GUZMAN VICEROY INDIAN INSURRECTION. 203 



Don Luis Enriquez de Guzman, Count de Alvadeliste. 

 XXI. Viceroy of New Spain. 

 1649—1654. 



The Audiencia ruled in New Spain until the 3d of July, 1650, 

 the period of the Conde de Alvadeliste's arrival in the capital. 

 This nobleman had been, in fact, appointed by the king immedi- 

 ately upon the transfer of the Conde de Salvatierra to Peru ; but 

 inasmuch as he could not immediately cross the Atlantic, the 

 bishop of Yucatan had been directed to assume his functions ad 

 interim. Alvadeliste, a man of amiable character and gentle man- 

 ners, soon won the good opinion of the Spanish colonists and 

 Creoles. But if he was to experience but little trouble from his 

 countrymen and their descendants, he was not to escape a vexa- 

 tious outbreak among the northern Indians, who had remained 

 quiet for so long that it was supposed they were finally and suc- 

 cessfully subjected to the Spanish yoke. 



The viceroy had not been long installed when he received news 

 of a rebellion against the Spaniards by the Tarahumares, who in- 

 habited portions of Chihuahua and Sinaloa, and who hitherto 

 yielded implicitly to the gentle and persuasive voice of the evangeli- 

 cal teachers dwelling among them. The portion of this tribe in- 

 habiting Sinaloa, commenced the assault, but the immediate cause 

 of the rebellion is not known. We are not aware whether they 

 experienced a severe local government at the hands of the Span- 

 iards, whether they were tired of the presence of the children of 

 the Peninsula, or whether they feared that the priestly rule was 

 only another means of subjecting them more easily to the crown 

 of Castile. Perhaps all these causes influenced the rebellion. 

 Already in 1648, the chief of the nation had compromised three 

 other tribes in the meditated outbreak ; but, lacking the concerted 

 action of the Tepehuanes and other bands, upon whose aid they 

 confidently counted, they resolved to attack, alone, the village of 

 San Francisco de Borja, whose garrison and village they slaught- 

 ered and burned. San Francisco was the settlement which sup- 

 plied the local missions with provisions, and its loss was conse- 

 quently irreparable to that portion of the country. 



As soon as the chief judge of Parral heard of this sanguinary 

 onslaught he hastily gathered the neighboring farmers, herdsmen, 

 and merchants, and hastened into the wilderness against the in- 

 surgents, who fled when they had destroyed the great depot of 



