Recommendations of the Junta.

181

Great credit must be given to the court of Spain and to the highest officers of that kingdom for the determination which had thus been come to. It was a determination which would have saved innumerable lives and preserved in good order large taxable communities, occupying the most fruitful parts of the earth. Indeed, if this decree had been abided by, it might have established the power of Charles the Fifth upon such a foundation as would have given Europe more real ground for dread than if that monarch had been uniformly successful in his contests with England, Germany, and France. Spain would then have been all that, for one or two generations, it was supposed to be. Protestantism would have had a much harder battle to fight, and the world might again have had to fear a universal empire.

An unfailing supply of hardy soldiers from Spain and Germany-an abundant and continuous influx of revenue from the Indies-what might not have been expected from such a conjunction of resources?

But as the danger was to proceed from good government of distant colonies, and wise internal administration (so seldom seen to be the true strength of states), the world might well have felt secure, even had it known of the salutary determination just adopted by the Great Junta of Spain in reference to the government of the Indies.

causa podrian desamparar la tierra, que se señale un tributo moderado que paguen los indios, í la mitad deste, el primer año, se dé á las personas que agora los tienen encomendados, í despues podrá Vuestro Magestad dar Vasallos á quien lo mereciere, tomando para sí las cabezeras. (Fiat.)"-Coleccion de Muñoz, MS., tom. lxxviii.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SECOND AUDIENCIA ARRIVES IN MEXICO.

PROCEED

INGS OF THE AUDITORS. — GREAT ERROR IN THEIR INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT ENCOMIENDAS. SEVERITY TOWARD THE COLONISTS. THE NUMBER OF ORPHANS IN NEW SPAIN.

THAT ever-recurring difficulty—to find a head and

hand which should carry into execution good laws, appears to have been fully present to the minds of the royal councilors; for, in the same letter in which they announced their unanimous opinion to his majesty respecting the liberty of the Indians, they suggested that a bold and prudent" caballero," a man of good estate (hacendado), should be sent as president of the audiencia. The Conde de Oropesa was named, but he would not accept the office. Afterward the Mariscal de Fromesta, and Don Antonio de Mendoza, son of the Marqués de Mondejar, were applied to; but their demands were so exorbitant (tan desaforadas) that the council informed his majesty that their thoughts were turned to others.*

It is not surprising that men of great name and station in Spain, who fulfilled the requisite conditions of being bold, prudent, and of large estate, should demand extraordinary powers and privileges before undertaking a charge which no one hitherto had come well out of. Lists have been made of the conquerors and governors in the New World, as of men all of whose careers were signalized by miserable or dis* Coleccion de Muñoz, MS., tom. lxxviii.

The second "Audiencia" sent to Mexico. 183

graceful terminations; and in an age which had Machiavelli in its hands, and when politics had begun to be considered scientifically, it was not difficult to know that one of the most lamentable positions in the world is to hold an office of great state and great apparent power, and in reality to be bound by all manner of invisible fetters, being secretly at the mercy of some obscure official people around you or at home.

The difficulty, for the present, of finding a man of weight to preside over the new Audiencia was obviated by choosing a person who had already filled a similar office, undertaken at a period of like confusion in another part of the Indies. This was Don Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal, Bishop of St. Domingo in Hispaniola, who had been sent to that island to be president of an Audiencia which had been some time established there. Mankind were certainly not wise and good enough then, and have hardly since arrived at sufficient wisdom and goodness to act harmoniously together in councils and commissions. The auditors of Hispaniola were at feud with the other royal officers, and probably with one another, when Don Sebastian arrived in the island; but he was a man of wisdom, energy, and official experience, having served in the cancillería of Granada; and in this new office his success is thus briefly described: "He gave authority to the administration of justice. The rivalries between the auditors and the other royal officers ceased. Each one kept within the limits of his office; and in all respects there was quiet.

"En sustancia, dió autoridad á la Justicia: cesaron las competencias entre los Oidores, í Oficiales Reales: cada uno estaba en los límites de su Oficio: í en todo huvo quietud."-HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. iv., lib. vi., cap. 6.

184

Proceedings of the

The government of Spain was fortunate in being able to command the services of such a man as Don Sebastian for the presidency of the new Audiencia to be sent to Mexico. This body was entirely renewed, as auditors were sent not only to replace those who had died on first arriving in the country, but also to supersede the two who had lived to do so much mischief. All the new auditors were licentiates, and their names were Vasco de Quiroga, Alonzo Maldonado, Francisco de Ceynos, and Juan de Salmerón.

This last-mentioned auditor was a man of some experience in the Indies, having been alcalde mayor of the province of Castillo del Oro. To each of them was given a large salary--600,000 maravedis*—in order that they might not be tempted to undertake any private enterprise for gain. The Empress wrote to Don Sebastian with her own hand, informing him of his appointment, and mentioning that the new auditors would call for him at St. Domingo on their way out to Mexico.

This new Audiencia had very complicated business awaiting them. The representations which the former one had made against Cortez had been so manifestly unfair, that it was intrusted to these new auditors to take another residencia of Cortez; then they were to take a residencia of Nuño de Guzman; they were to settle the dispute between him and the bishop-protector; they were publicly to reprimand the former auditors; and we have already seen, from the proceedings of the Great Junta before mentioned, that these new auditors would have to execute a very difficult commission with regard to the liberty of the Indians, if

* Equal, I believe, to £416 13s. 4d. in English money—a large salary in those days.

second "Audiencia."

185

any thing was to be done in accordance with the important decision already pronounced by that council.

Among other instructions given to them, there is one which suited well with Spanish stateliness, as it settled the form and order in which they were to enter Mexico, the chief seat of their government. The great seal was to be placed in a little casket, borne by a mule covered with velvet; and when they entered the city, the president was to be on the right hand of the seal, and one of the auditors on the left, the other auditors going before, according to their rank. They were all to be lodged in the house of the Marquis del Valle. The marquis himself was allowed at that time to return to New Spain, but I believe he was not for the present to enter Mexico-probably not until his residencia had been completed. He went back clothed with the authority of captain general; and so far, at least, Cortez was not treated unwisely or ungenerously by the Spanish government. He was received with vivid demonstrations of delight by great numbers of the people in New Spain, both Spaniards and Indians. Indeed, they offered to place themselves at his disposal, and to put his enemies in the Audiencia to death. They were clamorous in telling him what they had suffered during his absence; but he, with his accustomed prudence, did what he could to soothe them, entirely put aside their offers of vengeance, and even strove to divert them by public games and entertain

ments.

On the 15th of September, 1530, a few months after the departure of the marquis, the new auditors sailed from Seville, and arrived in New Spain at the beginning of the year 1531. The form of their entry into Mexico was somewhat disturbed by the absence of