Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/92

72 Vazquez de Tapia, factor; Pedro de Alvarado, alcalde end delegate for Tenochtitlan; Cristobal Corral, regidor and delegate for Segura de la Frontera; Andrés de Monjaraz, alcalde and delegate for Medellin; Soto and Valdenebro, agents for Cortés, and Sandoval.

On the 12th of December Tapia presented before this assembly his credentials and orders, which were received with the customary respect, but he was notified that they would have to be examined and discussed before the nature and manner of the compliance could be determined. Four days later he was informed that petitions had been sent to Spain by the representatives of the country concerning the very governorship claimed by Tapia, and pending the reply, which would settle several other important questions, the interests of the sovereign demanded that the credentials be left in abeyance. This was the more imperative since the documents were not signed by his Majesty, or his secretary, a defect which implied that the Council of the Indies had not acted in accord with their royal master, whom it was their duty as loyal subjects to obey above all. There were besides certain misstatements in the documents which made it evident that they had been issued under false representations. This mode of voiding compliance with royal orders may be regarded as flimsy when it is considered that Cardinal Adrian, who signed them, was the appointed representative of the king of Spain; yet a plausible reason existed in the fact that representations affecting the question at issue had been addressed directly to the king, and this made it undesirable to act on the orders of his agent before the answer came. The present noncompliance was far less flagrant than many other instances of disobedience to royal decrees, so frequent in the Indies, owing to the distance from Spain, and to