OF ORIENTAL TRADE

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GUERRA VICEROY.

together with two hundred Spaniards and Mestizos, to attack them in their fastnesses. Several skirmishes took place between the slaves and these forces, and at length the negroes yielded to the Spaniards, craving their pardon, inasmuch as their "insurrection was not against the king," and promising that they would no longer afford a refuge to the blacks who absconded from the plantations. Velasco at once granted their request, and permitted them to settle in the town of San Lorenzo.

In 1610 and 1611, there were but few important incidents in the history of New Spain, which was now gradually forming itself into a regularly organized state, free from all those violent internal commotions, which nations, like men, are forced to undergo in their infancy. The viceroy still endeavored to ameliorate the condition of the Indians, and despatched a mission to Japan in order to extend the oriental commerce of Spain. The true policy of Castile would have been, instead of crushing Mexico by colonial restrictions, to have raised her gradually into a gigantic state, which, situated in the centre of America, on the narrowest part of the continent between the two oceans, and holding in her veins the precious metals in exhaustless quantities, would have surely grasped and held the commerce of the east and of Europe. Such would seem the natural destiny of Mexico if we examine her geographical features carefully; nor do we venture too much in predicting that the time will come when that destiny will be fulfilled.

Velasco was now well stricken in years and required repose. His master, appreciating his faithful services and his unquestionable loyalty, added to his already well earned titles that of Marques of Salinas, and creating him president of the Council of the Indies recalled him to Spain where he could pass in quiet the evening of his days, whilst he was also enabled to impart the results of his vast American experience to the king and court.

FRAY GARCIA GUERRA, ARCHBISHOP OF MEXICO,
XII. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.

1611 1612.

Velasco, as an especial mark of royal favor, was desired to retain his power as viceroy until the moment of embarkation for Spain, and then to depose it in favor of the monk Garcia Guerra, who had been the worthy prior of a Dominican convent at Burgos

DE CORDOVA VICEROY

INDIAN REVOLT.

185

in Spain, until he was nominated to the Archepiscopal See of Mexico. His government was brief and altogether eventless. He became viceroy on the 17th of June, 1611, and died on the 22d of February in the following year, of a wound he received in falling as he descended from his coach.

DON DIEGO FERNANDEZ DE CORDOVA,

MARQUES DE GUADALCAZAR.

XIII. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.

1612-1621.

Upon the death of the last viceroy, the Audiencia, of course, took possession of the government during the interregnum ; - and, as it seems that this body of men was always doomed to celebrate its authority by acts of folly or cruelty, we find that soon after its accession to power the city was alarmed by the news of another outbreak among the negroes. The people were panic struck. A terrible noise had been heard in the streets of the metropolis during the night, and, although it was proved that the disturbance was entirely caused by the entrance, during the darkness, of a large drove of hogs, the Audiencia determined, nevertheless, to appease public opinion by the execution of twenty-nine male negroes and four negro women! Their withered and fetid bodies were left to hang on the gallows, tainting the air and shocking the eyes of every passer, until the neighborhood could no longer bear the sickly stench and imperiously demanded their removal.

The Marques de Guadalcazar took possession of the viceroyalty on the 28th of October, 1612, and his government passed in quiet engaged in the mere ordinary discharge of executive duties during the first four years, subsequent to which an Indian insurrection of a formidable character broke out in one of the departments, under a chief who styled himself "Son of the Sun and God of Heaven and Earth." This assault was fatal to every Spaniard within reach of the infuriate natives, who broke into the churches, murdered the whites seeking sanctuary at their altars, and spared not even the ecclesiastics, who, in all times, have so zealously proved themselves to be the defenders of their race. Don Gaspar Alvear, Governor of Durango, assembled a large force as soon as the viceroy informed him of the insurrection, and marched against the savages. After three months of fighting, executions and diplomacy, this func

tionary succeeded in suffocating the rebellion; but he was probably more indebted, for the final reconciliation of the Indians, to the persuasive talents of the Jesuits who accompanied the expedition, than to the arms of his soldiers.

