Your Majesties not to provide the said Diego Velasquez with the said, or any other, commission, but rather to order him to give his residencia,[1] and to deprive him of the charge of the Island of Fernandina. By taking his residencia, the above statements would be shown to be true, for which we beseech Your Majesties to name a judge and inquisitor, in order to make an investigation of aU which we have related to Your Royal Highnesses, not only about the Island of Cuba, but also elsewhere; for our intention is to prove things from which Your Majesties may judge if it be justice or conscience that he should have royal charges in these parts, or in the others where he at present resides.
In the same manner, the procurator, and the inhabitants and householders of this town, have asked us in the said petition that we should supplicate Your Majesty in their name to provide a warrant and Royal Provision to be given in favour of Fernando Cortes, Captain, and Superior Justice of Your Royal Highnesses, in order that he may govern us with justice, until this country shall be conquered and pacified, and for such time as may appear best to Your Majesties, and be best for your service; for they recognise in him such a person as is fit for it. Which petition and requirement we send with these, our procurators, to Your Majesties, and we all humbly supplicate Your Royal Highnesses, that you will grant not only this, but all the other favours, which in the name of this council and town may be petitioned by the said procurators, and that you will regard us as your most
- ↑ This was done by means of a commission, with full powers to inquire into all administrative acts of a governor, and to receive and decide upon all complaints against him. Upon the arrival of the commissioners, the governor and his officials resigned their authority and badges of office into their hands, pending the outcome of the investigation. The residencia was not of itself an indignity, nor did it necessarily imply a want of confidence in the governor, but it was the most effective check the home government had upon the colonial officials.
