l8o SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



abundance of all sorts of game, and many fish in the rivers. This 

 noble knight during the period of his incumbency (v^^hich v^as up 

 to the establishment of a Circuit Court in Mexico) governed with 

 great success and foresight; he subdued many other provinces, not 

 only in the district of this Diocese but in all New Spain, and left 

 them pacified; such were the Provinces of the Mixes, Mixtecas, 

 Huaxtecos, and others ; and he moved and rebuilt the city of Old 

 Vera Cruz (which had been founded by the Marques del Valle 

 Don Fernando Cortes on the Rio de Medellin) to where it is today, 

 because that was a better site than the other, although on account 

 of its inconvenient location for the fleets, another settlement sprang 

 up where New Vera Cruz now is, at the water's edge opposite the 

 castle and fort of San Juan de UUoa. In the district of the Diocese 

 of Michoacan he subdued the Provinces of the Motines and Cope- 

 langos, reestablished the towns of Colima and Zacatula, and carried 

 out other courageous [services] operations in pacifying those tribes. 



510. The town of Nixapa lies 20 leagues ESE. of Oaxaca on the 

 King's Highway to Chiapas and Guatemala: it has a springlike cli- 

 mate; trade there is chiefly based on the sugar mills and on [many] 

 other native produce. Twenty leagues farther on the same route, and 

 40 from Oaxaca, lies the town and port of Tehuantepec, with a 

 Dominican convent. The Province and villages of Mexcaltepec are 

 farther on, under the jurisdiction of this town ; here it borders on the 

 district of the Diocese of Chiapas. In this district there are large 

 cattle, horse, and mule ranches, with quantities of game and more 

 white-bellied hares than in any other part of the Indies. All this 

 region is hot country [tempered by abundant supplies of luxuries]. 



511. The chief port of this Diocese is that of Huatulco on the 

 Pacific; it lies in 16° N. Here they export [much] pitch and other 

 merchandise consisting of native products, to Peru. There is a very 

 sacred cross here, a great relic and highly venerated throughout the 

 kingdom [of New Spain] . The Dutch tried to burn it, and although 

 they set fire about it, they could not, and were bewildered by the 

 fact ; God has wrought many miracles by it. The Viceroy appoints 

 to 34 judicial offices in the district of this Diocese of Oaxaca : 22 Cor- 

 regimientos, in Atlatlahuca de Oaxaca, Chinantla and Veila, Cuicatlan, 

 Zimatlan, Huajolotitlan, Huaxpaltepec, Huajuapan, Miaguatlan, 

 Mictla and Tlacolula, Nochixtlan, Papaloticpaque, Tleutitlan del Ca- 

 mino, Tilantongo, Teozacoalco, Tecocuilco, Temauaca and Quicte- 

 peque, Texopa, Teotitlan and Macuilxochil, Xustlaguca, Yxtepexi, 

 Yanguitlan, Iscuintepeque de Los Peiioles ; and 12 Alcaldias Mayores : 

 Those of the city of Oaxaca, the port of Huatulco, Teposcolula, Teu- 



