194 IT IS SACKED

VICEROY ESCAPES

RETRIBUTION.

live the king! but down with the wicked government, and death to the excommunicated wretches!" These shouts, yelled forth by the dense and surging mob, were followed by volleys, discharged at the persons on the azotéa, who, for three hours, returned the shots and skirmished with the insurgents. Stones, also, were hurled from the parapet upon the crowd, but it is related in the chronicles of the time, that not a single piece of ordnance was discharged upon the people, "for the viceroy, in those days, had none for the defence of his palace or person, neither had that great city any for its strength and security."

So passed the noon and evening of that disastrous day; but, at night fall, the baffled mob that had been unable to make any impression with their feeble weapons upon the massive walls of the palace, brought pitch and inflamable materials, with which they fired the gates of the viceroyal palace. The bright flames of these combustibles sent up their light in the still evening air, and, far and wide over the town spread the news that the beautiful city was about to be destroyed. Frightened from their retreats, the judges and chief citizens who had influence with the people rushed to the plaza, and, by their urgent entreaties, efforts were made to extinguish the fire. But the palace gates had already fallen, and, over their smouldering ruins, the infuriated assailants rushed into the edifice to commence the work of destruction. The magistrates, however, who had never taken part against the people in their quarrels, soon appeared upon the field, and, by loud entreaties, stopped the saqueo. It was soon discovered that Mexia and Tirol had escaped by a postern, whilst the conquered viceroy, disguised as a friar, stole through the crowd to the Franciscan cloister, where, for many a day, he lay concealed in the sanctuary which his rapacious spirit had denied to the venerable De la Serna.

So ended this base attempt of a Spanish nobleman and representative of royalty in America, to enrich himself by plundering the docile Mexicans. The fate of Mexia and Tirol is unknown. But Spanish injustice towards the colonies was strongly marked by the reception of the viceroy and the archbishop on their return from Madrid. Gelves, it is true, was recalled, but, after being graciously welcomed at court, was made "master of the royal horse;" while the noble hearted De la Serna was degraded from his Mexican archprelacy and banished to the petty bishopric of Zamora in Castile!

DON RODERIGO PACHECO OSORIO, MARQUES DE CERRALVO, XV. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.

1624-1635.

UPON the violent expulsion of the viceroy Gelves by the popular outbreak, narrated in the last chapter, the government of New Spain fell once more into the hands of the Audiencia during the interregnum. This body immediately adopted suitable measures to terminate the disaffection. The people were calmed by the deposition of one they deemed an unjust ruler; but for a long time it was found necessary to keep on foot in the capital, large bands of armed men, in order to restain those troublesome persons who are always ready to avail themselves of any pretext for tumultuary attacks either against property or upon people who are disposed to maintain the supremacy of law and order.

As soon as Philip IV. was apprised of the disturbances in his transatlantic colony, he trembled for the security of Spanish power in that distant realm, and immediately despatched Don Martin Carillo, Inquisitor of Valladolid, with unlimited power to examine into the riots of the capital and to punish the guilty participants in a signal and summary manner. It is not our purpose, at present, to discuss the propriety of sending from Spain special judges, in the character of Visitadores or Inquisitors, whenever crimes were committed by eminent individuals in the colony, or by large bodies of people, which required the infliction of decided punishment.

196

INQUISITORIAL EXAMINATION.

ACAPULCO TAKEN.

But it may be regarded as one of the characteristic features of the age, and as demonstrative of the peculiar temper of the king that an Inquisitor was selected upon this occasion for so delicate and dangerous a duty. It is true that the church, through the late archbishop, was concerned in this painful affair; but it little accords with the ideas of our age to believe it necessary that a subject of such public concern as the insurrection against an unjust and odious viceroy should be confined to the walls of an inquisition or conducted by one of its leading functionaries alone. Had the investigation been intrusted exclusively to a civil and not an ecclesiastical judge, it is very questionable whether he should have been sent from Spain for this purpose alone. Being a foreigner, at least so far as the colony was concerned, he could have scarcely any knowledge of or sympathy with the colonists. Extreme impartiality may have been ensured by this fact; yet as the Visitador or Inquisitor departed, as soon as his special function ceased, he was never responsible for his decrees to that wholesome public opinion which visits the conduct of a judge with praise or condemnation during his life time when he permanently resides in a country, and, is always the safest guardian of the liberty of the citizen.

It seems, however, that the Inquisitor administered his office. fairly and even leniently in this case, for his judgments fell chiefly on the thieves who stole the personal effects of the viceroy during the sacking of the palace. The principal movers in the insurrection had absented themselves from the capital, and prudently remained in concealment until the Visitador terminated his examinations, inflicted his punishments upon the culprits he convicted, and crossed the sea to report his proceedings at court.

