Documents the legal manoeuvring at Santa Fe, Mexico City, and Madrid, as sitting governor, former governor, and groups of contending colonists struggle to make themselves heard and advance their interests.

In this, the sixth and final volume of the journals of don Diego de Vargas, Kessell and his colleagues continue their exploration of politics and society in the colonial New Mexico of the turn of the eighteenth century. Despite serious charges of malfeasance brought against him by agents of his political enemy Governor Pedro Rodriguez Cubero, Vargas was acquitted after three years of court hearings and legal manoeuvring in the court in Mexico City. With his acquittal came reappointment to the governor's seat in New Mexico. The journals reveal that maintaining peace in New Mexico during...