442 Why Spanish Colonization did not spread. B. XXI. named René Laudonnière, founded Charlefort in Ch. 4. 1562. But the French were cruelly massacred, Why the Spaniards did not further northwards. not as being Frenchmen, but as being Lutherans, by Pedro Menendez de Avilés, who was commissioned by the Court of Spain to undertake the reconquest of Florida. Avilés founded the town of St. Augustine; and, notwithstanding that the massacre of the French was revenged by a private French gentleman, named Dominique de Gourgues, the Spaniards held possession of the country for nearly two hundred years, from 1567 to 1763, when it was ceded to the English. The question will naturally occur, How it was that Spanish colonization did not spread penetrate further northwards, or rather north-eastwards, than Florida? Some would allege that the decadence of the Spanish Monarchy gives an answer to this question. But perhaps it would be nearer the truth to say that the colonizing power of the Spanish people was exhausted. Each nation has but a certain amount of that power to make use of. In the early part of the sixteenth century the Spaniards had many outlets for the adventurous part of their population. A considerable element of the Spanish race was to be found in the populations of Italy and Flanders, as the cities of Milan, Ghent, and Bruges could testify. Spain itself was certainly not an over-populated country; and, moreover, it must be recollected that the regions already occupied by the Spaniards in the New World were more tempting to their fellowcountrymen than the colder climes of North America. CHAPTER V. STATE OF THE SPANISH COLONIES AFTER THE SEVERAL CONQUESTS-CONCLUSION Of the work. IT is obvious, from a mere comparison of dates, B. XXI. that the history of Florida, however interest- Ch. 5. ing in itself, could have had no bearing upon the main events of conquest and legislation in the Indies. The way in which the men of the Old World were to deal with the men of the New, was mainly settled by what took place in the course of the early discoveries and conquests, and was comprised in the period during which Las Casas laboured as Protector of the Indians, and when the Church and State of Spain were creating for themselves representatives in Spanish America. of govern. New World This representation was, for the most part, The form exact and faithful. Corregidors, Regidors, Al- ment in the caldes, Alguazils, Procuradors, Veedors, Conta- like that in dors, Judges of Residencia, and all the officers Spain. usually to be met with in the various kingdoms of Spain, were transplanted into the Indies, and flourished there. The Church was fully repre- Entry into sented in the New World by Bishops, Deans, World of Priests, Clerigos, and Monks of every denomina tion. First came the Franciscans and the Dominicans; then the Fathers of Mercy and the Augustines. Lastly came the Jesuits, who, the New the Monas tic Orders. 444 Municipal Government in the Indies. Сн. 5. B. XXI. where they settled, maintained a hold upon the country greater than that of the other monastic Activity of orders, though all were far more active and busy tic Orders than in Spain itself; and adventurous monks in the New who had pined in their convents at home for more the Monas World. Municipal govern work to do, found room for their energies in the New World, just as much as adventurous soldiers had done. In fact, there was an active emigration from the mother-country, of many of its most energetic soldiers, citizens, and priests. Again, the form of municipal government that ment in the prevailed in the cities of Spain was exactly copied similar to in the Spanish Colonies of America. Indies that in Spain. Town councils were established in all the new cities; and were no doubt far more active and more powerful than such bodies in the old country. There is no precise account of how these town councils in the New World were created; but it is probable that the mode of their formation did not differ much from that adopted in the mothercountry. In the town of Saragossa, for example, the mode of choosing the officers for governing that city was partly guided by considerations of fitness, and partly left to fortune. The names of the persons who were thought fit for any office were written on strips of parchment. These were inserted in wooden balls, and placed in a bag.* Afterwards a child, who might not be more than ten years old, selected one of these mero. * "Bolsa de Jurado PriItem estatuimos, y ordenamos, que los nombres de los Ciudadanos, que de presente en la Ciudad son aptos, y suficientes para Jurado Primero della, con forme à las presentes Ordinaciones, sean escritos en sendas cedulas de pergamino, y cada una dellas puesta en un redolino de madera, los quales redolinos sean de un mismo peso, madera, What is a Householder' in the Indies. 445 balls; and the person whose name was found in- B. XXI. side it, had to fill the place in question.* However chosen, these bodies exercised considerable influence and authority, as has been seen in the history of Peru, sending their Proctors to Spain, and making known their wishes and remonstrances very freely. Ch. 5. In the New World there were but two or three novelties, as regards government and mode of life, which would strike a Spanish colonist as remarkable. In the first place, the householder of a town in the Indies, possessing Indians, was not allowed to be an absentee. Garcilaso de la Vega gives an exact definition of the meaning of the word householder, or neighbour, both of which senses are included in the Spanish word, Vecino. "By neighbour is meant in the Indies he who Definition possesses a repartimiento of Indians, and the of the word word neighbour signifies this, because they holder," in are obliged to maintain neighbourhood where they hold Indians, and they cannot go to Spain without permission from the King, under penalty of losing their repartimientos if they should be absent from their neighbourhood for two years."+ color, y forma, puestos en bolsa cerrada, y sellada fielmente con el sello menor de la dicha Ciudad, y aquella intitulada con las palabras siguientes: Bolsa de Jurado Primero."-Ordinaciones de la Ciudad de Zaragoza, p. 4. Zaragoza, 1693. "El dicho niño los rebuelva por debaxo la toalla, y saque de ellos un redolino, el que dicho niño publicamente ha de entregar al Secretario de la Ciudad, por el "Por vecino se entiende en "House the Indies. 446 The Spaniards become Planters. B. XXI. miendas in unlike any. The second novelty in the Indies was the Ch. 5. existence of encomiendas, for though this word had The enco- been borrowed originally from the Spanish Orders the Indies of knighthood, it bore a different signification now that it applied to a conquered race, with whom the conquerors were forbidden to have much communication, and from whom they were merely to derive a settled tribute having the nature of a life interest. thing in Spain. The The third novelty in the Indies was the existence of large bodies of negro slaves. The kind of government which prevailed in the Indies has now been traced; and it has been seen how much it resembled that of the mothercountry. There were, however, new products of the earth; new manufactures; an attention to mining such as did not exist in Spain itself; and also a new mode of life in respect of the large become tracts of land which were occupied by the Spanish the New proprietors, and which naturally changed many of the owners from citizens into planters. The countries they colonized were too extensive for the colonists; and to this day a shrewd traveller will notice how a colonist may possess leagues of territory, and yet be a needy man. Spaniards Planters in World. Such a state of society was not likely to produce great results in the arts, the sciences, or in literature. There was, no doubt, a consi donde tenian los Indios, y no mantenido vecindad perdian el podian venir á España sin licen- repartimiento."-GARCILASO DE cia del Rey, so pena que pasados LA VEGA, Hist. de Florida, los dos años que no hubiesen tom. 1, cap. 2. |