Introduction 
15 
alike contributing factors in the northern advance. In 1548, instead of 
filling the governorship left vacant by the resignation of Coronado three 
years earlier, the king established a provincial audiencia for Nueva 
Galicia. 7 To this body, composed of four alcaldes mayores , was entrusted 
both the political and the judicial administration of the province. 8 About 
the same time the limits of its jurisdiction were widely extended. 9 In 
1550 Guadalajara became the seat of the audiencia and at the same time 
of the new diocese of Nueva Galicia. 10 
After 1548 the expansion to the north was rapid. In that year rich 
mines were discovered in Zacatecas and shortly afterward the town of 
Nuestra Señora de Zacatecas was founded. 11 Prompted by a desire to get 
control of other mining regions and at the same time to extend its juris¬ 
diction, the Audiencia of Nueva Galicia now planned the conquest of the 
districts north of Zacatecas. In attempting to execute these plans the 
agents of the audiencia, besides encountering Indian resistance, came into 
conflict with Francisco de Ibarra, member of a wealthy family who had 
discovered as early as 1554 the new mines of San Lucas, Sombrerete, 
Nieves, and others, and at personal expense had made the district safe 
for settlers. In 1558, however, Martín Pérez took forcible possession of 
this region for the audiencia and shortly afterward an alcaldía mayor, 
under the jurisdiction of Nueva Galicia, was established there. 12 
With the consent of the viceroy and aided by his uncle, Diego de Ibarra, 
a wealthy mine operator of Nueva Galicia, and son-in-law of the viceroy, 
who furnished him over two hundred thousand ducats, 13 Francisco de 
Ibarra continued his personal operations on a large scale, and as a result, 
other rich mining areas were opened up. In 1562 an important step was 
taken when the entire region north of the new mining settlements in 
Zacatecas was detached from Nueva Galicia and the new political juris¬ 
diction of Nueva Vizcaya, comprising modern Durango, Chihuahua, 
Coahuila, Sinaloa, and Sonora, and parts of Zacatecas, San Luís Potosí, 
and Nuevo León, was established by the viceroy. Ibarra was appointed 
governor and captain-general and at once began the task of occupying 
the province. His first efforts were devoted to the central plateau re¬ 
gion, where, in 1563, the villa of Nombre de Dios and that of Durango, 
the provincial capital, were established, and the mines of Santa 
7 This audiencia was designated in royal orders of the time as “ la audiencia real de 
la provincia de la nueva Galizia ”. Vasco de Puga, Provisiones, Cédulas, Instrucciones 
de su Mag estad . . . para la Administración y Governación de esta Nueva España . . . 
desde el Año 1525 hasta . . . 1563, I. (Mexico, 1563), ff. 161, 180. 
8 Juan López de Velasco, Geografía y Descripción Universal de las Indias . . . 
desde el año de 1571 al de 1574 (Madrid, 1894), p. 261; Bancroft, History of Mexico, 
II. 547 - 
9 López de Velasco, op. cit., pp. 182-183, 275. 
10 Bolton and Marshall, op. cit., p. 55. 
11 Bancroft, History of Mexico, II. 554 - 555 - 
12 Bancroft, History of Mexico, II. 595-5971 Bancroft, North Mexican States and 
Texas, I. 97-100; Bolton and Marshall, op. cit., pp. 55-56. 
18 Diego de Ibarra to the Secretary, Juan de Ledesma, Mexico, Nov. 10, 1582, in this 
volume, p. 115; Bancroft, North Mexican States, I. hi. 
