Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/44

24 slaughter, which had been mistaken for a negro advance.

This play upon the feelings of people and audiencia could not be allowed to pass unavenged, and thirty-three unfortunate blacks were convicted on doubtful evidence and hanged. As during a previous interregnum, the government sought to cover its weakness under a mask of cruelty. A measure against outbreaks on the part of negroes was attempted by means of a decree ordering free persons of their race, including mestizos, who possessed no trade, to enter the service of known masters and take up their abode with them.

The audiencia's rule terminated with the entry into Mexico, on October 28, 1612, of the thirteenth viceroy, Diego Fernandez de Córdoba, marqués de Guadalcázar, and his consort Maria Rieder. His rule proved exceedingly quiet, though at one time a cloud appeared in the form of a freebooter. The Dutch had for some time struggled for a foothold in the Moluccas, and to promote this effort their East India Company in 1614 despatched a well-equipped fleet of six vessels, under Joris Spilbergen, with instructions to do what damage he could to Spanish shipping and interests on his way, notably to the fleet between Manila and Acapulco. He left Texel in August, touched at the Brazilian coast, passed through Magellan Strait in April 1615, and began a series of petty and cautious raids on the