History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 2/Chapter 30

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

 

CHAPTER XXX.

RULE OF VICEROY ENRIQUEZ.

1568-1580.

Temporary Government of the Audiencia — John Hawkins Invades Vera Cruz — His Defeat and Expulsion — Fate of the English Prisoners — Viceroy Martin Enriquez de Almansa — Drake's Operations — Foreign Raids — Yucatan, its Government and Indian Affairs — First Acts of Enriquez — Organization of Military Forces — Campaigns against the Chichimecs — Presidios and Movable Block-houses — Matlalzahuatl Epidemic and its Havoc — Famine — Inundation — Recall of Enriquez — His Government Policy — His Death.

The tyrannical visitadores having been divested of power, the audiencia resumed the reins of government, and profiting by past experience adopted a mild policy which gradually allayed public fears. With restored confidence the people returned to their vocations, and soon nothing was left to remind them of the late horrors but the black dungeons of Muñoz and the pillar on the salt-sown ground where Alonso de Ávila's house had stood. This happy state of things continued until the arrival of the fourth viceroy. Previous to the coming of this official, however, there was quite a flutter of excitement at the capital, owing to the seizure of the island of Sacrificios, opposite the castle of San Juan de Ulua, by the famous English corsair, John Hawkins, with nine armed ships, on the 14th of September, 1568.^[1] Hawkins surprised the garrison and captured the fort. Among the prisoners were the king's treasurer and factor. He then removed the artillery and fortified his camp without opposition.^[2] His ships were much damaged, having been long from home trading on the coasts of Spanish America. Needing water and stores he resolved to take this port, after first securing every vessel in the vicinity, that the people of Vera Cruz might not receive warning of his approach. The gentle pirate was at present fatigued and desired rest. He would hurt no one if left alone. Indeed, he assured the commandant of the port, Hernando Delgadillo, and the other officials that he intended them no harm, having captured the place only as a matter of form. He wished them to supply him with water and provisions, promising to pay in money and merchandise. The king's officials, however, declined these irregular overtures, and would make no arrangements without orders from Mexico. The audiencia finally agreed to furnish Hawkins what he required on the terms proposed, with the understanding that none of Hawkins' men should enter Vera Cruz, or leave Sacrificios for the interior.

Thus all was going on well with Captain Hawkins, who could ride up and down the ocean's highways and rob at pleasure, never waiting for cover of the night, and who now demanded charity from the injured nation with an air of peace and innocence truly refreshing. But alas! the daring navigator was in some way so out of his reckoning that he could not calculate his eclipse. His negotiations with the Vera Cruz officials were scarcely ended when a Spanish fleet of thirteen vessels came in sight. The poor pirate was taken at a terrible disadvantage. His cargoes were valued at £1,800,000; he had beached several of his ships for repairs, and was in no humor to kill the people who were coming toward him; yet he must open fire on the Spanish fleet.

Now it happened that the new arrival had on board the last appointed viceroy of New Spain, Martin Enriquez de Almansa, knight of Santiago, brother of the marqués de Alcañices and the marchioness de Poza. He was, moreover, connected with the highest nobility of Spain, among whom was the famous duque de Candia, who became the second general of the Jesuits, as successor to Ignatius de Loyola, and after his death was canonized as St Francis Borgia. He bore the reputation of a man of sterling character, whose amiable and charitable disposition^[3] was united with firmness, and who possessed good administrative abilities. Enriquez was much alarmed at seeing his master's dominion in the hands of a foreigner. He wished to bring the fleet into port; he had been long confined on shipboard and he desired to land. Moreover he had come to rule at Mexico, and not to be shot at Vera Cruz. Hence, when Hawkins sent the Spanish commander word that he had no intention of inflicting injury on any one, least of all on honest and courteous Spanish gentlemen; that he had only fired from habit, or by way of bull-dog salute; that he had permission of the audiencia to purchase at that port certain necessaries; and that as soon as his ships were repaired he would gladly depart — Enriquez listened. The commander answered bluntly that he would hold no intercourse whatever with Hawkins until he should be allowed peaceably to enter the port.^[4] Enriquez, however, who thought a viceroy's wits should equal at least those of a pirate, was quite ready to enter into negotiations. Then Hawkins said that if the Spaniards would pledge him their honor and good faith to permit him to depart in peace as soon as he should have completed his repairs, they might enter unmolested. The viceroy agreed, and an exchange of hostages was made. Hawkins selected ten of his chief officers and sent them elegantly attired to the Spanish flag-ship.^[5] The viceroy dressed up as gentlemen an equal number of men of the lowest class and despatched them to Hawkins' quarters. After the stipulations had been concluded and proclaimed, the Spaniards entered the port, and the two fleets, as Hawkins tells us, saluted one another, according to naval custom.^[6]

This was the 24th of September. All right now, thought Hawkins: the word of a Spanish nobleman is as good as his bond, if either is worth anything. Agustin de Villanueva Cervantes, however, he of whom I have often spoken in connection with the late troubles of Mexico, and who was now a prisoner in the hands of the English, well knowing the quality of Spanish honor and good faith when pledged to a pirate, on seeing the kind of hostages given by his countrymen, trembled for his own safety, it being evident that the Spaniards were determined on treachery. Yet when Hawkins for some purpose sent to the Spanish commander Robert Barret, master of one of his vessels, a gentleman of fine appearance, and one who understood Castilian, and he did not return because the viceroy detained him, Hawkins' suspicions were not even then aroused, for he thought that Barret perhaps had been kept to dinner. Presently, however, he was enlightened, as there slowly dropped down upon him a Spanish store-ship, passing the line agreed upon beyond which no vessel of the viceroy's fleet was to cross, and opened a lively fire on his camp. Turning to the Spanish hostages, who expected to be immediately cut in pieces, he asked with an air of injured innocence, "Is this the way Spaniards keep their word?" Then to Villanueva, "I tell you this act of your commander will cost your people more than all my ships and their contents are worth." And he made good his word, though I doubt not he would have robbed and murdered all the same in any event. Other vessels followed closely the store-ship; Hawkins brought all his guns to bear, and a bloody engagement ensued, in which there was great loss of life on both sides. The Englishmen had the better of it for a time, it was said, and until the Spaniards employed against them fire-ships. The actual position of the English vessels, how many were on the beach, and how many afloat, is not stated; but it is certain that after all the depredations of the Spaniards there were two left, the flag-ship Minion and the Judith, on board of which took refuge those of the remnant of the English force who were able in the end to effect their escape. About three hundred thus saved themselves. Hawkins left the Spanish hostages unharmed, knowing that if he killed them his own, worth ten to one of the others, must die also. Luckily the flag-ship, which carried all the silver and the most valuable goods, was not destroyed, and on her Hawkins made his escape through a passage between reefs, where no vessel had ever been before, followed by the Judith, in command of Francis Drake. In his camp were taken many English prisoners, but in the captured vessels only negroes, of whom there were many. These were distributed among the captors, and afterward sold at the rate of three hundred ducats each. The store-ship that headed the attack was destroyed; also some other Spanish vessels, and quite a number of soldiers on ship-board perished.^[7]

