Velasco was now well stricken in years and required repose. His master, appreciating his faithful services and his unquestionable loyalty, added to his already well earned titles that of Marques of Salinas, and creating him president of the Council of the Indies recalled him to Spain where he could pass in quiet the evening of his days, whilst he was also enabled to impart the results of his vast American experience to the king and court.
Fray Garcia Guerra, Archbishop of Mexico, XII. Viceroy of New Spain. 1611–1612.
Velasco, as an especial mark of royal favor, was desired to retain his power as viceroy until the moment of embarkation for Spain, and then to depose it in favor of the monk Garcia Guerra, who had been the worthy prior of a Dominican convent at Burgos
in Spain, until he was nominated to the Archepiscopal See of Mexico. His government was brief and altogether eventless. He became viceroy on the 17th of June, 1611, and died on the 22d of February in the following year, of a wound he received in falling as he descended from his coach.
Don Diego Fernandez de Cordova, Marques de Guadalcazar, XIII. Viceroy of New Spain. 1612–1621.
Upon the death of the last viceroy, the Audiencia, of course, took possession of the government during the interregnum;—and, as it seems that this body of men was always doomed to celebrate its authority by acts of folly or cruelty, we find that soon after its accession to power the city was alarmed by the news of another outbreak among the negroes. The people were panic struck. A terrible noise had been heard in the streets of the metropolis during the night, and, although it was proved that the disturbance was entirely caused by the entrance, during the darkness, of a large drove of hogs, the Audiencia determined,