Introduction 
27 
(twenty-five pounds) of cotton being required of them every three months. 
This proving excessive, the tribute was first reduced by one-half and later 
commuted to personal labor on the farms of the Spaniards. Still later, 
in 1497, Columbus allotted to the Spaniards the cultivated lands of the 
Indians. With these allotments, known as repartimientos, and later as 
encomiendas, went the forced labor of the Indians. In 1502 the crown 
authorized the collection of tribute from the natives, but ordered that they 
should receive wages for their labor. 
This arrangement was unsuccessful, for it was found that without 
compulsion the Indians could neither be induced to work nor taught nor 
converted. Accordingly it was ordered by the crown in 1503 that the 
Indians should be given inalienable lands and that they should be settled 
in permanent villages under protectors known as encomenderos. These 
encomenderos were obliged to teach, to indoctrinate, and to protect the 
Indians, to suppress their native customs, and to encourage to a limited 
extent the intermingling of the two races. The encomenderos were also 
empowered to exact labor from the Indians, though for pay, and as free 
men, and were to share the profits with the king. Thus by 1503 had been 
laid the basis of the encomienda system, which was designed from the very 
first not only to protect and uplift the Indian but also to exploit him. 
The first encomiendas in New Spain were granted by Cortés during the 
period of his illegal conquests and prior to May 15, 1522. Later in that 
year, when he was named governor and captain-general of New Spain, 
authority was at the same time given to grant encomiendas. The next 
year the granting of encomiendas was forbidden, but the order was 
ignored by Cortés. Later the instructions to Ponce de León called for an 
investigation of the subject of encomiendas and of native tribute, but the 
early death of Ponce left the matter unsettled and the status of encomien¬ 
das unchanged. In 1536 the encomienda system was made general for the 
Indies, but in 1542, largely as a result of the protests of Las Casas against 
the abuses of the system, ordinances thenceforth known as the New 
Laws 41 were recommended to and approved by the king. These laws 
aimed at the correction of abuses and the limiting and abolition of the 
system on the death of the present holders. Violent protests and serious 
opposition followed the publication of these laws, and in Peru there was 
formidable rebellion as a result of the effort to enforce them. The position 
of the encomenderos, and the effect which they felt these laws would have 
on the Indies, are ably set forth in the various petitions and memorials 
of their attorneys, and published hereinafter. 42 Finally, because of the 
opposition, the vital clauses of the ordinances were repealed in 1545, and 
it was not until the eighteenth century that the system was finally abol¬ 
ished. An interesting example of the annulment of a contract with an 
encomendero for his repartimiento of Indians, and of the incorporation 
to the crown of the repartimiento, is to be found in documents published 
hereinafter. 48 
41 For the text of the New Laws see J. G. Icazbalceta (ed.), Colección de Docu¬ 
mentos para la Historia de Mexico, II. (Mexico, 1866) 204-227. 
42 See pp. 125-151. 
43 See agreement with Gonzalo López concerning his Indians, this volume, pp. 95-101. 
