Instructions for the "Audiencia." 175 Tlascala and its land, and Acapulco with all the B. XIV. seaports. From the royal orders it appears (as far as can be ascertained from their obscure wording) as if there were some difference in the nature of the encomiendas in the King's districts, and those made over to private persons. This, if so, was a great advantage, for slavery or servitude of any kind is much more difficult to deal with when all the servient persons are of one class, and subjected to one mode of rule. The slaves themselves are not only more difficult to deal with, but less is learnt of the mode of dealing with them, when there are no differences in their condition-when they remain, as it were, one solid, inert, hopeless mass of difficulty. Ch. 4. Thus much for the subject of encomiendas, as it was dealt with in these instructions. With regard to other points of Indian administration, the royal orders contain much that was humane and considerate,-for the discharge of the royal conscience really seems in those days to have been a great concern. It was ordered that no Indian Protection should carry any burdens against his will, whether Indians he was paid for it or not, with the single exception their encoof the tribute, or produce representing tribute, menderos. which they had to pay their encomenderos; and this, even, they were not bound to carry, if the encomenderos lived more than twenty leagues off.* * " Mandó, que no se diese lugar para que ningun Castellano cargase los Indios, para llevar Mantenimientos, de un Lugar á otro ni por ningun camino, ni en for the against 1528. 176 Instructions for the "Audiencia.” B. XIV. Moreover, no encomendero was to compel the Ch. 4. Indians to build any house for him but his own. Indians not to be removed from their districts. If he sold his own house, he must build another at his own charge. During seedtime the Indians were not to be employed by their masters; and when they were sent to the mines they were to be provided with clergy there. This last order, if it had been generally acted up to, would have been a great protection. Another important order given for the benefit of the Indians was, that they should not, even when they were slaves, be removed from their own districts. With regard to slaves, the orders quoted before, that the proof of slavery should rest with the master, and that the branding-iron should be in official custody, are found in these instructions. To men practised in government, as Charles the Fifth and his ministers were, the old difficulty (quis custodiet ipsos custodes ?) naturally occurred. It was very well to make all these wise laws for the Indians; but who was to see that Protectors they would be obeyed? To meet this difficulty, appointed. a plan for the protection of the Indians was pre llevase con Bestias, como qui- pasando de veinte Leguas de su siesen; pues iá, por la gracia de Pueblo; í que si les mandasen Dios (con la industria de los que se los llevasen á las Minas, Castellanos) havia en aquella ó á otras partes, adonde no resiTierra abundancia de ellas: diese el Encomendero, no se aunque se permitia, que los hiciese sin voluntad de los InIndios, que al presente estaban dios, pagandoselo primeramente, encomendados, el tributo, í ser- í no pasando esto de las veinte vicio, que eran obligados de dar, Leguas."-HERRERA, Hist. de lo pudiesen llevar hasta el las Indias, dec. 4, lib. 4, Lugar, adonde las Personas de cap. 3. los Encomenderos residian, no Instructions for the "Audiencia." 177 pared, as early, apparently, as the date of the first B. XIV. draught of the instructions for the Audiencia. Ch. 4. The plan was similar to that which had been adopted in 1516 by the great Cardinal Ximenes. The office formerly held by Las Casas was renewed, and Protectors were appointed for the Indians, who were "charged and commanded to have much care to visit and inspect the said Indians, and to cause that they should be welltreated and taught in secular things (for so we may render the word endustriados), and instructed in the Articles of the Holy Catholic Faith, by the persons who have charge of them in encomienda."* "Por la presente vos mandamos cometemos y encargamos y mandamos, que tengais mucho cuydado de mirar y visitar los dichos Indios y hazer que sean bien tratados y endustriados y enseñados en las cosas de nues. VOL. III. N CHAPTER V. B. XIV. Ch. 5. First Audiencia Dec. 1528. ARRIVAL OF THE AUDIENCIA GREAT DISPUTES BETWEEN THE PROTECTORS OF THE INDIANS A GREAT JUNTA IN SPAIN ON THE SUBJECT OF THE INDIES. TH 'HE officers constituting the Audiencia having received their instructions, set sail from Seville for New Spain at the end of August, 1528, and arrived at Vera Cruz on the 6th of December of arrives in that year. From thence they sent to summon New Spain. Nuño de Guzman, who was to be their President; but, without waiting for him, having the Emperor's command to that effect, they made their entrance into the city of Mexico. The climate of this place seems to have constantly had all the bad effects which ill-doers could have wished for upon the unhappy official men and lawyers who were sent thither from the mother country. Two of the Auditors, the Licenciates Parada and Francisco Maldonado, fell ill, and died within thirteen days after their arrival. This circumstance would tend to diminish the suspicions, if any still existed, of Cortes having been concerned in the opportune death of Ponce de Leon. The other Residencia Auditors commenced taking the residencia amidst a perfect hubbub of complaints, demands, and of Cortes. Nuño de Guzman's appointment. 179 Ch. 5. law-suits, principally directed against the absent B. XIV. Cortes, who was more happily engaged than in replying to them, by solemnizing his marriage with Juana de Zuñiga, daughter of the Count of Aguilar, and niece of the Duke of Bejar. The appointment of Nuño de Guzman was a most deplorable one. He appears to have had nothing about him of the nature of a statesman, but to have been a cruel, rapacious, inconsiderate man, whose career is strikingly similar to that of some of the captains who, under Pedrarias, had desolated the Terra-Firma. This bad appointment was probably caused by the desire of the Government in Spain to have a military man, of some repute in the Indies, to supply the place of Cortes, the fear of that great Conqueror being the ruling motive which had given rise to the appointment of the Audiencia. When Nuño de Guzman came to join his colleagues in Mexico, though some care was taken in the general affairs of Government, yet the Auditors were accused of attending more to their private interests than to their public duties, and of being wholly neglectful of those royal orders, upon which so much stress had been laid, touching the liberty and good treatment of the Indians. Thence grew Great vehement disputes between the Auditors and dispute the Protectors of the Indians,-not only the the Proofficial Protectors, but the Franciscan Monks in the Indians the city of Mexico, who demanded the execution new of these royal orders, saying, that otherwise the royal conscience would not be discharged. Nuño de Guzman and his Auditors, in the usual way of between tectors of and the Audiencia. |