This severity was commended, and Velazquez was enjoined to exterminate the banditti whose augmenting numbers had placed the safety of the kingdom in jeopardy. His energy and his integrity, which placed him above purchase by bribery, won for him alike the thanks of the king,[1] viceroys, and people. He died at Mexico on the 7th of September 1732, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried in the Jesuit church de la Profesa.[2]
José Velazquez succeeded to his father's position, and made himself equally conspicuous as a suppressor of briandage.[3] Before his death, which occurred in 1756, he implored his son not to accept the succession to the office which had been conferred in perpetuity,[4] and it was therefore bestowed on Jacinto Martinez de la Concha, who proved a no less formidable foe to highway robbers than were his predecessors. To the end of the century competent chiefs in turn presided over the tribunal, among whom may be mentioned Manuel Antonio de Santa María, who held the office from 1782 to 1808, and made himself celebrated by the capture and capital punishment of two notorious robbers named Piedra y Paredes and Pillo Madera.[5]
However beneficial such a tribunal was by the pro-
- ↑ Felipe V. in the cédula of May 22, 1722, conveyed his especial thanks to Velazquez for the zeal he had displayed.
- ↑ Velazquez was deeply lamented; obsequies were paid him, and the 'Gazeta de Mexico hizo su digno elogio.' Id., 30-1.
- ↑ For particulars of the numerous bands of robbers which he destroyed consult Panes, Vireyes, in Mon. Dom. Esp., MS. 118. From an official report dated 1811 giving the number of evil-doers captured and punished by the acordada down to 1809, it appears that during José Velazquez' term of office, from 1732 to 1736, 3,384 malefactors were made prisoners. Of these 320 suffered capital punishment; 1955 were distributed among the presidios; 79 were flogged, and 432 discharged after punishment or proof of innocence. Columna's Report in Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. app. 3.
- ↑ Galvez, Instruc., in Museo Mex., i. 306.
- ↑ Santa Marla captured Piedra y Paredes sometime previous to his seizure of Madera. This gave rise to the following popular quartette which was sung at that period:
'El Señor Santa María
Tiene que hacer una casa,
Ya Piedra y Paredes tiene
Madera solo le falta.’
Alaman, Hist. Méj., iii. app. 73-4.
