Céspedes de Oviedo, the first of the Spanish nobility sent to rule the peninsula, with the title of governor. He added no honor to his name or station. The power of the ruler was made superior to what it had been under the alcaldes mayores, even to the appointing of a lieutenant-general letrado, or one versed in law.[1]
The acts of the several governors present little of general interest. With rare exceptions they were in a chronic state of dissension with the church, arising from the undue assumption of power by the friars or the episcopal authority, and at times with the encomenderos in regard to the tenure of their Indians. The same troubles were experienced here on this subject as in Mexico. Of the first governor, Céspedes, it was said, however, that by his malignant tongue he had created ill feeling in the community, and _particularly between the ayuntamiento of Mérida and the bishop.[2]
- ↑ The following is a list of the governors to the end of the century and the respective terms, in the order they are named: Luis Céspedes de Oviedo, 1565-71; Diego de Santillan, 1571-2, who resigned the office in disgust, and was sent to a better position; Francisco Velazquez Guijon, 1572-7; Guillen de las Casas, 1577-83; Francisco Solis, otherwise appearing as Francisco Sales Osorio, formerly governor of Porto Rico, 1583-6; Antonio de Voz Mediano, against the four years' term, 1586-93; Alonso Ordoñez de Nevares, 1593 to July 7, 1594, when he died, and Diego de la Cerda was appointed by the ayuntamiento of Mérida alcalde and justicia mayor to hold the government ad interim; Carlos de Samano y Quifiones, appointed by the viceroy of Mexico, ruled from June 15, 1596, to 1597; Diego Fernandez de Velasco, a son of the conde de Niebla, 1597 to August 11, 1604. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 338-442; Ancona, Hist. Yuc., ii. 80-130.
A word with regard Fray Diego Lopez de Cogolludo, author of Historia de Yucathan, Madrid, 1688, 1 vol. fol., 760 pages, so often quoted in this history. He was one of the old monkish chroniclers who carefully recorded every circumstance, however minute, that came to their knowledge. His history begins with the conquest and is brought down to 1655. He was a Franciscan friar and filled high positions of his order in the province of Yucatan. His facilities for acquiring facts on the civil and religious history of that country were great. The results of his researches among the papers of the different Franciscan convents are very valuable, for except the government archives there are no other records of Yucatan affairs. He had access to those archives also, and frequently made use of them. At the time he consulted them both sets of documents must have been, to a certain extent, incomplete, for not infrequently he speaks of his inability to fix dates, notwithstanding a careful search. The work is therefore both valuable and reliable, although some allowance must be made for the prejudices of a Franciscan in favor of his order when he describes the differences that frequently existed between it and the episcopal authority, and constantly between the church in general, and his order in particular, and the civil power.
- ↑ Toral, Carta al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 242-5; Mérida, Carta del 397-9.
