Carabajal, subsequently governor of Nuevo Leon, their joint labors proved but partially and temporarily successful.[1]
Nevertheless, spells of comparative quiet were obtained, affording the sorely distressed settlements round the mines of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas the opportunity to develop their wealth, and attract much needed immigration. Zacatecas, which since its discovery in 1546 had been exposed to repeated ravages, received such an impetus that in 1585 it was raised to the rank of a city.[2]
Twenty years before the Franciscan order had proved sufficiently numerous to form here a custodia, the beginning of the later provincia de Guadalupe de Zacatecas, which became so famous for its missionary labors throughout the vast north. Most of the settlements in this region also owed their origin to Zacatecas, whose alcaldes mayores, subject to Nueva Galicia, sent forth or promoted numerous expeditions to open mines, among them San Martin. This was made the seat of a new alcaldía mayor, which extended and controlled settlements far into Durango,[3] where Nombre de
- ↑ In 1581 Viceroy Suarez complained much of the continued hostilities of the Chichimecs, 'tan lebantado y con tanto numero y desberguença.' Coruña, Carta al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 340.
- ↑ To which was added in 1588 the title of 'muy noble y leal,' together with a coat of arms. Arlegui, Cron. Zac., 43-4. This was due to the effort of Baltasar Tremiño. Berghes, Zac., 3. Rivera Bemardez confounds the two dates. Zac., 27-8, 35. The population was at first settled toward the north, where the earlier mines were discovered, and there the first church was built on the hacienda of Domingo Tagle Bracho. Afterward, on the coming of two images of Christ, imported by Alonso Guerrero Villaseca, and placed on his two haciendas, the population settled where it now is. Frejes, Hist. Breve, 208-9. Subject to it was a settlement of Mexicans named Mejicalpa, now corrupted to Mejicapa. The municipal houses of Zacatecas were built in 1559. The first minister was the Franciscan friar, Gerónimo de Mendoza, from Mexico. Arlegui, Cron. Zac., 13-14; Mier y Campa, Muralla, Zac., in Revista Cient., ii. 111-12; Museo Mex., iv. 118. The first parish was founded in 1567, with Fernando Maldonado for curate, according to the municipal records reproduced in Dicc. Univ., x. 1033, 1078-82. At the time the title of city was bestowed the actual settlers numbered about 400, not counting women and children. There were fully as many traders and others of a floating character, and a large number of slaves and native workers. The first corregidor was Félix Guzman y Avellaneda.
- ↑ Under Juan Vazquez de Ulua, the alcalde mayor then ruling at Zacatecas was Gaspar de Tapia. One of his successors, Hernan Martel, in 1563 founded Santa María de los Lagos, as a check upon the Huaehipiles, like
