Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/351

Rh and branded; some carried to distant regions and made to work in the mines, there to die from hardships and maltreatment. Wars had been forced upon provinces in order to give excuse for enslaving; petty offences had been falsely charged against free men to secure their condemnation, and, failing in this, they had been declared slaves of chiefs and transferred as such to the Spaniards. For this a remedy existed in a cédula of August 2, 1530, forbidding enslavement either in war, or by any process whatsoever, and as a check to further abuses in this direction, all holders of slaves were directed to register them before the royal officials, and if necessary prove their title. Bishop Zumárraga was by the same decree confirmed as protector of the Indians, to watch over its observance, and shield the oppressed, yet with authority subordinate to that of the audiencia. Strict as the law appeared, it was not difficult to evade it with the aid of corrupt officials, by whom the audiencia could easily be deceived. Even the saintly oidor Quiroga joins Salmeron in suggesting, a few months after the issue of the cédula, that natives guilty of rebellion, idolatry, and social crimes be condemned to the mines, which must be abandoned unless workers could be obtained. Despite the abuses that crept in, a salutary check had nevertheless been given to Indian slavery. Soon followed the liberation of children born of such slaves, and gradually slavery in its real sense became confined to the negro race.

Another evil was the carrier system, by which chiefs