As Guzman refused to appear before the auditors, all they could do for the present was to forward his majesty an account of the state of affairs in New Spain; for they feared, by employing open force, to create insurrection throughout the country. The council of the Indies, on receiving this information, despatched to Mexico the licentiate de la Torre, with orders to repair in person to the province of Xalisco, there to institute an inquiry against Guzman, and to take him prisoner to Mexico. This licentiate was also commissioned to see that Guzman repaid us the money he had obliged us to pay to the wife of Narvaez, as an indemnification for the losses the latter sustained in our expedition against him.
The auditors in the meantime continued their investigations, and first of all ordered the possessions of Delgadillo and of Matienzo sold, to pay the demands which were made against them; and as the moneys arising from the sale of their property was not sufficient to satisfy these, they were to be imprisoned. In like manner they served Berrio, the brother of Delgadillo, who, in his capacity of alcalde-mayor of Guaxaca, had thought proper to exercise every species of oppression. The whole of his property was sold, and he himself thrown into prison, where he died some time after. Another of Delgadillo's relatives, alcalde-mayor of the country of the Zatopecs, shared a similar fate.
The new auditors were altogether strictly honest and just in their proceedings; they were, indeed, men whose only aim was to serve God, and to watch the true interests of the crown. They were unwearied in their labours to promote the happiness of the Indian population, made the best regulations for their being instructed in the doctrine of our holy faith, and abolished all further marking of slaves.
As two of the auditors, Salmeron and Cainos, were far advanced in age, they begged permission of his majesty, after a stay of four years in Mexico, to return to Spain, there to spend the large fortunes which they