Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/552

532 Council, the other being Peru, embraced five of the twelve audiencias, namely, Santo Domingo, Mexico, Guatemala, Guadalajara, and Manila, besides the captain-generalcy of Florida, extending from the southern border of Costa Rica into the undefined north, till treaties of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave boundaries along Louisiana and beyond California. The viceroy of Mexico had however a merely nominal authority over any but the audiencia districts of Mexico and Guadalajara, which extended from Guatemala, Chiapas, and the bay of Honduras to the south line of the Florida department, and beyond California, a region forming New Spain proper. In 1786 this state embraced ten gubernatorial divisions which were now converted into twelve intendencias and three provincias, with two hundred and forty-two alcaldías mayores or partidos. Two military divisions also existed, those subject to the viceroy as captain-general, and those under the comandante general of the Provincias Internas.

Originally New Spain was under control of a governor, as we have seen, who held also the offices of chief justice and captain-general, with power to appoint lieutenants and other high officers, to grant repartimientos, to exile obnoxious persons, and to