CHAPTER VIII.
PERU; PROGRESS OF THE VICEROYALTY.
1551-1774.
Notwithstanding Gasca’s wise regulations, the tranquillity of Peru was not of long continuance. It was impossible that a country where anarchy had so long prevailed, and which contained so many discontented adventurers, should quietly settle down at once in the ways of peace. Several successive insurrections desolated the land for some years. These fierce but transient storms, however, excited by individual ambition, need not occupy attention. It is sufficient to say that in these contests a number of the early invaders perished. Indeed, as has been already said, of the men whose names are most conspicuous in this nefarious conquest, scarcely one seems to have ended his days in peace.
The Spanish authority being at length consolidated in Peru, it is desirable to show, in so far as may be possible, the nature of the government which succeeded to that of the Incas. The first visible consequence of the Spanish domination was the diminution in number of the Peruvians, to a degree more deplorable than astonishing. However great may have been the mortality caused among them by war, it was slight in comparison to that which resulted when tranquillity had been restored. All were now compelled to labour, their tasks bearing no proportion to their strength, but being exacted, nevertheless, with undeviating severity. Many of them were driven by despair to put an end to their own lives; whilst fatigue and famine destroyed many more. When Peru was divided amongst the conquerors, each of the latter was eager to obtain an instantaneous recompense for his services. Men accustomed to the carelessness of a military life had neither industry to carry on any plan of regular cultivation nor patience to wait for its slow returns. Disdaining to profit by the certain results of agriculture in the fertile valleys, they selected for their habitations the mountainous regions, which abounded in the precious mines. In order to develop these, many hands were wanted; and the natives were accordingly driven in crowds to the mountains. The sudden transition from the sultry valleys to the penetrating air of the higher altitudes combined with inordinate labour and scanty nourishment to produce an unwonted despondency, under which they rapidly melted away. In addition to this, large numbers were carried off by that scourge of the New World, the small-pox. These united causes were more than sufficient to thwart such well-meant regulations for the protection of the Indians as were promulgated by the Spanish Government, and as were invariably seconded, if not initiated, by the Church.
Nevertheless, a considerable number of the native race remained in Peru, more especially in the more remote regions. The fundamental maxim of Spanish jurisprudence with respect to her colonies was to consider these acquisitions as being vested in the Crown rather than in the State. By the celebrated Bull of Alexander VI., on which Spain founded its rights in the New World, the regions that had been or should be discovered were bestowed as a free gift upon Ferdinand and Isabella. Hence their successors were held to be the proprietors of the territories conquered by the arms of their subjects. All grants proceeded from them, and from them only all power issued,—with the exception, that is to say, of local municipal authority.
On the completion of the Spanish conquests in America, these were divided into two vast governments; the northern one being subject to the Viceroy of New Spain [Mexico]; the southern to the Viceroy of Peru. The former, with which this work has no concern, comprised all the provinces to the north of the Isthmus of Panamá. Under the latter were comprehended all the Spanish dominions in South America. It was so inconveniently extensive that some of its districts were separated by more than two thousand miles from Lima. Owing to the distance from Spain at which these respective governments lay and the difficulties of communication within them, it was inevitable that much inconvenience should arise. This inconvenience, however, became intolerable as time advanced. The population in the provinces remote from the seat of government complained with reason of their being subjected to a ruler whose residence was placed so far away as for practical purposes to be inaccessible; whilst the authority of the Viceroy over such districts was necessarily feeble and ill-directed.
As a partial remedy for these evils, a third Viceroyalty was later established, in the year 1718, at Santa Fè de Bogotá, the capital of New Granada, the jurisdiction attached to which included that over the provinces of Quito, Popayan, Choco, and the region called Tierra Firma. The Viceroys not only represented the person of the Sovereign, but likewise possessed the full regal prerogatives within the precincts of their respective governments. The external pomp with which they were surrounded was suited to their real dignity and power, their courts being formed upon the model of that of Madrid. The Viceroy had his horse-guards and his foot-guards; his household regularly established; a large number of attendants; and altogether such magnificence as hardly to retain the appearance of delegated authority.
