Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1 of 2

by Robert Grant Watson

The authority of the crown being thus fully re-established, there was no lack of subjects to occupy the governor’s attention. As was natural, many of the cavaliers who had assisted him in the struggle now demanded their reward. He was happy to rid himself of their importunities by sending them on distant expeditions, some being in the direction of the Rio de la Plata. But his chief concern was to establish laws for the better government of the colony. He did not neglect the Indian population, and established schools for Christian education. He invited the natives to reside within the Spanish communities, and required the caciques to provide supplies for the wayside houses for travellers, thus facilitating intercourse and removing pretexts for plundering. He braved considerable odium by reducing the proportions of the repartimientos of Indians amongst the conquerors; but as his measures were manifestly dictated by motives of justice, he was supported by the general opinion of the community. Indeed, Vaca de Castro stands out in most pleasing contrast to the military adventurers by whom he had been preceded in Peru. With the disadvantage of being a civilian, unused to arms or to military command, and being, further, on his arrival without funds or troops, with the country before him in a state of anarchy, he yet never quailed or shrank from his duty. He displayed not only the tact and conciliatory disposition which might have been expected from the circumstances of his selection, but further, high moral and personal courage; and whilst he spared no pains to secure the interests of his government and of his countrymen beneath his rule, it was his especial honour to make the professions of his superiors in favour of the natives not merely a declaration in words, but a reality in deed.

The spoils of the Peruvian empire, which had been so easily won by a mere handful of Spaniards, were as easily dissipated in riotous living. The provident arrangements of the Incas on behalf of their subjects were suffered to fall into decay. The granaries were emptied; the flocks of llamas were wantonly slaughtered; whilst the lives of the Indians themselves were held so cheap that they were not only systematically worked beyond their strength until they died, but were even occasionally hunted by blood-hounds for the mere amusement of their conquerors. It is almost unnecessary to add that for the young women of the country, from the Virgins of the Sun downwards, there was no protection whatsoever. The poor natives, destitute of food, and no longer warmed by the produce of the fleece of the llama, wandered naked over the plains.

Yet fortunately there were not wanting in the colonies men who from time to time raised their voices against the abuses and enormities of which their countrymen were guilty, and made themselves heard even at the foot of the throne. Nor must it be supposed that the enormities which have been alluded to were in any way sanctioned by the emperor. It must be remembered that the Spanish possessions in the New World were at an immense distance from home, and that in those days the means of communication were slow and irregular. It would therefore no more be fair to charge upon the Spanish crown the responsibility for encouraging or approving the caprices or pastimes of a set probably of the greatest ruffians in the emperor’s dominions, than it would have been, in the days before communication by steam and telegraph, to hold Her Majesty’s Government responsible for the deeds of certain of Her subjects who were early settlers in South Africa or Australia. The Government of Spain was ever desirous to obtain information respecting the state of their transatlantic dominions, and for this end relied not only on the regular colonial officers of the crown, but from time to time deputed special commissioners for the purpose of making inquiries. Yet even when impartial inquiries were made and full reports written, all was not done; for the Spanish Government was essentially a personal one, and the emperor was very frequently absent from that kingdom.

1542.

Fortunately, however, for the credit of his reign and for the existence of his transatlantic subjects, he visited his ancestral dominions in the Peninsula in the year 1542, when the condition of the colonies was strongly pressed upon his conscience. In the same year a council of jurists and theologians was convened at Valladolid to devise a system of laws for the American colonies. Las Casas, who had emerged from his cell, appeared before it, when he powerfully pleaded the cause of the oppressed. He showed that, putting aside natural rights, unless the Government should interfere, the native races must be gradually exterminated by the systematic oppression of the Spaniards, and he maintained that it was against the will of God to inflict evil on the plea that good might come of it. His arguments, as might be expected, were met by much opposition, some even of those who sympathized with him deeming that his views were Utopian and impracticable. His eloquence, however, dictated by the best of motives and based upon the foundation of facts, in the end prevailed, and the result was a code of ordinances for all the American colonies, some provisions of which had immediate reference to Peru.

