Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 1/Book 2/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
1530—1551.
Antonio de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla,
I. Viceroy of New Spain.
1530—1551.
In the year 1530, the accusations received in Spain against Nuño de Guzman, and the oidores Matinezo and Delgadillo, who at that period ruled in Mexico under royal authority, were not only so frequent, but of so terrible a character, that Charles V., resolved to adopt some means of remedying the evils of his transatlantic subjects. He was about to depart from Spain however, for Flanders, and charged the Empress to adopt the necessary measures for this purpose during his absence. This enlightened personage, perceiving the difficulty of ruling so distant, extended and rich an appendage of the Spanish crown, by inferior officials alone, wisely determined to establish a Viceroyalty in New Spain. It was a measure which seemed to place the two worlds in more loyal affinity. The vice king, it was supposed, would be the impersonation of sovereignty, the direct representative of the national head, and would always form an independent and truthful channel of information. His position set him, eminently, above the crowd of adventurers who were tempted to the shores of America; and, removable at the royal pleasure, as well as selected from among those Spanish nobles whose fidelity to the crown was unquestionable, there was but little danger that even the most ambitious subject would ever be tempted to alienate from the Emperor the affection and services either of emigrants or natives.
The Empress, in fulfilling the wishes of her august spouse, at first fixed her eyes upon the Count de Oropesa and on the Marshal de Fromesta, as persons well fitted to undertake the difficult charge of founding the Mexican viceroyalty. But these individuals, upon various pretexts, declined the mission, which was next tendered to Don Manuel Benavides, whose exorbitant demands for money and authority, finally induced the sovereign to withdraw her nomination. Finally, she resolved to dispatch Don Antonio de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla, one of her chamberlains, who requested only sufficient time to regulate his private affairs before he joyfully set forth for his viceroyalty of New Spain. In the meantime, however, in order not to lose a moment in remedying the disorders on the other side of the Atlantic, the Empress created a new Audiencia, at the head of which was Don Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal, bishop of St. Domingo, and whose members were the Licenciados Vasco de Quiroga, Alonso Maldonado, Francisco Cainos and Juan de Salmeron. The appointment of the bishop was well justified by his subsequent career of integrity, beneficence and wisdom whilst Vasco de Quiroga has left in Michoacan, and, indeed, in all Mexico, a venerated name, whose renown is not forgotten, in private life and the legends of the country to the present day.
In 1535, Mendoza arrived in Mexico with letters for the Audiencia, and was received with all the pomp and splendor becoming the representative of royalty. His instructions were couched in the most liberal terms, for, after all, it was chiefly on the personal integrity and discretion of a viceroy that the Spanish sovereigns were obliged to rely for the sure foundation of their American empire. Of the desire of the Emperor and Empress to act their parts justly and honestly in the opening of this splendid drama in America there can be no doubt. Their true policy was to develope, not to destroy; and they at once perceived that, in the New World, they no longer dealt with those organized classes of civilized society which, in Europe, yield either instinctively to the feeling of loyalty, or are easily coerced into obedience to the laws.
Mendoza was commanded, in the first place, to direct his attention to the condition of public worship; to the punishment of clergymen who scandalized their calling; to the conversion and good treatment of the Indian population, and to the erection of a mint in which silver should be coined according to laws made upon this subject by Ferdinand and Isabella. All the wealth which was found in Indian tombs or temples was to be sought out and devoted to the royal treasury. It was forbidden, under heavy penalties, to sell arms to negroes or Indians, and the latter were, moreover, denied the privilege of learning to work in those more difficult or elegant branches of labor which might interfere with the sale of Spanish imported productions.
During the following year Mendoza received despatches from the Emperor in which, after bestowing encomiums for the manifestations of good government which the viceroy had already given, he was directed to pay particular attention to the Indians; and, together with these missives, came a summary of the laws which the Council of the Indies had formed for the welfare of the natives. These benevolent intentions, not only of the sovereign but of the Spanish people also, were made known to the Indians and their caciques, upon an occasion of festivity, by a clergyman who was versed in their language, and, in a similar way, they were disseminated throughout the whole viceroyalty. This year was, moreover, memorable in Mexican annals as that in which the first book, entitled La Escala de San Juan Climaca, was published in Mexico, in the establishment of Juan Pablos, having been printed at a press brought to the country by the viceroy Mendoza. Nor was 1536 alone signalized by the first literary issue of the new kingdom; for the first money, as well as the first book came at this time from the Mexican mint. According to Torquemada two hundred thousand dollars were coined in copper; but the emission of a circulating medium, in this base metal, was so distasteful to the Mexicans, that it became necessary for the viceroy to use stringent means in order to compel its reception for the ordinary purposes of trade.
