Regret of Las Casas.

201

must be allowed to enjoy a remarkable pre-eminence as monuments of folly and oppression. Other buildings have been erected solely at the cost of the suffering subjects of great despots, or by prisoners captured in war; but the blood-cemented walls of the Alcazar of Madrid might boast of being raised upon a complication of suffering hitherto unparalleled in the annals of mankind. The Indians had first to be removed by every kind of cruelty and misgovernment from the face of their native country, and the Africans had to endure bloody wars in their own country* before a sufficient number of them could be captured to meet the increasing demand for negro slaves. Each ducat spent upon these palaces was, at a moderate computation, freighted with ten human lives.

The apologists for Las Casas, who have sought to contend that he was in no wise concerned in the introduction of this traffic, have made a statement which that noble personage would have repudiated in the most unqualified manner. His conduct on this subject has been discussed at the proper place, and ample excuse has been shown for it. But he himself has repeated the expressions of his regret and repentance. "Of this advice," he says (speaking of the introduction of negroes), "which the clerigo gave, he very soon afterward found himself repentant, judging himself to have erred through inadvertence; for after that he saw and had ascertained, as will appear, that the capture of negroes is as unjust as that of Indians, he perceived

* “Ytem, como los mismos véen que con tanta ansia los buscan y quieren, unos á otros se hacen injustas guerras, y por otras vias ilícitas se hurtan y venden á los Portugueses. Por manera que nosotros somos causa de todos los pecados que los unos y los otros cometen, sin los nuestros que en comprallos cometemos."-LAS CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. iii., cap. 128.

202

Depopulation of the West Indies.

that the remedy which he had advised-for negroes to be brought hither, in order that Indians might be set free-was not a discreet remedy, although he supposed at the time that the negroes were justly made captives. He has not, however, felt certain that his ignorance in this matter and his good intentions would excuse him before the Divine judgment."*

The foregoing account of the depopulation of the West India islands, and of the corresponding introduction of negro slavery there, will show that the main question of encomiendas was settled, as far as regards the regions first discovered by Columbus. On resuming the subject, therefore, we need not keep in mind the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, or Jamaica, nor, probably, the Pearl Coast, where, though there might be Indians to hunt after as slaves, there were none to be found in the state of good order and government which was requisite for the establishment of any such system as that of encomiendas.

The extensive governments of Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru henceforward become the main field for the legislation of the mother country.

* "Deste aviso que dió el Clérigo, no poco despues se halló á repiso juzgándose culpado por inadvertente. Porque como despues vido y averiguó segun parecerá ser tan injusto el captiverio de los negros como el de los Yndios, no fué discreto remedio el que aconsejó, que se truxesen negros para que se libertasen los Yndios, aunque él suponia que eran justamente captivos. Aunque no estubo cierto que la ignorancia que en este tubo y buena voluntad lo escusase delante el juicio divino."-LAS CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. iii., cap. 128.

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

OF THE BISHOP-PRESIDENT IN

NEW SPAIN. THE NEW AUDIENCIA DID NOT ABOLISH ENCOMIENDAS.-WHY THEY FAILED TO DO SO.-PROCEEDINGS IN SPAIN WITH RESPECT TO ENCOMIENDAS.-THE CELEBRATED LAW OF SUCCESSION PASSED IN 1536.

IN

N Mexico we left the new auditors busy in providing a remedy for the abuses caused and fostered by the maladministration of the first Audiencia. The bishop-president (Don Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal) had arrived in 1531, and his vigor, intelligence, and knowledge of colonial affairs were rapidly brought to bear upon the difficulties that existed in Mexico. Far from looking upon Cortez as an enemy, the wise bishop acted entirely in concert with the captain general. It was Don Sebastian's practice to take counsel with many persons as to what ought to be done, but with the marquis alone, or, at least, with very few persons, as to the mode of executing what had been resolved upon.*

There was a certain breadth about the bishop's administration which is clearly indicative of a wise gov

