150 



ROYAL AUDIENCE. 



of the kingdom, at the time of the promulgation of the forty- 

 ordinances, for the freedom and kind treatment of the Indians, 

 drawn up by the council appointed to regulate the affairs of 

 America, and confirmed at Barcelona by the Emperor in No- 

 vember, 1542. It therefore became essential to their stri6t ob- 

 servance, to make choice of a man of integrity and good moral 

 condu6t ; which qualities having been found in Blasco Nunez 

 Vela, inspe6lor-general of the guards of Castille, he was ap- 

 pointed viceroy of Peru, and president of the royal audience, 

 in preference to the Marechal of Navarre, and Don An- 

 tonio Leiva, who had been also named for these high em- 

 ployments. 



The judges were appointed at the same time, and the choice 

 fell on the licentiate Zepeda, who had held a similar employ- 

 ment in the Canary Isles ; on Do6lor Lison De Texada, al- 

 caid of the court of Valladolid ; on the licentiate Alvarez, ad- 

 vocate of that court ; and on the licentiate Pedro Ortiz De 

 Zarate, alcaid-major of Segovia. They embarked at San 

 Lucar, with the viceroy, in the month of November, 1543, 

 and reached Panama on the eighteenth of February of the fol- 

 lowing year. 



On the succeeding day, the licentiate Ramirez De Quinones, 

 governor of Terra-Firma, visitor of the audience of Panama, 

 and supreme judge of that of the confines of Guatemala and 

 Nicaragua, ordered the licentiate Martinez, in his quality of 

 chancellor, to deliver to the viceroy the royal seal. With the 

 seal in his possession, the latter reached Lima on the r5th of 

 May, 1544, without being accompanied by the judges, al- 

 though they had been solicited to that efFe6l. 



This delay prevented the public entry of the royal seal from 



being 



