In 1610 and 1611, there were but few important incidents in the history of New Spain, which was now gradually forming itself into a regularly organized state, free from all those violent internal commotions, which nations, like men, are forced to undergo in their infancy. The viceroy still endeavored to ameliorate the condition of the Indians, and despatched a mission to Japan in order to extend the oriental commerce of Spain. The true policy of Castile would have been, instead of crushing Mexico by colonial restrictions, to have raised her gradually into a gigantic state, which, situated in the centre of America, on the narrowest part of the continent between the two oceans, and holding in her veins the precious metals in exhaustless quantities, would have surely grasped and held the commerce of the east and of Europe. Such would seem the natural destiny of Mexico if we examine her geographical features carefully; nor do we venture too much in predicting that the time will come when that destiny will be fulfilled.

Velasco was now well stricken in years and required repose. His master, appreciating his faithful services and his unquestionable loyalty, added to his already well earned titles that of Marques of Salinas, and creating him president of the Council of the Indies recalled him to Spain where he could pass in quiet the evening of his days, whilst he was also enabled to impart the results of his vast American experience to the king and court.

Fray Garcia Guerra, Archbishop of Mexico,
XII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1611–1612.

Velasco, as an especial mark of royal favor, was desired to retain his power as viceroy until the moment of embarkation for Spain, and then to depose it in favor of the monk Garcia Guerra, who had been the worthy prior of a Dominican convent at Burgos in Spain, until he was nominated to the Archepiscopal See of Mexico. His government was brief and altogether eventless. He became viceroy on the 17th of June, 1611, and died on the 22d of February in the following year, of a wound he received in falling as he descended from his coach.

Don Diego Fernandez de Cordova,
Marques de Guadalcazar,
XIII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1612–1621.

Upon the death of the last viceroy, the Audiencia, of course, took possession of the government during the interregnum;—and, as it seems that this body of men was always doomed to celebrate its authority by acts of folly or cruelty, we find that soon after its accession to power the city was alarmed by the news of another outbreak among the negroes. The people were panic struck. A terrible noise had been heard in the streets of the metropolis during the night, and, although it was proved that the disturbance was entirely caused by the entrance, during the darkness, of a large drove of hogs, the Audiencia determined, nevertheless, to appease public opinion by the execution of twenty-nine male negroes and four negro women! Their withered and fetid bodies were left to hang on the gallows, tainting the air and shocking the eyes of every passer, until the neighborhood could no longer bear the sickly stench and imperiously demanded their removal.

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The Marques de Guadalcazar took possession of the viceroyalty on the 28th of October, 1612, and his government passed in quiet engaged in the mere ordinary discharge of executive duties during the first four years, subsequent to which an Indian insurrection of a formidable character broke out in one of the departments, under a chief who styled himself "Son of the Sun and God of Heaven and Earth." This assault was fatal to every Spaniard within reach of the infuriate natives, who broke into the churches, murdered the whites seeking sanctuary at their altars, and spared not even the ecclesiastics, who, in all times, have so zealously proved themselves to be the defenders of their race. Don Gaspar Alvear, Governor of Durango, assembled a large force as soon as the viceroy informed him of the insurrection, and marched against the savages. After three months of fighting, executions and diplomacy, this functionary succeeded in suffocating the rebellion; but he was probably more indebted, for the final reconciliation of the Indians, to the persuasive talents of the Jesuits who accompanied the expedition, than to the arms of his soldiers.