ZUNIGA VICEROY TRE A SURE PIRACY. 



167 



Don Alvaro Enrique de Zuniga, Marques de Villa Man- 



rique, 



VII. Viceroy of Mexico. 

 1585 — 1589. 



The arrival of the Marques de Villa Manrique was not designed 

 to interfere with the functions of the archbishop and former viceroy 

 Contreras, as Visitador. He was solicited to contiuue his plenary 

 examination into the abuses of government in New Spain, and to 

 clear the country of all malefactors before he retired once more to 

 the cloisters. Accordingly, Don Pedro remained in Mexico some 

 time discharging his duties, and it is probably owing to his 

 presence that the first year of the new viceroy passed off in perfect 

 peace. But in the succeeding year, in which the archbishop 

 departed for Spain, his troubles began by a serious discussion with 

 the Franciscans, Agustins and Dominicans, in which the monks 

 at last appealed from the viceroy to the king. Before Contreras, 

 the visitador, left Mexico he had managed to change all the judges 

 composing the tribunals of the colony. The men he selected in 

 their stead were all personally known to him or were appointed 

 upon the recommendation of persons whose integrity and capacity 

 for judgment were unquestionable. 



This remarkable man died soon after his arrival in Madrid, 

 where he had been appointed president of the Council of the Indies. 

 Like all reformers he went to his grave poor ; but when the king 

 learned his indigence he took upon himself the costs of sepulture, 

 and laid his colonial representative and bishop to the tomb in a 

 manner befitting one who had exercised so great and beneficial an 

 influence in the temporary reform of the New World. The sole 

 stain upon the memory of Contreras is perhaps the fact that he 

 was an inquisitor. 



In 1587, the viceroy Zuniga despatched a large amount of 

 treasure to Spain. Enormous sums were drained annually from 

 the colonies for the royal metropolis ; but, in this year the fleet 

 from Vera Cruz sailed with eleven hundred and fifty- six marks of 

 gold, in addition to an immense amount of coined silver and mer- 

 chandise of great value. These sums passed safely to the hands 

 of the court; but such was not the case with all the precious 

 freights that left the American coasts, for, at this period, the 

 shores of our continent, on both oceans, began to swarm with 

 pirates. The subjects of various European nations, but especially 

 the English, were most active in enterprises which, in those days, 



