446 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



The first is the entire absence of all traditions. But 

 I would ask, may not this be accounted for by the un- 

 paralleled circumstances which attended the conquest 

 and subjugation of Spanish America? Every cap- 

 tain or discoverer, on first planting the royal stand- 

 ard on the shores of a new country, made proclama- 

 tion according to a form drawn up by the most em- 

 inent divines and lawyers in Spain, the most extra- 

 ordinary that ever appeared in the history of man- 

 kind ; entreating and requiring the inhabitants to ac- 

 knowledge and obey the church as the superior and 

 guide of the universe, the holy father called the pope, 

 and his majesty as king and sovereign lord of these 

 islands, and of the terra firma ; and concluding, 

 " But if you will not comply, or maliciously delay 

 to obey my injunction, then, with the help of God, 

 I will enter your country by force ; I will carry on 

 war against you with the utmost violence ; I will 

 subject you to the yoke of obedience, to the church 

 and king ; I will take your wives and children, and 

 make them slaves, and sell or dispose of them accord- 

 ing to his majesty's pleasure. I will seize your goods, 

 and do you all the mischief in my power, as rebel- 

 lious subjects, who will not acknowledge or submit 

 to their lawful sovereign ; and I protest that all the 

 bloodshed and calamities which shall follow are to 

 be imputed to you, and not to his majesty, or to me, 

 or the gentlemen who serve under me." 



The conquest and subjugation of the country were 

 carried out in the unscrupulous spirit of this procla- 



