with respect to "Encomiendas." 211 was adopted in order to furnish some protection to the Indians from the rapacity of the Spaniards. 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 that of the Indies, it might be difficult to say; but in the next year a most disastrous law was passed, which NADOR Í OFICIALES de la Provincia del Perú. Coleccion de Muñoz, MS., tom. lxxix. * 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. Converná (convendrá) que se pongan en encomienda í repartimiento í se ordene bien antes que la estremada codicia de los Españoles lo dañen é pongan en confusion."-Al EMPERADOR; el LiCENCIADO ESPINOSA, Panamá, 10 Octubre, 1533. Coleccion de Muñoz, MS., tom. Ixxix. +"Y por remate de la Instruccion, se le mandó en particular, 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 particular respeto usase de esta comision, en caso necesario, í no en otra manera, teniendo en sí el secreto, que la calidad del negocio requeria, pues de publicarlo avian de nacer maiores inconvenientes; í que si para los efectos susodichos viese que convenia encomendar Indios, que lo hiciese."-HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. v., lib. ix., cap. 2. 212 "Laws of Succession.” may perhaps be accounted for by want of money at home, perhaps by a want of the requisite attention to colonial affairs. Whatever may have been the cause, the fact is that, in 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.* 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 Peruf was the battle-field. And thus, though not always perceived by historians, the * “La qual (i. e., the permission given to Cortez 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. ii., pág. 201), que por esto llamaron de la succession, 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 orígen, 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. 1, 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 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. |