The English prisoners were forwarded to Mexico, where they arrived wounded and in sorry plight. Being protestants, and therefore profane, the government confined them in a house outside the sacred precincts of the city. A few boys among them were sent to convents to be converted. Some time afterward, at the petition of certain persons in Mexico, a few of the prisoners were distributed.^[8]

A few months later there were brought to Mexico from the port of Pánuco upward of one hundred Englishmen, who had been captured in a hostile region by the people of the country. Singularly enough they were of those who had fled with Hawkins on his flag-ship. When after his narrow escape the Englishman had reached a point twenty-five leagues north of Pánuco River, he found his overloaded ship in danger of sinking. So he landed one hundred and fifty men, among whom were Miles Philips and Job Hortop, and twenty boys, besides a considerable portion of the cargo. It was the 8th of October. The men were furnished with arms, and directed to stay there until Hawkins could return for them with seaworthy vessels. Thence he went to England.^[9]

After much suffering from hunger and diseases, and losses at the hands of natives, the men left by Hawkins concluded to change their quarters. Turning southward they marched seven days and nights till they reached Pánuco, in a deplorable condition. There a force came out against them, to which they offered no resistance. It is said that the captors treated them more cruelly,^[10] and finally sent them to Mexico to join their former comrades.

Several of the members of Hawkins' expedition were transported to Spain.^[11] Some were kept in Mexico in a state of worse than bondage, and were brought under the tender mercies of the inquisition, after it was formally established there, and made to undergo most terrible suffering; a number were burned to death. What could savages do more?^[12] Life on the ocean; how glorious it was all along through the sixteenth century! So little of the world was known; all was so magnificently strange; one might at any moment stumble upon pearl islands, golden shores, Amazon lands, and life-restoring waters. And then morals were so easy, and liberty so broad. Talk about the iron inquisition, the coercion of opinion, and the restrictions laid on commerce. Were there not islands and continents, wealthy, defenceless places, that the strong might rob, and have the learned and pious to find excuses for them in return for a share? And then might not the robbers be righteously robbed; just as the big fish eat the little fish, to the eternal glory of the creator? Such was the order of things, and Francis Drake availed himself of his high privileges. Narrowly escaping with his head from Vera Cruz in 1568, in 1572 he successfully attempted the capture of some silver on its way from Vera Cruz to Nombre de Dios. He also attacked the latter town and obtained a little plunder, after which he sailed for England.^[13] A few years later he fitted out an expedition at Falmouth, and sailed in December 1577 to pick up what he could find of anybody's property anywhere. In 1578, after having played havoc on the Spaniards in the south Atlantic, he entered the Pacific, captured vessels off the Central American coast, and about the middle of April made his appearance in the Golden Hind at Huatulco, in Oajaca, which place he sacked.^[14] This accomplished, he sailed the next day for the north, with a view of discovering a northern passage to the Atlantic. Finding that impossible, he returned south, crossed to the Asiatic sea, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and in November 1580 reached Plymouth, England. Besides his services to his country on European coasts, and at the destruction of the invincible armada, Drake made other voyages to the Spanish main after booty. So that it may be safely said that the punishment inflicted on Hawkins and Drake in 1568 at Vera Cruz was effectively avenged on Spain and her subjects.^[15]

French pirates also made raids on the coasts of New Spain,^[16] notably that of Yucatan. In 1561 the French attacked the town of Campeche and plundered it, doing also other damage; but they were soon after driven away and the plunder was recovered.^[17] Soon afterward came rumors of fresh preparations by the French for a descent. The governor, Diego de Santillan, on receipt of orders from the crown to be on the watch for a powerful expedition, which, according to a report from the Spanish ambassador at Paris, was fitting out to raid upon the Spanish coasts in the Indies, lost no time in visiting all the ports within his government, and making every possible preparation to meet the filibusters, should they come. Some part of the expedition, if not the whole of it, made its appearance off the coast, for in May 1571 some Frenchmen landed at the port of Sisal, and meeting with no resistance, they went as far as the town of Hunucma, four leagues inland and on the road to Mérida. There being none bat the natives to oppose them, they secured the plaza, and then plundered the Franciscan convent of 'its silver plate and ornaments,^[18] and committed other outrages. They did not venture farther into the interior, but took the cacique and other chiefs away for ransom. The news reached Mérida, whereupon the governor at once despatched to Hunucma Captain Juan Arévalo de Loaisa with a company of soldiers, who on arrival found that the raiders had already retired with the plunder and prisoners to their ship, and put to sea. The Spaniards followed the coast, and guarded the port eighteen days, the enemy standing off, though in sight. Upon reporting this to the governor, Arévalo and Juan Garzon were ordered to embark on a vessel in pursuit; seeing which, the enemy went away to the island of Cozumel. The governor then despatched against them Gomez de Castrillo, one of the old conquerors of Yucatan, who approached the island cautiously, surprised the French, and after a hard fight in which many were killed, the Spaniards took the remainder prisoners. This happened on the eve of corpus christi. Castrillo took his prisoners and the rescued silver to Mérida, thence sending the Frenchmen to Mexico, where the government did not deal leniently with them.^[19]

In 1575 English filibusters landed on the coast near Mérida, marched into the interior as far as the town of Dzmul, and after sacking, set fire to the place. In 1596 William Parker, or Park, after leaving his ship at anchor six leagues from Campeche, landed with a force of fifty-six men, as he affirmed, from a pirogue, at 3 a. m., near the convent of San Francisco, and took the town. Some of the inhabitants escaped, and some were taken prisoners. But the former soon rallied, and by 10 o'clock fell upon the raiders,^[20] whose commander, luckily for the town, was severely wounded, and several of his men were killed. Indeed, it would have gone hard with him had he not bound his prisoners arm to arm, and used them as a barricade, under cover of which to retreat to his boat.^[21] He then boarded a Spanish vessel laden with goods and the king's tribute in silver, and took all the valuables, worth £5,000 to his ship. The marauders after that visited an Indian town, where they captured a quantity of logwood. They then departed; but were not long afterward overhauled by two Spanish armed ships, when one of their vessels, with a captain Hess and thirteen others, was taken, the captives being executed.