The remaining years of this viceroyalty are only signalized by the founding of the city of Cordova, whose neighborhood is renowned for the excellent tobacco it produces, and for the construction of the beautiful aqueduct of San Cosmé which brings the sweet waters of Santa Fé to the capital. This monument to the intelligence and memory of Guadalcazar was completed in 1620; and, in March, 1621, the viceroy was removed to the government of Peru.

VICEROY EXCOM

ARCHBISHOP EXCOMMUNICATES MEXIA, HIS AGENT. QUARREL
BETWEEN GELVES AND THE ARCHBISHOP.
MUNICATED. ARCHBISHOP AT GUADALUPE

HE IS ARRESTED

DON DIEGO CARILLO MENDOZA Y PIMENTEL,

COUNT DE PRIEGO AND MARQUES DE GELVES,

UPON the removal of the Marques of Guadalcazar, and until the 21st of September, 1621, the Audiencia again ruled in Mexico, without any interruption however, upon this occasion, of the public peace. The six months of the interregnum might, indeed, have been altogether forgotten, in the history of the country, had not the Audiencia been obliged to announce the reception of a royal cedula from Philip IV., communicating the news of his father's death, and commanding a national mourning for his memory. In September, the new viceroy arrived in the capital, and immediately caused the royal order to be carried into effect and allegiance to be sworn solemnly to Philip IV. as king and lord of Old and New Spain. 1

The Marques de Gelves was selected by the sovereign for the reputation he bore in Spain as a lover of justice and order, — qualities which would ensure his utility in a country whose quietness, during several of the last viceroyal reigns, had indicated either a very good or a very bad government, which it was impossible for the king to examine personally. Accordingly Gelves

"Como Rey y Senor de las Españas," says the authority.

188

GELVES FORESTALLS THE MARKET.

took the reins with a firm hand. He found many of the departments of government in a bad condition, and is said to have reformed certain abuses which were gradually undermining the political and social structure of the colony. In these duties the two first years of his viceroyalty passed away quietly; but Gelves, though an excellent magistrate so far as the internal police of the country is concerned, was, nevertheless, a selfish and avaricious person, and seems to have resolved that his fortune should prosper by his government of New Spain.

The incidents which we are about to relate are stated on the authority of Father Gage, an English friar who visited Mexico in 1625; and whose pictures of the manners of the people correspond so well with our personal knowledge of them, at present, that we are scarcely at liberty to question his fidelity as a historian. 1

In the year 1624, Mexico was, for a time, in a state of great distraction, and well nigh revolted from the Spanish throne. The passion for acquiring fortune, which had manifested itself somewhat in other viceroys, seems in Gelves unbounded. He resolved to achieve his end by a bold stroke; and, in 1623, having determined to monopolize the staff of life among the Indians and creoles, he despatched one of the wealthiest Mexicans, Don Pedro de Mexia, to buy up corn in all the provinces at the rate of fourteen reales, the sum fixed by law at which the corn was sold in times of famine. The farmers, who, of course, knew nothing of Mexia's plan readily disposed of their corn, with which the artful purveyor filled his store houses all over the country. After the remnant of the crop was brought to market and sold, men began

A new survey of the West Indies, or The English American, his Travels by land and sea; by Thomas Gage, London, 1677, see p. 176. " It is due to impartial history and to the memory of the Marques de Gelves to state that a different account of these occurrences is given by Ramon J. Alcaraz, a modern Mexican writer in the Liceo Mexicano, vol. 2, p. 120. Alcaraz fortifies his views by some documents, and by a justificatory commentary of the Marques himself. But he, like Gage, does not state his authorities. The story as related by the English friar is very characteristic of the age, and, si non e vero e ben trovato. Those who are anxious to discover the innocence or guilt of the viceroy, with certainty, will have a difficult task in exploring the Spanish manuscripts of the period. The British traveller Gage, was on the spot in the year after the events occurred, and his subsequent abandonment of the Catholic church would not be likely to lead him into the espousal of the archbishop de la Serna's cause against the viceroy.

CAVO in his work entitled "Tres Siglos de Mexico," states that the account he gives of this transaction is taken from five different narratives of it which were published at the time of its occurrence - three in favor of the viceroy and two sustaining the cause of the archbishop. In the last two, he alleges, that all the imputations against the archbishop were disproved, and that all the charges against the viceroy were sustained by solid argument.