The
Bishop

B. XIV. have hoped so much for the New World, was Ch. 8. gradually put aside. Almost everything else that could be done for the conquered nation was done during the administration of the Bishoprecalled: President. It lasted only three years, when the Presidency was changed into a Viceroyalty, and Antonio de Mendoza (also an excellent governor)* was sent from Spain as Viceroy.t The BishopPresident was rewarded in Spain for his great services by a seat in the Council of the Indies.

Mendoza

arrives as

Viceroy. 1535.

Meanwhile, no good impulse with respect to encomiendas came from the Court of Spain for many years after the year 1530, in which Charles the Fifth, giving his "Fiat" to the decision of the Great Junta so often referred to, had determined absolutely in favour of the liberty of the Indians. The Emperor was absent from Spain for two years and a half, remaining in Flanders, Germany, and Italy; and in 1533, the cause of the liberty of the miendas Indians had retrograded so far at Court, that Peru, 1533. Charles authorized the granting of encomiendas in Peru. It is possible that this determination was

Enco

granted in

"Con cuia llegada fueron las cosas de el Govierno, de bien, en mejor."-TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana, lib. 5, cap. II.

+ See OVIEDO, lib. 55, c. 33, with respect to Mendoza's cha

racter.

"Y por quanto vistas estas informaciones hemos acordado hacer repartimiento perpétuo, tomando antes para nuestra corona las cabezeras, provincias í pueblos que hallaredes convenir, haréis el memorial del repartimiento entre los conquistadores í pobladores

segun la calidad de sus personas í servicios en visto del qual proveerémos. Pondréis en ese memorial. 1°. Qué tributo podrá dar a la corona cada encomen dero haviendo respeto que pensamos darles las tierras con Señiorio í Jurisdiccion en cierta forma. 2°. Qué tierras í repartimientos convendrá reservar para los pobladores que adelante fueren destos Reinos. 3°. Qué forma deberá tenerse en las Provincias í cabeceras que quedaren en la corona así en justicia como

with respect to "Encomiendas."

227

adopted in order to furnish some protection to B. XIV. the Indians from the rapacity of the Spaniards.* Ch. 8. On the appointment of Antonio de Mendoza as Viceroy of Mexico, the Emperor secretly gave him the power of dealing with the subject of encomiendas;† which shows that the question was still open, as regarded the inhabitants of New Spain. It was in 1535 that Charles the Fifth undertook his expedition to Tunis. Whether the fate of this expedition had any influence on

en hacienda atendiendo al provecho nuestro í bien de los indios." El EMPERADOR á Governador í OFICIALES de la Provincia del Perú. Coleccion de Muñoz, MS., tom. 79.

I subjoin a letter to the Emperor, in which the Licentiate Espinosa suggests encomiendas as a means of protection to the Peruvian Indians :

“Los Yndios del Perú son los mejores í mas prontos para el servicio de los Españoles. Es una gente de Capacidad, é que tienen é viven en su Republica juntos. . . . acostumbrados á servir la gente comun á los Señores é gente de guerra, é tan subjetos é maltratados dellos

cular, que haviéndose informado de la disposicion, í estado de la Tierra, í de los Naturales, Pobladores de ella, teniendo su principal intento al servicio de Dios, í descargo de la Real conciencia, él solo en lo presente, í en lo que adelante se ofreciese, proveiese lo que mas le pareciese para el buen tratamiento de los Naturales, í gratificacion de los Pobladores, í Conquistadores, í conservacion de Tierra, sin embargo de qualesquier Instrucciones, ó Provisiones, que estuviesen dadas; porque siendo la cosa de tan gran importancia, el Rei se la cometia, por la confiança que tenia de su persona, í se la encomendaba á él solo, í le encargaba, que sin . . . Converná (convendrá) que particular respeto usase de esta se pongan en encomienda í re- comision, en caso necesario, í no partimiento í se ordene bien en otra manera, teniendo en sí antes que la estremada codicia el secreto, que la calidad del de los Españoles lo dañen é negocio requeria, pues de publipongan en confusion." Al carlo avian de nacer maiores inEMPERADOR; el LICENCIADO convenientes; í que si para los ESPINOSA, Panamá, 10 Oc- efectos susodichos viese que contubre, 1533. Coleccion de venia encomendar Indios, que lo hiciese."-HERRERA, Hist. de "Y por remate de la In- las Indias, dec. 5, lib. 9, cap. 2. struccion, se le mandó en parti

....

MUÑOZ, MS., tom. 79.

B. XIV. that of the Indies, it might be difficult to say; Ch. 8. but in the next year a most disastrous law was

Succession,

passed, which may perhaps be accounted for by want of money at home, perhaps by a want of the requisite attention to colonial affairs. What

The Law of ever may have been the cause, the fact is that, in in 1536. 1536, the celebrated Law of Succession, which gave encomiendas for a second life, was promulgated at Madrid. This was a general law for the Indies. It appears to have been occasioned by the conquest of Peru.*

History of Guatemala will lead to the

New Laws.

The history of Guatemala will naturally lead up to, and illustrate, the nature of the opposition which was ultimately made to this law by Las Casas and other Protectors of the Indians, whose efforts were closed by the promulgation of the celebrated New Laws, as they were called, which were published in 1542. These New Laws, again, and the transactions which flowed directly from them, were the subject of another period of history, in which Perut was the battle-field. And

* "La qual (i.e., the permission given to Cortes and Montejo to give Indians in encomienda) duró, hasta que descubierto el Perú, aviéndose dado órden á don Francisco Pizarro, para repartir la tierra, se añadió la succession de las Encomiendas en segunda vida, promulgándose aquella tan celebrada ley (Provis. de Madrid á 26 de Mayo, de 1536, tom. 2, pág. 201), que por esto llamaron de la sucession, universal para todas las Indias; que añadiendo una vida mas de lo que hasta entonces tenian á

las Encomiendas, fué visto aprovarlas expressamente: con que se ha declarado el origen, que tuvieron los Repartimientos í Encomiendas, desde que se començaron á introduzir, hasta que llegaron á ser por dos vidas." -ANTONIO DE LEON, Tratado de Confirmaciones Reales, parte I, cap. I, p. 5.

+ In the preceding narrative I have occasionally anticipated the course of events, and have been obliged to allude to facts as known which will only be fully described, and put in their proper

Ch. 8.

Peru will

thus, though not always perceived by historians, B. XIV. the main course of public events in the Indies sometimes depended upon, and was often curiously History of interwoven with, the legislation in Spain relating greatly to the distribution and possession of the native depend on Indians, as involved in the granting of enco- Laws. miendas.

places, when the history of the introduction of the Church in the Indies is given, or that of Peru is described in detail. The narrative, however, of encomiendas is so important, that I

felt it to be necessary to give it
continuously, and in one place,
however much it might overlap
or break into other parts of the
history.

the New