Diego de Ibarra , 1582 
107 
and works established, the officials of the real hacienda of your Majesty 
wrote to me, and, in virtue of the new decrees, asked for a mine for your 
Majesty at the stake of the Descubridora, bring¬ 
ing suit against the persons who were in possession 
of it and were working it. By this all the residents 
of the said mines were aggrieved and said that 
great harm would result if the said mine should be 
taken from them and the officials of your Majesty should introduce 
this innovation into the mines of this country, in no part of which has 
such a thing ever been done or even attempted, or if it were done 
it should be at the time when the said discovery was made, and not 
after those who had made it were in possession and taking out the ore. 
As soon as I received the letters that were written to me about this, 
I took them to the Count of Coruña, viceroy of this New Spain, to 
consult with him about this matter and its relation to the interests 
of the real hacienda of your Majesty. He, as a zealous subject in 
the royal service, took it upon himself to give account of it to your 
Majesty, so that you might take the proper measures according to your 
pleasure. In the interim he wrote to the said officials that they should not 
press the affair, so as not to interfere with the working of the said mines, 
and that in all the discoveries that may be made in the future they should 
not send any one in the name of your Majesty to take up a mine at the 
stake of the Descubridora. With this these disturbances will cease, and 
as soon as I arrive, which will be in a very short time, I will try to act in 
everything for the royal service of your Majesty, whose holy Catholic 
royal person may our Lord guard and increase in kingdoms and principali¬ 
ties, as we, the loyal subjects of your Majesty, desire. Mexico, January 
14, 1582. Servant and vassal of your sacred Catholic Royal Majesty, 
whose royal feet and hands I kiss. Diego de Ibarra. 
Let the decree for 
this be brought. 
Diego de Ibarra to his Majesty. Mexico, April 12, 1582. To his Sacred 
Catholic Royal Majesty, the king, our lord, in his royal Council of 
the Indies. 
From Governor Diego de Ibarra, Mexico, April 12, 1582. Opinion 
presented is within. 
Sacred Catholic Royal Majesty: In the last letter that I wrote to your 
Majesty by the second despatch-boat that left this New Spain in January 
of this year, I gave your Majesty a detailed account of all that was then 
happening in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, and as there is nothing new 
I will briefly inform your Majesty in this that in that province there are 
new discoveries every day of silver mines, and, according to many reports, 
there are others besides those that are now being worked. Our Lord will 
be served, for that province is making great progress, in spiritual matters 
as well as in temporal, through the sending of some religious of the Order 
of Saint Francis to take charge of it and preach the Holy Gospel to the 
natives and take particular care for their good treatment and see that no 