Between the years 1536 and 1540 the history of the Mexican viceroyalty was uneventful, save in the gradual progressive efforts made not only by Mendoza, but by the Emperor himself, in endeavoring to model and consolidate the Spanish empire on our continent. Schools were established; hospitals were erected; the protection of the Indians, under the apostolic labors of Las Casas was honestly fostered, and every effort appears to have been zealously made to give a permanent and domestic character to the population which found its way rapidly into New Spain. In 1541 the copper coin, of which we have already spoken as being distasteful to the Mexicans, suddenly disappeared altogether from circulation, and it was discovered that the natives had either buried or thrown it into the lake as utterly worthless. The viceroy endeavored to remedy the evil and dispel the popular prejudice by coining cuartillas of silver; but these, from their extreme smallness and the constant risk of loss, were equally unacceptable to the people, who either collected large quantities and melted them into bars, or cast them contemptuously into the water as they had before done with the despised copper.
It was not until about the year 1542, that we perceive in the viceroyal history, any attempts upon the part of the Indians to make formidable assaults against the Spaniards, whose oppressive and grinding system of repartimientos was undoubtedly beginning to be felt. At this period the Indians of Jalisco rose in arms, and symptoms of discontent were observed to prevail, also, among the Tarascos and Tlascalans, who even manifested an intention of uniting with the rebellious natives of the north. Mendoza was not an idle spectator of these movements, but resolved to go forth, in person, at the head of his troops to put down the insurgents. Accordingly he called on the Tlascalans, Cholulans, Huexotzinques, Tezcocans, and other bands or tribes for support, and permitted the caciques to use horses and the same arms that were borne by the Spaniards. This concession seems to have greatly pleased the natives of the country, though it was unsatisfactory to some of their foreign masters.
In the meanwhile, the coasts of America on the west, and the shores of California especially, were examined by the Portuguese Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, as far north as near the 41st° of latitude; whilst another expedition was despatched to the Spice islands, under the charge of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos.
The viceroy was moreover busy with the preparation of his army designed to march upon Jalisco, and, on the 8th of October, 1542, departed from Mexico with a force of fifty thousand Indians, three hundred cavalry, and one hundred and fifty Spanish infantry. Passing through Michoacan, where he was detained for some time, he, at length, reached the scene of the insurrection in Jalisco; but before he attacked the rebels he proclaimed through the ecclesiastics who accompanied him, his earnest wish to accommodate difficulties, and, even, to pardon, graciously, all who would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance. He ordered that no prisoners should be made except of such as were needed to transport the baggage and equipments of his troops; and, in every possible way, he manifested a humane desire to soften the asperities and disasters of the unequal warfare. But the rebellious Indians were unwilling to listen to terms:—"We are lords of all these lands," said they, heroically, in reply, "and we wish to die in their defence!"
Various actions ensued between the Spaniards, their allies, and the insurgents, until at length, Mendoza obtained such decided advantages over his opponents that they gave up the contest, threw down their arms, and enabled the viceroy to return to his capital with the assurance that the revolted territory was entirely and permanently pacified. His conduct to the Indians after his successes was characterized by all the suavity of a noble soul. He took no revenge for this assault upon the Spanish authority, and seems, to have continually endeavored to win the natives to their allegiance by kindness rather than compulsion.
These outbreaks among the Indians were of course not unknown in Spain, where they occasioned no trifling fear for the integrity and ultimate dominion of New Spain. The natural disposition of the Emperor towards the aborigines, was, as we have said, kind and gentle; but he perceived that the causes of these Indian discontents might be attributed not so much, perhaps, to a patriotic desire to recover their violated rights over the country, as to the cruelty they endured at the hands of bold and reckless adventurers who had emigrated to New Spain and converted the inoffensive children of the country into slaves. Accordingly, the Emperor, convened a council composed of eminent persons in Spain, to consider the condition of his American subjects. This council undertook the commission in a proper spirit, and adopted a liberal system towards the aborigines, as well as towards the proprietors of estates in the islands and on the main, which, in time, would have fostered the industry and secured the ultimate prosperity of all classes. There were to be no slaves made in the future wars of these countries; the system of repartimientos was to be abandoned; and the Indians were not, as a class, to be solely devoted to ignoble tasks.[1] The widest publicity was given to these humane intentions in Spain. The Visitador of Hispaniola, or San Domingo, Miguel Diaz de Armendariz, was directed to see their strict fulfilment in the islands; and Francisco Tello de Sandoval was commissioned to cross the Atlantic to Mexico, with full powers and instructions from the Emperor, to enforce their obedience in New Spain.