The natives of Peru were declared vassals of the crown, and their freedom as such was recognised; yet those of the conquerors who might have become lawfully possessed of slaves might still retain them, though at the death of their present proprietors they were to revert to the crown. All slaves, however, should be forfeited by those who had shown themselves, by neglect or ill-usage, unworthy to hold them. Those likewise were to be free who were held by public functionaries, present or past, by ecclesiastics and religious corporations, and by all who had taken a criminal part in the feuds of Almagro and Pizarro. It was further ordered that the Indians should be moderately taxed; that they should not be compelled to labour where they did not choose to, or that, if this were necessary, they should receive fair compensation. The repartimientos of land which were excessive should be reduced; and where proprietors had notoriously been guilty of abuse of their slaves, their estates were to be forfeited.

Taking into consideration the past troubles in Peru, and the necessity for the crown being adequately represented there, it was resolved to send a Viceroy to rule over that province. He was to be accompanied by a royal audience, consisting of four judges, who should constitute a council to the Viceroy, whose residence was to be at Lima. But it was not foreseen that this sweeping legislation, which struck at the very foundations of colonial society and property, might not be quietly acquiesced in by the colonists. It raised, in point of fact, one of those sudden storms which we have in our own time seen more than once break over our Indian Empire on the announcement of some legislative measure affecting the relations between Anglo-Indians and Asiatics which was not to the taste of the former, and its results were such as fortunately we have been so far spared in our own experience. When the tidings reached the New World men were astounded, and saw before them only the prospect of uncertainty or ruin. In Peru in particular scarcely one single person could escape being involved in the provisions of some clauses of the new laws, if for no other reason than that the whole Spanish population had on the one side or on the other taken part in the struggle for mastery between the factions of Pizarro and Almagro. The whole country was thrown into confusion; and loud were the denunciations against the Government which had thus deprived at one stroke the freebooters of so much of their ill-gotten spoil.

Nor did they stop at reproaches. There was but one step to menace. The colonists had won their possessions with their swords, and they now declared that by the same means they knew how to retain them. The governor, Vaca de Castro, who had so admirably acquitted himself of his duties hitherto, was now indeed placed in a trying situation. He was at Cuzco, in the midst of a mixed population, and separated from Lima and from the sea. He was appealed to by the colonists to protect them against the tyranny of the court; but he did his best to dissuade them from violent measures, prudently suggesting that they should send deputies to lay their pleas respectfully before the crown. In his present trying position, as in his previous conduct, he proved himself an able and judicious man; but it was beyond his power to allay the storm that had been raised, even although he suggested that the Viceroy on his arrival might take it upon himself to postpone the execution of the ordinances until after the receipt of further advices from Castile.

Such being the state of things, the discontented Peruvian colonists not unnaturally turned their attention to Gonzalo Pizarro, the representative of the conqueror under whose banner the country had been won. Gonzalo was at this time at Charcas, the modern Chuquisaca, and was busily engaged in exploring the silver mines of Potosí. He was not discontented at the turn which things had taken, but was sufficiently prudent to provide the means of warfare before rushing into action; and while he did not discourage the malcontents, he was careful not to commit himself. In the latter course he was confirmed by letters from Vaca de Castro, whose prudent measures served at least to lull for a time the troubled waters.

The new Viceroy at length arrived. Blasco Nuñez Vela was a handsome cavalier of the years of discretion; but unfortunately he proved wholly unequal to cope with the difficult situation before him. It was not owing to any disapproval of the measures or proceedings of Vaca de Castro that that officer now found himself superseded; but intelligence of events travelled so slowly that the full success of his policy was not at once apparent, and the Government of Spain thought they were acting for the best in sending out as Viceroy a person unconnected with the events that had passed. The Emperor at the same time wrote an autograph letter to the ex-governor, in which he thanked him for his services, and directed him, after having given his successor the benefit of his experience, to return homewards to sit in the royal council.