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

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.

The Spanish adventurers, who laid the foundations of the republics of South America, were much more successful in the work of destruction than in that of creation. Owing to a variety of causes, amongst them being disease, war, famine, the imposition of impossible tasks, the burden of oppressive taxes, transportation from the valleys to the mountains, labour in the mines, and being employed in the place of beasts of burden in expeditions—owing to these, the native population decreased with immense rapidity. On the other hand, owing to the jealously-restrictive policy of Spain in compelling her subjects in the New World to have recourse to the mother country for many of the necessities of life, and which could only be purchased at excessive cost, the numbers of the Spaniards did not increase in the ratio that might have been expected. Other reasons contributed to this, the chief one of which was the tenure of land, which was extremely unfavourable to the increase of population. Many of the conquerors obtained permission to convert their encomiendas, or estates with serfs attached to them, into mayorasgos, a species of fief, which can neither be divided nor alienated. Thus a great portion of landed property, under this rigid form of entail, was withheld from circulation, and descended from father to son unimproved, and of little value either to the proprietor or to the community. In some instances enormous tracts of country were held by one person, the reason being that only extensive districts could afford the number of labourers requisite for the working of mines with any prospect of gain. The evil effects arising from these causes were very apparent; but we must hesitate to accept the computation of Benzoni11 that in the year 1550 the entire Spanish population in the New World did not exceed fifteen thousand.

It is estimated, likewise, that the enormously expensive ecclesiastical establishment in the Spanish colonies greatly retarded their progress. The payment of tithes was enforced to the full extent, even in the case of articles requiring artificial production. Such fertile and wealthy regions, however, as had fallen to the lot of Spain in the New World through the enterprise of her sons, could not fail in the long run successfully to emerge from the mass of trammels which had been imposed upon them by the ignorance of legislators, the force of circumstances, and the power of superstition. Gradually a new society arose, the component elements of which may be classified as follows:—

In the first place came the Chapetones, being the Spaniards who arrived from Europe. The Court of Spain, jealously anxious to ensure the dependence of the colonies on the mother country, made it a rule to fill all departments of the state by Spaniards born. Each employé was required to furnish proof of a clear descent from a family of old Christians, untainted by Hebrew or Moorish blood, and uncontaminated by having appeared in the records of the Inquisition.

Next in order come the Creoles, or the descendants of Europeans settled in America. This class very soon began to exhibit the degeneracy which has invariably resulted wherever a portion of a vigorous race inhabiting an invigorating climate has migrated to an enervating one. It resulted, for example, in a marked degree with the Portuguese in India; and if it has not the same result with the English, this is to be attributed entirely to the fact that in almost all instances Anglo-Indians send their children, at an early age, to be brought up and educated in Europe, and that they themselves are being continually recruited from the mother country. In the instance of such English as are born and brought up in India, who are fortunately too few in number to require to be classified like Creoles, the invariable rule of nature holds good, as it does amongst the Italians and French who, ever since the Crusades, have lived in greater or less numbers in the Levant, the word “Levantine” being a synonym for moral and physical degeneracy.

Thus the Creoles, though many of them were descended from the conquerors of the New World; though others could trace their pedigree to the noblest families of Spain; though some possessed the advantage of great patrimonial wealth, yet, owing to moral and physical causes, as well as to special legislation, sank naturally into a second-class position. Their mental vigour was in a marked degree lost, and such of it as remained was devoted to the indulgences of pleasure and superstition. Even the operations of commerce, in addition to the functions of government, fell to the lot of the Chapetones or natives of Spain.

The third class in the Spanish colonists arose from the offspring, either of Europeans with negroes, or of Europeans with original natives of America. These were called, respectively, Mulattoes and Mestizas, and they multiplied so greatly as to constitute a very considerable portion of the population throughout the transatlantic dominions of Spain. The several stages of descent in this race were distinguished by a peculiar name. In the third generation the hue of the Indian disappeared, and in the fifth the blood of the Mulatto became so undistinguishable that his offspring obtained all the privileges of the European. This robust and hardy race were invaluable in the Spanish settlements in practising the mechanical arts.

Amongst the inhabitants of the Spanish colonies, the fourth rank was assigned to the negroes pure and simple. They were in several settlements employed chiefly in domestic service. Their superior physical strength, as well as their favour with their masters, gave them an ascendancy over the natives, whom they were wont to treat with such insolence and scorn, that an implacable antipathy arose between the two races. This antipathy, which originated from accidental causes, was no sooner perceived than it was sedulously fomented, great precautions being taken to prevent anything which might form a bond of union between the two races.

