MINES ZAPOTECS REVOLT MENDOZA REMOVED TO PERU. 147 



had been often acknowledged by the Emperor. He found in this 

 distinguished person a man qualified by nature to deal with the 

 elements of a new society when they were in their wildest moments 

 of confusion, and before they had become organized into the order 

 and system of a regular state. Mendoza, by nature firm, amiable, 

 and just, seems nevertheless to have been a person who knew 

 when it was necessary in a new country, to bend before the storm 

 of popular opinion in order to avoid the destruction, not only of his 

 own influence, but perhaps of society, civilization and the Spanish 

 authorities themselves. In the midst of all the fiery and unregu- 

 lated spirit of a colony like Mexico, he sustained the dignity of his 

 office unimpaired, and by command, diplomacy, management, and 

 probably sometimes by intrigue, he appears to have ensured 

 obedience to the laws even when they were distasteful to the 

 masses. He was successful upon all occasions except in the en- 

 forcement of the complete emancipation of the Indians ; but it may 

 be questioned whether he did not deem it needful, in the infancy of 

 the viceroyalty at least, to subject the Indians to labors which his 

 countrymen were either too few in number or too little acclimated 

 in Mexico to perform successfully. History must at least do him 

 the justice to record the fact that his administration was tempered 

 with mercy, for even the Indians revered him as a man who was 

 their signal protector against wanton inhumanity. 



Whilst these events occurred in Mexico, Pizarro had subjugated 

 Peru, and added it to the Spanish crown. But there, as in Mexico, 

 an able man was needed to organize the fragmentary society which 

 was in the utmost disorder after the conquest. No one appeared 

 to the Emperor better fitted for the task than the viceroy whose 

 administration had been so successful in Mexico. Accordingly, 

 in 1550, the viceroyalty of Peru was offered to him, and its accep- 

 tance urged by the Emperor at a moment when a revolt against 

 the Spaniards occurred among the Zapotecas, instigated by their 

 old men and chiefs, who, availing themselves of an ancient pro- 

 phecy relative to the return of Quetzalcoatl, assured the youths 

 and warriors of their tribe that the predicted period had arrived and 

 that, under the protection of their restored deity, their chains would 

 be broken. In this, as in all other endeavors to preserve order, 

 the efforts of Mendoza were successful. He appeased the Indians, 

 accepted the proffered task of governing Peru ; and, after meeting 

 and conferring with his successor, Velasco, in Cholula, departed 

 from Mexico for the scene of his new labors on the distant shores 

 of the Pacific. 



