In January, 1728, Governor Benavides stepped in to ask suspension of Chicano’s investigation. The governor believed that trouble would result from a probe. A smallpox epidemic had swept through Saint Augustine late in 1727, leaving 300 dead in its wake. The coming of a royal investigator prying into an old legal matter, stated the governor, would only retard the rehabilitation of this colony and create more unrest. Candidly Benavides admitted drawing up the case against both Ayala and Pedroso without proper substantiation of the evidence. He hoped, however, that the years had dispelled the king’s anger at his indiscriminate action. After all, when he charged Ayala and Pedroso in 1718, he was new in the governorship and unacquainted with established judicial practices. Pedroso, stated the repentant Benavides, should be restored to his post as treasurer immediately. He had already suffered a great deal in his eight (really ten)-year exile in Cuba. [Note: gov to king 1/23/1728] Benavides’ self-effacement did not at first move the Council of the Indies. The governor had admittedly accused Ayala and Pedroso without sufficient proof. Ayala had died with the charges still hanging over him. Pedroso had already endured a humiliating ten-year banishment. Unmoved by the governor’s request for suspension of Chicano’s investigation, a fiscal for the Council advised that the Cuban auditor go to Florida immediately. Benavides’ contrite plea, he stated, was not warranted. [Note: fiscal 12/19/1728] A year-and-a-half later the Council concurred with the fiscal and for the fourth time ordered Chicano to go to Saint Augustine. [Note: Consejo 6/16/1730] A month later, however, for no apparent reason, the Council reversed itself and canceled the probe once and for all. On March 2, 1731... (Tepaske GSF)