vices was easily set aside in the
fickle favour of the monarch. A special commissioner, in the person of
the licentiate Ponce de Leon, was awaiting him, appointed by Carlos V.
to impeach him, as a result of grave charges of maladministration--true
or untrue--which had been brought against him in Spain. In this
connection it is to be recollected that Cortes, faithful to his
country, had twice refused to be made King of Mexico by his own
followers. Cortes, finding his enemies too strong, went to Spain to lay
his case before the Emperor personally, but was denied the civil
governorship of Mexico, although military control was given him, and
the title of Marques del Valle. But although he returned to Mexico, he
was no longer in the dominant position of former years. Cortes returned
to Spain in 1540 from Mexico, once more to lay the plaint of his unjust
treatment before Carlos V., a result of his disputes with the first
viceroy, Mendoza. He was treated with indifference and coldness; his
life terminated in disappointment and regrets, and he died in Spain in
December, 1547. So pass the actors in the drama of the Conquest. As to
Guatemoc, his memory is perpetuated in the handsome statue in the
_paseo de Colon_ of modern Mexico, whilst--strange sentiment of the
race which Cortes founded--no monument to the bold Conquistador exists
throughout the land.

From the time of the fall of the fortunes of Cortes in 1535 to the
first cry for independence by Hidalgo in 1810, New Spain was
administered by viceroys and _Audiencias_--the latter being a species
of administrative councils consisting of a president and four members,
nominated by royal decree. The first viceroy, Mendoza, and many of the
subsequent officials of this rank governed Mexico for a period, and
were transferred thence to the viceregency of Peru, which latter
country had been brought into Spain's colonial possessions by the
conquest under Pizarro, in 1532. Indeed, Pizarro a short time after
that date had made his second entry into Cuzco, the Inca capital of
Peru, wearing an ermine robe which Cortes had sent him. During
Mendoza's period, printing was first introduced into Mexico--or,
indeed, into the New World--the Mint and the University were founded,
and exploration of the northern part of the country was undertaken. The
rule of the first viceroy, Mendoza, was good; he was upright and
capable, and his methods were in marked contrast to the excesses and
cruelties practi