Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/164

 

CHAPTER III.

1551—1564.

 

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VELASCO ENDEAVORS TO AMELIORATE THE CONDITION OF THE INDIANS. — UNIVERSITY OF MEXICO ESTABLISHED — INUNDATION. — MILITARY COLONIZATION — PHILIP II. — FLORIDA. — INTRIGUES AGAINST VELASCO — PHILIPINE ISLES. — DEATH OF VELASCO — MARQUES DE FALCES. — BAPTISM OF THE GRAND CHILDREN OF CORTÉZ. — CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE MARQUES DEL VALLE — HIS ARREST — EXECUTION OF HIS FRIENDS. — MARQUES DE FALCES — CHARGES AGAINST HIM — HIS FALL. — ERRORS OF PHILIP II. — FALL OF MUÑOZ AND HIS RETURN. — VINDICATION OF THE VICEROY.

 

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Don Luis de Velasco,
II. Viceroy of New Spain.
1551—1564.

The new viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, arrived in Mexico without especial orders changing the character of the government. He was selected by the Emperor as a person deemed eminently fitted to sustain the judicious policy of his predecessor; and it is probable that he had secret commands from the court to attempt once more the amelioration of the Indian population. There is no doubt that Charles the Fifth was sincere in his wish to protect the natives; and, if he yielded at all,—as we have seen in the narrative of the last viceroyalty,—to the demands of the owners of repartimientos, it was probably with the hope that a better opportunity of sustaining his humane desires would occur as soon as the conquerors or their followers, were glutted by the rich harvests they might reap during the early years of the settlement.

Accordingly, we find, as soon as Velasco had been received in Mexico with all suitable ceremony and honor, that, notwithstanding the continued opposition of the proprietors and planters, he proclaimed his determination to carry out the orders that had been given to Mendoza, so far as they tended to relieve the Indians from the personal labors, tributes, and severe service in the mines with which they had been burdened by the conquerors. This, as