Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/671

Rh Governor Santillan's short term deserves a passing notice. To his efficiency was due the defence of the territory at the critical period described elsewhere in this chapter. He left a good name in the country. The chief Spanish authority was aided in the several districts, at first by the caciques subject to his commission, and in later times by such officials as the chief provincial ruler appointed, and by the respective local alcaldes and ayuntamientos. The code of laws under which they ruled and administered justice was strict and harsh; flogging and branding for adultery, bigamy, and other offences were in order. Religious rites were never neglected.

It is said that the natives in many localities, notwithstanding all the efforts of the government and church toward their conversion, still clung to their idolatrous rites. Little progress would have been attained but for the timely arrival in 1552 of Oidor Tomás Lopez, sent as visitador by the audiencia of Guatemala, He enacted in the king's name certain laws for the protection of the natives from abuse by the secular authorities, enjoinmg on the Spaniards, particularly the encomenderos, the conduct proper among themselves, and toward the natives, for whose government special rules were laid down. The code, taken as a whole, was a confused mixture of civil and religious prescripts, in which the missionaries were given an undue authority over the natives, and even a superiority over the encomenderos. It authorized them to lower the tributes, placed the friars over the caciques, making them the official advisers of the ayuntamientos; in a word, the civil authorities were powerless to adopt any action without the consent of the friars. His ordinances on police and other civil