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The Audiencia ruled in New Spain until the 3d of July, 1650, the period of the Conde de Alvadeliste's arrival in the capital. This nobleman had been, in fact, appointed by the king immediately upon the transfer of the Conde de Salvatierra to Peru; but inasmuch as he could not immediately cross the Atlantic, the bishop of Yucatan had been directed to assume his functions ad interim. Alvadeliste, a man of amiable character and gentle manners, soon won the good opinion of the Spanish colonists and Creoles. But if he was to experience but little trouble from his countrymen and their descendants, he was not to escape a vexatious outbreak among the northern Indians, who had remained quiet for so long that it was supposed they were finally and successfully subjected to the Spanish yoke.

The viceroy had not been long installed when he received news of a rebellion against the Spaniards by the Tarahumares, who inhabited portions of Chihuahua and Sinaloa, and who hitherto yielded implicitly to the gentle and persuasive voice of the evangelical teachers dwelling among them. The portion of this tribe inhabiting Sinaloa, commenced the assault, but the immediate cause of the rebellion is not known. We are not aware whether they experienced a severe local government at the hands of the Spaniards, whether they were tired of the presence of the children of the Peninsula, or whether they feared that the priestly rule was only another means of subjecting them more easily to the crown of Castile. Perhaps all these causes influenced the rebellion. Already in 1648, the chief of the nation had compromised three other tribes in the meditated outbreak; but, lacking the concerted action of the Tepehuanes and other bands, upon whose aid they confidently counted, they resolved to attack, alone, the village of San Francisco de Borja, whose garrison and village they slaughtered and burned. San Francisco was the settlement which supplied the local missions with provisions, and its loss was consequently irreparable to that portion of the country.

As soon as the chief judge of Parral heard of this sanguinary onslaught he hastily gathered the neighboring farmers, herdsmen, and merchants, and hastened into the wilderness against the insurgents, who fled when they had destroyed the great depot of