In 1597 a powerful British squadron made a descent on the island of Cozumel, and held it for a time, but, finding the Spaniards prepared for defence, it was obliged to withdraw.^[22] A second attempt in 1606 and a third in 1601 failed. In 1602 a Spanish vessel was captured. No further attacks were made for several years.^[23]

 

Before closing with Yucatan I will give briefly the history of the province during the second half of the sixteenth century. Under the present government was an area of about one hundred leagues from east to west, including all the peninsula, together with Tabasco, and narrowing to twenty-five leagues in width in the south-western part.^[24]

The civil government, after Adelantado Montejo's departure for Spain, and the discontinuance of his privileges, was in charge of alcaldes mayores provided first by the audiencia of Mexico, next by that of Los Confines, and then again by that of Mexico, embracing the period between 1550 and 1561, till the arrival of Doctor Quijada^[25] on the 10th of January, 1562, commissioned direct from the crown. The rule of this official was one of continued trouble with his subjects and the church about encomiendas and alleged ill treatment of the Indians by the friars. Complaints were lodged against him at court, and though he had been appointed for six years, a successor presented himself in Mérida when Quijada least expected him. History has no great virtue nor vice to attach to his name. He was succeeded by Luis Céspedes de Oviedo, the first of the Spanish nobility sent to rule the peninsula, with the title of governor. He added no honor to his name or station. The power of the ruler was made superior to what it had been under the alcaldes mayores, even to the appointing of a lieutenant-general letrado, or one versed in law.^[26]

The acts of the several governors present little of general interest. With rare exceptions they were in a chronic state of dissension with the church, arising from the undue assumption of power by the friars or the episcopal authority, and at times with the encomenderos in regard to the tenure of their Indians. The same troubles were experienced here on this subject as in Mexico. Of the first governor, Céspedes, it was said, however, that by his malignant tongue he had created ill feeling in the community, and _particularly between the ayuntamiento of Mérida and the bishop.^[27]

Governor Santillan's short term deserves a passing notice. To his efficiency was due the defence of the territory at the critical period described elsewhere in this chapter. He left a good name in the country.^[28] The chief Spanish authority was aided in the several districts, at first by the caciques subject to his commission, and in later times by such officials as the chief provincial ruler appointed, and by the respective local alcaldes and ayuntamientos. The code of laws under which they ruled and administered justice was strict and harsh; flogging and branding for adultery, bigamy, and other offences were in order. Religious rites were never neglected.

It is said that the natives in many localities, notwithstanding all the efforts of the government and church toward their conversion, still clung to their idolatrous rites. Little progress would have been attained but for the timely arrival in 1552 of Oidor Tomás Lopez, sent as visitador by the audiencia of Guatemala, He enacted in the king's name certain laws for the protection of the natives from abuse by the secular authorities, enjoinmg on the Spaniards, particularly the encomenderos, the conduct proper among themselves, and toward the natives, for whose government special rules were laid down. The code, taken as a whole, was a confused mixture of civil and religious prescripts, in which the missionaries were given an undue authority over the natives, and even a superiority over the encomenderos. It authorized them to lower the tributes, placed the friars over the caciques, making them the official advisers of the ayuntamientos; in a word, the civil authorities were powerless to adopt any action without the consent of the friars. His ordinances on police and other civil matters were, however, very beneficial to the natives, who were to be taught to raise cattle and learn trades. But there was one injunction, which, though well meant, tended |to isolate the Mayas from the other races in the country, namely, that negroes, mestizos, and even Spaniards might not settle in the native towns, or mix with the inhabitants in passing through them.^[29] During Governor Solis' term a cacique of Campeche, named Don Francisco, revolted. Solis marched against him, and captured him and two of his lieutenants, who were tried, convicted, and executed.

In 1583 Oidor Diego Garcia de Palacio came to Yucatan clothed with plenary powers from the audiencia of Mexico, as visitador for Yucatan, Cozumel, and Tabasco. He was to act mdependently of the governor, and to correct existing abuses, chiefly those against the natives, and which tended to keep alive in them the spirit of discontent. It is said that he acted with much prudence and to the satisfaction of the audiencia. Some Indian chiefs, accused of relapse into idolatry, he sentenced to hard labor in Habana and San Juan de Ulua. One of those assigned to the lastnamed place, Andrés Cocom, escaped and took refuge in the forests of Campeche. Here he incited the natives to revolt, callnmg himself king and exacting tributes. The governor hastened to the spot with his lieutenant and a strong force. Cocom and his chiefs were taken and put to death, whereupon peace was restored. In 1597 Juan de Contreras made a second raid on Contoy Island, aided by Juan Chan, cacique of Chancenote, and his people, to bring away some fugitives and idolaters.^[30] The same year Palomar, lieutenant-governor, sentenced to death the chief, Andrés Chí, who had been acting the part of a new Moses with the view of bringing about the independence of the region of Nachi Cocom, but his scheme failed, and he became a victim of the ruthless European.

The decree of Governor Mediano, that no advance exceeding twelve reals should be made to any native, was made stronger by Governor Ordoñez, who ordered that no advance whatever should be allowed.^[31] The measure met with much opposition, but the governor refused to repeal his order. The enforcement of it was indeed necessary, because under the then existing system the Indians would receive advances from several speculators at once, and when the time came they could not pay; and to avoid the consequences they would either hide in the woods or emigrate to Peten, and never return. With all these drawbacks the business had been a profitable one, and its suppression caused a great excitement, which ended in a manner unexpected. Governor Ordoñez expired on the 7th of July, 1594.

Fernandez de Bracamonte discovered the indigo plant in Yucatan in 1550, and the Spaniards soon devoted themselves to its cultivation, as a staple for trade.^[32]

The natives held in encomienda by the king in 1551 yielded only three thousand pesos de minas yearly, and the expenses of collection slightly exceeded that amount.^[33]

Scrofulous maladies had become wide-spread among the natives, and could not be eradicated. The Indians called them castellanzob, accusing the Spaniards of having imported them.^[34] According to a report of the Franciscan comisario, there was in 1588, at Maní, a hospital at which sufferers from scrofula and other diseases were attended by a brotherhood.^[35]

 

After having given orders for the better protection of Vera Cruz, Viceroy Enriquez de Almansa proceeded to the city of Mexico on the 5th of November, 1568, and at once took formal possession of his office with the usual pomp and royal display. He had entered the capital with some suspicion caused by certain reports sent to Spain, but soon became aware that there was no ground for apprehension,^[36] and he now took steps to afford consolation to the numerous families that had suffered so severely at the hands of Muñoz.^[37]

