the cause to the oidor Alonso Vazquez de Cisneros.[1]
The proceedings went on too slowly to suit the humor of the marquis. After consultation with his legal adviser, Luis de Herrera, but without the concurrence of the audiencia, he ordered the case to be referred to the fiscal of Panamá, Juan de Alvarado Bracamonte, who had just come from Manila. Bracamonte proceeded with activity, sending Sancho de Baraona, a clerk of the audiencia, to the province of Metepec to collect additional evidence. To the new referee Varaez objected, and the viceroy ordered Francisco Enriquez de Avila, a corregidor of Mexico, to sit with him. These judges deemed it advisable to exact from the accused a bond to answer to any judgment they might render, and Varaez, fearing lest he might be again imprisoned, sword in hand and accompanied by dependants, entered a coach and hastened to claim sanctuary at the convent of Santo Domingo. Almost simultaneously the judges sentenced him to pay a fine of sixty thousand pesos, and to perpetual banishment from the Indies.
Shortly afterward, Soto having alleged that Varaez contemplated fleeing to Spain, guards were placed at the door of his cell, and all communication with him was forbidden. He contrived, however, that a memorial should reach the archbishop, in which it was claimed that the presence of the guards was in violation of the right of sanctuary.[2] The ecclesiastical
- ↑ He had arrived recently from Spain, and bore the reputation of being an honest man. For two months he refused to accept the charge, but the viceroy compelled him to do so. Soto alleged that Cisneros was not impartial in this matter, since he was an intimate friend of Gaviria and his guest. Ubi sup., and Alcaraz, in Liceo Mex., ii, 123.
- ↑ That the prelate himself visited Varaez, as is stated by the author of the Relacion Sumaria, seems extremely improbable. Still the circumstance is also mentioned by the conde de la Cortina: 'y con estruendo y aparato y licenciosa ostentacion, y visitando al retraido, volvia á su casa mas prendado, y dado el file á los aceros.' The count also states that Varaez objected to the
unworthy of credence. What he and his friends felt the most was that the viceroy would not allow these to be his judges, and that undoubtedly he would be obliged to return to his jurisdiction. In this way their trading operations would come to an end. Id., Mex. Rel. Sum., 4.