The Viceroys were aided in the discharge of the functions appertaining to their rank by officers and tribunals similar to those in Spain, some of whom were appointed by the King, and others by the Viceroy, but all subject to the latter and amenable to his jurisdiction. The administration of justice was vested in tribunals called Audiences, formed on the model of the Court of Chancery in Spain. In the entire Spanish dominions of America there were eleven Audiences, of which seven were established in the southern division of the continent,—namely, at Lima, Panamá, Santa Fé de Bogotá, La Plata or Charcas, Quito, St. Iago de Chili, and Buenos Ayres. The number of judges in each Court of Audience varied according to circumstances. The station was no less honourable than lucrative, and was, for the most part, filled by persons whose merit and ability invested the tribunal with much respect. Both civil and criminal causes came under its cognizance; and for each peculiar judges were set apart.
The distance by which they were separated from the mother country not unfrequently tempted the Spanish Viceroys to arrogate to themselves a power to which even their Master was a stranger, namely, that of intruding themselves into the seat of justice. In order to check such usurpation, laws were repeatedly enacted prohibiting the Viceroys, in the most explicit terms, from interfering in the judicial proceedings of the Courts of Audience, or from delivering an opinion or giving a voice with respect to any point in litigation before them. In some particular cases, in which any question of civil right was involved, even the political regulations of the Viceroy might be brought under the review of the Court of Audience, which, in those instances, might be deemed an intermediate power placed between him and the people, as a constitutional barrier to circumscribe his jurisdiction. Such restraint, however, as the Court might exercise over the person of the Viceroy was limited to advice and remonstrance; in the event of a direct collision between their opinion and his will, what he determined must be carried into execution; they could but lay the matter before the King and the Council of the Indies. The mere permission, however, to remonstrate and to report upon one who represented the sovereign, gave great dignity to the persons composing the Audience. Further than this, upon the death of a Viceroy, without provision for a successor, the supreme power devolved upon the Audience residing in the capital of the Viceroyalty. The decisions of these courts, in cases affecting sums exceeding six thousand pesos, might be carried by appeal before the Council of the Indies.
This supreme Council was established by King Ferdinand in 1511, and perfected by Charles V., thirteen years later. Its jurisdiction extended to every department, whether ecclesiastical, civil, military, or commercial. With it originated all laws and ordinances relative to the government and police of the colonies. By it were conferred all offices, the nomination to which was reserved to the Crown; and to it was accountable every employé in America, from Viceroys downwards. It took cognizance of all intelligence arriving from the American colonies, and of every scheme for the improvement of their administration. It was the invariable object of the kings of Spain to maintain the authority of this great Council, whose measures and inspection were, as a rule, wise and watchful. The meetings of the Council of the Indies were held in the place of residence of the Monarch. This body, in fact, more or less corresponded with our own Secretary of State for India in Council. There was, besides, a tribunal or board for the special regulation of commercial matters. This was called Casa de la Contratacion, or the House of Trade, and was established in Seville, which port absorbed the commerce with the New World as early as 1501. It took cognizance of all matters appertaining to the annual fleets to and from Spanish America, and its decisions were subject alone to revision by the Council of the Indies.
The policy of Spain, with respect to her colonies in relation to other nationalities, was one of jealousy and exclusion, which augmented in proportion to their increased extent. In forming their American settlements, says the historian Robertson, the Spanish monarchs adopted a system taken partly from the colonizing principle of Greece and partly from that of Rome. The early Hellenic migrations served to enable a state to get rid of its superfluous citizens; the Roman colonies, on the other hand, were military detachments stationed as garrisons in a conquered province. The Spanish settlements in America partook of the nature of both. Whilst they soon became semi-independent, their connection with the mother country was retained by means of the rights of legislation and of the power of nominating the persons who should fill every department of the executive government.