The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 2, Civilized Nations / The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 2

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

[528] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., tom. ix., p. 246.

[529] Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 138; Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 225; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 381. Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii., says that he who stole in the market-place was hanged there and then by order of the judges of the place, and in cap. cxv., he writes: 'El que en el mercado algo hurtava, era ley que luego publicamente alli en el mismo mercado lo matasen á palos.' Again in the same chapter he gives a law, for the authenticity of which he does not vouch, however, which reads as follows: 'el que en el mercado hurtava algo, los mismos del mercado tenian licencia para lo matar á pedradas.'

[530] Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 225.

[531] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxv.

[532] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 381; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxv.

[533] Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.; Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., p. 51.

[534] 'L'omicida pagava colla propria vita il suo delitto, quantunque l'ucciso fosse uno schiavo.' Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 130. The manner of putting the murderer to death is differently stated: 'El homicidio, bien fuese ejecutado por noble ó plebeyo, bien por hombre ó muger, se castigaba con pena de muerte, depedazando al homicida.' Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 226. 'Al que mataba à otro, hacian degollar.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 166. 'Al matador lo degollaban.' Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 33. Other writers merely say that the murderer suffered death, without stating the manner of execution. See, Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii.; Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 387; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 136. Diego Duran, in his inedited 'History of New Spain,' asserts that the murderer did not suffer death, but became the slave for life of the wife or relatives of the deceased. Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. viii., pp. 240-1.

[535] Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.

[536] Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., pp. 51-2.

[537] Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 136; Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 226; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii. In cap. ccxv., among his unauthenticated laws, we read that if the victim of poison was a slave, the person who caused his death was made a slave, in the place of suffering the extreme penalty, but the opposite to this is expressly stated by Clavigero and implied by Ortega.