Owing to the attacks on the coasts by pirates, which were likely to be repeated, and the raids of the hostile Chichimecs, the need of a regularly organized army became apparent. New Spain up to this time had maintained no permanent force under arms, relying on the encomenderos and other Spaniards, and on the friendly Indian auxiliaries, called into active service as emergencies required. In 1568 a company of halberdiers was organized, which proved no more than able to support the viceroy's authority. A little later were formed two compañías de palacio, to uphold his dignity. There were also detached companies in Vera Cruz, Isla del Cármen, Acapulco, and San Blas, to check smuggling, and for defence against piratical assaults. Other forces were specially organized and employed in guarding the northern frontier against the Chichimecs.^[38] Through the regions occupied by those wild tribes was the highway to Nueva Galicia, Nueva Vizcaya, and the other districts operated on by the Spanish trading expeditions. The Chichimecs often plundered the wagons laden with silver, killing numbers of white persons and their Indian friends. For many years these marauders had carried things with a high hand. To check them a strong force was organized by Viceroy Enriquez and despatched under Alcalde Mayor Juan Torre de Lagunas, and the viceroy in person with another force marched to his assistance. The results of the campaign were wholly satisfactory; the Chichimecs, being routed from their strongholds with heavy casualties, were obliged to seek a refuge in the extensive deserts of the interior. A large number of their children fell into the hands of the victors, and were taken to Mexico and given in charge of families to rear.

Several presidios or military outposts were placed at proper distances on the load northward, so that by 1570 had been established, besides the towns of San Miguel and Lagos, the presidios of Ojuelos, Portezuelo, San Felipe, Jerez, and Celaya, and the formation of settlements round them was encouraged.^[39] Enriquez wrote the king^[40] that the mode proposed by the crown for making settlements was impracticable unless the settlers were given Indians to serve them. The settlers could not live otherwise, for the Indians would not go of their own will, or, if they did, they would neglect to cultivate the soil. All efforts to bring the wild northern nomads to a civilized life had been unsuccessful. Before long it became evident that the measures adopted were of little avail. The Chichimecs were soon again overrunning the country, murdering and driving off stock from places but one or two leagues distant from Zacatecas. The town of Llerena, in the Sombrerete mines, would have been defenceless and the mines abandoned but for the force of soldiers furnished by the government.

After a consultation with the audiencia it was concluded that the only means of stopping the depredations was to carry the war to the camp of the enemy, and by fire and sword to destroy all male natives over fifteen years of age. Heretofore only the leaders when captured had been killed, the others having been sentenced to service, from which they soon escaped and became worse than before. Regular soldiers with sufficient pay would be needed, and three hundred and fifty pesos per annum for a private was not enough to feed and clothe him, and enable him to keep the requisite number of horses, that is, more than three for each man. The thing to do was to tax the mines of Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Sombrerete, and San Martin, all of which were in the tierra de guerra. The prisoners of fifteen years and under, the viceroy suggested, should be transported to Campeche or Habana, so that they could never return. A few had been already despatched to Campeche to be utilized in the quarries.^[41]

The plan finally adopted proved partially effective, though expensive. Strong houses were erected at convenient distances, where travellers and their stock and goods could rest securely. A military escort was furnished to each train, and each party, armed with a few arquebuses, was provided with a fortified wagon, or small movable block-house, to which the women and children retreated in case of attack. Even this mode of protection was insufficient in some instances. There was one case which deserves mention. A train of sixty wagons carrying $30,000 worth of cloth was attacked and the escort defeated. A Spanish girl, pretending to be pleased with her capture, told the Indians that there was another wagon behind containing more cloth. No sooner had they turned to go in search of it than she sprang into a movable fort which belonged to the train, and in which were two arquebuses and a sick man, and after starting the team she managed the guns so effectually as to escape.^[42]

The chief difficulty in the way of a satisfactory arrangement with the Chichimecs, and a serious one, lay in their division into so many bands, without a general leader. A religious writer. Ribas, assures us that recourse was had at last to the missionaries to reduce some of them to friendship.

The valley of Anáhuac was not to be spared for any length of time from one calamity or another. Within a few years pestilence, floods, and famine had visited it, and again, from 1575 to 1580, the evils continued. The relentless matlalzahuatl, the greatest scourge that ever assailed any community, broke out in the first-named year, for the fourth time since the Spanish conquest, in the city of Mexico, whence it spread over the whole kingdom of New Spain. The Indians were the only direct victims; priests and nurses succumbed from fatigue and other causes. The general symptoms were: violent headache followed by a tenacious fever, and a burning internal heat. The patient could bear no covering, the lightest sheet causing great torment. The only relief was to roll on the cold ground, until death ended the suffering, about the seventh day. The medical profession was unable to control the unknown malady. Bleeding was usually resorted to.^[43] As the churches could not afford sufficient graves, it became necessary to open great ditches, and to consecrate entire fields for that purpose. Not only houses but whole towns were left without inhabitants. Many thousands of all ages and both sexes could procure no attendance, and perished from hunger, thirst, and the effects of the cruel disease.

The viceroy and archbishop, as well as the other authorities, the clergy, both secular and regular, and the people, particularly the rich, exerted themselves in providing infirmaries, medicines, food, and clothing. Archbishop Moya was tireless in his efforts, constantly visiting the sick, and seeing that they had spiritual consolation; for this he permitted the priests of the religious orders to administer the sacrament, notwithstanding which many thousands died without receiving the rite, their bodies being left in the huts, or on the fields and public roads, until some charitable person came to inter them. In the months of August and September the disease was most virulent.

The year 1576 began without any prospect of abatement; nor did the epidemic at all diminish throughout that year, nor during a part of 1577. Prayers were constantly made, privately and publicly, and every device that the clergy could think of was resorted to in vain. At last, in their despair, the image of the vírgen de los Remedios was brought to to the city in solemn procession from its shrine in Tacuba, by the viceroy, the audiencia, ayuntamiento, and the most prominent citizens, all with lighted tapers in their hands. For nine days consecutively masses were chanted, prayers sent up, and offerings made to the virgin, invoking her intercession with the son, for mercy upon the anguished community.^[44] When the disease had spent itself, and half the natives were dead, then it was affirmed that the prayers had been heard. In Michoacan the suffering was not so great owing to the hospitals already provided by Bishop Quiroga and others. In some cases the Indians were accused of attempting wilfully to contaminate the Spaniards with the disease, either by throwing dead bodies into the ditches of running water, or by mixing diseased blood with the bread they made for the white families. The Indians were furious because only they were taken. The mortality is said to have exceeded 2,000,000 souls.^[45]

After the disappearance of the epidemic there was a scarcity of the necessaries of life, the fields having been so long deserted, and the survivors among the poor would have suffered from famine but for the efforts of the more favored. The viceroy temporarily exempted the Indians from the payment of tributes, and caused the public granaries to be as well supplied as possible, in order that the poor might purchase their corn and wheat at reasonable prices.

