jurisdiction, for to his insatiate mind his petty government seemed far too small. Thwarted in New Spain, he formed the bold resolve of appealing to the emperor to decide a quarrel in which he was clearly in the wrong; and ignorant of the good fortune that had befallen him, he despatched Caniego as procurador to Spain. The emissary came to court at the very time when the hounds were in full cry after their quarry, and he forthwith joined the pack. He not only supported the accusations made by the others, but alleged that Cortés was smelting gold secretly in his palace, and that he had ships in readiness at a port in the South Sea for the purpose of making his escape with the treasure. Salazar and Peralmindez, he averred, were upright officials, but Estrada was as great a tyrant as Cortés, and there was sore need of a governor and a juez de residencia m New Spain where the emperor and his orders were ignored. Caniego's assertions had a certain weight in hastening the resolution of the monarch. The powerful friends of the appointee had not failed to present in the best light his qualifications for the post of president, notably his standing as an able and even brilliant lawyer, a man above all needed to guide the deliberations of an audiencia; and his energy and firmness, which were indispensable qualities for one destined to cope with a person of the wily and aggressive nature of Cortés. Indeed, the disordered condition of affairs in New Spain, bandied as they were by irresponsible factions which found security in the remoteness of the only feared authority, demanded the supervision of a sagacious mind with a firm hand. On their part the friends of Cortés made light of his story, and as Guzman's evil deeds were not yet known in Spain, no great efforts were made to prevent his appointment to the presidency, for it was generally considered that as he was to have no vote, the oidores could control him easily were he viciously inclined. That it should fall to the lot of such a wretch to become the first purely
