[XXI‑57] 'The licenciado Rueda, late president of the audiencia, is about to leave for Spain. He has exercised his office with care and ensured good Christian government as will be seen by the papers connected with the vista on his conduct now sent by Doctor Sandé.' Santiago Cabildo (Feb. 16, 1595), in Arévalo, Col. Doc. Antig., 80. Contrast this with Juarros, Guat., 261. 'President de la Rueda was punished for having so badly treated the religious during his government. He fell into a state of idiocy, rushing from the house without clothes into the country, where he ate grass like oxen, and remained in that state till he died.' During Rueda's administration a bridge was built across the Los Esclavos. It was 128 yards long, 18 in breadth, and had eleven arches. At the point where it was constructed the river was of great depth and communication was frequently cut off between the capital and the eastern provinces by inundation. Juarros, Guat., 239-41 (ed. Lond., 1823). Conder's Mex. and Guat., 201.
[XXI‑58] That by which the appointment of 'fiel ejecutor' was vested in the cabildo. The office was one of great profit and its duties were discharged by each member in rotation. The cabildo had enjoyed this privilege by royal license for many years, its concession being granted by cédula of July 9, 1564, and confirmed by one of April 21, 1587. Juarros, Guat., 129. (London ed. 1823.)
[XXI‑59] Sandé came to Mexico as alcalde of the audiencia. In 1575 he was appointed governor of the Philippine Islands and held that position until 1580, after which he became an oidor of Mexico. Datos, Biog., in Cartas de Indias, 840-1.
[XXI‑60] The king's grant of one half of the first year's tribute from the encomiendas becoming vacant during ten years, was of great assistance in opening these ports. The president sends a map of the port and of the country for more than 15 leagues about it. Santiago Cabildo, Carta al Rey (April 20, 1591), in Arévalo, Col. Doc. Antig., 77-8.
[XXI‑61] As an instance of the dimensions to which this cacao trade could grow it may be mentioned that 50,000 loads, worth 500,000 pesos, were raised within an area of two leagues square in Salvador. Palacio, Relacion in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., vi. 15.
[XXI‑62] Palacio mentions a heavy shock that occurred in 1576 by which houses were destroyed and several lives lost. In a letter to the king he relates that he saw a large fragment of a church façade which had been hurled to a considerable distance. Relacion in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., vi. 23-4, 59.
[XXI‑63] Ponce, Rel. de Las Casas in Col. Doc. Inéd., lviii. 140.
[XXII‑1] Cimarron, a Spanish word, primarily signifies 'wild' as applied to plants, and 'untamed' as applied to animals; hence the appropriateness of the epithet. The cimarrones played a somewhat conspicuous part in the subsequent troubles of the country, and are not to be confounded with a tribe of Indians of similar name, the Simerones referred to in [Native Races, iii. 794] this series. The mistake is made, however, by the author of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier, 60, and also by Bidwell, Panamá, 53. Garcilaso de Vega, Hist. Peru, ii. 466, says the epithet had its origin in the Windward Islands—'vocablo del language de las isles de Barlovento.'
[XXII‑2] García de Hermosillo was himself an eye-witness of one of the many cimarron atrocities in 1554, when eight men were killed including a son of one of the judges of the India House at Seville. Hermosillo, Memorial al Rey, Squier's MSS., xxi. 15.
[XXII‑3] Garcilaso de la Vega, Hist. Peru, ii. 466, calls him Ballano.