Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/552

532 were called to account, and their residencias and that of the viceroy were published with great ostentation in 1545. The earlier writers make light of this affair, assuming it to have been a mere matter of form to call to account a man of Mendoza's character, who, it was universally acknowledged, had discharged his duties faithfully. It appears, indeed, that no charges were sustained against him, and he continued in the undisturbed possession of his office. There may have been some truth in the remarks of Cortés, that he kept the Spaniards in such subjection and fear that they dared not report the abuses he committed.

Nevertheless, the fact of his having taken and caused to be branded over five thousand slaves during the Mixton war, and his allowing the most cruel punishments and mutilations to be inflicted, does not speak much in favor of the humane feelings with which he is accredited by most writers, however necessary he may have thought such action to be for the pacification of the country.

The purifying presence in New Spain of the visitador, the licenciado Tello de Sandoval, was undoubtedly