Note VI-7 — Chapter VI · THE GOVERNMENTS OF NUEVA ANDALUCÍA AND CASTILLA DEL ORO. 1506-1510.

The word alcalde is from the Arabic al cadi, the judge or governor. Alcalde ordinario used formerly to designate the officer having the immediate superintendency of a town or city, with cognizance of judicial matters except those of persons enjoying some privilege (fuero). Alcalde mayor signifies a judge, learned in the law, who exercises ordinary jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in a town or district. The office is equivalent to that of district judge in the United States, the audiencia standing for the supreme court. There were, however, in the early years, alcaldes mayores who were not law judges, or men learned in the law; they governed for the king a town or city not the capital of a province.

Corregidor, a magistrate having civil and criminal jurisdiction in the first instance (nisi prius) and gubernatorial inspection in the political and economical government in all the towns of the district assigned to him. There were corregidores letrados (learned in the law), políticos (political), de capa y espada (cloak and sword), and políticos y militares (holding civil and military authority). All had equal jurisdiction. When the corregidor or mayor was not by profession a lawyer, unless he had an asesor of his own, the alcalde mayor, if possessed of legal knowledge, became his adviser, which greatly increased the importance of the latter. The alcalde mayor was appointed by the king. He must be by profession a lawyer, twenty-six years of age, and of good character. He could neither be a native of the district in which he was to exercise his functions, nor could he marry a wife in his district. Recop. de Indias, ii. 113-27 and note. So much for the law. Practically in cases of this kind, where the governor was not learned in the law, civil, criminal, and some phases even of military authority devolved on the alcalde mayor, the two first ex officio, and the last as the legal adviser of the military chief. In new colonies this officer was invested with powers almost equal to those of the governor, though of a different kind.