Besides, That
All Lands And Indians Belonging To Bishops, Monasteries, And Hospitals, Or
To Governors, Lieutenant-Governors, Or Other Officers
Of the crown, should
be taken from them and annexed to the crown, even although the possessor
should incline to
Demit their offices for the purpose of enabling them to
retain their repartitions. It was particularly ordered in regard to Peru,
that all who had taken any share in the civil wars between the marquis and
Almagro should forfeit their lands and Indians. And finally, all Indians
set at liberty by this regulation were to belong in perpetuity to the
crown, to whom their tributes were to be paid in all time coming.
It is perfectly obvious, in consequence of the concluding clause but one
of these regulations, by which all who had taken any share in the late
civil wars were to be deprived of their lands and Indians, that every
individual then in Peru would have been reduced to poverty, as it may be
seen by every circumstance related in the foregoing part of this history,
that every Spaniard in the country had embraced one or other of these
parties with extreme violence. Even the native Peruvians had taken a part
in the civil discords, and had frequent quarrels and engagements on the
subject, some of them taking part with the _Chilese_, and others with the
_Pachacamacs_, by which titles they distinguished respectively the
adherents of Almagro and of the marquis. Hitherto the only court of
justice or royal audience was held at Panama, at a most inconvenient
distance from Peru. By the new regulations this court of Panama was
abolished, and besides the establishment of a new court on the frontiers
of Gauatimala and Nicaragua for all the provinces from Tierra Firma
northwards, of which the licentiate Maldonado was made president, another
court of royal audience was ordered to be established in Lima, consisting
of four oydors or judges, and a president who was to have the title of
Viceroy and captain general. This measure was deemed indispensibly
necessary for the well being of this distant country, the richest and most
valuable dominion which belonged to the crown in all America. All these
regulations were enacted and published at Madrid in 1542, and copies of
them were immediately sent to different parts of the New World. These new
reglations gave extreme dissatisfaction to the conquerors of the American
provinces, and particularly to those of Peru; as every Spanish settler in
that country must have been deprived by them of almost every thing they
possessed, and reduced to the necessity of looking out for new means of
subsistence. Every one loudly declared that his majesty must have received
erroneous information respecting the late events, as the partizans and
adherents both of the marquis and of Almagro, had conducted themselves to
the best of their judgment as faithful subjects of his majesty, believing
that they acted in obedience to his orders in what respected the two rival
governors, who acted in his name and by his authority, and were besides
under the necessity of obeying their officers, either by force or good
will, so that they were in fact guilty of no crime in what they had done;
or, even if their conduct were in some measure faulty, they certainly did
not deserve to be stript entirely of their property.
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