LA CERDA VICEROY REVOLT IN NEW MEXICO. 213 



had shown not only for the social, artistical and political improve- 

 ment of the nation committed to his charge, but for the honest 

 collection of the royal income, which, in those days, was a matter 

 of no small moment or interest to the Spanish kings. But in 1680, 

 the viceroy's health began to fail, and Charles the Second, who 

 still desired to preserve and secure the invaluable services of so 

 excellent a personage to his country, nominated him bishop of 

 Cuenca, and created him president of the Council of the Indies. 



Don Tomas Antonio Manrique de la Cerda, 

 Marques de la Laguna, 

 XXVIII. Viceroy of New Spain. 



1680—1686. 



The archbishop Rivera, when he left the viceroyal chair handed 

 to his successor in 1680, on the 30th of November, the letter he had 

 just received from the north, imparting the sad news of a general 

 rising of the Indians in New Mexico against the Spaniards. The 

 aborigines of that region, who then amounted to about twenty- 

 five thousand, residing in twenty-four villages, had entered into 

 combination with the wilder tribes thronging the broad plains 

 of the north and the recesses of the neighboring mountains, and 

 had suddenly descended, in great force, upon the unfortunate 

 Spaniards scattered through the country. The secret of the con- 

 spiracy was well kept until the final moment of rupture. The 

 spirit of discontent, and the bond of Indian union were fostered 

 and strengthened, silently, steadily and gradually, throughout a 

 territory of one hundred and twenty-five leagues in extent, without 

 the revelation of the fact to any of the foreigners in the region. 

 Nor did the strangers dream of impending danger until the 10th 

 of August, when, at the same moment, the various villages of In- 

 dians, took arms against the Spaniards, and, slaughtering all who 

 were not under the immediate protection of garrisons, even wreaked 

 their vengeance upon twenty-one Franciscan monks who had la- 

 bored for the improvement of their social condition as well as for 

 their conversion to Christianity. 



Having successfully assaulted all the outposts of this remote 

 government of New Spain, the Indians next directed their arms 

 against the capital, Santa Fe, which was the seat of government 

 and the residence of the wealthiest and most distinguished inhabi- 



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