SARMIENTO VALLADARES, Jose, Count de Montezuma, viceroy of Mexico, born in Spain about 1650; died there in 1717. Through his wife, a descendant of the Emperor Montezuma II., he inherited the title of Count de Montezuma and Tula, and in 1696 was appointed viceroy of Mexico, receiving the executive on 18 December from the provisional viceroy, Juan de Ortega Montafies. During his administration the Jesuit Salvatierra set out on the first successful expedition to Lower California in 1697, and during the same year he quelled a riot that was caused by scarcity of corn.In 1697 he also sent an unsuccessful expedition to expel the Danish from St. Thomas. When King Charles II. died in 1700, appointing the grandson of Louis XIV. his heir, the Count of Montezuma, who did not favor the house of Bourbon, solicited his recall, and, as the new king, philip V., feared Sarmiento's partiality for the Austrian succession, the latter was ordered to deliver the executive again to Bishop Ortega, which he did on 4 November, 1701. On 25 November, 1704, Sarmiento was created Duke of Atlixco and grandee of Spain.