After maturely considering these representations, his majesty was anxious to devise proper means to relieve the Indians from oppression; and for this purpose he assembled a council of all those persons to whom the administration of affairs in the Indies was confided, with several other persons of probity learned in the laws. By this assembly the whole affair was deliberately examined, and a code of regulations drawn up by which it was expected to remedy the abuses complained of. By these regulations it was enacted that no Indian should be forced to labour in the mines, or to dive for pearls; that no excessive labours should be imposed on them, and even that they should not be obliged to carry burdens except in places where no other means could be employed; that all Indians should be paid for their labour, and that the tribute which they were to pay to their masters should be fixed; that upon the death of any person to whom lands and Indians now belonged, they were to revert to the crown. Besides, that all lands and Indians belonging to bishops, monasteries, and hospitals, or to governors, lieutenant-governors, or other officers of the crown, should be taken from them and annexed to the crown, even although the possessor should incline to demit their offices for the purpose of enabling them to retain their repartitions. It was particularly ordered in regard to Peru, that all who had taken any share in the civil wars between the marquis and Almagro should forfeit their lands and Indians. And finally, all Indians set at liberty by this regulation were to belong in perpetuity to the crown, to whom their tributes were to be paid in all time coming.
It is perfectly obvious, in consequence of the concluding clause but one of these regulations, by which all who had taken any share in the late civil wars were to be deprived of their lands and Indians, that every individual then in Peru would have been reduced to poverty, as it may be seen by every circumstance related in the foregoing part of this history, that every Spaniard in the country had embraced one or other of these parties with extreme violence. Even the native Peruvians had taken a part in the civil discords, and had frequent quarrels and engagements on the subject, some of them taking part with the Chilese, and others with the Pachacamacs, by which titles they distinguished respectively the adherents of Almagro and of the marquis. Hitherto the only court of justice or royal audience was held at Panama, at a most inconvenient distance from Peru. By the new regulations this court of Panama was abolished, and besides the establishment of a new court on the frontiers of Gauatimala and Nicaragua for all the provinces from Tierra Firma northwards, of which the licentiate Maldonado was made president, another court of royal audience was ordered to be established in Lima, consisting of four oydors or judges, and a president who was to have the title of Viceroy and captain general. This measure was deemed indispensibly necessary for the well being of this distant country, the richest and most valuable dominion which belonged to the crown in all America. All these regulations were enacted and published at Madrid in 1542, and copies of them were immediately sent to different parts of the New World. These new reglations gave extreme dissatisfaction to the conquerors of the American provinces, and particularly to those of Peru; as every Spanish settler in that country must have been deprived by them of almost every thing they possessed, and reduced to the necessity of looking out for new means of subsistence. Every one loudly declared that his majesty must have received erroneous information respecting the late events, as the partizans and adherents both of the marquis and of Almagro, had conducted themselves to the best of their judgment as faithful subjects of his majesty, believing that they acted in obedience to his orders in what respected the two rival governors, who acted in his name and by his authority, and were besides under the necessity of obeying their officers, either by force or good will, so that they were in fact guilty of no crime in what they had done; or, even if their conduct were in some measure faulty, they certainly did not deserve to be stript entirely of their property. They alleged farther, that when they discovered and conquered the country, which had been done at their own proper cost, it had been expressly covenanted that they were to enjoy the division of the lands and Indians among them for their lives, with remainder to their eldest sons, or to their widows in case of having no children; and that, in confirmation of all this, an order had been issued by his majesty, by which all who had participated in making the conquest of Peru were to marry within a certain specified time, under the penalty of losing their lands and Indians, with which regulation most of them had complied; and that it were now unjust, when they had become old and worn out, and were encumbered with wives and families, to deprive them of their substance, when they looked to enjoy repose after all their fatigues and dangers; being unable from age and infirmity to go in search of new countries and new establishments.
Great numbers of persons repaired to Cuzco, where Vaca de Castro then resided, to lay their complaints before him. He told them, that he was persuaded his majesty would remedy their grievances when informed of the true state of affairs, and recommended therefore that the procurators or syndics of the different cities should assemble, and elect a deputation to carry a true statement of matters to the king and royal council of the Indies, with a humble supplication that his majesty might apply a proper remedy, by the revocation or modification of those regulations, which, as they stood, would produce such ruinous consequences to the colony. On purpose to facilitate this assembly, the governor promised to repair in person to Lima, as the most convenient and most central situation for the deputies of all the other cities. He accordingly set out from Cuzco for Lima, accompanied by the syndics of all the neighbouring cities, and by several gentlemen and other persons of consequence.
In the year 1542, while these things were going on in Peru, his majesty appointed Blasco Nunnez Vela, who had been commissary general of the revenue in Castille, as Viceroy of Peru, and president of the court of royal audience, to carry those regulations into effect which we have already given an accoun of. Vela was chosen to this high and important office as a person of capacity and experience, who would dispense strict justice without respect of persons, and would punctually fulfil the royal orders. The four oydors or judges nominated to the royal audience of Lima were the licentiate Cepeda, doctor Lison de Texada, and the licentiates Alvarez and Pedro Ortiz. Augustin de Zarate235, secretary of the royal council of Castille, was appointed at the same time auditor general of accounts both for Peru and the Tierra Firma, as since the discovery and settlement of these provinces, no accounts of the royal revenues had ever been rendered to the treasurers. All these persons embarked at San Lucar de Barrameda on the 1st November 1543, and arrived safe at the harbour of Nombre de Dios, where they made some stay, on purpose to prepare for their voyage to Peru. As the viceroy was eager to proceed, he embarked at Panama in the middle of February 1543, without waiting for the judges of the royal audience, who anxiously requested to accompany him, and who were accordingly much chagrined by this procedure. Even before this, some slight disputes had occurred between them and Vela, which though of small importance in themselves, had left some impression of mutual dissatisfaction, and evinced that they were not likely to agree in the government of the country.
Befere leaving the Tierra Firma, the viceroy began to carry one of the new regulations into effect, by which all Indians were enjoined to be at liberty to return to their native countries, whatever might have been the cause of their transportation to other places. He accordingly collected all the natives of Peru who happened to be in the province of Tierra Firma; and as there was a great and constant intercourse between that province and Peru, the number of Peruvians in Tierra Firma was considerable, and he ordered all of these to embark in the same ship with himself at the expence of their masters. The new viceroy had a quick passage from Panama to the port of Tumbez at the northern extremity of proper Peru, where he disembarked on the 4th of March, being resolved to go from thence by land to Lima, and immediately proceeded to enforce the new regulations in every one of the places by which he travelled. In regard to some of the colonists, he fixed the services and tributes which they were in future to exact from the Indians; and others he deprived entirely of their lands and Indians, annexing them to the crown. Many of those who found themselves aggrieved by these regulations, particularly all the inhabitants of San Miguel and Truxillo, waited on the viceroy, respectfully yet earnestly entreating that he would at least postpone the execution of those rigorous decrees till the arrival of the judges, when they would make their humble application for justice at Lima in the royal court of audience. In corroboration of this request, they pointed out one of the articles of the regulations, which directed that they were to be put in force by the viceroy and oydors conjunctly, and that therefore he was not authorised to execute them by his single authority. All their remonstrances and reasonings were unavailing, as he refused to listen to them, saying, that the orders with which he was entrusted were general laws, which could not be suspended or even postponed in compliance with any requests or supplications whatever. He persisted, therefore, to put the regulations strictly in force, through the whole extent of his journey from Tumbez till his arrival in the province of Guavara236, which is eighteen leagues from Lima.
236
About that distance to the north of Lima is the town of