148 Merits and Demerits of "Residencias.” * pressed and scared them, like an evil phantom sitting by their sides on the seat of judgment, and must have made them apt to think of something else besides justice. The jurist before quoted declares that, in his experience, good judges have run more risk than bad judges. A viceroy of Peru, who had doubtless suffered from one of these residentiary visits, compares it to one of the hurricanes known in the New World, which sweeps from the streets and market-places every kind of dust, and dirt, and refuse, and heaps it upon the devoted heads of those who have to endure the tempest. The good and brave man faced the hurricane, as became his honest consciousness of right, while the cunning, prudent men ("hijos del siglo," the jurist calls them) were likely to have provided by wrong-doing some shifty covering for themselves. One great evil connected with the system of residencias was, that the judge who came to hold the residencia was attended by a set of harpies, in the shape of clerks, who were prone to take gifts from suitors, and whose interest it was that the proceedings should be prolonged, and that there should be an abundance of writing. Something similar to this, however, is to * “I aun la experiencia me ha enseñado, que tienen otro trabajo, í es, que muy de ordenario peligran mas en ellas los juezes buenos í temerosos de Dios, que los barateros, í cohechados."-SOLÓRZANO, Política Indiana, lib. v., cap. 10, p. 841. + "I se lo oí dezir al Marques de Montesclaros Virrey del Perú que t comparaba estas visitas á los torvellinos, que suele aver en las plaças í calles, que no sirven sino de levantar el polvo, í paja, í otras horruras, de ellas, í hazer que se suban á las cabeças.”—SOLÓRZANO, Política Indiana, lib. v., cap. 9, p. 840. "Tambien es de advertir el gravísimo daño, digno de remedio, que causan los Escribanos, que van con los Jueces de Residencia, de lo qual hago testigos á todos los que ante ellos han sido residenciados; porque conmunmente, sin respeto de conciencia, ni temor del castigo, se cohechan, y á montones llevan dineros, y otras dádivas de los liti Merits and Demerits of "Residencias." 149 be seen in all legal proceedings; and a sound remedy for legal abuses will never be accomplished until it is made the interest of many obscure persons that lawsuits should be swiftly disposed of. In the Indies, delay, the natural friend and follower of law, grew to a great height. In the good old times, a residencia would have lasted thirty or fifty days. But there was one residencia in the New World which dragged out a weary length of twenty years, and another is recorded which never came to an end.* It is clear, too, that these residencias must have been singularly subject to chance-to the enmity of the judges who came to take the residencia-to the particular events which had occurred in the colony just before the residencia was held; and to the favor or disfavor which the governor about to suffer residencia was known to be held in at court. In the case of the worst governor, Pedrarias Davila, that the Indies had ever known, the only residencia held upon him was utterly without avail,† as it was gantes, por vias improbables, y ocultas; y al que no negocia por este camino, bien se le echa de ver en su despacho. Tras esto, porque haya mucho papel, y escritura en la residencia, son Fiscales del Corregidor, y de sus Ministros, y solicitan que les pongan capítulos, y demandas.” --BOVADILLA, Política para Corregidores, tom. ii., lib. v., cap. 1., p. 493. * "I la de la Audiencia de Lima, que se cometió al Licenciado Bonilla, que murió electo Arçobispo de México, de que tratan muchas cédulas del tercer tomo de las impressas, duró mas de veinte años, í primero que se acabasse, murió él, í los visitados, i assí no fué de provecho. I lo mesmo ha sucedido en otra novíssima, que ha passado de diez í ocho, í á penas está començada. I el año de 1589 se cometió la visita del Marques de Villa-Manrique, Virrey de México, al Obispo de Tlaxcala, í nunca tuvo fin."