Last of all, in the order of society, came the unfortunate native Indians, who had been so ruthlessly dispossessed of all their natural rights. Due regulations determined the nature and extent of the services which these were required to perform, and likewise the amount of the annual tax imposed upon all males between the ages of fifteen and fifty. When the native was an immediate vassal of the Crown, three-fourths of the tax, which may have been on an average about four shillings a head, were paid into the royal treasury. When he formed part of an encomienda, a like proportion belonged to the holder of the grant. As the original encomiendas were only granted for two lives, they then reverted to the sovereign. The benefit of the labour of the natives in like manner belonged either to the Crown or to the holder of the grant. They were compelled to assist in works of necessity, such as the culture of corn, tending cattle, forming roads, bridges, &c.; but they could not be constrained to labour for the furtherance of objects of personal gratification or commercial profit. For the purpose of service in the mines they were called out in successive divisions, called mitas, in which each person took his turn. In Peru each mita could not exceed a seventh part of any inhabitants of a district, and was detained at service in the mines for six months at a time. Whilst engaged in this service, however, each labourer was duly paid, receiving from two to four shillings a day; and, after a time, a humane regulation was introduced, forbidding the deportation of the natives of the plains to the elevated regions. No Indian residing more than thirty miles from the mine might be assigned to the mita employed in it.

The natives living in town were subject to the Spanish laws and magistrates; but those inhabiting their own villages were left in charge of their caciques, by whom their affairs were regulated according to traditional usage. This dignity was in many cases permitted to continue by hereditary descent; and, for the further protection of the natives, the Spanish Court appointed, in the course of time, an officer in each district, who was styled “Protector of the Indians.” It was the duty of this functionary to assert their rights and to represent them in courts of justice. Of the reserved fourth of the Indians’ tribute a portion was assigned as the salaries for the protector and the cacique, the remainder being given for the purpose of their religious requirements, or for their own support in years of famine or other such calamity. Where so much has to be recorded of cruelty and misgovernment on the part of the Spaniards towards the natives of South America, it is gratifying to be enabled to state that hospitals were erected for the benefit of indigent and infirm in Lima, Cuzco, and elsewhere, where the natives were treated with all humanity.

On a general review of Spanish legislation with respect to the treatment of the natives of the New World, it is admitted on all sides that, granted that Spain possessed any rights over them at all, her government, from the time of Isabella onwards, was most solicitous for their spiritual and material well-being. Several causes, however, as has been already observed, contributed to thwart the wise and humane legislation on the part of the mother country. Chief amongst these were the distance of the colonies from Spain, and the self-interest of those persons whose duty it was to see the laws and regulations enacted. In Peru more especially the Indians are stated to have been much oppressed, the law forbidding their employment at more than thirty miles from their homes being often broken. In several provinces, however, the natives were permitted to enjoy not only ease but affluence—possessing well-stocked farms, and being supplied with all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life.

An important feature in the history of the Spanish colonies is the condition of the Church in the latter, and its connection with the State. Ferdinand “the Catholic” was likewise Ferdinand the politic; and in his transactions with the Holy See he had a vigilant eye for the interests of his Crown. With an early precaution against the introduction of Papal dominion in America, he solicited and obtained from the Pope, Alexander VI., a grant to his Crown of the tithes in all the newly-discovered countries, upon the condition of making provision for the religious instruction of the natives. Julius II. likewise conferred upon him and his successors the right of ecclesiastical patronage and the disposal of all benefices in the colonies. It is true that these pontiffs were entirely in the dark as to the value of that which was demanded; and when this fact became better known, their successors had occasion to lament their inconsiderate liberality. But the grants were beyond recall, and their consequence was to make the Spanish monarchs the heads of the American Church. In them the administration of its revenues was vested, and their nominations to benefices were at once confirmed by the Pope. Thus was avoided all collision between spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. This limitation of the Papal authority is the more singular when we consider the character of the nation and that of the monarch by whom it was devised.

The hierarchy of Spanish America was constituted similarly to that of Spain. The inferior clergy were divided into three classes, Curas, Doctrineros, and Misioneros. Of these, the first were parish priests; the second had charge of districts inhabited by subjected Indians; the third were employed in converting and instructing independent tribes. The revenues of the Church were immense; its edifices and convents were magnificent, and its display of wealth ostentatious. Nothing could be less suitable for establishments so situated as were the Spanish colonies in South America than the introduction of the monastic system; yet that system was soon to be found there to a most flourishing extent. In a new settlement, where there is room to spread, the main object should be to encourage population; but the Spaniards, with their usual blindness, began from the first to erect convents, where persons of either sex were shut up in large numbers under a vow of celibacy. The numbers who crowded into those abodes of superstition and of listless ease were utterly lost to society; and the consequence of this was the more serious, inasmuch as none but persons of Spanish extraction were admitted into the monasteries.

A considerable proportion of the secular clergy in America were natives of Spain, being for the most part such as had little prospect of advancement in their own country. They were, as a body, not remarkable for their attainments either in science or in literature. But the greater part of the ecclesiastics in Spanish America were regulars. The missionaries of the four mendicant orders had permission from the Pope to accept parochial charges in America, without being subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese. It is to these alone amongst Spanish ecclesiastics that we are indebted for our accounts of the civil and natural history of the various provinces. Amongst them may be mentioned the history of the New World by the Jesuit Acosta, and likewise the natural and civil history of Chili by the Abbé Molina, from whose work I have quoted, and who, although a Chilian, is so singularly fair towards the sworn foes of his country, the Araucanians. The general purport of Catholic testimony gives but a poor report of the moral character of the South American regular clergy, many of whom are said to have been not only destitute of the virtues to the observance of which they were sworn, but even of ordinary decorum. The vow of poverty was treated with contempt, some of the ecclesiastics becoming amongst the chief oppressors of the natives whom it was their duty to protect. The vow of chastity received as little regard.

