CHAPTER XXIV.
THE REIGN OF THE VICEROYS.
(1535-1820.)
The first Audiencia was created in 1528, with the cruel and sanguinary Nuño de Guzman as president, who, among other oppressive acts, tortured by fire the once-powerful King of Michoacan. It governed the country badly, making its tyranny felt in every part; putting to death or expelling from the country all who opposed it. The condition of the Indians was terrible; the system of oppression put in force at this time has left its traces visible even to the present day.
In 1524 Padre Valencia founded convents in Tezcoco, Tlascala, Huexotzinco and Mexico, and the Padre Gante the parochial church of Santa Maria. In 1529 the same Padre Gante established the College of San Juan de Letran.
In 1530, in April, was commenced the city of Puebla, eighty thousand Tlascallans laboring so industriously that it soon contained above 3,000 houses. To-day it is a city of 70,000 inhabitants.
[A. D. 1532.] Cortez, on his return from Spain in 1530, had established himself with his lovely wife in the vale of Cuernavaca, where he built a palatial residence and devoted himself to the cultivation of sugar-cane. To him is due the first impulse towards the development of this industry, which has now assumed such vast proportions.
He soon tired of this employment, however, and in 1532 availed himself of the powers vested in him by the king for
