ernment; but on the following day a resolution of the real acuerdo ordered his immediate return to Tacuba, there to await the proper moment for his installation into office.[1] This did not take place until May 13, 1648,[2] when the bishop-governor, with the usual retinue, made his official entrance into Mexico, and exhibited in the palace his credentials.
His rule was brief and uneventful. An epidemic is said to have caused great devastation at Vera Cruz in the latter half of the year 1648, but in view of the scanty information on the subject, considerable allowance must probably be made for exaggeration. On his decease in April of the following year[3] the audiencia assumed the government; and the senior oidor, Matías de Peralta, acting as president, removed to the viceregal palace. Before the exequies of the late governor were concluded[4] his entire estate had been sequestered, partly to guarantee the sum of twenty thousand pesos, which he had received in advance of salary, and also because suspicions had arisen that a large part of his estate belonged to the crown, and had been fraudulently appropriated by the secretary and nephew of the deceased, Juan de Salazar. To that end the surrender was ordered under severe penalties, of all the property of the bishop, and that of his relatives, to the senior oidor, who, together with the fiscal, had assumed the functions of executor of
- ↑ Guijo, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., 1st ser., i. 7-8, adds that returning to Tacuba the bishop found that all the furniture of his residence, belonging to Salvatierra, had been removed in the mean time.
- ↑ Mayer, Mex. Aztec, i. 202, following the Liceo, Mex., ii. 223, says erroneously March 13th.
- ↑ Torres was on bad terms with the audiencia, and in January 1649 had some dispute with the municipal authorities, caused by his pretentious conduct. It is said that this brought on the sickness which terminated fatally on April 22d. Cogolludo remarks that Torres, not supposing his illness to be of a serious nature, did not make such provisions for the administration of affairs as his high position required. Hist. Yuc., 702. This does not appear probable, judging from the deed executed by the governor on the 8th of April, and appointing, in case of his demise, the audiencia to succeed him ad interim. Vir. Instruc., MS., 1st ser., no. 23, 1-2.
- ↑ He was buried on the 25th of April in the church of the Augustinian convent at Mexico; the bishop-elect of Habana, Nicolás de la Torre, officiated, as the archbishop was absent. Guijo, Diario, 55-62.
