were called to account, and their residencias and that of the viceroy were published with great ostentation in 1545. The earlier writers make light of this affair, assuming it to have been a mere matter of form to call to account a man of Mendoza's character, who, it was universally acknowledged, had discharged his duties faithfully. It appears, indeed, that no charges were sustained against him, and he continued in the undisturbed possession of his office. There may have been some truth in the remarks of Cortés, that he kept the Spaniards in such subjection and fear that they dared not report the abuses he committed.[1]
Nevertheless, the fact of his having taken and caused to be branded over five thousand slaves during the Mixton war, and his allowing the most cruel punishments and mutilations to be inflicted, does not speak much in favor of the humane feelings with which he is accredited by most writers, however necessary he may have thought such action to be for the pacification of the country.[2]
The purifying presence in New Spain of the visitador, the licenciado Tello de Sandoval, was undoubtedly
- ↑ When in 1543 Cortés, then in Spain, learned that Tello de Sandoval was to be despatched as visitador, he presented a memorial to the crown praying that the residencia of Mendoza be taken, against whom he had many causes of complaint. The charges he there enumerates dwell on the viceroy's conduct in the Mixton war; on his engaging in prohibited expeditions; selling of Indian towns; permitting venality of his servants; appropriating the royal funds to his own use; engaging in illegal traffic with the connivance of agents at Vera Cruz, and many more abuses of a similar nature. Cortés offered in proof of all he alleged some letters from New Spain, which he would only confide to the personal inspection of the emperor, for should Mendoza know their authors he would not fail to take revenge. Cortés, Escritos Sueltos, 325-41. Allowance must be made, however, for the enmity existing between these two eminent rivals. At any rate the residencia excited very little attention at the time.
- ↑ I will give one instance. When in the vicinity of Jalpa, he despatched Maldonado, captain of an advance guard, to ask the natives to surrender. That officer discharged his duty by cutting off the hands of two Chichimecs, and the breasts of two women, sending them in this pitiable condition to their lord, with a message to come to the Spaniards. Some days after this 12 Chichimecs were placed before a cannon and torn to pieces; 23 were hanged, and 17 killed with darts. Acazitli, Rel., in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 316-17. All this happened in the presence of the viceroy, and it appears somewhat like a pe when we read of his 'moderacion y humanidad' in Zemacois, Hist. Méj., v. 5.
