166 Instructions for the "Audiencia." over, no encomendero was to compel the Indians to build any house for him but his own. If he sold his own house, he must build another at his own charge. . During seed-time 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 practiced 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 they would be obeyed? To meet this difficulty, a plan for the protection of the Indians was prepared, as early, apparently, as the date of the first draft of the instructions for the Audiencia. 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 tellanos) havia en aquella Tierra abundancia de ellas: aunque se permitia, que los Indios, que al presente estaban encomendados, el tributo, i servicio, que eran obligados de dar, lo pudiesen llevar hasta el Lugar, adonde las Personas de los Encomenderos residian, no pasando de veinte Leguas de su Pueblo; í que si les mandasen que se los llevasen á las Minas, ó á otras partes, adonde no residiese el Encomendero, no se hiciese sin voluntad de los Indios, pagandoselo primeramente, í no pasando esto de las veinte Leguas.”—Herrera, Hist. de las Indias, dec. iv., lib. iv., cap. 3. Instructions for the "Audiencia." 167 commanded to have much care to visit and inspect the said Indians, and to cause that they should be well treated 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 nuestra sancta fee cathólica.-El EMPERADOR al OBISPO DE MÉXICO, 10 Henero, 1528, Puga, Provisiones, fol. 64. CHAPTER V. ARRIVAL OF THE AUDIENCIA.GREAT DISPUTES BETWEEN THE PROTECTORS OF THE INDIANS AND THE AUDIENCIA.THE AUDITORS PROSECUTE THE BISHOP OF MEXICO.-THE BISHOP EXCOMMUNICATES THE AUDITORS.-A GREAT JUNTA IN SPAIN ON THE SUBJECT OF THE INDIES. HE officers constituting the Audiencia having re ceived 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 that year. From thence they sent to summon 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 Licentiates 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 Cortez having been concerned in the opportune death of Ponce de Leon. The other auditors commenced taking the residencia amid a perfect hubbub of complaints, demands, and lawsuits, principally directed against the absent Cortez, who was more happily engaged than in replying to them by solemnizing his marriage with Nuño de Guzman's Appointment. 169 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 Terrafirma. 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 Cortez, 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 vehement disputes between the auditors and the protectors of the Indians-not only the official protectors, but the Franciscan monks in the city of Mexico, who demanded the execution 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 factious persons, who meet an accusation made against them by charges against the opposite party which have nothing to do with the matter in hand, replied that the monks and the protectors were partisans of Cortez, and rather defenders of him than of the Indians. Instantly the whole town was engaged on one side or other of these two factions; and, to use Vol. III.-H 170 Disputes between the Protectors the words of the royal historiographer, "so things went on with much confusion and shamefulness."* Without entering into the degrading disputes which arose from this state of things, one or two exploits of Nuño de Guzman's, in a foray against the Chichimecas, may be mentioned, as serving to show his want of fitness for his new office. He acted, indeed, throughout with the utmost intemperance, partiality, and even want of knowledge of the world.† Upon grounds which at the time were thought tyrannical, he caused the chief of the Chichimecas to be put to the torture and burned. Other chiefs, even in friendly districts, when they failed in bringing food or gold, were tormented by a savage dog being let loose upon them. Altogether the expedition was one continual course of cruelty and folly. We may say folly, because, when Cortez or Vasco Nuñez committed the acts of barbarity, which, alas! will forever sully their great names, their cruelty always had much of policy in it, and little or nothing of mere wantonness. But now there was no occasion to strike terror. The Spaniards were not a mere handful of men contending against a great and well-constituted empire. The barbarities of Nuño de Guzman were, therefore, out of date. Complaints from both factions were addressed to the Emperor, the auditors accusing Cortez of having had the most treasonable intentions, declaring that the bishops, under pretense of being protectors of the Indians, meddled with the royal jurisdiction; that the Franciscan monks were devoted partisans of the Marqués del Valle; and that, with regard to the Indians, * HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. iv., lib. iv., cap. 11. For instance, he endeavored to prevent any letters coming from Spain but his own. |