In 1580, after a succession of heavy rains, the lake of Mexico flooded a large portion of the valley, including the capital. The viceroy, after a consultation with the ayuntamiento and with persons having a knowledge of hydrostatics, ordered the drainage of the lakes surrounding the city; and the lowlands of the Huehuetoca, distant about ten leagues, were chosen as the most suitable place into which to carry the water.^[46]

In the midst of the viceroy's efforts at drainage, orders arrived from the court at Madrid relieving him of his office, pursuant to his repeated requests, during the past four years, on the plea of ill health, and transferring him to Peru with the same rank and powers.^[47] He surrendered the government to his successor October 4, 1580.

 

Suggestions had been made between 1570 and 1580 to Philip and his council, probably by command, for the better government of the Indies. It was urged that viceroys should hold office no longer than twelve years, and oidores, alcaldes de corte, and other judicial officers, as well as the chief treasury officials, only six; and that all, without exception, should have their official conduct strictly investigated at the end of their respective terms.^[48] No more corregidores or lieutenants of such officers should be appointed,^[49] but in place of them twelve alcaldes mayores, to reside in the chief cities, and yearly visit the towns in their respective districts, without ostentation and without laying burdens on the inhabitants.^[50]

In a memorandum for the guidance of his successor, Enriquez sets forth the difficulties to be encountered by the viceroy. The work that in Spain is divided among several officers, in Mexico has to be done by the viceroy, both in secular and ecclesiastic affairs. He may not ignore any portion nor intrust it to another without incurring obloquy or giving rise to complaint. All look to him for the promotion of their interests and the redress of their grievances; even their family bickerings are brought to him, and nothing but his personal action in each case seems to avail. Indeed, he is expected to be the father of the people, the patron of monasteries and hospitals, the protector of the poor, and particularly of the widows and orphans of the conquerors and the old servants of the king, all of whom would suffer were it not for the relief afforded them by the viceroy.^[51] The office was by no means the sinecure that in Spain it was supposed to be.

Experience had taught him the necessity of exacting obedience from the governed, respect from the officers, and of tolerating no bad example among the officials. To hold public office in Mexico, he declared, had come to be unbefitting an honest man.^[52] Enriquez himself had done fairly well. He maintained at all times cordial relations with the oidores, and recommended the same course to his successor, to strengthen the hands of the government.^[53] He fostered public instruction in every possible way. One of the peculiarities of his policy was the consideration he always extended to Spaniards born in Mexico, contrary to traditional ideas, believing them entitled to hold positions of trust in the government, recognizing the fact that to refuse them was an insult to their integrity and patriotism. Indeed, when their claims were ignored, they invariably carried their grievances to the foot of the throne. He wished his policy in this respect to be continued.

During the rule of Enriquez the semi-centennial of the Aztec empire's destruction was celebrated with great pomp and rejoicing by all classes, more particularly by the natives, all but the Aztecs themselves.^[54]

The same year part of the fleet from Spain was wrecked in passing the sound to enter the gulf of Mexico. Four of the ships were stranded on the coast of Tabasco.^[55]

The outgoing ruler met his successor at Otumba, where they held conferences on the general affairs of the country, after which the latter repaired to Mexico, Enriquez tarrying in Otumba several months until the season arrived for his departure.^[56]

 

 

