Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/570

550 to the jail and surrendered to brothers of mercy, who attended to the funeral.

 The material of the present chapter rests mainly on Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reynos de Indias, the official embodiment of the laws for America issued by the king and India Council during the three centuries of Spanish rule. A history of this valuable work together with an analysis of its contents has been given in ''Hist. Cent. Am.,'' i. 285-8, this series. It does not, however, contain all the laws issued, nor does it indicate more than a small part of the variations they have undergone, and the student is accordingly obliged to consult a number of other collections made before its first publication, in 1681, or between the dates of its later editions, some bearing on special subjects or districts, others covering a limited period. Foremost among these as the first collection printed in America is the Provicioves, Cédulas, etc., prepared by Oidor Puga of the Mexico audiencia, and published at this city in 1563. It is generally known by his name and embraces merely the laws concerning New Spain up to this date. The method of Puga is faulty, and this is the more to be regretted as the work is invaluable for the early history of the country. Montemayor, oidor of the same audiencia, who by supreme order reissued in 1671 the Sumarios of laws for all the Indies printed in 1628 under the care of Aguiar and Acuña, added to it the decrees directed to New Spain during this interval. It was published at Mexico as Sumarios de las Cedulas, in a bulky folio. Two distinct supplements contain the important decrees of the audiencia and viceroys and governors respectively, since the formation of the government. Occasional laws are given in full, the rest cover in extract form half of each page, the other half being reserved for very imperfect marginal notes. Before he came to Mexico Montemayor had been governor and captain-general of Española, and consequently president of its audiencia. The growing rarity of this work induced Oidor Beleña in 1787 to publish at Mexico by subscription a collection supplementary to that of the 1681 edition of the Recopilacion de Indias, under the title of Recopilacion Sumaria, in two folio volumes. To this he prefixed a reprint of the two appendices of Montemayor, and two collections of the audiencia and criminal court decrees which had appeared since his time. Although the division of the subject into five parts is inconvenient, yet the work is far superior to its predecessors, with more useful marginals. The second volume is reserved for the decrees and regulations requiring full text. The pretentious Biblioteca de Legislacion Ultramarina, issued at Madrid 18 11 4 6 by Zamora y Coronado, contains all the latest important laws for the reduced possessions of Spain beyond the ocean, but it is very faulty for the eighteenth and the opening of the present century, the important changes made during this stirring period being reserved either for hasty summaries or occasional imperfect notes.

In addition to these collections and those mentioned in other volumes, I have consulted for this chapter Ordenanzas del Consejo Real, Madrid, 1681; Providencias Reales, MS., Mexico, 1784; Réales Cedulas, MS., 2 vols.; Cedulario, MS., 3 vols., containing a selection of the more important decrees, in full text, touching New Spain, and serving therefore as valuable auxiliaries to the