with red leather. Those who had been loyal to Spain were now rewarded by permission from the viceroy to ride on horseback and carry a gun when they followed him to put down the insurrection. The gachupines[1] were very angry about this conciliatory policy of the wise Mendoza; but when the news reached Spain, the king, who always had in his heart a warm corner for the Indians, was so much interested that he issued an edict of emancipation, with full authority to the messenger who took it to Mexico to enforce all its commands. If putting the Indians on horseback was an affront to the Spanish pride, the planters were much more deeply moved when their pockets were touched. After a vain attempt to resist the new law, a delegation of Creoles was sent to Spain to protest against this sentimental interference with their human machines. The good Las Casas, then bishop of Chiapas, tried his hand at mending matters, but he was too true a friend of the red men to be tolerated, and he was ever afterward regarded by the planters as their enemy.
Unfortunately for the Indians, the delegation reached Spain at a time when Charles V. was in great trouble. He was always in want of money to carry on his numerous wars, but never had he been in such need as now. The Turks, who for a long time had been thundering at the eastern gate of his empire, now boldly entered and snatched away the crown of Hungary, which he must win back at any cost. His quarrels with his neighbor across the Pyrenees, Francis I., were now at their height, and both these potentates were ransacking Europe for allies and borrowing money wherever they could get it. For political reasons, Charles was just then very friendly
- ↑ The Mexican name for natives of Spain.
