XLV. Mercator’s Northwestern Part of New Spain, 1569 [◊]

The Council for the Indies referred the whole matter of the petitions and accompanying evidence to the fiscal, the licentiate Villalobos, April 21, 1540. He made a report, which virtually decided the case, May 25. The parties were given an opportunity of replying to this, and they continued to present evidence and petitions and countercharges for a year longer. The final decision, if any was made, has not been printed, so far as I know, but the Council could hardly have done anything beyond formally indorsing the report of Villalobos. The duty of the fiscal was plain, and his report advises His Majesty not to grant any of the things asked for by the petitioners. He states that this discovery ought to be made by and in behalf of His Majesty, since the region was not included in any previous grant. Although the Crown had forbidden any further unlicensed explorations, this would not prevent expeditions being undertaken on the part of the Crown, which is always at liberty to explore at will. In effect, of course, the report sanctioned the exploration by Mendoza, who represented the royal interests and power. An objection was at once entered in behalf of De Soto, using the very good argument that Mendoza’s expedition would be sent out either at the expense of the Crown or of his private fortune. If the former, it was claimed that as the explorer would have the glory in any event, the Crown ought to save the expense by allowing De Soto, who had already undertaken the same thing at his own cost, to make these discoveries, which he promised should redound to as great an extent to the glory and advantage of the Emperor. If Mendoza was undertaking this at his own expense, it was evident that he would desire to recover his outlay. Here he was merely on the same footing as De Soto, who was prepared to make a better offer to his Royal Master than Mendoza could possibly afford. In either case there was the danger of scandal and disaster, in case the two expeditions should be allowed to come together beyond the range of the royal oversight. No answer to this appeal is recorded, and the parties continued to argue down their opponents’ cases, while the viceroy in New Spain started the expedition which, under the command of Francisco Vazquez Coronado, discovered the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, the Grand canyon of the Colorado, and the bison of the great plains.

THE EXPEDITION TO NEW MEXICO AND THE GREAT PLAINS

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION

Two classes of colonists are essential to the security and the permanent prosperity of every newly opened country. In New Spain in the sixteenth century these two classes, sharply divided and almost antagonistic—the established settlers and the free soldiers of fortune—were both of considerable importance. Cortes, so soon as he had conquered the country, recognized the need of providing for its settlement by a stable population. In the petitions and memorials which he wrote in p374 1539 and 1540 he continually reiterates the declaration of the pains and losses sustained on account of his efforts to bring colonists from Spain to populate the New World. Whether he accomplished all that these memorials claim is doubtful, for there are comparatively few references to this class of immigrants during the years when Cortes was in a position to accomplish his designs. Mendoza declared that the increase of the European population in New Spain came largely after his own arrival there, in 1535, and this was probably true. The “good viceroy” unquestionably did more than anyone else to place the province on a permanent basis.[48]

Mendoza supervised with great care the assignment of land to the newcomers, and provided tools and stock for those who had not the means of equipping their farms. As a royal decree forbade the granting of land to unmarried men, besides directing an increase of royal favor and additional grants proportionate to the increase of children, the viceroy frequently advanced the money which enabled men who were desirous of settling down to get married. When he came from Spain in 1535, he brought with him a number of eligible spinsters, and it is quite probable that, after these had found husbands, he maintained the supply of maids suitable to become the wives of those colonists who wished to experience the royal bounty and favor. Alvarado engaged in a similar undertaking when he came out to Guatemala in 1539, but with less success than we may safely hope rewarded the thoughtfulness of Mendoza.[49] A royal order in 1538 had decreed that all who held encomiendas should marry within three years, if not already possessed of a wife, or else forfeit their estates to married men. Some of the bachelor landholders protested against the enforcement of this order in Guatemala, because eligible white women could not be found nearer than Mexico. To remove this objection, Alvarado brought twenty maidens from Spain. Soon after their arrival, a reception was held, at which they were given a chance to see their prospective husbands. During the evening, one of the girls declared to her companions that she never could marry one of these “old fellows, . . . who were cut up as if they had just escaped from the infernal regions, . . . for some of them are lame, some have only one hand, others have no ears or only one eye, and some of them have lost half their faces. The best of them have one or two scars across their foreheads.” p375 The story is that one of the “old fellows” overheard this outburst, reported it to his friends, and promptly went off and married the daughter of a powerful cacique.

