COMPOSITION FOWLS ACEBEDO VICEROY. 173 



would have saved one-eighth of their taxation or twelve and a 

 half per cent, they allowed the time to pass without providing" 

 the required bird in their homesteads, so that when the tax gath- 

 erer arrived they were forced to buy the fowl instead of selling it. 

 This of course raised the price, and the consequence was that the 

 Indian was obliged often to pay two or three reales more than the 

 original amount of the whole taxation of one dollar ! It is related 

 that one of the oidores who had taken eight hundred fowls, re- 

 served two hundred for the consumption of his house, and through 

 an agent sold the rest at three reales, or thirty-seven and a half 

 cents each, by which he contrived to make a profit of two hundred 

 per cent. Various efforts were made to remedy this shameful 

 abuse or to revoke the decree, but the system was fouud to be too 

 profitable among the officials, to be abandoned without a severe 

 struggle. We are unable to discover that the viceroy, in this in- 

 stance, used his authority to restore the Indians to their original 

 rights. 



In 1595, it was determined to colonize the supposed kingdom of 

 Quivara, which now received the name of New Mexico, but, before 

 the expedition could set forth under the command of Juan de 

 Onate, Velasco received a despatch informing him that he had 

 been named viceroy of Peru, and that his successor Don Gaspar 

 de Zuniga Acebedo, Conde de Monterey, would soon appear in 

 the colonial metropolis. 



Don Gaspar de Zuniga Acebedo, Conde de Monterey, 

 IX. Viceroy of New Spain. 

 1595_1603. 



The Count of Monterey arrived at San Juan de Ulua on the 18th 

 of September, 1595, and on the 5th of the following November, 

 entered the capital as viceroy. At first he exhibited a cold and 

 apathetic temper, and appeared to take but little interest in the 

 affairs of the government ; but it is supposed, that being a prudent 

 and cautious man, he was in no haste to underake the direction of 

 affairs whilst he was altogether unacquainted both with the temper 

 of the people and the nature of their institutions. An early mea- 

 sure, however, of his administration deserves to be recorded and 

 remembered. He found the Indians still suffering and complaining 

 under the odious fowl tax, created by his predecessor for the pro- 

 tection of domestic industry, but which had been perverted for the 



23 