* "Procedia en todo, con parecer, y acuerdo de el Marqués de el Valle, con quien se tenia gran conformidad, porque un Ministro, y Consejero de Letras, buena intencion, y vida exemplar, siempre es gran parte, para reducir los Abusos á Policia; y era costumbre de este prudentísimo Presidente, comunicar con muchos, lo que se debia de hacer; pero lo que se avia de executar, con solo el Marqués, ó á lo menos con pocos; y así se començó á vivir en esta Ciudad, con órden, quietud, y temor de Dios."-TORQUEmada, Monarquía Indiana, lib. v., cap. 10.

204

The Administration of the

ernor. No single subject of government occupied his attention to the exclusion of others. He founded churches; he divided Mexico into parishes; he established a college, and was the first man to propose that a learned education should be given to the Indians. His efforts in this matter were successful; and it is curious that one of the best chroniclers of the bishop's proceedings was instructed in the Mexican language by a most accomplished Indian, who had been educated at this college, and was Governor of Mexico (which seems to mean of the Indians of Mexico, for they had a separate jurisdiction) for forty years.*

To beautify and improve the city was also an object with the bishop-president. He caused bridges to be built, and provided a better supply of water for the town than it had had before. He also caused a small lake to be dried up in that part of the city called Tenuchitlan, and erected a market-place on the site.

The bishop gave much attention to agriculture. He took care that the fruits of the mother country should be planted in all parts of New Spain. He introduced the cultivation of hemp and flax. He founded the town of Los Angeles, in order that it might be the centre of a corn-growing country, and at Tlascala he introduced the rearing and manufacture of cochineal.

His conduct toward the Indians was uniformly kind

* "Fué el primero que introduxo que se mostrase Gramática Latina, á algunos Indios, en esta Nueva-España, para ver sus Ingenios. Para este fin se fundó el Colegio de Santa Cruz, en esta parte de Santiago Tlatelulco, donde escrivo esto, y donde huvo muchos Colegiales (como decimos en otra parte) y salieron con la Latinidad muchos de ellos mui por estremo, entre los quales se señaló Don Antonio Valeriano, que despues la enseñó en el mismo Colegio, y fué Governador de México, quasi quarenta Años, excelentísimo Retórico, y gran Philósofo, y Maestro mio en la Lengua Mexicana, de el qual hacemos memoria en otro lugar."-TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana, lib. v., cap. 10,

Bishop-President in New Spain.

205

and considerate. He abolished the practice of making slaves. He established a book of tributes, in which were set down the dues which the Indians in encomienda had to pay to their encomenderos; and he gave especial care to the religious education of the Indians.

His labors were not always peaceful. There was a rebellion in one of the provinces in his time, but it was rapidly and dexterously appeased.

The foregoing measures were very prudent, and the labors of the bishop and his colleagues were constant and well directed. But, remembering the extraordinary powers with which this second Audiencia was endowed in reference to the matter of encomiendas, we naturally look for a conclusion to this mode of enforced service as the principal object they would have in view. We look in vain. It is true that the auditors themselves neither took possession of Indians, nor allotted them to their friends and relations. It is certain, also, that they made a beginning toward abolishing these encomiendas altogether. But their vigorous action about encomiendas seems to have quietly subsided in an almost unaccountable manner. There is a letter from the bishop-president to the Empress, in which he speaks of the taking away of Indians from private persons, and giving them to the Emperor, as "a thing guided by God;" but in the same letter he intimates that it will be well to delay the final resolve that shall be adopted until more knowledge shall be attained."*

* "Conviene seguir en los Corregimientos hasta que mas noticia se tenga. 'El haver quitado los indios, í havellos tomado para Vuestra Magestad fué cosa guiada por Dios.....los naturales han de ser los que han de poblar í asegurar la tierra conociendo.....quanto bien les es ser de Vuestra Magestad í no estar encomendados in subjetos á las tiranías y muertes que entre sí tenian.'