Soon after the arrival of the viceroy several members of the audiencia retired from office. Presidient Fuenleal, already advanced in years, had in 1532 requested permission to return to Spain, and the oidores Salmeron and Ceynos, for the same reason, were equally anxious to be relieved from their duties. By cédula dated November 13, 1535, Francisco de Loaisa was commissioned to take the residencia of the four oidores.[1] On the 4th of February, 1536, this order was proclaimed with the usual form in the city of Mexico; but it does not appear that charges were preferred against any one except Quiroga, who was accused of having caused to be erected two hospitals, one at Santa Fé near the capital, and the other in Michoacan, the construction of which had brought great distress to the natives, whose houses had been destroyed to supply materials. Quiroga, however, vindicated his action by proving the great benefit that had been derived from the hospitals, especially from that in Michoacan, and in March 1536 he was formally exonerated by the juez de residencia.[2]
Shortly after the favorable termination of their residencia, President Fuenleal and the oidores Salmeron and Ceynos returned to Spain. It is no more than a just tribute to their memory to acknowledge that they faithfully discharged the duties intrusted to them;[3] that during their administration, in conjunction with their colleagues, the system of tyrannical misrule organized by their predecessors was broken; and that reforms of essential benefit were effected by
- ↑ On the 19th of the same month an order was addressed to the viceroy directing him to return their staffs of office to the oidores on the event of their residencia being satisfactory. From the day on which the varas were given back to them they could continue to receive their annual salary of 500,000 maravedís. Puga, Cedulario, 110.
- ↑ Beaumont, Crón. Mich., iii. 316-17, iv. 315-49.
- ↑ Bernal Diaz says that the new audiencia 'no entendian sino solamente en hazer lo que Dios, y su Magestad manda.' Hist. Verdad., 230.
including the tribunal of the inquisition, to meet the viceroys at Chapultepec, where they were entertained with bull-fights and festivities, but from the tenor of a royal cédula of 1761 it appears that before that year Chapultepec had ceased to be the halting-place before their solemn entry into the city. Reales Cédulas, MS., i. 105.
