In 1532 the audiencia, in accordance with general instructions issued by the king, sent Juan de Villaseñor to Michoacan[1] in the capacity of visitador. Having made official visits to various districts he sent his report of the condition in which he found it; but his presence there does not seem to have ameliorated matters, since in October of the same year delegates of the native lords went to Mexico and formally complained of the intolerable proceedings of the encomenderos. To remedy the lamentable state of affairs the audiencia in 1533[2] sent the oidor Quiroga as visitador into that region, in the hope that a man of his ability, high character, and well-known zeal for the welfare of the Indians would be able to effect some beneficial change.
Quiroga well responded to the expectations of the audiencia. With untiring ardor, supported by prudence, good judgment, and kindness of temper, he carried on the work of reformation. The Tarascans, exasperated as they were, listened to his words and recognized in him a friend, while he sternly imposed restrictions upon the encomenderos by reorganizing the repartimientos in a manner advantageous to the natives. Thus both the ecclesiastical and secular condition of affairs was improved. The natives were gradually induced to abandon their idolatrous and polygamous practices,[3] and the Spaniards made to
- ↑ Villaseñor was one of the conquerors and a citizen of Mexico. He was empowered to investigate matters connected with the inquisition and proceed against guilty persons of whatever class or condition. A few years later, by order of Mendoza, he established himself at Guango to oppose the inroads of the Chichimecs, and had assigned to him and his family for four lives that town and those of Numarán, Penjamillo, Conguripo, Purudndiro, and some others as encomiendas. His descendants figure among the most prominent of the country. Beaumont, Crón. Mich., iii. 413-19.
- ↑ Both Herrera, dec. vi. lib. i. cap. x., and Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i, 3, are in error as to the date of Quiroga's official visit to Michoacan, stating it to have taken place in 1536. Depositions taken in Quiroga's residencia in that year prove that he had visited Michoacan two and a half years before. Beaumont, Crón. Mich., iv. 11-12.
- ↑ The governor of Michoacan during this period was the native lord Pedro Ganca, or Cuirananguari. Quiroga persuaded him to put aside polygamy and be legally married to a concubine who had informed Quiroga of the governor's taste for a plurality of wives. Moreno, Frag. Quiroga, 35.
