196 INQUISITORIAL EXAMINATION. ACAPULCO TAKEN. 



But it may be regarded as one of the characteristic features of the 

 age, and as demonstrative of the peculiar temper of the king that 

 an Inquisitor was selected upon thi's occasion for so delicate and 

 dangerous a duty. It is true that the church, through the late arch- 

 bishop, was concerned in this painful affair ; but it little accords 

 with the ideas of our age to believe it necessary that a subject of 

 such public concern as the insurrection against an unjust and 

 odious viceroy should be confined to the walls of an inquisition or 

 conducted by one of its leading functionaries alone. Had the in- 

 vestigation been intrusted exclusively to a civil and not an ecclesi- 

 astical judge, it is very questionable whether he should have been 

 sent from Spain for this purpose alone. Being a foreigner, at least 

 so far as the colony was concerned, he could have scarcely any 

 knowledge of or sympathy with the colonists. Extreme impar- 

 tiality may have been ensured by this fact ; yet as the Visitador or 

 Inquisitor departed, as soon as his special function ceased, he was 

 never responsible for his decrees to that wholesome public opinion 

 which visits the conduct of a judge with praise or condemnation 

 during his life time when he permanently resides in a country, and, 

 is always the safest guardian of the liberty of the citizen. 



It seems, however, that the Inquisitor administered his office 

 fairly and even leniently in this case, for his judgments fell chiefly 

 on the thieves who stole the personal effects of the viceroy during 

 the sacking of the palace. The principal movers in the insurrec- 

 tion had absented themselves from the capital, and prudently re- 

 mained in concealment until the Visitador terminated his examina- 

 tions, inflicted his punishments upon the culprits he convicted, and 

 crossed the sea to report his proceedings at court. 



Carillo had been accompanied to New Spain by a new viceroy, 

 Don Roderigo Pacheco Osorio, Marques of Cerralvo, who arrived 

 in the capital on the 3d of November, 1624, and assumed the 

 government. He left the examination of the insurrection entirely 

 in the hands of the Inquisitor and directed his attention to the 

 public affairs of the colony. These he found peaceful, except that 

 a Dutch squadron, under the command of the prince of Nassau 

 attacked Acapulco, and the feeble city and garrison readily sur- 

 rendered without resistance. The fleet held the city, however, 

 only for a few days, and set sail for other enterprises. This 

 assault upon an important port alarmed the viceroy, who, at once, 

 sent orders to have the town immediately surrounded with a wall, 

 and suitable forts and bastions erected which would guard it in all 