1. Miles Philips, one of the men, gives the 16th as the date of their entering the port. Discourse, in Hakluyt's Voy., iii. 471.
2. He was 'muy gran soldado y marinero, y en su proceder muy hidalgo;' with him was his relative Francis Drake. Peralta, Not. Hist., 257, and note 40. For a full account of the piratical expeditions, see Hist. Cent. Am., ii. this series.
3. During his residence in Mexico he won himself the name of a good Christian, giving alms to the poor without ostentation. Peralta, Not. Hist., 270; Torquemada, i. 638; Méx., Not. Ciudad, 70; Datos Biog., in Cartas de Indias, 754-5. He was very strict, and exalted the viceregal office, which till his time had been a plain, unassuming one. Torquemada, i. 647.
4. 'En lo demás le harian comodidad y le despacharian.' Peralta, Not. Hist., 263.
5. Peralta, Not, Hist., 265, says he knew two of the officers, one being a relative of the earl of York, and the other a connection of the queen.
6. Hawkins, in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 524.
7. 'Two great shippes of the Spaniards sunke, and one burnt.' The Spaniards could not do much harm with their ships, but did much havoc with the artillery of the English. The Minion shifted for herself, and Hawkins with great difficulty got on her; most of the men on the Jesus followed the Minion in the boat, and those who could not were slain. Of the ships only the Minion, John Hampton master, and the Judith, of 50 tons, commanded by Francis Drake, got away. All the English that were not slain or did not manage to escape were taken prisoners, and cruelly treated. Some who were captured on shore, 'they tooke and hung them up by the armes upon high postes until the blood burst out of their fingers' ends.' Of those sufferers one Copeton and others, when the narrator wrote his account, were still living in England, bearing on their persons the marks of the cruelties they had suffered at the hands of the Spaniards. Philips' Discourse, in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 472-3. According to John Hortop, one of the expedition, the Spanish vice-admiral's ship had most of 300 men killed or blown overboard with powder. The admiral's was also on fire half an hour, and was struck over 60 times; many of her men were killed and wounded; four other Spanish ships were sunk. The number of fighting men that came in the Spanish fleet, and that joined them from the mainland, made together 1,500, of whom 540 were slain, as appeared in a letter sent to Mexico. Captain Bland attempted to sail out with his ship, but her main-mast was struck down; he then with his men took to the pinnace, set fire to his vessel, and went on board the Jesus to join Hawkins, whom he told that he had intended to run back and attempt to fire the Spanish fleet. Night came on, when Hawkins ordered the Minion to come under the lee of the Jesus, and Drake to come in with the Judith, and lay the Minion aboard to take in men and everything needful, and to go out, which was done. As soon as the wind came off the shore Hawkins set sail and passed out of the port. He went in search of the Pánuco River. From want of provisions the men suffered, and became dissatisfied. Finally a portion of them were landed with some money and a quantity of Rouen cloth. Hortop's Trauailes, in Haklvyt’s Voy., iii. 487-91. Another account has it that Viceroy Enriquez landed, and went on to Mexico without fear of fraud on the part of the English. But Lujan, who commanded the fleet, believed them to be pirates, when he saw the number that with arms in their hands ran about the streets; he then ordered a charge upon the crowd on the beach, which caused a great slaughter among them, and his ships opened fire upon those of the enemy, who, while unprepared for a fight, made a brave defence. During the action the famous Francis Drake escaped, and embarking on a ship that held the greater part of the gold plundered by those pirates, he hurriedly fled to the ocean. Hawkins resisted desperately almost the whole day, until convinced that he could hold out no longer he set fire to his flag-ship, and under cover of the darkness fled in the vice-admiral's ship, which was followed by another, leaving the rest of his squadron to become a prize to the Spaniards. March y Lahores, Hist. Marina, ii. 310. The other authorities that I have seen, including Hawkins, and excepting Panes, are agreed that Viceroy Enriquez conducted the negotiations with, and the military operations against, Hawkins, before departing for Mexico. Icazbalceta leans to the belief that Enriquez had departed for the capital within seven days after his arrival at Vera Cruz, and that it was the general of the fleet who ordered and directed the attack. Doc. Hist., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da ép., ii. 498. Hawkins uses these words: 'With a writing from the viceroy signed with his hande and sealed with his seale of all the conditions concluded.' In Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 523.
8. 'Yo llevé é mi casa seis, entrellos el que dizian era pariente de la reyna y el maestre; túvelos muchos dias, y çierto que lo de nobles se les echaba bien de ver.' Peralta, Not. Hist., 271.
9. 'Este, dizen, fué el prinçipio del Draque, á quien ayudó con dineros para venir á vengar el agravio que los españoles le abian hecho.' Peralta, Not. Hist., 272. March y Labores, Hist. Marina, ii. 310, in this connection says that the ship which followed Hawkins went to pieces in the Pánuco River, and her crew of 70 men was taken to Mexico and humanely treated. Hawkins, after losing many of his shipmates, from wounds and hunger, escaped through the Bahama Channel between Florida and the Lucayas, and sorrowstricken, arrived in England, where Drake had preceded him. As a climax to his misfortunes he could not recover from Drake any portion of the gold intrusted to him. There was little honor among these thieves. Drake thought he could better employ it in fitting out the vessels wherewith he became afterward the terror of the Spanish American coasts in both the Atlantic and Pacific seas. If there be truth in the latter part of this statement, time must have obliterated in Hawkins all ill feeling toward Drake, for in 1595 they planned a joint expedition against the Spanish colonies in America, mentioned above by Peralta, and of which an account is given elsewhere. See, also. Panes, Vir., in Monum. Dom. Esp., MS., 85-9; Datos Biog., in Cartas de Indias, 754.
10. 'Atándoles las manos y llevándolos al pueblo atropellando con los caballos . . . los metieron en cárçeles y prisiones, y dieron á uno ó a dos tormento.' Peralta, Not, Hist., 274-5. Hortop, one of the party, says nothing of cruel treatment at Pánuco. But he does state that the viceroy in Mexico wanted to hang them, and was dissuaded from it, Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 492.
11. They were followed within a year by Job Hortop and several others. After escaping death by shipwreck and hanging, the latter were surrendered to the casa de contratacion of Seville. Hortop's Trauailes, in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 494.
12. Of the prisoners in Spain, Barret, Hortop, Gilbert, and two others out of seven, who had attempted to escape, were retaken. After horrible cruelties, Barret and Gilbert were burned alive, and the others sentenced to different terms of service in the galleys; Hortop served 12 years in the galleys and seven more of common imprisonment, till 1590, when he made his escape to England. The others in Mexico were kept in close solitary confinement about 18 months, and tortured on the rack, or otherwise tormented. Several died under the inflictions. Finally the day of their trial arrived, when they were carried to the court wearing sambenitos, a rope round the neck, a taper in the hand, and there sentenced, one to receive 300 lashes on the bare back and 10 years in the galleys, the rest to be given from 200 to 100 lashes, and service in the galleys from eight to six years. A few, among them Miles Philips, escaped the lash, but had to serve in the convents from three to five years, wearing the sambenitos. Three were sentenced to death by burning, and suffered their penalty publicly. The floggings above spoken of were inflicted on good Friday, in 1575. The victims were paraded through the principal streets on horseback, and called English dogs, Lutherans, heretics, enemies of God, and the like. The stripes were laid on with all the fierceness that bigotry and brutality could prompt. Later they were sent to the galleys of Spain. Philips and six companions served only part of their terms, and managed to