Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/788

768 lands, and those located at great distances from Spanish settlements, were alone left the natives.

What the officials, descendants of the conquerors, and other Spanish settlers did not possess, was held by the friars, who through bestowals, testaments, or endowments had in time succeeded in obtaining possession of large areas of the finest land. This had been a comparatively easy task for the friars, though it was done in violation of the law, which forbade their holding lands or other property.

Like those of some other countries Spain's Indian regulations were good enough in theory. Indians must not be conquered, but they may be pacified; they must not be enslaved, but they may be forced to work all their lives in the mines at half a real a day; the provincial council might place their soul and body on an equal footing with those of the conqueror, even permitting them to take orders and become priests, yet there was ever present the iron heel beneath which it is the destiny of the weaker to be around to dust. How were the tender consciences of Isabella, of Charles, and of Philip appeased! Was there not a cédula of December 29, 1593, which required the audiencia to punish Spaniards who