Royal Order in favor of Tuzulutlan.

341

of Tuzulutlan. This was a precaution adopted by Las Casas, who well knew that the provincial governors, though they kissed the royal orders very dutifully, and were wont to put them, after the Eastern fashion, upon their heads, with every demonstration of respect, were extremely dexterous in disobeying them, on the pretext that his majesty had been misinformed, or had been informed in a left-hand manner (siniestramente). Las Casas, therefore, was anxious to give all possible publicity to this royal order in Spain, where its validity could not be denied.

CHAPTER VIII.

DISCOVERY TO THE NORTH OF MEXICO.-DEATH OF ALVARADO.-EARTHQUAKE AT GUATEMALA.— GUATEMALA GOVERNED BY AN AUDIENCIA.

THE HE history of Guatemala is not so poor and infertile as to be included in the account of the proceedings of the monks of its only monastery, deeply interesting as those proceedings are. The conversion of the natives of Tuzulutlan did not probably excite much attention among the inhabitants of Santiago after their first astonishment at the successful beginning of that conversion, and when their mocking laughter was no longer applicable. Not that we must imagine them to have been silenced. A prophet of ill, having all time before him, and most human affairs admitting of frequent reverses, holds a secure position; and, when controverted by facts as to the present time, has only, with an air of increased wisdom corresponding with the increased distance of his foresight, to prophesy larger evils at more advanced periods. In the present instance, however, the men who had laughed at or prophesied against Las Casas had enough to occupy their attention in their own affairs, for the infant colony at Guatemala had been any thing but flourishing. The town of Santiago was torn by those small yet vexatious disputes which infest a colony, and these colonies in America labored under the additional difficulty arising from their inhabitants being, for the most part, a community of conquerors. Every private soldier

ance.

Discontent in Alvarado's "Encomiendas." 343

had become a person of some importance; and, contemplating the great achievements that he had taken part in, each one, it is said, thought that he alone had gained New Spain for the Emperor.* Thus, magnifying his own merits and diminishing those of others, every Spanish colonist was a man who had a grievThis spirit of discontent might have been controlled, and frequently was so, by a wise and just governor; but in this colony of Guatemala, the governor, Pedro de Alvarado, had acted with so little care in giving encomiendas,† that even he himself confessed, on the occasion of some petition on the subject being presented to the town council, that "he had been deceived, and had erred much, when he had divided the lands among his people, on which account he admitted that many persons had a just grievance to complain of."

Then the artisans in such a colony were a most difficult body to deal with, as from artisans they had been developed with more than tropical rapidity of growth into aristocrats. Moreover, where wealth had been so suddenly and largely acquired, gaming, a favorite vice among the Spaniards, was sure to flourish largely. In such a community almost every thing was fluent, nothing consolidated. The following fact strikingly exemplifies this want of fixity. Men who have been habituated to power, or even who have once enjoyed it, seldom like any other but an official life; but in Guatemala regidores were seen to lay down their of

* "Cada uno entendia que él solo ganó al Rey la Nueva España." -REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. iv., cap. 4.

+ "Que á él le constava ser assí lo que la peticion dezia, y que él se avia engañado y errado mucho quando repartió la tierra, por lo qual justamente muchos estavan agraviados."-REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. iv., cap. 4.

344

Sufferings of the Indians.

fices that they might be free to go where they listed. The governor himself afforded an example of restless enterprise, which no doubt was readily followed.

The Indians suffered much from every thing which tended to make the colony an ill-ordered state, and they seem to have had a particular dread of Alvarado's cruelty. They were known to have fled in large numbers on the rumor of his coming back from any of his numerous journeys, when they doubtless feared that they would be seized upon for ship-building, in which kind of work they suffered greatly. Las Casas says that Alvarado, when he was accompanied by large bodies of Indian troops, permitted cannibalism in his camp, an accusation which has hardly been brought against any other commander. The Bishop of Guatemala, an intimate and affectionate friend of Alvarado's (who, with all his careless atrocity, seems to have had something about him which attached men), informs the Emperor, in a letter bearing date the 20th of January, 1539, that now was not the time for the Indians to pay any such things as tithes, for what they gave their masters was as much as they could pay. "They are most poor," he says, "having only a little maize, a grinding-stone, a pot to boil in, a hammock, and a little hut of straw, with four posts, which every day is burnt down. They need not one protector only, but a thousand, and generally we are at feud with the gov

ernors.

amos.

* "No es tiempo que diezmen (los Indios), í basta lo que dan á sus Son probrísimos, í solo tienen un poco de Mahiz, una piedra para moler, una olla para cocer, í un petate en que dormir, í una casilla de paja de 4 palos que cada dia se les quema. Necesitan no un protetor sino mil, í generalmente tenemos competencias con les Governadores."-Al EMPERADOR, EPISCOPUS GUATEMALENSIS, Santiago de Guatemala, 20 Enero, 1539. Coleccion de Muñoz, MS., tom. lxxxi.

Conduct of Alvarado.-Early Discoveries. 345

As to Alvarado, it can hardly so well be said that he governed as that he came and devastated and distributed, so much was he absent, and absent not for the good of his colony, but for the promotion of his own interests. It will be seen in the history of Peru how he went thither when the riches of that country were noised abroad, and what a poor ending his expedition there had. This was not the only enterprise he undertook in provinces remote from his own government. In his first visit to Spain he had gained some favor by promising the Spanish court-a promise he had since renewed-to make expeditions in the South Sea in order to search for spice islands, and for that purpose had constructed a fleet consisting of ten or twelve great ships, a galley, and several row-boats with lateen sails, without doubt at great cost of Indian life.

Now it happened that, while Las Casas was in Spain, the question of discovery northward was much considered at Mexico. In the year 1538 a certain Franciscan monk, Marcos of Nice, had penetrated into the country north of Culhuacan, and had arrived at Sybola. He returned, giving a wonderful account of the seven cities of Sybola, and saying how, the farther you went northward (i. e., toward the country now known as the gold regions of California), the more peopled the country was, and more rich with gold and turquoises. An expedition was accordingly sent in the direction that he indicated, but it proved unsuccessful.* Mendoza, the Viceroy of Mexico, and Cortez, had concerted measures to make this discovery and conquest for themselves, but they could not agree. The marquis was then obliged to go to Spain, and the

* See Voyage de Cibola, par PEDRO DE CASTAÑEDA DE NAGERA. TERNAUX-COMPANS, Voyages.