Meanwhile Pedro de los Rios, the royal treasurer,[X‑28] and son-in-law of Contreras, has usurped the reins of government, and commenced to persecute all whom he knows to be hostile to his own party. Mendavia, knowing that he may be the one to suffer most at the hands of Rios, determines to anticipate his measures, and proceeding to Granada, where he obtains the support of the cabildo, imprisons Rios in the convent.[X‑29] But the following morning the cabildo intimidated by the threats of Doña María, the governor's wife, repent of their conduct and are prevailed upon to issue an edict calling upon all the settlers, under penalty of death and confiscation, to rise in arms and demand the liberation of Rios, or, in case of refusal, to tear down the convent. The warlike dean is not prepared for this sudden change, but nevertheless determines to resist, assuring his adherents that all who may suffer death in this most Christian cause will surely be admitted into heaven. The people throng the convent, and the friars are soon engaged in deadly strife, during which two of them, together with four laymen, are mortally wounded. Unable to withstand the attack, Mendavia at last relents and sues for peace. A compromise is effected, by which Rios binds himself not to injure the dean or any of his party, either then or at any future time, whereupon the treasurer is released. No sooner is he outside the convent walls, however, than he forgets his promise, and arrests, hangs, quarters, and exiles indiscriminately. The dean himself is put in irons and sent to Spain, where for several years he is kept a prisoner without trial.[X‑30]
When the news of these proceedings reached the audiencia of Panamá, Diego de Pineda was despatched to Nicaragua as juez de comision, and with such tact did he reconcile the disputes between the two parties that order was quickly restored, and the quarrel between Rios and Mendavia was soon forgotten. A few months later Contreras arrived in the province,[X‑31] but his secret enemies were still at work, and one of the first acts of the newly established audiencia de los Confines was to commission the oidor Herrera to take his residencia, and also that of the treasurer Rios. Although the licentiate was ever an implacable foe to the governor and a stanch supporter of the clerical faction, he appears to have discovered nothing on which to base any serious charges against either of those officials, and soon abandoned his investigation.[X‑32]
ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVIL FEUD.
A feud more bitter than that which was terminated by the death of Bishop Osorio and the departure of Las Casas now arose between the lay and ecclesiastical authorities. In 1544 Father Antonio de Valdivieso was appointed to the vacant see of Nicaragua.[X‑33] His appointment was duly confirmed by papal bull, and in November of the following year he was consecrated at Gracias á Dios by bishops Las Casas of Chiapas, Marroquin of Guatemala, and Pedraza of Honduras. The prelate, who professed to be an enthusiastic admirer of the great apostle of the Indies, insisted that the new code should be enforced, and spared no effort to rescue the natives from bondage, incurring by his policy such determined opposition from the governor and his officials that he deemed it best for his own personal safety to take up his residence at Granada rather than at Leon.
From the day of Valdivieso's arrival to the downfall of the governor some three years later, the history of the province contains little else than a series of mutual recriminations and intrigues. The colonists with a few exceptions favored the cause of the governor, declaring that "they wanted no prelate except to say mass, and preach to suit their fancy;" and when the bishop threatened to establish an inquisition in Nicaragua he was menaced with assassination.[X‑34]
CONTRERAS CURSED.
The complaints against Contreras appear to have been due mainly to the jealousy and self-interested motives of the ecclesiastical faction. His conduct had borne the scrutiny of the inquisition and of the audiencia. Notwithstanding the provisions of the new code he had been allowed to retain his encomiendas. Even his enemies could not accuse him of maltreating his slaves. It was not to be expected that he should surrender to the bishop the power and property which higher authority had permitted him to retain; and yet this seems to have been his chief cause of offence. Though Valdivieso and the Dominican friars were loud in their denunciations of those who held the natives in bondage, they were themselves by no means averse to holding property in slaves. They were the proprietors of at least one Indian village in Nicaragua, and when the right of ownership was taken from them by the audiencia of the Confines, they threatened to leave the province, and ceased not from their clamor until their property was restored to them.[X‑35] Even the members of the audiencia, whose special duty it was to enforce the observance of these new laws, had caused the cacique of Atitlan, and others who had rendered assistance to the Spaniards in their expeditions against Lacandon and Tuzulutlan, to be restored to their encomenderos, thus violating the very spirit of the code. The president and oidores even went so far as to express their opinion that to place the Indians under control of the priests in trust for the crown was a most objectionable measure. Slaves constituted the principal source of wealth throughout the province, and without slave labor the colonists would soon be reduced to beggary. Even now they suffered extreme privation and were sometimes threatened with actual famine. The tribute collected from the natives, which belonged by right to the governor and his officials, was distributed among the destitute settlers, but was found utterly inadequate for their maintenance.
The most serious accusation brought against Contreras, but one that rests on no sufficient evidence, is that he appropriated the estates of deceased encomenderos, leaving their wives and children destitute. It was alleged that he and his family owned more than one third of the province, and that the slaves and territory of the entire district of Nicoya, which were formerly divided among eleven different individuals, had passed into the hands of his wife. It was afterward even laid to his charge that he had compelled the settlers to take part in enterprises which he himself had in fact only been led to sanction by the clamor of the colonists or the urgency of the occasion, as was the case in the exploration of the Desaguadero and the expeditions against the forces of Doctor Robles.[X‑36]
Meanwhile the oidor, Herrera, was sparing no effort to insure the governor's downfall, and with that purpose sent private reports to the emperor and the council of the Indies. In one of these[X‑37] he recommended that no one should be allowed to rule who possessed Indians, either in his own name or that of his wife, children, or servants, and that the government be vested in the hands of a person whose duty it should be to visit, at frequent intervals, every settlement in the province. He also recommended that the children of the caciques should be placed in convents, there to be trained in the Christian faith, and that the adult Indians should remain in their towns for the same purpose.[X‑38] In short his object, like that of Valdivieso, whose cause he never ceased to advocate, was to place the entire native population under the absolute control of the ecclesiastics.
In the beginning of the year 1547 the bishop removed to Leon, and no sooner had he done so than the cabildo reported to the emperor "the great trouble they had in defending the royal jurisdiction on account of the opposition of the bishop, who insulted and maltreated the officers of justice, and held the laws in contempt."[X‑39] It was even thought necessary to send to Spain one Antonio Zárate to advocate their cause, whereupon Valdivieso despatched to the council of the Indies, some three weeks later, a communication in which he accused him of being a fugitive criminal, in order to destroy his influence at court. He also sent secret advices to Bishop Torres of Panamá, informing him of Zárate's purpose and recommending his arrest. The emissary was forewarned of his danger, and managed to make good his escape, but it is not recorded that he was successful in accomplishing the object of his mission.