of 1553 ordering that the sons of the first conquerors of New Spain who were not possessed of encomiendas should be preferred for the position of corregidor and other offices, in order that they might derive a support therefrom.[1] The pension-list to widows and offspring of the old conquerors at the time amounted to about 24,000 pesos per annum.[2]
Even these broad and searching measures were deemed insufficient by Friar Pedro de Gante, for in 1552 we find him writing to the king setting forth the great suffering of the natives from excessive labor and heavy taxation.[3] He beseeches the monarch to look with merciful eyes on his red subjects not only of New Spain but of New Galicia. Nor were these prayers disregarded by the crown. Orders were issued for the benefit of the natives, and issued again, and several oppugnant decrees of the viceroy and audiencia were repealed by royal command. And yet many and gross evils continued. The archbishop confirmed Gante's statement, yet added that the natives were vicious, given to carnal pleasures, drinking, and gambling, and excessively fond of litigation. They were
- ↑ The second marqués del Valle, soon after his arrival in Mexico, showed himself to be not unmindful of the old conquerors, now few, and most of them poor. It was true, he said to the monarch, that they received some assistance from the royal treasury, but it did not suffice to support them. To further aid them he wished that of the 400 public offices at least 100 should be given them; considering the fact that a great many of those offices existed merely to afford a maintenance to some man; otherwise 200 might be abolished. Cortés, Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iv. 459-60.
- ↑ Those pensions were paid out of the fund of indios vacos, or unappropriated Indians; the lowest was 30 pesos, and one, the highest, of 450 pesos; many were of 300 pesos; a few of 400 pesos; the rest ranged from 250 pesos downward. Agurto, Pensiones, in Id., xiv. 201-20. In 1554 there were 18 encomenderos, who were aged and without heirs; at their death the Indians would revert to the crown. A list appears in Relacion, xiv. 220-2. The veedor of New Spain, Santander, in a letter to the sovereign of July 15, 1557, recommended the perpetuity of the tenure of Indians, on the ground that there would be less warfare and mortality; the Spaniards would be better disposed to serve their king, and the royal revenue would be augmented without taxing the white settlers. It seems that for him the Indian had no rights that should not be made subservient forever to the interests of the crown and the benefit of the Spanish conqueror. Santander, Carta, in Col. Doc. Inéd., xxvi. 351 et seq.
- ↑ This condition of things made it impossible, he said, for the natives to advance morally or otherwise. The effect was to debase them more and more, and to rapidly decrease their number. Gante, Carta al Emp., in Cartas de Indias, 92-102; Zamora, Leg. Ult., ii. 152-4; Órdenes de la Corona, MS., ii. 13.
