Part 2 (1/2)
Free lands were granted to settlers, with a reservation of the precious metals to the crown. Special orders were given for mulberry and silkworm culture. These efforts to promote agriculture in the West Indies, however, were made largely nugatory by commercial restrictions and the superior attractions of the mainland.
Indian policy.--Columbus found Espanola inhabited, it was estimated, by a quarter of a million of Indians, and the other islands similarly populated. He was instructed to treat the natives well and to do all in his power to convert them. The sovereigns frequently repeated these orders, and commanded that the natives be treated as free men and paid for their work. But the shortage of a labor-supply and the relative position of the two races led quickly and almost inevitably to the practical enslavement of the weaker.
Encomiendas.--Following the rebellion of 1495, the subdued natives were put under tribute in the form of specified amounts of products, commutable to labor. In 1497 a practice was begun of allotting lands to Spaniards, the forced labor of the natives going with the land.
Complaint being made by priests and seculars that the Indians could neither be made to work, nor be taught or converted without restraint, in 1503 it was ordered that they should be congregated (_congregados_) in permanent villages and put under protectors (_encomenderos_), who were obliged to teach and protect them, and were empowered to exact their labor, though for pay and as free men. This provision contained the essence of the encomienda system, which was designed to protect and civilize the native, as well as to exploit him. But there was always danger that the former aim would yield to the latter, and, contrary to royal will, the condition of the natives fast became one of practical slavery.
Depopulation of the islands.--Moreover, in a very short time the islands became nearly depopulated of natives. Many were slain in the wars of conquest and during rebellions, or died of starvation while in hiding.
Perhaps a greater number died of smallpox, measles, and other diseases brought from Europe. The result was that by 1514 the native population of Espanola was reduced to 14,000. A similar reduction of native population occurred in the other islands as they were successively occupied.
Indian slavery.--Indian slavery was not generally allowed in theory.
But the Lesser Antilles, the Bahamas, and Florida were found to be inhabited by hostile cannibals, who were regarded as fair prize for enslavement. As early as 1494 Columbus suggested that permission be given to sell Caribs. In 1498 he took a cargo of six hundred of them to Spain. Soon it became an accepted legal principle that cannibals and rebellious Indians could be enslaved. The idea was encouraged by the lack of Spanish laborers, and by the disappearance of the native population of Espanola. Slave-hunting was soon extended, therefore, to the coasts of Florida, Panuco, and other parts of the mainland. The practice was continued, as the frontier advanced, to the eighteenth century when, for example, Apaches of Texas and p.a.w.nees of Kansas were often sold to Work on plantations in Louisiana or Cuba.
Las Casas.--Numerous prominent Spaniards in the Indies early opposed encomiendas on moral grounds. Among them the most aggressive was Father Bartolome de las Casas. He had come to the Indies as a layman, had held an encomienda after becoming a priest, but in 1514 had renounced it. In the following year he went to Spain, secured the appointment of a commission of Geronymite friars to enforce the laws regarding Indians in the islands, and was himself made Protector of the Indians. In 1516 he returned to Espanola, but, being dissatisfied with the work of the commission, he returned to Spain, where he favored negro slavery as a means of sparing the natives. In 1521 he tried to found a Utopian colony on Tierra Firme, to furnish an humane example, but through unfortunate circ.u.mstances it failed completely.
EXPLORATION OF THE MAINLAND COASTS AND THE SEARCH FOR A STRAIT
Voyages toward the South.--The discovery by Columbus (1498) of pearls on the southern mainland, combined with the Portuguese successes in India, gave new incentive to voyages, and within the next few years many thousands of miles of coastline of South and Central America were explored in the interest of trade, discovery, and international rivalry.
In 1499 Ojeda explored from near Paramaribo to the Gulf of Maracaibo. In 1500 Pinzon and DeLepe sailed north to the Pearl Coast from points near 8 and 10 south, respectively, and Bastidas made known the coast from the Gulf of Maracaibo to Nombre de Dios, on the Isthmus of Panama. The chain of discoveries was carried in 1502 from the north sh.o.r.e of Honduras to Nombre de Dios by the fourth voyage of Columbus, made primarily in search of a strait through the troublesome lands which he had discovered. In 1504 La Cosa and Vespucius, during a trading voyage on the Gulf of Uraba, ascended the Atrato River two hundred miles by a route which has since been proposed as an interoceanic ca.n.a.l. Meanwhile numerous other voyages were made to the Pearl Coast for commercial purposes. They added little more to geographical knowledge, but led to colonization on the southern mainland.
Portuguese compet.i.tion.--Spanish efforts to find a pa.s.sage to the Indian Ocean by going to the southward were stimulated by the Portuguese voyages in the same direction. In 1500 Cabral, on his way to India, took possession for Portugal at a point near 18 south lat.i.tude on the Brazilian coast. In the following year a Portuguese expedition, in which Americus Vespucius was pilot, explored the coast from 5 to 32 south lat.i.tude, discovering the La Plata River on the way. It was to this voyage of Vespucius, made in the interest of Portugal, that America owes its name. First applied to South America, it was soon extended to the northern continent. A Portuguese voyage made in 1503 by Jaques, in search of a pa.s.sage to the East, is said to have reached 52 south.
