At Tonolá he was received by the provisional governor, Cristóal de Oñate, who recognized his authority and delivered the administration into his hands.[1]
Torre proceeded at once to make his official investigations. A general residencia was proclaimed in the towns of Guadalajara, Compostela, Culiacan, and Purificacion, and the proceedings conducted with energy and prudence. Such cases as he was unable to decide himself were remitted to the India Council. By the close of the year the investigations were so far concluded that the governor was permitted to turn his attention to affairs of state.
The condition in which Guzman had left Nueva Galicia was indeed a deplorable one. His system of enslavement had driven most of the natives to the mountains, thus bringing distress on all who remained, whether Spaniards or Indians. Numbers of settlers were preparing to go to Peru, while others made raids upon the Indians and reduced all they could catch to slavery.[2]
The prudent measures of Torre[3] restored confidence. He was well supported by the viceroy, and the colonists after their long and ineffectual complaints[4] settled down with some degree of content.
- ↑ Oñate's brother, Juan, was one of the stanchest partisans of Guzman. When the news arrived in Nueva Galicia, where Juan de Oñate had remained, of Guzman's imprisonment, and that Torre was empowered to take the residencia of all subordinate officials, he was advised by Cristóbal to effect his escape. He accordingly fled to Peru, where some assert that he died poor and blind. Id.
- ↑ Mendoza, on the 10th of December, 1537, reported to the king that although this province was rich in resources, it would be lost unless his Majesty applied some remedy. The Spaniards maintained that without slaves they could not subsist, and the settlers in Culiacan had represented to the viceroy that under the prohibition of slavery they would be compelled to abandon the town. Mendoza temporarily assisted them by supplying ironware and other necessaries to the value of 1,000 pesos de tepuzque. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., ii. 196-7, 209-10.
- ↑ 'El licenciado de la Torre se entretiene bien harto mejor de lo que todos ensamos,' is the compliment which the viceroy pays the new governor of Nueva Galicia. Id., 209.
- ↑ The viceroy had proclaimed that no slaves should be made in Nueva Galicia except in accordance with the order issued by the king. He had, moreover, forwarded to his Majesty a copy of the trials of those persons who had committed excesses in branding slaves during Guzman's administration. Id., 180, 196, By cédula of February 3, 1537, the governor and all authorities
