Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/185

Rh parties. Threats were used when diplomacy failed, and at length, the disputants reached, but did not pass, the verge of civil war, for, on both sides they seem to have ordered out troops, who, fortunately never actually engaged in combat.

This ill judged act of the viceroy was fatal to his power. Letters and petitions were forthwith despatched to Madrid requiring and begging the removal of a man whose rashness was near producing a civil war. This was a charge not to be disregarded by the king, and, accordingly, we find that a successor to Zuñiga was immediately named, and that the bishop of Tlascala was appointed visitador to examine the conduct of the deposed viceroy.

On the 17th of January, 1590, this prelate, who seems to have been originally inimical to Zuñiga, and who should therefore have disdained the office of his judge, ordered him to depart from Mexico. All the property of the late viceroy,—even the linen of his wife,—was sequestrated; the most harassing annoyances were constantly inflicted upon him; and, after six years, poor and worn down by unceasing trials, he returned to Spain, where the influence of his friends at court procured the restoration of his property.