Establishment of the Portuguese Empire in the East.--Gama's voyage was promptly followed by the founding of Portuguese colonies in the East.
The chief actor in this work was Alburquerque, who accompanied an expedition to India in 1503 and became viceroy in 1509, an office which he held until his death in 1515. During his rule the Portuguese established themselves at Goa, which gave them control of the Malabar coast, and at Malacca, from which point they were able to control the trade of the Malay Peninsula and the Spice Islands. Ormuz was captured, making them supreme in the commerce of the Persian Gulf. In succeeding years they acquired Ceylon and established trading settlements in Burma, China, and j.a.pan.
Continued quest for a strait.--These Portuguese successes were an incentive to further Spanish efforts to find the strait. In 1506 Vicente Yanez Pinzon, accompanied by Juan de Solis, in search of a pa.s.sage explored the Gulf of Honduras and eastern Yucatan from Guanaja Islands, the western limit of Columbus's voyage, to the Island of Caria. In 1509 Solis, in the service of Spain, reached 42 south, while in search of the desired route. The discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa in 1513 aroused Spain to renewed efforts to find the strait. Exploration was at once undertaken on the southern sh.o.r.es of Panama, and in 1515 Solis again was sent down the Brazilian coast. Reaching the La Plata River, he was killed and eaten by the savages.
Magellan and Elcano.--The solution of the problem of the southern strait was left for Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese who had seen service in the Far East. Returning to Portugal, he proposed to the king the opening of a route to the East by going west. His offer being refused, like Columbus he turned to Spain, where his plan found favor. Sailing with five vessels in 1519, he discovered the Straits of Magellan and crossed the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines, where he was killed in 1521. Part of the crew, led by Elcano, continued round the world and reached Spain in September, 1522, after one of the most remarkable voyages in all history.
The mapping of the Gulf coast.--Meanwhile the outlines of the Gulf of Mexico had been made known, and by 1525 the continued search for the strait and efforts to settle on the mainland had carried Spanish, explorers nearly the whole length of the North Atlantic coast. In 1508 Ocampo had circ.u.mnavigated Cuba. Sailing from Porto Rico in 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon, who was interested in slave-hunting and exploration, discovered and coasted the Peninsula of Florida.
Four years later Cordova, under a license from Velasquez, governor of Cuba, explored Yucatan, finding signs of large cities and of wealth. The reports aroused new interest in the mainland, and Velasquez sent out Grijalva, who coasted the sh.o.r.e from Yucatan to Panuco River, securing on the way twenty thousand dollars' worth of gold. To take advantage of Grijalva's discoveries, Velasquez organized another expedition and put it in charge of Hernando Cortes. Garay, governor of Jamaica, also sent out an expedition, under Pineda, with instructions to seek new lands and look for a strait. Sailing north to the mainland in 1519, Pineda completed the mapping of the Gulf by coasting from Florida to Vera Cruz and back. On the way west he discovered the Mississippi River, which he called Rio del Espiritu Santo. On the strength of Pineda's discoveries, Garay now secured a patent to the northern Gulf sh.o.r.e, and undertook to colonize the province of Amichel.
The North Atlantic coast.--The exploration of the North Atlantic coast soon followed. In 1513 De Leon had rounded the Peninsula of Florida.
Eight years later Gordillo, sailing from Espanola in the employ of Ayllon, and Quexos, a slave hunter whom Gordillo met on the way, reached the mainland at 33 30', near Cape Fear in a region called Chicora.
Ayllon in 1523 secured a patent authorizing him to seek a strait in the north and found a colony. In Ayllon's employ, Quexos in 1525 coasted north perhaps to 40. In the same year Stephen Gomez, under contract to seek a northern strait, descended the coast from Nova Scotia to Florida.
Over the northern part of his route he had been preceded by the English explorer John Cabot (1497). With the return of Gomez the entire Atlantic sh.o.r.e from the Straits of Magellan to Nova Scotia had been explored by expeditions made in the name of Spain.
THE MAYAS AND THE NAHUAS
A Double Movement.--Having subdued the islands and run the eastern coastline, the Spaniards proceeded to take possession of the mainland.
To the southward they were attracted by trade, rumors of gold, and the hope of finding a strait leading to the East. To the westward they were drawn by the semi-civilized Nahuas and Mayas, who lived in substantial towns, possessed acc.u.mulated wealth, had a stable population used to hard labor, and were worth exploiting. The advance into the interior was a double movement, one proceeding north from a base on the Isthmus of Panama, the other radiating in all directions from the Valley of Mexico.
Two Civilizations.--The Nahuas occupied Mexico south of a line drawn roughly from Tampico through Guadalajara to the Pacific Ocean. The Mayas lived princ.i.p.ally in Yucatan and Guatemala. The Nahuas had acquired much of their culture from the Mayas, and the cultural areas overlapped.
These peoples had several features in common. They lived in substantial pueblos, or towns, and practiced agriculture by means of irrigation, raising extensively maize, beans, potatoes, and tobacco. Maguey was a staple crop in the Valley of Mexico and henequen in Yucatan. Mayas and Nahuas both lacked important domestic animals. They were dominated by a powerful priesthood and practiced slavery and human sacrifice.