Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/182

154 And because thou art not lettered, thou shalt not have any vote in the halls of justice. It is likewise accompanied by the testimony given by Nicholas Grado, public scriviner, by which it appears that, on the 26th of April 1558, the royal seal was received at Lima with every solemnity. It had been brought to Callao on the preceding day by the licentiate Saavedra, and was accompanied by the new viceroy, Don Andres Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Canete. The canopy was supported by the judges Bravo Saravia, Mercado de Penaloza, and Gonzalo de Cuenca; and the horse was led by the corregidor Sebastian Chirinos, attended by the alcaids Rodrigo Nino, and Vasco de Guevara. In this manner the procession reached the royal palace, where the seal was put into the hands of the secretary, Juan Munoz, to be delivered by him to the chancellor.

There cannot be any doubt but that this public entry was that of the royal seal transmitted to the audience of Lima by Philip II. when, by the abdication of his august father, in 1556, he entered on the government of the kingdoms of Spain and the Indies.

The above monarch, in the instructions which he gave to Don Francisco Toledo, who was received in this capital on the 26th of November 1569, apprized him of the establishment of a royal court, annexed to the audience, for the trial of criminal causes. In 1626, Philip IV. created the two posts of fiscals, which are now filled (in 1791) by the licentiates Torijos and Enciso. He, at the same time, augmented the number of judges to eight.

On the absence of the president Gasca, in 1550, the royal audience took on itself the government of the whole kingdom, as