wmsHip] EARLY CONDITION OF NEW SPAIN 375 



The story is that one of the "old fellows'' overheard this outburst, 

 reported it to his friends, and promptly went off and married the 

 daughter of a powerful cacique. 



Besides assisting his colonists to get wives, Mendoza did a great deal 

 to foster the agricultural interests of the province. He continued the 

 importation of cattle, which Cortes had begun, and also procured 

 horses and sheep from Spain. He writes in one of his letters of the espe- 

 cial satisfaction that he felt because of the rapid increase of his merino 

 sheep, in spite of the depredations of the natives and of wild animals. 

 The chief concern of the officials of the audiencia had been the gold 

 mines, which yielded a considerable revenue in certain districts; but 

 Mendoza, without neglecting these, proved how large and reliable was 

 the additional revenue which could be derived from other sources. 

 The viceroy's success in developing the province can not be shown 

 more clearly than by repeating the description of New Spain in 1555, 

 written by Eobert Tomson, an English merchant engaged in the Span- 

 ish trade. In the course of a business tour Tomson visited the City 

 of Mexico. His commercial friends in the city entertained him most 

 hospitably, and did their best to make his visit pleasant. He refused, 

 however, to heed their warnings, and his indiscreet freedom of speech 

 finally compelled the officials of the Inquisition to imprisou him, thus 

 adding considerably to the length of his residence in the city. After 

 he returned home, he wrote a narrative of his tour, in which he says of 

 New Spain : 



"As for victuals in the said Citie, of beefe, mutton, and henues, capons, quailes, 

 Guifiy-cockes, and such like, all are very good cheape: To say, the whole quarter of 

 an oxe, as much as a slaue can carry away from the Butchers, for Hue Tomynes, that 

 is, fine Royals of plate, which is iust two shillings and sixe pence, and a fat sheepe 

 at the Butchers for three Royals, which is 18. pence and no more. Bread is as good 

 cheape as in Spaine, and all other kinde of fruites, as apples, peares, pomegranats, 

 and quinces, at a reasonable rate. . . . [The country] doth yeeld great store of 

 very good silke, and Cochinilla. . . . Also there are many goodly fruits, whereof 

 we haue none such, as Plantanos, Guyaues, Sapotes, Tunas, and in the wildernes 

 great store of lilacke chcries, and other wholsome fruites. . . . Also the Indico 

 that doeth come from thence to die blew, is a certaine hearbe. . . . Balnie, 

 Salsaperilla, cana fistula, suger, oxe hides, and many other good and seruiceable 

 things the Countrey doeth yeeld, which are yeerely brought into Spaine, and there 

 solde and distributed to many nations." 1 



The other class among the colonists of New Spain in the second 

 quarter of the sixteenth century "floated like cork on the water" on 

 those who had established their homes in the New World. 2 The men 



'Tomson's whole narrative, in Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii, p. 447 {ed. 1600), is well worth reading. 

 Considerable additional information in regard to the internal condition of New Spain, at a little 

 later date, may be tound in the " Discourses "' which follow Tomson's Narrative, in the same volume 

 of ilukluyt. 



2 The proof text for this quotation, as for many of the following statements which are taken from 

 Mota Padilla s Historia de la Nueva Galicia, may be found in footnotes to the passages which they 

 illustrate in the translation of Castaneda's narrative. 1 hope this arrangement will prove most con- 

 venient for those who study the documents included in this memoir. I shall not attempt in the 

 introductory narrative to make any further references showing my indebtedness to Mota Padilla'a 

 invaluable work. 



