To him they repeated their complaints, adding that the injured woman had just died. Through an interpreter he sought to pacify them, and despatched a messenger to the granary officials, requesting that the Indians should in future be treated with more consideration. After another fruitless attempt to obtain an interview with the viceroy, the tumult ended for that day.[1]
On the return of the viceroy in the evening he gave orders that in future an oidor should be present during the distribution of corn, for to a lack of system in this matter the outbreak was attributed. Instructions were also issued to the captain of the palace guard to take every precaution to prevent any repetition of the disturbance. Pikes were to be made ready, ammunition to be distributed to the troops, and all fire-arms to be kept loaded.[2] No uproar occurred during the night, nor does any attempt appear to have been made by the authorities to ascertain the state of affairs in the native wards or among the saramullos. On the following day, the 8th of June,[3] the native women appeared as usual at the public granary, and with the exception of pushing and crowding in their attempt to gain the foremost place, the presence
- ↑ A somewhat different version of this affair is given in the Carta de un Religioso, 315. There it is stated that but one visit was made to the archbishop, who advised that one or two of them should go and lay the matter before the viceroy, but that his counsel was disregarded, and the women dispersed to their homes. This author, however, was a recluse friar, and, although a contemporaneous writer, derived his information from others, while Sigüenza y Góngora, whose version I have adopted, was a prominent man, on intimate terms with the viceroy and other government officials, and one of the most celebrated writers of the period.
- ↑ According to the Carta de un Religioso, 315--16, previously cited, the viceroy upon learning of the occurrence immediately sent for the corregidor, whom he ordered to investigate the complaints, and severely punish the distributors of corn. The corregidor, however, soon returned declaring that the charges of the Indian women against the officials at the granary were false, nothing unusual having occurred there during the day. Reassured by this statement and the opinion of several gentlemen that it was only a drunken affair of the natives, the viceroy contented himself with ordering that an official of his own selection should superintend the distribution on the following day.
- ↑ Cavo, Tres Siglos, ii. 81, erroneously gives June 9th as the date, and Zamacois, Hist. Mex., v. 458, x. 1362, that of June 18th. This latter, however, though occurring in two different places, is evidently a misprint.
