to take their residencia, and gained the gratitude of the people by suspending three of them, Lebron de Quiñones, Contreras, and Oseguera. The latter managed to be reinstated, however, and retrieved himself so well that he was promoted to a similar office in Mexico.[1] The bishopric of New Galicia was erected at Compostela in 1544, including within its ecclesiastical purview all the explored regions north of the Michoacan boundary. The first incumbent was Pedro Gomez Maraver, and the seat was transferred to the new capital at or about the same time the secular government was transferred.[2]
The audiencia of New Galicia, aware of the great wealth of the mines in Sinaloa, Durango, and elsewhere, with the view of adding area to its rule, and of controlling those rich deposits, resolved in 1552 to undertake the conquest of the whole region, beginning with the rich sierras of Guaynamota, Guazamota, and Jocotlan, situated some fifteen leagues from Compostela. On the other hand, Spaniards, both civilians and soldiers, were already making settlements in a considerable part of the country, and Chametla, a province lying between Compostela and the villa de Culiacan, would soon be under Viceroy Velasco’s control.
For the chief command of the expedition was selected Ginés Vazquez de Mercado, said to have been a brave officer and a worthy cavalier. He was given
- ↑ He incurred the hostility of the ecclesiastics for his looseness of tongue, the bishop among others being termed a donkey, and in Cabildo, Eccles., Informe, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 484-508, a free-spoken report to the king on men and affairs in New Galicia in 1570, he among others is treated without mercy as a vain man, ruled by his wife. In 1563 already he ranked as president of the audiencia, with Morones and Alarcon among his associates. Beaumont, Crón. Mich., v. 552-7; Parra, Conq. Xal., MS., 31. Alarcon's name became a byword for petty peculation. Morones was succeeded by Mendiola, afterwards bishop, and he by Orozco, brother of the oidor at Mexico. Quiñones had been reinstated, and came back fuming with wrath against his accusers, but he died on the way.
- ↑ There is much disagreement respecting the date; indeed, there is hardly a year between 1550 and 1569 to which the change is not by some author assigned. A royal letter to the viceroy, of July 16, 1550, requested him to report on the expediency of removing the 'chest of three keys' from Compostela to Guadalajara. Puga, Cedulario, 179.