Besides assisting his colonists to get wives, Mendoza did a great deal to foster the agricultural interests of the province. He continued the importation of cattle, which Cortes had begun, and also procured horses and sheep from Spain. He writes in one of his letters of the especial satisfaction that he felt because of the rapid increase of his merino sheep, in spite of the depredations of the natives and of wild animals. The chief concern of the officials of the audiencia had been the gold mines, which yielded a considerable revenue in certain districts; but Mendoza, without neglecting these, proved how large and reliable was the additional revenue which could be derived from other sources. The viceroy’s success in developing the province can not be shown more clearly than by repeating the description of New Spain in 1555, written by Robert Tomson, an English merchant engaged in the Spanish trade. In the course of a business tour Tomson visited the City of Mexico. His commercial friends in the city entertained him most hospitably, and did their best to make his visit pleasant. He refused, however, to heed their warnings, and his indiscreet freedom of speech finally compelled the officials of the Inquisition to imprison him, thus adding considerably to the length of his residence in the city. After he returned home, he wrote a narrative of his tour, in which he says of New Spain:

“As for victuals in the said Citie, of beefe, mutton, and hennes, capons, quailes, Guiñy-cockes, and such like, all are very good cheape: To say, the whole quarter of an oxe, as much as a slaue can carry away from the Butchers, for fine Tomynes, that is, fine Royals of plate, which is iust two shillings and sixe pence, and a fat sheepe at the Butchers for three Royals, which is 18. pence and no more. Bread is as good cheape as in Spaine, and all other kinde of fruites, as apples, peares, pomegranats, and quinces, at a reasonable rate. . . . [The country] doth yeeld great store of very good silke, and Cochinilla. . . . Also there are many goodly fruits, whereof we haue none such, as Plantanos, Guyanes, Sapotes, Tunas, and in the wildernes great store of blacke cheries, and other wholsome fruites. . . . Also the Indico that doeth come from thence to die blew, is a certaine hearbe. . . . Balme, Salsaperilla, cana fistula, suger, oxe hides, and many other good and seruiceable things the Countrey doeth yeeld, which are yeerely brought into Spaine, and there solde and distributed to many nations.”[50]

The other class among the colonists of New Spain in the second quarter of the sixteenth century “floated like cork on the water” on those who had established their homes in the New World.[51] The men p376 who made it possible to live in security on the farms and ranches of the province had rendered many and indispensable services, and there was much that they might still do to enlarge its boundaries and make the security more certain. They were, nevertheless, a serious hindrance to the prosperity of the settlements. For the most part they were young men of all sorts and degrees. Among them were many sons of Spanish noblemen, like Mendoza the viceroy, whose brother had just succeeded his father as Marquis de Mondejar. Very much of the extension of the Spanish world by discovery and conquest was due to the sons of men of rank, who had, perhaps generally, begun to sow their wild oats in Spain and were sent across the Atlantic in order to keep them out of mischief at home, or to atone, it may be, for mischief already done. In action, these young caballeros were most efficient. By personal valor and ability, they held the positions of leadership everywhere, among men who followed whom and when they chose, and always chose the man who led them most successfully. When inactive, these same cavaliers were a most trying annoyance to any community in which they happened to be. Armed with royal letters and comprehensive introductions, they had to be entertained, at heavy charges. Masters of their own movements, they came as they liked, and very often did not go away. Lovers of excitement, they secured it regardless of other men’s wives or property.