In February, 1544, this functionary disembarked at St. Juan de Ulua, and, a month afterwards, arrived in the capital. No sooner did he appear in Mexico than the object of his mission became gradually noised about among the proprietors and planters whose wealth depended chiefly upon the preservation of their estates and Indians in the servile condition in which they were before the assemblage of the Emperor's council in Spain during the previous year. Every effort was therefore made by these persons and their sattelites to prevent the execution of the royal will. Appeals were addressed to Sandoval invoking him to remain silent. He was cautioned not to interfere with a state of society upon which the property of the realm depended. The ruin of many families, the general destruction of property, the complete revolution of the American system, were painted in glowing colors, by these men who pretended to regard the just decrees of the Emperor as mere "innovations" upon the established laws of New Spain. But Sandoval was firm, and he was stoutly sustained in his honorable loyalty to his sovereign and Christianity, by the countenance of the viceroy Mendoza. Accordingly, the imperial decrees were promulgated throughout New Spain, and resulted in seditious movements among the disaffected proprietors which became so formidable that the peace of the country was seriously endangered. In this dilemma,—feeling, probably, that the great mass of the people was the only bulwark of the government against the Indians, and that it was needful to conciliate so powerful a body,—permission was granted by the authorities, to appoint certain representatives as a commission to lay the cause before the Emperor himself. Accordingly two delegates were despatched to Spain together with the provincials of San Francisco, Santo Domingo and San Agustin, and other Spaniards of wealth and influence in the colony.
In the following year, Sandoval, who had somewhat relaxed his authority, took upon himself the dangerous task of absolutely enforcing the orders of the Emperor with some degree of strictness, notwithstanding the visit of the representatives of the discontented Mexicans to Spain. He displaced several oidores and other officers who disgraced their trusts, and deprived various proprietors of their repartimientos or portions of Indians who had been abused by the cruel exercise of authority. But, in the meantime, the agents had not ceased to labor at the court in Spain. Money, influence, falsehood and intrigue were freely used to sustain the system of masked slavery among the subjugated natives, and, at last, a royal cedula was procured commanding the revocation of the humane decrees and ordering the division of the royal domain among the conquerors. The Indians, of course, followed the fate of the soil; and thus, by chicanery and influence, the gentle efforts of the better portion of Spanish society were rendered entirely nugatory. The news of this decree spread joy among the Mexican landed proprietors. The chains of slavery were rivetted upon the natives. The principle of compulsory labor was established forever; and, even to this day, the Indian of Mexico remains the bondsman he was doomed to become in the sixteenth century.
Between the years 1540 and 1542, an expedition was undertaken for the subjugation of an important nation which it was alleged existed far to the north of Mexico. A Franciscan missionary, Marcos de Naza, reported that he had discovered, north of Sonora, a rich and powerful people inhabiting a realm known as Quivara, or the seven cities, whose capital, Cibola, was quite as civilized as an European city. After the report had reached and been considered in Spain, it was determined to send an armed force to this region in order to explore, and if possible to reduce the Quivarans to the Spanish yoke. Mendoza had designed to entrust this expedition to Pedro de Alvarado, after having refused Cortéz permission to lead the adventurers,—a task which he had demanded as his right. But when all the troops were enlisted, Alvarado had not yet reached Mexico from Guatemala, and, accordingly, the viceroy despatched Vasquez de Coronado, at the head of the enterprise. At the same time he fitted out another expedition, with two ships, under the orders of Francisco Alarcon, who was to make a reconnoisance of the coast as far as the thirty-sixth degree, and, after having frequently visited the shores, he was, in that latitude to meet the forces sent by land.
Coronado set forth from Culiacan, with three hundred and fifty Spaniards and eight hundred Indians, and, after reaching the source of the Gila, passed the mountains to the Rio del Norte. He wintered twice in the region now called New Mexico, explored it thoroughly from north to south, and then, striking off to the north east, crossed the mountains and wandering eastwardly as far north as the fortieth degree of latitude, he unfortunately found neither Quivara nor gold. A few wretched ruins of Indian villages were all the discoveries made by these hardy pioneers, and thus the enchanted kingdom eluded the grasp of Spain forever. The troop of strangers and Indians soon became disorganized and disbanded; nor was Alarcon more successful by sea than Coronado by land. His vessels explored the shores of the Pacific carefully, but they found no wealthy cities to plunder, nor could the sailors hear of any from the Indians with whom they held intercourse.