Carillo had been accompanied to New Spain by a new viceroy, Don Roderigo Pacheco Osorio, Marques of Cerralvo, who arrived in the capital on the 3d of November, 1624, and assumed the government. He left the examination of the insurrection entirely in the hands of the Inquisitor and directed his attention to the public affairs of the colony. These he found peaceful, except that a Dutch squadron, under the command of the prince of Nassau attacked Acapulco, and the feeble city and garrison readily surrendered without resistance. The fleet held the city, however, only for a few days, and set sail for other enterprises. This assault upon an important port alarmed the viceroy, who, at once, sent orders to have the town immediately surrounded with a wall, and suitable forts and bastions erected which would guard it in all

ATTACKS BY DUTCH

REMOVAL OF CAPITAL PROPOSED. 197

subsequent attacks. These fortifications were hardly commenced when another Dutch fleet appeared before the town. But this time the visit was not of a hostile nature; — it was an exhausted fleet, demanding water and provisions, after recovering which it resumed its track for the East Indies. Whilst the Spaniards were thus succoring and sustaining their enemies the Dutch, a dreadful famine scourged Sinaloa and neighboring provinces, carrying off upwards of eight thousand Indians.

During the long reign of the present monarch, Philip IV., Spain was frequently at war with England, Holland, and France; and the Dutch, who inflicted dreadful ravages on the American coasts, secured immense spoil from the Spaniards. In 1628, Pedro Hein, a Hollander of great distinction, placed a squadron in the gulf on the coasts of Florida to intercept the fleet of New Spain. The resistance made by the Spaniards was feeble, and, their vessels being captured by the Dutch, the commerce of Mexico experienced a severe blow from which it was long in recovering.

In 1629, there were ecclesiastical troubles in the colony, growing out of an attempt by the higher order of the Spanish clergy to prevent the increase of the regular priesthood from among the natives of the country. They feared that in the course of time the dominion of the establishment would thus be wrested from their hands by the power of the Mexicans. The king, himself was appealed to on this subject and caused it to be examined into carefully. In 1631, in consequence of the repeated danger of the capital from floods, the project of removing the site from its present location, to the loftier levels between Tacuba and Tacubaya, was seriously argued before the people. But the interest of property holders, and inhabitants of the city would have been so seriously affected by this act, that the idea was abandoned.

The remaining years of this viceroyalty were consumed in matters of mere local detail and domestic government, and in fact we know but little of it, save that the severe inundations of 1629 caused the authorities to use their utmost efforts in prosecuting the work of the desague, as we have already seen in the general account given of that gigantic enterprise. In 1635 this viceroy's reign terminated.

198

ARMENDARIZ VICEROY ESCALONA VICEROY.

DON LOPE DIAZ DE ARMENDARIZ, MARQUES DE CADEREITA,

XVI. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN

1635-1640.

The five years of this personage's government were unmarked by any events of consequence in the colony; except that in the last of them, 1640, he despatched an expedition to the north, where he founded in New Leon, the town of Cadereita, which the emigrants named in honor of their viceroy.

DON DIEGO LOPEZ PACHECO CABRERA Y BOBADILLA, DUKE OF ESCALONA, MARQUES OF VILBUA AND GRANDEE OF SPAIN OF THE FIRST CLASS.

XVII. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.

1640-1642.

The Duke of Escalona succeeded the Marques of Cadereita, and arrived in Mexico on the 28th of June, 1640, together with the venerable Palafox, who came, in the character of Visitador, to inquire into the administration of the last viceroy whose reputation, like that of other chief magistrates in New Spain, had suffered considerably in the hands of his enemies. Whilst this functionary proceeded with his disagreeable task against a man who was no longer in power, the duke, in compliance with the king's command ordered the governor of Sinaloa, Don Luis Cestinos, accompanied by two Jesuits, to visit the Californias and examine their coasts and the neighboring isles in search of the wealth in pearls and precious metals with which they were reputed to be filled. The reports of the explorers were altogether satisfactory both as to the character of the natives and of the riches of the waters as well as of the mines, though they represented the soil as extremely sterile. The gold of California was reserved for another age.

Ever since the conquest the instruction of Indians in christian doctrine had been confided exclusively to the regular clergy of the Roman Catholic church. The secular priests were, thus, entirely deprived of the privilege of mingling their cares with their monastic brethren, who, in the course of time, began to regard this as an absolute, indefeasible right, whose enjoyment they were unwilling to forego, especially as the obvenciones or tributes of the Indian converts, formed no small item of corporate wealth in their respective orders. The Indians were, in fact, lawful tributaries,