Mozos de Cargo, Quichó.
The personality of these tribes is wholly absent from Dr. Stoll’s learned treatise; and my own knowledge of their appearance and way of thought is too limited to lead me to venture to fill the void. I have noticed what every one else speaks of,—the sober bearing of the Guatemaltecan Indios; but I have often seen the face of my mozo de cargo brighten as I greeted him, and I have been even led to think that his mourning expression is worn much as civilized ladies wear their black,—to save themselves trouble. It is laid aside in the family, or with a friend they can trust. Many of the men are well formed, although small, and their faces are often very attractive. I believe them to be neater in their persons and garb than the ladino population.
Carved stone Seat (Museo Nacional).
CHAPTER X.
THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA.
Arms of Guatemala.
For almost three centuries Spain governed Central America (1524-1821) by the Audiencia Real. Every act of oppression that could be exercised upon the Indios was invented by the foreign rulers, and the native population was greatly reduced by this mismanagement; but such a course always reacts most terribly upon the perpetrators. The thirst for wealth that brought the foreigners to these shores pursued them still, and the brave resistance to wrongs unlimited, that the Spaniards themselves chronicle, does not seem to have awakened that respect in the bosoms of the Conquistadores that it now rouses in the heart of every generous student of the past. The Indios were lawful prey, it was “spoiling the Egyptians;” and although Las Casas and some of the missionaries tried faithfully to protect their flock, and although the King of Spain made decrees, the powers of evil seemed to have their own way in this distant colony. We cannot but admire the undoubted courage and indifference to personal hardship exhibited by the Conquistadores; but that must not blind us to the fact that they were little better than freebooters in their treatment of the American nations they subdued, and that their policy, so far as they had any, was of the most selfish and narrow kind. Jealousy of other nations, especially of England, who was now beginning to try her hand in ruling the sea, although in a rather irregular way, led to the establishment of all the important cities in the mountain region of the interior, where they might well escape the notice of other nations. The natural walls that Nature had provided were made very useful to their utmost extent; the ports were but conveniences to help the invaders to supplies from the mother-country and afford a necessary means for the exportation of their ill-gotten gains, and general commerce was discouraged in every way. The buccaneers helped to discourage the growth of ports, but the Home Government did quite as much in this direction. The atrocious system of encomiendas, by which the native population was reduced to an almost hopeless slavery, was permitted, if not encouraged, by the Church, and no attempt was ever made to develop the country on a basis of improvement in the Indian population; and the animal, vegetable, and mineral wealth of Guatemala were treated much in the same way,—a prey for the present robber. The Indios were all subdued, except the Lacandones far on the northern frontier, who were too poor to pay for subjugation; and the iniquitous policy of selfishness began to bear fruit. Unlimited power and immunity in the hands of the clergy begot intolerance. The shepherds became the wolves, and not only devoured their own flocks, but the entire country as well. Monopolies, corruption, oppression grew like true tropical vegetation, until the air became too close for healthful life; and then came the fermentation. Uprisings of the Indios had occurred before the death of Alvarado (1541),—for example, the brave attempt of the Cacique Lempira in Honduras; but these rebellions were all crushed by the iron hand of the Adelantado and by his generals. Now came the low murmur of a rising tempest over the land, and the winds were blowing from a different quarter of the heavens. Now the ruling caste was uneasy, and it was about to reap the inevitable harvest of the wind it had sowed.
Not in the province of Guatemala, not at the seat of the Audiencia Real, but on that disturbed strip of land along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and San Salvador, where earthquakes are on the most terrific scale, and volcanic vents bristle threateningly, appeared the first forcible remonstrances against this aged and encrusted tyranny. In 1811 there were risings, little pronunciamentos; but there was no combination to insure success. The false system of government taught a distrust of others; selfishness permeated individual character as well as the nation at large; and no man could put confidence in his neighbor. No leader appeared to unite the discordant elements, the evolution of a free state was very slow, and at last was as much owing to the supineness of Spain as to any forceful act on the part of the provinces. We have here no war of freedom, no Washington, no Bolivar. Sporadic murmurs were heard now and again; they came to the ears of the people and set a few men to thinking; the number of these thinkers grew, until in 1821 the then representative of Spain, Gavino Gainza, joined the rebels,—much as a disappointed politician of the present day leaves his party for the camp of its opponents,—and independence was solemnly proclaimed, September 15, in Guatemala. Spain seems to have acquiesced in an act which deprived her of her fair American colonies; but it may be supposed that her mismanagement had left little value in the possession.