left there as settlers, to whom were given repartimientos. With the remainder of his army Guzman began about the middle of October 1531 his march southward, to protect what he chose to regard as his rights in Jalisco. Having failed to find the Amazon Isles, and having also by his unwise and oppressive policy estranged the inhabitants and destroyed the riches of the provinces to which he had some claim as Discoverer, and which should have satisfied his ambition, he felt that the region south of the Rio Grande del Espíritu Santo must be preserved at any cost. Perhaps to a man of his temper these lands seemed all the more desirable because another had a better right to them. His northern possessions properly managed would have brought him wealth and fame; he chose to return and renew his quarrel with Cortés, and thus bring upon himself ruin; but he had the satisfaction of knowing that in these later years his old enemy was hardly less unfortunate than himself. Guzman had asked the emperor to confirm the name he had bestowed of Greater Spain, his own title as governor of that province, his distribution of the towns among his friends, and his right to enslave rebellious natives. His petition was granted except in the matter of making slaves, and in the substitution of the more modest and appropriate name of Nueva Galicia. This confirmation of his authority was probably received by Guzman before his return to Tepic.[1] His authority as governor of Pánuco was continued, but of course at the coming of the second audiencia he lost his governorship of New Spain.
It is not likely that definite southern limits were
- ↑ Mota Padilla, Cong. N. Gal., 83. The document containing this confirmation so far as I know is not extant. The first mention of the new province by royal authority which I have found is in a cédula of Feb. 17, 1531. Puga, Cedulario, 73. The new province is spoken of in the earlier documents not as Nueva Galicia, or Nuevo Reino de Galicia, but as Galicia de Nueva España. Herrera, dec. iv. lib. ix. cap. xi., says that Guzman received notice of his appointment at Chiametla on his journey south. The oidores at first doubted the genuineness of the commission. Letter of 1531, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii, tom. v. 136-8.
