DE CORDOVA VICEROY INDIAN REVOLT. 



185 



in Spain, until he was nominated to the Archepiscopal See of 

 Mexico. His government was brief and altogether eventless. He 

 became viceroy on the 17th of June, 1611, and died on the 22d of 

 February in the following year, of a wound he received in falling 

 as he descended from his coach. 



Don Diego Fernandez de Cordova, 

 Marques de Guadalcazar. 

 XIII. Viceroy of New Spain. 



1612 — 1621. 



Upon the death of the last viceroy, the Audiencia, of course, 

 took possession of the government during the interregnum ; — and, 

 as it seems that this body of men was always doomed to celebrate 

 its authority by acts of folly or cruelty, we find that soon after 

 its accession to power the city was alarmed by the news of another 

 outbreak among the negroes. The people were panic struck. A 

 terrible noise had been heard in the streets of the metropolis during 

 the night, and, although it was proved that the disturbance was 

 entirely caused by the entrance, during the darkness, of a large 

 drove of hogs, the Audiencia determined, nevertheless, to ap- 

 pease public opinion by the execution of twenty-nine male negroes 

 and four negro women ! Their withered and fetid bodies were 

 left to hang on the gallows, tainting the air and shocking the eyes 

 of every passer, until the neighborhood could no longer bear the 

 sickly stench and imperiously demanded their removal. 



The Marques de Guadalcazar took possession of the viceroyalty 

 on the 28th of October, 1612, and his government passed in quiet 

 engaged in the mere ordinary discharge of executive duties during 

 the first four years, subsequent to which an Indian insurrection of 

 a formidable character broke out in one of the departments, under a 

 chief who styled himself " Son of the Sun and God of Heaven and 

 Earth. " This assault was fatal to every Spaniard within reach of 

 the infuriate natives, who broke into the churches, murdered the 

 whites seeking sanctuary at their altars, and spared not even the 

 ecclesiastics, who, in all times, have so zealously proved them- 

 selves to be the defenders of their race. Don Gaspar Alvear, Gov- 

 ernor of Durango, assembled a large force as soon as the viceroy 

 informed him of the insurrection, and marched against the savages. 

 After three months of fighting, executions and diplomacy, this func- 



