Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/320

300 court, and of taking the place of honor on occasions of state, but had no vote in judicial matters.

In Nueva Galicia there were in the middle of the eighteenth century thirty-two districts under corregidores and alcaldes mayores, although a century earlier, according to Calle's list, they numbered forty-one. There were three cities, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, and Compostela; eight towns, Lagos, Aguas Calientes, Jerez, Fresnillo, Purificacion, Villagutierre de Águila or Villanueva, Sombrerete, and San José de Montezuma, near Tepatitlan; and twenty-one reales de minas, or mining towns. So-called pueblos and other small settlements scattered over the territory numbered upward of two hundred. The officers who ruled the large towns with their districts annexed, known as alcaldías or corregimientos, were with few exceptions appointed by the president of the audiencia, and received salaries. Under these officials in each city and town were one or more ordinary alcaldes, an alguacil mayor, four regidores, and a notary, forming virtually an ayuntamiento, though not often called by that name. There seem to have been no salaries attached to these minor positions, and that of alguacil, or constable, was nearly always sold at auction, at different times and places. Ordinarily alcaldes in some, and perhaps all the towns, were elected yearly, requiring, in the larger places at least, confirmation by the president.

Guadalajara, the capital of Nueva Galicia, the cathedral city, the seat of the audiencia, and the place where the royal treasury was kept, swarmed with