In 1629, there were ecclesiastical troubles in the colony, growing out of an attempt by the higher order of the Spanish clergy to prevent the increase of the regular priesthood from among the natives of the country. They feared that in the course of time the dominion of the establishment would thus be wrested from their hands by the power of the Mexicans. The king, himself was appealed to on this subject and caused it to be examined into carefully. In 1631, in consequence of the repeated danger of the capital from floods, the project of removing the site from its present location, to the loftier levels between Tacuba and Tacubaya, was seriously argued before the people. But the interest of property holders, and inhabitants of the city would have been so seriously affected by this act, that the idea was abandoned.
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The remaining years of this viceroyalty were consumed in matters of mere local detail and domestic government, and in fact we know but little of it, save that the severe inundations of 1629 caused the authorities to use their utmost efforts in prosecuting the work of the desague, as we have already seen in the general account given of that gigantic enterprise. In 1635 this viceroy's reign terminated.
Don Lope Diaz de Armendariz, Marques de Cadereita,
XVI. Viceroy of New Spain.
1635–1640.
The five years of this personage's government were unmarked by any events of consequence in the colony; except that in the last of them,—1640,—he despatched an expedition to the north, where he founded in New Leon, the town of Cadereita, which the emigrants named in honor of their viceroy.
Don Diego Lopez Pacheco Cabrera y Bobadilla,
Duke of Escalona, Marques of Vilbua and Grandee of
Spain of the first class.
XVII. Viceroy of New Spain.
1640–1642.
The Duke of Escalona succeeded the Marques of Cadereita, and arrived in Mexico on the 28th of June, 1640, together with the venerable Palafox, who came, in the character of Visitador, to inquire into the administration of the last viceroy whose reputation, like that of other chief magistrates in New Spain, had suffered considerably in the hands of his enemies. Whilst this functionary proceeded with his disagreeable task against a man who was no longer in power, the duke, in compliance with the king's command ordered the governor of Sinaloa, Don Luis Cestinos, accompanied by two Jesuits, to visit the Californias and examine their coasts and the neighboring isles in search of the wealth in pearls and precious metals with which they were reputed to be filled. The reports of the explorers were altogether satisfactory both as to the character of the natives and of the riches of the waters as well as of the mines, though they represented the soil as extremely sterile. The gold of California was reserved for another age.