Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/205

179 HER CHARACTER. 179 It was executed November 23d, only three days chapter XVI. before her death. '- — Three of the provisions contained in it are too Nov. 23. remarkable to pass unnoticed. The first concerns the codification of the laws. For this purpose, the queen appoints a commission to make a new digest of the statutes and pragmdticas, the contradictory tenor of which still occasioned much embarrass- ment in Castilian jurisprudence. This was a sub- ject she always had much at heart ; but no nearer approach had been made to it, than the valuable, though insufficient work of Montalvo, in the early part of her reign ; and, notwithstanding her pre- cautions, none more effectual was destined to take place till the reign of Philip the Second.'^ The second item had reference to the natives of the New World. Gross abuses had arisen there since the partial revival of the repartimicntos, al- though Las Casas says, " intelligence of this was carefully kept from the ears of the queen." ^^ Some vague apprehension of the truth, however, appears to have forced itself on her ; and she enjoins her 11 The " Ordenan§as Reales de la reine Isabelle venait de mourir ; Castilla," published in 1484, and car jusqu'alors il ne s'6tait pas the " Pragmalicas del Reyno," commis autant de crimes dans I'tle first printed in 1503, comprehend Espagnole, et Ton avait meme eu the general legislation of this reign ; soin de les cacher a cette princesse, a particular account of which the parcequ'elle ne cessait de recom- reader may find in Part I. Chapter mander de trailer les Indiens avec 6, and Part II. Chapter 26, of this douceur, et de ne rien n^gliger History. pour les rendre heureux : faivu, 12 Las Casas, who will not ainsi que beaucowp d^Espagnols, les be suspected of sycophancy, re- lettres qu'elle tcrivait h ce sujet, et marks, in his narrative of the de- les ordres qu'elle envoyait ; ce qui struction of the Indies, " Les plus prouve que cette admirable reine au- grandes horreurs de ces guerres et rait mis Jin a taut de cruauth, si de cette boucherie commencerent elle avait pu les connaitre.^' CEu- aussitOt qu'on sut en Amerique que vres, ed. de Llprente, torn. i. p. 21.