city, Gazman collected a considerable force and marched away toward the west and north, determined to win honor and security by new conquests. He explored and subdued the country for a considerable distance along the eastern shores of the Gulf of California, but he could find nothing there to rival the Mexico of Motecuhzoma. Meanwhile reports reached Charles V of the manner in which Guzman had been treating the Indians and the Spanish settlers, and so, March 17, 1536,[1] the King appointed the Licentiate Diego Perez de la Torre to take the residencia[2] of Guzman. At the same time Torre was commissioned to replace Guzman as governor of New Galicia, as this northwestern province had been named. The latter had already determined to return to Spain, leaving Don Christobal de Onate, a model executive and administrative official, in charge of his province. Guzman almost succeeded in escaping, but his judge, who had landed at Vera Cruz by the end of 1536, met him at the viceroy's palace in Mexico city, and secured his arrest before he could depart. After his trial he was detained in Mexico until June 30, 1538,-when he was enabled to leave New Spain by an order which directed him to surrender his person to the officers of the Casa de Contratacion,[3] at Seville. Guzman lost no time in going to Spain, where he spent the next four years in urging his claims to a right to participate in the northern conquests.
Torre, the licentiate, had barely begun to reform the abuses of Guzman's government when he was killed in a conflict with some revolted Indian tribes. Onate again took charge of affairs until Mendoza appointed Luis Galindo chief justice for New Galicia. This was merely a temporary appointment, however, until a new governor could be selected. The viceroy's nomination for the position was confirmed by the King, in a cedula dated April 18, 1539, which commissioned Francisco Vazquez Coronado as governor.[4]
Cortes had been engaged, ever since his return from Spain, in fitting out expeditions which came to nothing,[5] but by which he hoped to accomplish his schemes for completing the exploration of the South sea. His leisure was more than occupied by his efforts to outwit the agents of the viceroy and the audiencia, who had received orders from the King to investigate the extent and condition of the estates held by Cortes. In the spring of 1535, Cortes established a colony on the opposite coast of California, the supposed Island of the Marquis, at Santa
- ↑ The best sources for these proceedings is in Mota Padilla's Historia de la Nueva Galicia (ed. Icazbalceta, pp. 104-109). A more available account in English is in H. H. Bancroft's Mexico, vol. ii. p. 457.
- ↑ An official investigation into the administration of an official who is about to be relieved of his duties.
- ↑ The best account, in English, of the Casa de Contratacion is given by Professor Bernard Moses, of Berkeley, California, in the volume of papers read before the American Historical Association at its 1894 meeting.
- ↑ See Fragmentos de una Historia de la Nueva Galicia, by Father Tello (Icazbalceta, Documentos de Mexico, vol. ii, p. 369).
- ↑ Mendoza, in the "première lettre," gives a brief sketch of the efforts which Cortes had been making, and then adds: "Il ne put done jamais en faire la conquête; il semblait même que Dieu voulût miraculeusement l'en éloigner." Ternaux, Cibola volume, p. 287.
