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PROGRESS IN NUEVO LEON.

implements, and everything needed to establish them on their farms, and salaried protectors were appointed to guard their interests. Barbadillo enforced a strict compliance with his orders, and his plan, for the time being, proved a complete success.

The services of such men as Barbadillo, however, were also required in Mexico, and scarcely had order and peace been restored in Nuevo Leon, when he was recalled. This was the signal for the colonists, who had suffered by his policy, to revenge themselves on the natives. Contributions were refused to maintain the militia, which was soon disbanded; the defenseless natives in the settlements were again subjected to extortions and maletreatment of every kind, which abuses the protectors were powerless to check, and thousands of them again sought refuge in their mountain homes. Linares had died in the mean time, and his successor, the Marquis Valero, ordered Barbadillo to undertake the task of restoring older in the province. He at once set forth for Monterey, and we are told that at his mere presence the colonists ceased from their iniquities, and the natives, mindful of past favors received at his hands, returned in flocks to their abandoned settlements. Barbadillo remained in Nuevo Leon for four years, when he was recalled to Mexico by Viceroy Casafuerte, and the government of the province was bestowed on Pedro de Zaravia Cortés. The incapacity of this ruler soon produced the same disorders which had occurred twice before in that region, and on this occasion they spread to the Sierra Gorda as far as to Huasteca. Revolts and insurrections became more frequent, and more disastrous than ever in their effects, and the governors and officials of several provinces with their combined forces were unable to restore quiet.

It now became evident to the government of New Spain that more decisive measures must be inaugurated. In the Sierra Gorda districts and in Ta-