His
Majesty Likewise Ordered The Vassals Of Cortes To Be Counted, Leaving No
More Than Were Specified In His Patents; But I Do Not Remember What Was To
Have Been Done With The Surplus.
Nuno de Guzman and the judges of his
tribunal were misled by advisers from making their grants perpetual, under
Pretence that the conquerors would cease to depend upon and respect them
if independent, and that it was better to keep them under the necessity of
supplicating for subsistence, and likewise to preserve to themselves the
power of dividing the conquered lands to the advantage of their own
interest. Guzman and his oydors indeed, constantly assigned such districts
as fell vacant among the conquerors and colonists to universal
satisfaction; but were superseded in consequence of their disputes with
Cortes.
In 1550, when I was in Old Spain, a council was formed, consisting of
Bartholomew de las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, Vasco de Quiroga, bishop of
Mechoacan, and other cavaliers who had come as agents from New Spain and
Peru, with some gentlemen who had come on business to court; to which
council I also was called, as being the most ancient of the conquerors of
New Spain. At this time certain of the Peruvian gentlemen petitioned his
majesty to cause perpetual allotments of lands to be made in that kingdom,
and a similar petition was presented by Gonzalo Lopez and Alonzo de
Villanueva, who had come over as agents from Mexico. His majesty was
pleased to order the _rapartimiento_ or distribution of lands to be
referred to the council of the Indies, consisting of the Marquis de
Mondejar president, with the licentiates Gutierre Velasquez, Tello de
Sandoval, Gregorio Lopes de Briviesca, and the Doctor Hernan Perez de la
Fuente, oydors or judges of that court, together with the members of other
royal councils. At this meeting, it was proposed to make a perpetual
distribution of the lands of New Spain and Peru; I am uncertain if New
Granada and Popayan were to have been included. Many excellent reasons
were given for this measure being adopted, but it was strenuously opposed
by the members of the royal council of the Indies, together with Bishop de
las Casas, Fra Rodrigo his coadjutor, and the Bishop of las Charcas, who
insisted that the matter should be postponed till the return of the
emperor from Vienna, when every thing should be arranged to the
satisfaction of the conquerors: And thus the affair was dropped for the
present.
After my return to New Spain, the conquerors then proposed to send agents
to solicit his majesty for our interest exclusively, in consequence of
which I was written to here in Guatimala, by Captain Andres de Tapia,
Pedro Morena de Medrana, and Juan Limpias Caravajal, on the subject. I
accordingly went round among the other conquerors who were settled in this
city, to raise a sum by subscription for the purpose, but this project
failed for want of money. At a subsequent period, our present invincible
king Don Philip, was pleased to command that the conquerors and their
posterity should be provided for, attending in the first instance to those
who were married.
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