In 1546, a desolating pestilence swept over the land, destroying, according to some writers, eight hundred thousand Indians, and, according to others, five-sixths of the whole population. It lasted for about six months; and, at this period, a projected insurrection among the black slaves and the Tenochan and Tlaltelolcan Indians, was detected through a negro. This menaced outbreak was soon crushed by Mendoza, who seized and promptly executed the ringleaders.
A portion of the Visitador Sandoval's orders related to the convocation of the Mexican bishops with a view to the spiritual welfare of the natives, and the prelates were accordingly all summoned to the capital, with the exception of the virtuous Las Casas, whose humane efforts in behalf of the Indians, and whose efforts to free them from the slavery of the repartimientos had subjected him to the mortal hatred of the planters. The council of ecclesiastics met; but it is probable that their efforts were quite as ineffectual as the humane decrees of the Emperor, and that even in the church itself, there may have been persons who were willing to tolerate the involuntary servitude of the natives rather than forego the practical and beneficial enjoyment of estates which were beginning to fall into the possession of convents and monastaries on the death of pious penitents.
Meanwhile the population of New Spain increased considerably, especially towards the westward. It was soon perceived by Mendoza that a single Audiencia was no longer sufficient for so extended a country. He, therefore, recommended the appointment of another, in Compostella de la Nueva Gallacia, and in 1547, the Emperor ordered two letrados for the administration of justice in that quarter. The ultimate reduction of the province of Vera-Paz was likewise accomplished at this period. The benignant name of "True Peace" was bestowed on this territory from the fact that the inhabitants yielded gracefully and speedily to the persuasive influence and spiritual conquest of the Dominican monks, and that not a single soldier was needed to teach them the religion of Christ at the point of the sword.
During the two or three following years there was but little to disturb the quietness of the colony, save in brief and easily suppressed outbreaks among the Indians. Royal lands were divided among poor and meritorious Spaniards; property which was found to be valueless in the neighborhood of cities was allowed to be exchanged for mountain tracts, in which the eager adventurers supposed, they might discover mineral wealth; and the valuable mines of Tasco, Zultepec, and Temascaltepec, together with others, probably well known to the ancient Mexicans, were once more thrown open and diligently worked.
The wise administration of the Mexican viceroyalty by Mendoza had been often acknowledged by the Emperor. He found in this distinguished person a man qualified by nature to deal with the elements of a new society when they were in their wildest moments of confusion, and before they had become organized into the order and system of a regular state. Mendoza, by nature firm, amiable, and just, seems nevertheless to have been a person who knew when it was necessary in a new country, to bend before the storm of popular opinion in order to avoid the destruction, not only of his own influence, but perhaps of society, civilization and the Spanish authorities themselves. In the midst of all the fiery and unregulated spirit of a colony like Mexico, he sustained the dignity of his office unimpaired, and by command, diplomacy, management, and probably sometimes by intrigue, he appears to have ensured obedience to the laws even when they were distasteful to the masses. He was successful upon all occasions except in the enforcement of the complete emancipation of the Indians; but it may be questioned whether he did not deem it needful, in the infancy of the viceroyalty at least, to subject the Indians to labors which his countrymen were either too few in number or too little acclimated in Mexico to perform successfully. History must at least do him the justice to record the fact that his administration was tempered with mercy, for even the Indians revered him as a man who was their signal protector against wanton inhumanity.
Whilst these events occurred in Mexico, Pizarro had subjugated Peru, and added it to the Spanish crown. But there, as in Mexico, an able man was needed to organize the fragmentary society which was in the utmost disorder after the conquest. No one appeared to the Emperor better fitted for the task than the viceroy whose administration had been so successful in Mexico. Accordingly, in 1550, the viceroyalty of Peru was offered to him, and its acceptance urged by the Emperor at a moment when a revolt against the Spaniards occurred among the Zapotecas, instigated by their old men and chiefs, who, availing themselves of an ancient prophecy relative to the return of Quetzalcoatl, assured the youths and warriors of their tribe that the predicted period had arrived and that, under the protection of their restored deity, their chains would be broken. In this, as in all other endeavors to preserve order, the efforts of Mendoza were successful. He appeased the Indians, accepted the proffered task of governing Peru; and, after meeting and conferring with his successor, Velasco, in Cholula, departed from Mexico for the scene of his new labors on the distant shores of the Pacific.
- ↑ Herrera Decade vii., lib. vi., chap. v.