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INDIAN SERVITUDE. 



assemblage of the Emperor's council in Spain during the previous 

 year. Every effort was therefore made by these persons and their 

 sattelites to prevent the execution of the royal will. Appeals were 

 addressed to Sandoval invoking him to remain silent. He was 

 cautioned not to interfere with a state of society upon which the 

 property of the realm depended. The ruin of many families, the 

 general destruction of property, the complete revolution of the 

 American system, were painted in glowing colors, by these men 

 who pretended to regard the just decrees of the Emperor as mere 

 "innovations" upon the established laws of New Spain. But 

 Sandoval was firm, and he was stoutly sustained in his honorable 

 loyalty to his sovereign and Christianity, by the countenance of 

 the viceroy Mendoza. Accordingly, the imperial decrees were 

 promulgated throughout New Spain, and resulted in seditious 

 movements among the disaffected proprietors which became so 

 formidable that the peace of the country was seriously endangered. 

 In this dilemma, — feeling, probably, that the great mass of the 

 people was the only bulwark of the government against the Indians, 

 and that it was needful to conciliate so powerful a body, — per- 

 mission was granted by the authorities, to appoint certain represen- 

 tatives as a commission to lay the cause before the Emperor himself. 

 Accordingly two delegates were despatched to Spain together with 

 the provincials of San Francisco, Santo Domingo and San Agustin, 

 and other Spaniards of wealth and influence in the colony. 



In the following year, Sandoval, who had somewhat relaxed his 

 authority, took upon himself the dangerous task of absolutely en- 

 forcing the orders of the Emperor with some degree of strictness, 

 notwithstanding the visit of the representatives of the discontented 

 Mexicans to Spain. He displaced several oidores and other 

 officers who disgraced their trusts, and deprived various proprie- 

 tors of their repartimientos or portions of Indians who had been 

 abused by the cruel exercise of authority. But, in the meantime, 

 the agents had not ceased to labor at the court in Spain. Money, 

 influence, falsehood and intrigue were freely used to sustain the 

 system of masked slavery among the subjugated natives, and, at 

 last, a royal cedula was procured commanding the revocation of 

 the humane decrees and ordering the division of the royal domain 

 among the conquerors. The Indians, of course, followed the fate 

 of the soil ; and thus, by chicanery and influence, the gentle efforts 

 of the better portion of Spanish society were rendered entirely 

 nugatory. The news of this decree spread joy among the Mexican 

 landed proprietors. The chains of slavery were rivetted upon the 