escape to Spain, and thence to England. Hortop's Trauailes, in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 494; Philip's Discourse, in Id., iii. 479-87. Spanish historians, with the exception of Juan Suarez de Peralta, from whose apparently impartial account I have copiously drawn, and March y Labores, whose information is meagre and evidently biassed by a spirit of nationality, have omitted to give a detailed narrative of Hawkins' visit to Vera Cruz. One of the Spanish writers, who could not have been ignorant of the particulars, disposes of the subject in a few words: 'Llegó al puerto de San Juan de Ulva' — Viceroy Enriquez — 'dondo tuvo dares, y tomares con vn inglés llamado Juan de Acle.' Torquemada, i. 638. Another gives Hawkins' name in one place Juan de Aquines, and in another Jaun de Aquines Acle. He is not very positive as to the number of ships on either side, and disposes of the whole thing in a very off-hand manner: 'Lo desbaratò y echò de la Isla.' Vetancvrt, Trat. Mex., 10; Id., Teatro Mex., 77. This last writer, however, adds that the 200 prisoners were sent to the Santa Marta quarries to work in getting stone for Mexico, which does not exactly bear out the assertion of March y Labores that the prisoners from Pánuco were treated 'con humanidad.' Another misnames the English chief Jaween. Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 150. Cavo, Tres Siglos, i. 188, speaks of the viceroy's course in the matter as one that did honor to the inception of his rule. The name of Aquines is clearly a corruption of Hawkins, Juan Aquines Acle meaning perhaps John Hawkins, Esquire! See, also, Icazbalceta, Doc. Hist., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da ép., ii. 493. Luther-loving corsairs and smugglers in whom no faith could be placed deserve to have little said of them. A modern Mexican writer heis accused Hawkins of depredations in Vera Cruz: 'Ecsigiendo fuertes tributes a sus habitantes, y aun saqueando las principales casas de comercio.' Lerdo de Tejada, Apuntes Hist. V. Cruz, 264. I cannot find the authority on which he bases his assertion. As a matter of fact, the English had neither time before, nor opportunity after, the arrival of the Spanish fleet to sack the town. Rivera, Gob. Mex., i. 44, merely says that Enriquez dislodged from Sacrificios some English corsairs that had occupied it to injure vessels arriving and departing.
13. Drake's Life, 6, 7.
14. 'Not forgetting to take with them a Pot as big as a Bushel full of Ryals of Plate, with a Chain of Gold, and other Jewels that they found in the Town.' Id., 106. Cooke's account, Drake's World Encompassed, 183, says they also took away two negroes of three that were being tried, on Drake's arrival, for an attempt to burn the town.
15. Drake's acts against Spain, her American colonies and commerce, are fully detailed in Hist. Cent. Am., ii., of this series.
16. It may be that Spain invited aggression. June 6, 1556, the crown forbade its subjects to trade with French corsairs under heavy penalties. Puga, Cedulario, 187. Apprehensions of French encroachments had existed since 1541, and the court then adopted measures to meet the emergency. Florida, Col. Doc., 103-11, 114-18.
17. The king was in 1566 asked for protection against 'los enemigos franceses luteranos' and other possible assailants. Carta del Cabildo al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 397.
18. 'Franceses hereges . . . profanaron el Santo Caliz, bebiendo sacrilegamente en él y vitrajaron las imagines.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 334.
19. It was said that in Mexico 'auian quemado algunos por Luteranos.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 334. Some of the prisoners were Calvinists. Ancona, Hist. Yuc., i. 94-6. Such raiders, when their governments were at war with that of Spain, claimed to be privateers, and were protected by the laws of nations. But if their sovereigns were at peace then they were pirates and treated as such, that is to say, hanged. In 1572 was captured at Campeche and hanged at Vera Cruz, in San a de Ulua, the famous freebooter, the Count de Santi Estévan. Carrillo, Orígen de Belice, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 3a ép., iv. 257, 261.
20. It is claimed that there were 500 Spaniards in the place, and in two towns close by 8,000 Indians. Parker, in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 602-3. The estimate of the former was doubtless an error, for the Spanish population was then small.
21. The filibusters ungenerously told the Spaniards that their townsman, Juan Venturate, had been their guide. Without other evidence the nan was sentenced to death. One author says he was shot on the spot; another that he 'con tenazas encendias fué despedazado;' a third has it, 'á morir atenazado.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 420, 422; Calero, in Dicc. Univ., x. 790; Ancona, Hist. Yuc''., ii. 133; Yuc. Estad., 1853, 248-9.
22. A party of English freebooters on the 4th of March, 1597, landed at Cape Catoche, and burned all the establishments and houses of the flourishing town of Chancenote, having first plundered it. Carrillo, Orígen de Belice, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 3a ép., iv. 258.
23. By 1597 the coast of Campeche had become a general rendezvous and hiding-place for English and Dutch pirates. Ancona, Hist. Yuc., ii. 131-6.
24. There were in it, toward the end of this period, five towns of Spaniards, namely, the city of Mérida, the capital of the civil and episcopal governments, with from 300 to 400 vecinos, a cathedral, and a Franciscan convent; the villa de Valladolid, or Vallid, with some 50 vecinos, a parish church, and a convent of Franciscans. In this and the preceding there were some Mexicans that came with the conquerors; the villa de San Francisco de Campeche, with about 80 vecinos; the villa de Salamanca, near the gulf of Honduras, with about 20 vecinos; and Victoria de Tabasco, with about 50 vecinos. The number of principal Indian towns was about 200, besides the smaller ones under them. In 1563 the total number of tribute-payers was officially computed at 50,000. Quixada, Carta al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 386-7. Tabasco's large population at the time of the conquest had become reduced to about 1,000 tributaries in the latter part of the century. Mex. Informes, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xv. 453-7.
25. The following were the alcaldes mayores, in the order given: 1. Gaspar Juarez de Ávila, sent out about 1552 from Mexico, who ruled some two years. During his term there came from Peru a number of Gonzalo Pizarro's rebels, who committed some depredations, but were finally captured and punished. 2. Álvaro de Caravajal, appointed from Guatemala, served from 1554 to 1558. 3. Alonso Ortiz de Argeta, or Argueta, who ruled about 18 months. 4. Juan de Paredes, who governed two years. Jofré de Loaisa came from the Audiencia de Los Confines as visitador, and the government reverted to the alcalde of Mérida in 1562. There are a few discrepancies in the authorities about the respective periods of service, which are of no special importance. 5. Doctor Diego de Quijada. Paredes, Rel., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiv. 201; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 322; Castilla, Dicc. Hist. Yuc., i. 69. Tabasco was many years governed directly from Yucatan, till the king appanes an alcalde mayor for that district; but even then the governor of Yucatan retained a certain authority over that officer. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 225; Ponce, Rel., in Col. Doc. Inéd., lviii. 453.
26. The following is a list of the governors to the end of the century and the respective terms, in the order they are named: Luis Céspedes de Oviedo, 1565-71; Diego de Santillan, 1571-2, who resigned the office in disgust, and was sent to a better position; Francisco Velazquez Guijon, 1572-7; Guillen de las Casas, 1577-83; Francisco Solis, otherwise appearing as Francisco Sales Osorio, formerly governor of Porto Rico, 1583-6; Antonio de Voz Mediano, against the four years' term, 1586-93; Alonso Ordoñez de Nevares, 1593 to July 7, 1594, when he died, and Diego de la Cerda was appointed by the ayuntamiento of Mérida alcalde and justicia mayor to hold the government ad interim; Carlos de Samano y Quifiones, appointed by the viceroy of Mexico, ruled from June 15, 1596, to 1597; Diego Fernandez de Velasco, a son of the conde de Niebla, 1597 to August 11, 1604. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 338-442; Ancona, Hist. Yuc., ii. 80-130.
     