-JUAN DE SOLÓRZANO, Política Indiana, lib. v., cap. 10, p. 841. Madrid, 1647. "Pero como todos conoscian questa residencia era grangeada por Pedrarías, é que passada, se avia de quedar en el mesmo officio de gobernador, començaron los cuerdos á burlar é murmurar de tal cuenta, porque les paresçia que era mejor disimular sus quexas é agravios que 150 Merits and Demerits of "Residencias.” known that after the residencia he was to be reinstated as governor; and woe to the unfortunate individual who should be rash enough to bring any charge against so vindictive a man, who, in a few months, would be in full power again! no trabaxar é andar caminos en valde, gastando dineros, si allí fuessen ; pues no confiaban de tal manera de juzgado, ni á ninguno convenia pedir ni enojar al que se avia de quedar mandando la tierra, porque despues no le destruyesse por tal causa; é assí ninguno ovo tan falto de sesso que se pusiesse en tal jornada, pues avia de ser tiempo perdido."—OVIEDO, Hist. Gen. y Nat. de Indias, lib. xxix., cap. 17. 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. THE HE residencia of Cortez was commenced; and during the whole time that it lasted (namely, seventeen days), not a single charge was brought against him.* In his fifth letter to the Emperor he successfully repels the accusations, made against him by "serpent tongues," with regard to his wealth and possessions, asserting that, if he has received much, he has spent much more; and that, too, not in buying heritages for himself, but in extending the patrimony of the king. He declares that, at the present moment, he is poor and much indebted.† Indeed, he makes * "Y luego fué pregonado públicamente en la plaza de esta ciudad mi residencia, y estuve en ella diez y siete dias sin que se me pusiese demanda alguna."-Documentos Inéditos, tom. iv., p. 150. "Y cuanto á lo que dicen de tener yo mucha parte de la tierra, así lo confieso, y que he habido harta suma y cantidad de oro; pero digo que no ha sido tanta que haya bastado para que yo deje de ser pobre y estar adeudado en mas de cincuenta mil pesos de oro sin tener un castellano de que pagarlo, porque si mucho he habido, muy mucho mas he gastado, y no en comprar mayorazgos ni otras rentas para mí, sino en dilatar por estas partes el señorío y patrimonio Real de V. A. conquistando con ello y con poner mi persona á muchos trabajos, riesgos y peligros, muchos reinos y señoríos para Vuestra Excelencia, los 152 The "Residencia" of Cortez. the following curious offer to the king. His majesty had been informed that Cortez possessed two hundred cuentos of rent, upon which Cortez offers to his majesty to commute all that he has for twenty cuentos of rent in New Spain, or ten in the mother country.† * The residencia of Cortez, however, was broken off by an unexpected event. Ponce de Leon had been ill before this formal ceremony of taking the wands of justice; he returned to his apartments shivering and unable to eat. He threw himself on his bed, from which he was never to rise. The fever increased; in a few days it was evident that he was about to die; and, summoning to his bedside the king's civil servants, in their presence he delivered his wand of office to Marcos de Aguilar,† and soon after expired. In those days eminent persons seldom died suddenly without the suspicion of their having been assisted out of the world; and as Ponce de Leon's death, at this juncture, was apparently convenient for Cortez, there cuales no podrán encubrir los malos con sus serpentinas lenguas. Documentos Inéditos, tom. iv., p. 154. * “Por tanto á V. M. suplico reciba en servicio todo cuanto yo acá tengo, y en esos reinos me haga merced de los veinte cuentos de renta, y quedarle han los ciento y ochenta, y yo serviré en la Real presencia de V. M. donde nadie pienso me hará ventaja ni tampoco podrá encubrir mis servicios, y aun para lo de acá pienso será V. M. de mí muy servido porque sabré como testigo de vista decir á V. A. lo que á su Real servicio conviene que acá mande proveer, y no podrá ser engañado por falsas relaciones."-Documentos Inéditos, tom. iv., p. 157. + "Digo que siendo V. M. servido de me hacer merced de me mandar dar en esos reinos diez cuentos de renta y que yo en ellos le vaya á servir, no será para mí pequeña merced con dejar todo cuanto acá tengo, porque de esta manera satisfaria mi deseo que es servir á V. M. en su Real presencia, y V. M. así mismo se satisfaria de mi lealtad y seria de mí muy servido."-Relacion al EMPERADOR, por HERNAN CorTÉS, Doc. Inéd., tom. iv., p. 159. + ‡ "Marcos de Aguilar, cierto Letrado" (scholar, as distinguished from soldier).-REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. i., cap. 7. |