Interpretation of Omens in Nicaragua. 91 As to the bride, she was henceforward utterly cold to all her former lovers, and showed herself to be a true wife. The disappointed suitors, for the most part, bore their disappointment meekly, but sometimes it happened that on the morning after the marriage one or two of them were found to be hanging from a tree, and there the bodies remained, a ghastly spectacle of honor, to show the world how the fair Nicaraguan had been loved and lost.* Certainly, among all the strange things that have been done in the way of matrimony and marriage rites, a stranger practice than the foregoing has never been made known to the world. The Nicaraguans are pronounced by Oviedo to have been much given to the consideration of omens, and he narrates an interpretation of an omen, which affords an unmistakable insight into their miserable history during the first seven years that followed the discovery of the land by the Spaniards. On a Thursday, the 19th of January, 1529, a remarkable meteor was seen by Oviedo over the town of Leon in Nicaragua. It was as broad as a rainbow, and stretched from the southwest point of the horizon to the middle of the heavens. This meteoric quadrant was white and transparent, for the stars were seen through it. It continued to be visible by night until the 7th of February. Oviedo saw it for twenty-four nights, but others had seen it several nights before he noticed it. "De aquellos que fueron desechados algunos lo toman en paciençia ó los mas, é aun tambien acaesçe amanesçer ahorcado de un árbol alguno é algunos dellos, porque haya el diablo mas parte en la boda." -OVIEDO, Hist. Gen. y Nat. de Indias, lib. xlii, cap. 12. 92 Interpretation of Omens in Nicaragua. The natives, being asked by the historian what this sign in the heavens meant, the most ancient and wise among them replied that the Indians were destined to die on the roads, and that the sign in the heavens was a road which prognosticated that mode of death to them; "and well," as the historian adds, "might they divine this, for the Christians were in the habit of loading them and slaying them, making use of them as beasts of burden, to carry on their shoulders from one part to another all that the Christians required."* Preguntando yo á los indios que qué significaba aquella señal, deçian los sabios é mas ancianos dellos que se avian de morir los indios en caminos, é que aquella señal era camino, que significaba su muerte dellos caminando. Y podíanlo muy bien deçir ó adevinar, porque los chripstianos los cargaban é mataban, sirviéndose dellos como de bestias, acareando ó llevando á cuestas de unas partes ó otras todo lo que les mandaban.”—OVIEDO, Hist. Gen. y Nat. de Indias, lib. xlii., cap. 11. CHAPTER I. THE REBELLION OF ENRIQUE. THE VARIETY OF FORMS OF INDIAN SUBJECTION.-INDIANS OF WAR.-INDIANS OF RANSOM.INDIANS OF COMMERCE.-THE BRANDING OF SLAVES.-PERSONAL SERVICES.-GENERAL QUESTIONS ARISING FROM THE ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM. CHAPTER II. NATURE OF ENCOMIENDAS RE-STATED.-HISTORY OF ENCOMIENDAS RESUMED FROM THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO.-ORIGINAL PLAN OF CORTEZ.-JUNTA, IN 1523, FORBIDS ENCOMIENDAS.-MEAN WHILE CORTEZ GRANTS ENCOMIENDAS.-PONCE DE LEON COMES TO MEXICO AS JUDGE OF RESIDENCIA.-HIS INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT ENCOMIENDAS. THE QUESTION NOT DETERMINED ON ACCOUNT OF THE UNSETTLED STATE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO. CHAPTER III. MEANING OF THE WORD RESIDENCIA.-ORIGIN OF THE PRACTICE OF TAKING RESIDENCIAS IN CASTILE AND ARAGON. THE GOOD AND EVIL OF RESIDENCIAS. CHAPTER IV. THE RESIDENCIA OF CORTEZ.-DEATH OF PONCE DE LEON.-CONFUSED STATE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO.-PONCE DE LEON'S INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT ENCOMIENDAS COME TO NAUGHT. -ENCOMIENDAS ALLOWED BY THE SPANISH COURT.-AN AUDIENCIA CREATED FOR MEXICO.-INSTRUCTIONS TO THIS AUDIENCIA DO NOT VARY THE NATURE OF ENCOMIENDAS IN NEW SPAIN. |