    A word with regard Fray Diego Lopez de Cogolludo, author of Historia de Yucathan, Madrid, 1688, 1 vol. fol., 760 pages, so often quoted in this history. He was one of the old monkish chroniclers who carefully recorded every circumstance, however minute, that came to their knowledge. His history begins with the conquest and is brought down to 1655. He was a Franciscan friar and filled high positions of his order in the province of Yucatan. His facilities for acquiring facts on the civil and religious history of that country were great. The results of his researches among the papers of the different Franciscan convents are very valuable, for except the government archives there are no other records of Yucatan affairs. He had access to those archives also, and frequently made use of them. At the time he consulted them both sets of documents must have been, to a certain extent, incomplete, for not infrequently he speaks of his inability to fix dates, notwithstanding a careful search. The work is therefore both valuable and reliable, although some allowance must be made for the prejudices of a Franciscan in favor of his order when he describes the differences that frequently existed between it and the episcopal authority, and constantly between the church in general, and his order in particular, and the civil power.

27. Toral, Carta al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 242-5; Mérida, Carta del 397-9.
28. The salaries now paid by the king were as follows: governor, 1,000 pesos de minas, equivalent to 1,200 dollars, and 500 ducats for contingent expenses; teniente general, 500 ducats; contador and treasurer, 200,000 maravedís each. A number of the best encomiendas becoming vacant reverted to the crown. Calle, Mem. y. Not., 84-5. In 1571 the people suffered severely from famine. Fancourt's Hist. Yuc., 173.
29. That system, which later obtained the royal sanction, added to other measures, perpetuated the antipathy so natural between the conquering race and the conquered. 'Fué un obstáculo constante para su amalgamiento.' Ancona, Hist. Yuc., ii. 74. Lopez' ordinances may be found in Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 292-305.
30. His first expedition, also successful, was in 1592. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 409.
31. This advance was given the Indians as the value of several products to be delivered at the time they gathered the crops, or at the time agreed on. The value was rated by the speculators very low, on the pretext that they had to wait one or two years to be reimbursed; hence the misery of the natives became greater with every year. The governor's measure raised a great clamor, and he was accused by the speculators, in which they are partially supported by Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 413, of attempting to kill by famine the 'pobres españoles,' who had no other means of obtaining a livelihood. Ancona, Hist. Yuc., ii. 126.
32. It flourished several years under royal encouragement; but later it was made to appear that the preparation was injurious to the health of the natives, whereupon the king forbade the employment of them at the indigo-works. The cultivation thereafter was continued only upon a small scale. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 375.
33. The collection was very difficult. Paredes, Rel., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiv, 193-200.
34. It seems the Spaniards gave it to the natives, 'con todos sus muebles y raices.' Ponce, Rel., in Col. Doc. Inéd., lviii. 69-70.
35. Additional authorities consulted on Yucatan are Casas, Carta al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 364; Stephens' Yuc., ii. 264-7; Cervera, Apuntac, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da ép. iv. 397; Registro Yuc., ii. 52-9.
36. Nevertheless, he speaks, April 28, 1572, of the false alarms constantly spread about revolts; sometimes the Indians were on the eve of an outbreak; at other times the mestizos and mulattoes, or the negroes, threatened trouble. In some instances they had it that the Indians together with the mestizos and mulattoes were plotting an uprising. Cartas de Indias, 283.
37. 'Apagó las cenizas que aun estaban calientes, de los disturbios y lances pasados.' Granados, Tardes, 289-90.
38. A royal order of 1574 enjoined that regular accounts should he kept, and no charge made on soldiers' drafts. Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., v. 385-8. Another of 1588, reiterated in 1612, 1618, and 1621, forbade the enlistment or employment in any presidio of men or officers born or residing in the city or town where the presidio was. The number of officers and men to be effective and serviceable. Recop. Ind., i. 599.
39. Unless the Indians were kept in subjection by armed forces the missionaries labored in vain; they either failed or became martyrs; and where they made any progress it was very slow, and amid much hardship and loss of life. Arricivita, Crón. Seráf., 443. The presence of soldiers was to bring the natives together in towns, where they could be taught clearing and irrigating fields, and building. Espinosa, Crón., 459. Arlegui, Chrón. Zac., i. 298, claims truly that the presidios established before 1594 availed but little to protect the road to the Zacatecas mines.
40. Letter of October 31, 1576, in Cartas de Indias, 325-7.
41. If all the Spaniards in the country were to jointly attack the hostile tribes, the subjection could not be accomplished. Nothing but a war of extermination would do. In the mean time the only course left was to guard the highways, and severely punish all guilty of hostile acts. Still, the best means would be to maintain friendly relations if possible. Letter of Sept. 25, 1580, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iii. 490-1.
42. Herrera, dec. viii. lib. x. cap. xxii.
43. Viceroy Enriquez in his report to the king of August 31, 1576, says the disease was still raging, and attributes it to scanty rains and severe heat; the epidemic was the same as that which prevailed in 1544 and 1555, when the havoc had been fearful. No Spaniards were affected. Cartas de Indias, 331.
44. We are told that those prayers were heard; the pestilence soon after began to diminish, and finally disappeared. Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 110. 'Y luego cesó la peste.' Vetancvrt, Chrón. Prov. S. Evang., 130.
45. Dávila Padilla, Hist. Fvnd., 516-18. This same authority says that in the city of Tlascala died 100,000. The Jesuit priest, Juan Sanchez, an eye-witness, asserted that more than two thirds of the Indian population perished, Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 36, 107. See also Sahagun, Hist. Gen., iii. 328; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 392-3, 515; Torquemada, i. 642-3; Florencia, Hist. Prov. Jesus, 252-9; Monum, Dom. Esp., MS., 362; Panes, Virreyes, in Id., 89. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., x. 1152, estimates that the Indian population of New Spain was now reduced to about 1,700,000 souls.
46. Nothing more was done toward it. Cepeda, Rel., i. 6. The Indians were accused of attempting some time before 1572 to overflow the city; 'but they which should haue bene the doers of it were hanged: and euer since the city hath bene well watched both day and night.' Hawks' Rel., in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 463.
47. A previous request having been denied him, he repeated it in October 1576, alleging the same cause. Enriquez, Carta al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 335, and fac-sim. T.
48. In 1570 it was urged among other things that the viceroy should be directed to visit in person the chief town of each district or province, to make sure that the local authorities were true to their duties, for residencias, as then practised, were mere farces; the officials who had robbed the Indians always used the friars and others to intercede with the victims that they might prefer no charges; restitution was therefore never made: 'les echan frailes é ahutatos é otras personas, para que les rueguen que no les pidan coso alguna en residencia.' Robles, Memoriales, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xi. 5.
49. They were in the habit of robbing the natives. Escobar, Carta, Felipe II., in Id., xi. 194.
50. A royal order of October 2, 1575, forbade the oidores to take with them on such visits their wives, members of their own or of other families; or more servants than were actually indispensable. Prov. Real., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xix. 32-5.
51. In 1576 much stress was laid on the situation of Bernardino de Albornoz, 70 years old, very poor, and with many marriageable daughters; he had been many years a faithful servant of the crown, as commander of the arsenal and as royal treasurer. It was thought the king should reward the old man so that he could marry off one or more of his daughters. The viceroy uses quaint language. 'V. M. será seruido de hazelle alguna merced con que pueda echar alguna hijade su casa.' Enriquez, Carta al Rey., in Cartas de Indias, 332.
52. 'Por lo cual suelo yo decir, que, gobemar á esta tierra, lo tengo por infelicidad en un hombre honrado.' Henriquez, Instruc., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iii. 480-99.
53. The crown had, July 4, 1570, directed the oidores to obey all orders of the viceroy, even if not meeting with their approval, unless they were evidently of a nature to bring on a revolt or other disturbance in the country. Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xviii. 435-7.
54. They spontaneously added to the amusements of Spanish origin many others that had been in vogue in ancient Mexico. Cavo, Tres Siglos, i. 193-4.
55. The crews and passengers and most of the cargoes were saved. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 334-5.
56. He presided at Peru until about 1583, when he died, and his remains were interred in the convent of San Francisco at Lima. At his death, says Torquemada, many birds of prey appeared over his house, which was accounted for by each one to suit himself: 'No sè què quiso significar este acto; Dios to sabe, que sabe todas las cosas.' Possibly Torquemada could not forgive Enriquez' sternness toward the chief of the Franciscans in Mexico upon a certain occasion.