1757.

These irregularities did not escape the notice of the authorities, and one Viceroy of Peru took effective measures for restraining the regulars. They had recourse, however, to such influences at Madrid that their ancient practices were soon again tolerated. Being thus exempt from all restraints, they at length excited such scandal and disgust that Ferdinand VI. was constrained to issue an edict prohibiting regulars of any denomination from taking charge of parishes; and declaring that, on the demise of the present incumbents, none but secular priests, under due jurisdiction, should be presented to vacant benefices.

The early missionaries admitted natives of America into the Church with such haste that it was utterly impossible for them to comprehend the doctrines which they professed to receive; if for no other reason than that neither priests nor converts were more than superficially acquainted with the other’s language. It sometimes happened that from a desire to please their conquerors, or for some other reason altogether apart from conviction, there was a sudden rush to obtain admission into the Church. On the whole, however, it is to be feared that the Spanish ecclesiastics made but small progress in instilling into the natives the real doctrines of Christianity. Even after two centuries had passed, but few natives possessed such spiritual discernment as to be admitted to the Holy Communion. When the Inquisition was established by Philip II. in his transatlantic dominions, in 1570, the natives were exempted from the jurisdiction of that tribunal.

1545.

A fresh impulse was given to emigration to Peru by the accidental discovery by an Indian, as he was climbing the mountain in pursuit of a llama, of the silver mines of Potosí, which poured forth their treasures in such profusion as to astonish mankind. Some idea of the mineral wealth of the Spanish possessions in the New World may be obtained from the computation that, from the year 1492, gold and silver annually entered Spain to the value of four millions sterling. In this figure, which was regularly accounted for, is not included the treasure fraudulently imported free of duty, and which might perhaps amount to nearly as much more. These mines were not worked by the Crown, but by private adventurers, with the natural result that a spirit of gambling was very soon produced, which had a most debasing effect upon the colonial character.

But although the mines of Peru were the great attraction of the country, they were fortunately not the only source of wealth. To that country the world owes many products of at least as much value to it as silver and gold. It has been already mentioned that the earliest notice which we have of the potato occurs in Pizarro’s first exploring expedition. That adventurer would have smiled had any one suggested to him that the root to which his starving followers had recourse in order to satisfy their hunger might be a greater boon to mankind than even the Inca’s ransom. To Peru we likewise owe, exclusively, the Quinquina, or Jesuits’ bark, which has perhaps allayed more misery than even Pizarro caused. Cacao, and various other products of value, quicksilver being amongst them, likewise come from the same quarter.

1568.

Don Francisco de Toledo came out to Peru as Viceroy in the year 1568. He was a man well advanced in life and of much experience, but of a political morality which is not to be defended according to our ethics; although it might claim numerous precedents in Roman history. With the sole object of increasing public security, and without the least pretence of any crime on the part of the illustrious victim save that of being a living political danger, he put to death the last of the Incas, the young Tupac Amaru.

This Viceroy, however, was most conscientious in his desire for the well-being of the people committed to his charge. He was indefatigable as well as prudent in legislating; and he devoted five years to making a journey throughout every district of his Viceroyalty, with such success that the Peruvians admitted that their country had not been so well administered since the time of the good Tupac Yupanqui. It is to this governor that the University of St. Mark at Lima mainly owes its existence; and he had the advanced judgment to perceive that the two main sources of Peruvian wealth were corn and wool, rather than silver and gold. It was to the fact that Don Francisco de Toledo, who remained in Peru till 1579, was accompanied in his journeys by the Jesuit D’Acosta that we owe the valuable natural history of Peru, composed by that writer, the results of fifteen years of literary labour.

1611.

The commercial policy of Spain in forbidding all trade between her colonies and other nations had, in the course of time, a singularly retributive effect upon herself. Owing to various causes, amongst which was the expulsion by Philip III. of the Moors, her industrial population became so reduced that that country was at once obliged to contract her operations of war and of peace. From want of men her fleets were ruined, and from the same cause her manufactures had sunk into decay; even her agriculture was insufficient for the national consumption. The law respecting colonial trade was still enforced, and the mineral wealth of the Andes still flowed into Spain; but the necessities of demand and supply were above law, and her merchants had to look to other countries for the supplies which were to be sent to America in return, and thus the gold and silver merely passed through Spain on its way to England or to Holland, to France and Italy. In the name of Spanish firms those of the above nations sent their goods to America, and at length it was computed that, of the European goods supplied to the Spanish American provinces, not more than a twentieth part were of Spanish growth or fabric. The climax of this state of things was arrived at when the lord of the mines of Potosí was constrained to issue an edict raising copper money to a value in currency nearly equal to that of silver.