Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/243

 

The system of repartimientos and encomiendas of the Indians was begun in the Islands in the time of Columbus, and was, at the outset, sanctioned by the Catholic Sovereigns, though the first authorisation, given in 1497, grants repartimientos of lands but says nothing about Indians. It was represented to be the best means for civilising and Christianising the natives; but this sanction was afterwards revoked by Isabella the Catholic, who, with a fuller knowledge of the real conditions and of the abuses which quickly sprang up, issued severe edicts against them.

The repartimiento, according to Leon, signified the first partition or allotment of Indians made to the colonists, and the encomienda was the second grant, made after the death of the first holder of the right. The repartimiento in the Islands was sometimes of only a week's duration, and hence had a temporary character, whereas the encomienda was a permanent concession of rights over certain Indians which was as much a property right as a grant of land and became hereditary in the family holding it.

The home government enacted many measures for regulating the system, and for the protection of the Indians, but distance and other circumstances made it easy to evade these provisions, and shocking abuses and cruelties, which rapidly depopulated the islands, became common. It was this deplorable state of things which first aroused the indignation of the Dominican monk, Las Casas, afterwards Bishop of Chiapa and started him upon the zealous crusade in favour of the rights of the natives; which procured him the glorious title of "Protector-General of the Indians."

The defenders of this system of enforced serfdom argued that the Indians were by nature lazy, and, if left free, would never work; that the only hope of converting them to Christianity was to keep them in touch with Christians; and also that the climate was such, that white labour could not be employed, even if there were plenty of workmen, which there were not. It was therefore urged that without compulsion there would be no native labour and without native labour there would be no revenue.

Practically the only reward given to the soldiers of Cortes after the conquest of Mexico was to assign to each one a repartimiento or