282 
GUATEMALA. 
We cannot but admire the undoubted courage and in¬ 
difference to personal hardship exhibited by the Conquis- 
tadores; but that must not blind us to the fact that they 
were little better than freebooters in their treatment of 
the American nations they subdued, and that their policy, 
so far as they had any, was of the most selfish and narrow 
kind. Jealousy of other nations, especially of England, 
who was now beginning to try her hand in ruling the sea, 
although in a rather irregular way, led to the establish¬ 
ment of all the important cities in the mountain region 
of the interior, where they might well escape the notice 
of other nations. The natural walls that Nature had 
provided were made very useful to their utmost extent; 
the ports were but conveniences to help the invaders to 
supplies from the mother-country and afford a necessary 
means for the exportation of their ill-gotten gains, and 
general commerce was discouraged in every way. The 
buccaneers helped to discourage the growth of ports, but 
the Home Government did quite as much in this direction. 
The atrocious system of encomiendas, by which the native 
population was reduced to an almost hopeless slavery, was 
permitted, if not encouraged, by the Church, and no attempt 
was ever made to develop the country on a basis of im¬ 
provement in the Indian population; and the animal, 
vegetable, and mineral wealth of Guatemala were treated 
much in the same way, — a prey for the present robber. 
The Indios were all subdued, except the Lacandones far 
on the northern frontier, who were too poor to pay for sub¬ 
jugation ; and the iniquitous policy of selfishness began to 
bear fruit. Unlimited power and immunity in the hands 
of the clergy begot intolerance. The shepherds became 
the wolves, and not only devoured their own flocks, but 
