FACTORIES REOPENED CHICHIMECAS COLONIZATION. 171 



strated his good sense and mature judgment. His wish was to 

 develope the country ; to make not only its mineral and agricultural 

 resources available to Spain, but to open the channels through 

 which labor could obtain its best rewards. He therefore ordered 

 the manufactories of coarse stuffs and cloths which had been es- 

 tablished by Mendoza to be once more opened, after the long 

 period in which the Spanish mercantile influence had kept them 

 shut. This naturally produced an excitement among the inter- 

 ested foreign traders, but the viceroy firmly maintained his deter- 

 mination to punish severely any one who should oppose his decree. 



In 1591, the troublesome Chichimecas, of whose disturbances 

 we have already spoken in other chapters, again manifested a 

 desire to attack the Spaniards. They were congregated in strongly 

 armed bands in the neighborhood of Zacatecas, and menaced the 

 Spanish population living in the neighborhood of the rich mines. 

 Travellers could not pass through the country without a military 

 escort. Strong garrisons had been placed by the government on 

 the frontiers, and merciless war declared against them, but all was 

 unavailing to stop their marauding expeditions among the whites. 

 In this year, however, they sent commissioners to treat with the 

 Spaniards in Mexico, and after confessing that they were tired of 

 a war which they found useless, they consented to abstain from 

 further molestation of the district, provided the viceroy would agree 

 to furnish them with a sufficiency of meat for their support. Ve- 

 lasco of course consented to this demand of the cattle stealers, and, 

 moreover, obtained their consent to the admission among them of 

 a body of Tlascalans who would instruct them in a civil and chris- 

 tian mode of life. Four hundred families of these faithful friends 

 of the Mexicans were selected for this colony; and, together with 

 some Franciscan friars, they settled in four bodies so as to form an 

 equal number of colonies. One of these settlements was made on 

 the side of a rich mineral hill and took the name of San Luis 

 Potosi, — the second formed San Miguel Mesqitic, — the third 

 San Andres, — and the fourth Colotlan. Such was the origin of 

 these towns, in which the two tribes lived for many years in perfect 

 harmony, but without intermingling or losing their individuality. 



Another attempt was also made, as had been done previously, to 

 gather the dispersed bands of Mexican and Otomi Indians into 

 villages and settlements, where they would gradually become ac- 

 customed to civilized life. Velasco, like his predecessor Moya, 

 consulted with the curas and the people who were best acquainted 

 with the temper of these races, and learned that they still opposed 



