Diego de Madrid AvendañOj 1618 
71 
The fiscal of his Majesty declares that if your Highness please this evi¬ 
dence may be received by the licentiate Espinosa de la Plaza. 
In the City of Mexico, the twelfth day of the month of February, 
1609 [1619]. . . . The señor president and señores oidores of the royal 
Audiencia of New Spain, being in regular session and having examined the 
petition made by Don Juan de Porras y Ulloa that evidence should be 
received concerning his character, merits, and services, so that his Majesty 
may reward him, and the reply of the fiscal of his Majesty of the said 
royal Audiencia, ordered that the evidence offered be received, and that 
his Excellency the viceroy of this New Spain name one of the señores 
oidores before whom it should be done, and his Excellency named the 
señor licentiate Pedro Juárez de Longorio, oidor of this royal Audiencia. 
Very powerful sir: I, Don Juan de Porras y Ulloa, in the list of merits 
which I have petitioned for, I ask and pray that your Highness order that 
besides the questions that I have already presented, the witnesses be ex¬ 
amined for tiiis. . . . 
I. Whether they know that the said Don Juan de Porras y Ulloa was 
alcalde mayor of the mines of Sichú and El Palmar de Vega and captain 
of their frontiers of hostile Chichimecos Indians, by order of this royal 
Audiencia, during which governorship he served his Majesty also in 
preserving the sites and camps of the said mines and miners, which because 
of their great privations, they wished to desert and abandon. In order 
that they should not abandon them, the said Don Juan de Porras y Ulloa 
assisted them out of his fortune, opening at his own expense the mine 
Descubridora. With this he quieted the said miners and the said towns 
were preserved, which has been and is of very great importance to the 
service of his Majesty, for the presidios are the most important of this 
New Spain for the defense and support of the war with the Chichimecos. 
Also it has redounded and does redound to the increase of the royal 
fortune, because of the silver which is taken from the said mines. . . . 
II. . . . That by his good judgment, management, and diligence the 
said Don Juan de Porras y Ulloa pacified the hostile Chichimecos Indians 
of the said frontiers in such a manner that many of them humbled them¬ 
selves for peace and brought their children to be baptized. Some of them 
were baptized, but not many, because they took them back again to their 
villages. Let them make their statements, etc., and let them refer to the 
account that was taken from the said Don Juan de Porras y Ulloa. 
III. Item: Whether they know that in the year 1614, in conformity 
with a,royal decree, the father Fray Juan Bautista de Molinedo, of the 
Order of the glorious Saint Francis, was named as commissary of the 
conversion of the Mascorros and Guachichiles 43 Indians; and that he, by 
commission of the most excellent señor, Marqués de Guadalcázar, went to 
explore and visit all the country of the said Guachichiles and Mascorros 
Indians and the rest of the nations, and, returning to give account of what 
he had done, brought in his company four captains of the Mascorros— 
the most amenable and obedient of all the said nations—named Don Juan, 
Don Bartolomé, Don Pedro, and Don Joseph. They, because of their 
