Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/674

554 maize country, which offered ample subsistence for a garrison. Although the punishment at first inflicted, by sacking and enslaving, had been severe, yet the treatment of the inhabitants became afterward so considerate that they themselves prayed for a continuance of Spanish protection. Every circumstance, therefore, demanding a settlement, it was decided in council to found a villa in this same town, with the appropriate name of Segura de la Frontera, intended, as it was, to secure the frontier against the Mexicans. Pedro de Ircio was made alcalde, with Francisco de Orozco and others as regidores.

The campaign being practically concluded, a division was ordered to be made of the spoils not hitherto distributed, including slaves, which had now become a prominent feature thereof, and were intended for personal and plantation service, as already practised in the Antilles. The pretence was to enslave only the inhabitants of districts concerned in the murder of Spaniards, but the distinction was not very strictly observed, and rebellious tribes and those addicted to cannibalism and other vicious practices were included. The Spaniards, as a rule, kept only the women and the children, the men being transferred to the allies for their share, "because they were difficult to watch,"