l life Councillors, enough largely to outnumber the
partisans of Guzman. He also took the very important step of authorizing
each municipality to elect from among its Councillors a Procurator, or
public advocate, corresponding in some respects to a Tribune of the
ancient Roman Republic.

These procurators soon found their chief occupation in resisting and
protesting against those acts of the Councils which they deemed inimical
to the public welfare. The procurators of all the municipalities met
together, to compare notes and to take counsel together for the common
good, and there was an increasing inclination among them to oppose what
they regarded as the growing tyranny of the Councils. At such a meeting
of all the procurators, in March, 1528, Manuel de Rojas, procurator for
Bayamo, took the sensational action of presenting a formal popular
protest against what was described as the arrogance and oligarchical
tendencies of the Councils. This provoked an impassioned reply from Juan
de Quexo, the procurator for Havana, who denied the statements and
insinuations of the document and opposed its reception by the meeting.
But after an acrimonious controversy, Rojas won the day. The protest was
received, adopted by the convention, and forwarded to the King of Spain.
Together with it the procurators forwarded to the King some radical
recommendations for the improvement of the insular government. These
were, that the Governor should always be selected from among the bona
fide residents of the island and should be appointed for a term of three
years; that the life tenure of Councillors should be abolished; and that
all councillors, alcaldes and procurators should be elected yearly by
the people.

These suggestions were not in their entirety received favorably by the
King. He refused outright to adopt those relating to the selection and
appointment of governors, and to the abolition of life councillorships.
He did, however, order that the procurators should be elected yearly by
the people, and he greatly enlarged the functions and powers of that
office. A new system of choosing alcaldes was also decreed. Instead of
their being elected yearly by the Councils, it was ordered that the
Council presided over by the alcalde should nominate two candidates,
that the Council members without the alcalde should nominate two more,
and that the Governor should name one; and that from among these five a
first and second alcalde should be chose