It is somewhat singular, to say the least, to hear such doctrine from the lips of a Dominican,[XIV‑14] while yet the dark looming cloud of the inquisition cast, as from the wings of a fallen angel, the dun spectre of its huge eclipse athwart the hemispheres.
THE NEW LAWS.
The ordinances framed by the junta received the emperor's approval, and after being somewhat amplified were published in Madrid in 1543, and thenceforth known as the New Laws.[XIV‑15] The code contains a large number of articles, many of them relating almost exclusively to the enslavement and treatment of the natives. It was provided that all Indian slaves should be set free, unless their owners could establish a legal title to their possession.[XIV‑16] None were thenceforth to be enslaved under any pretext.
Proprietors to whom the repartimientos had given an excessive number must surrender a portion of them to the crown. On the death of encomenderos[XIV‑17] the slaves were to revert to the crown. All ecclesiastics and religious societies and all officers under the crown must deliver up their bondsmen or bondswomen, not being allowed to retain them even though resigning office. Inspectors were appointed to watch over the interests of the natives, and were paid out of the fines levied on transgressors. Slaves were not to be employed in the pearl-fisheries against their will under penalty of death to the party so employing them, nor when used as pack-animals was such a load to be laid on their backs as might endanger their lives. Finally they were to be converted to the Catholic faith, and it was ordered that two priests should accompany all exploring parties, to instruct the Americans that his Majesty the emperor regarded them as his free subjects, and that his holiness the pope desired to bring them to a true knowledge of him the spread of whose doctrines had in less than half a century been attended with the depopulation of the fairest portions of the New World.
Among the provisions of the new code were others almost as distasteful to many of the Spaniards as were those relating to the enfranchisement of the natives. The audiencia of Panamá was abolished and two new tribunals were to be established, one at Los Reyes, which now first began to bear the name of Lima, and was thenceforth the metropolis of the South American continent; the other termed the audiencia de los Confines, at Comayagua, with jurisdiction over Chiapas, Yucatan, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the province of Tierra Firme, known as Castilla del Oro. From the decision of these tribunals and from those of the audiencias of Mexico and Santo Domingo, there was to be in criminal cases no appeal. In civil suits the losing party might demand a second trial, the benefit of which is not apparent, as no new evidence was admitted, and the case was conducted by the oidores who rendered the first judgment. If the amount exceeded ten thousand pesos de oro, there lay right of appeal to the council of the Indies. Moreover, the oidores[XIV‑18] were empowered to inquire into the administration of the governor and other civil functionaries, and to suspend them from office, their report being sent to the council of the Indies for final action.
Such were the main features of the new code which sought to strike the fetters from a nation which was fast disappearing from the family of man. Tidings of this remarkable piece of legislation soon spread throughout the New World, and from Mexico to Los Reyes the entire population was in a state of ferment bordering revolution. To deprive the settlers of their slaves was to reduce them to beggary. Slaves constituted the chief source of wealth throughout the provinces. Without them the mines could not be worked, towns could not be built, lands could not be tilled. The soldier urged his right of conquest, and many a scarred veteran, worn with toil and hardship, threatened to defend by the sword which had helped to win an empire for his sovereign the estates now threatened by these vexatious regulations.
VASCO NUÑEZ VELA.
The colonists were soon to learn that the new laws were not to remain a dead letter as had been the case with the royal ordinances. In January 1544 Vasco Nuñez Vela, the first viceroy of Peru, arrived at Nombre de Dios, and finding there some Spaniards returning to their native country with stores of wealth acquired by the sale of their Peruvian slaves, ordered them to deliver up their treasure,[XIV‑19] and but for some doubt as to the legality of such a proceeding would certainly have confiscated it.
After crossing the Isthmus the viceroy liberated and sent back from Panamá at the expense of their proprietors, several hundred Indians who had been brought from Peru or were unjustly held in bondage. Bitter were the remonstrances against these high-handed measures, but Vela merely answered, "I come not to discuss the laws but to execute them." The condition of the natives was not improved, however, by their liberation, for we learn that numbers died on board ship from starvation and ill-usage, while others, cast ashore unarmed on a desolate coast, fell a prey to wild beasts or otherwise perished miserably.
A committee of the most noble and influential of the Spaniards waited on the new viceroy to gain from him, if possible, some concessions. They urged that, inasmuch as the Indians had been converted to Christianity, it would be a great loss to the church to enfranchise them, and that if enfranchised they would always be in danger of perishing from starvation. They dared not return to their own tribes, for the caciques inflicted the penalty of death on all who had become Christians. These arguments served but to rouse the wrath of the viceroy, who dismissed the deputation saying, "Were you under my jurisdiction I would hang you every one." Thenceforth none dared oppose him further. Even the oidores of the newly established audiencia of Los Reyes who had accompanied him from Spain made no protest, and on his departure for Peru remained for some time at Panamá before they could muster courage to follow.