[31] Herrera Decade vii., lib. vi., chap. v.

CHAPTER III.
1551–1564.

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.

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 was expected, created extraordinary discontent. The cupidity of the sovereign and of his representative were appealed to. It was alleged that not only would the Spanish emigrants suffer for the want of laborers, but that the royal treasury would soon be emptied of the taxes and income which, thus far, had regularly flowed into it. But Don Luis was firm in his resolution, and declared that "the liberty of the Indians was of more importance than all the mines in the world, and that the revenues they yielded to the Spanish crown were not of such a character that all divine and human laws should be sacrificed, in order to obtain them."

In 1553, the attention of the viceroy was specially directed to the subject of education, for the population had so greatly increased in the few years of stable government, that unless the best means of instructing the growing generation were speedily adopted, it was probable that New Spain would lose many of the descendants of those families which it was the policy of the crown to establish permanently in America. The University of Mexico was therefore consecrated and opened in this year; and, in 1555, Paul IV., bestowed upon it the same privileges and rights as were enjoyed by that of Salamanca in Spain.