Great Cruelties Have Been Reported: The 1544 Investigation of the Coronado Expedition

CHAPTER 3 LORENZO DE TEJADA AND THE BEGINNING OF THE INVESTIGATION

Chapter 3 Lorenzo de Tejada and the Beginning ofthe Investigación Spanish Concern OverTreatment of Indians panish colonization ofthe Caribbean islands in the last decade ofthe 1400s and first decades of the ISOOs had a devastating effect on the ^ native peoples of that región. By1550 the indigenous population of the Caribbean islands was all but extinct. Most native groups elsewhere in the hemisphere experienced less drastic, but still disastrous, impacts, with death rates often running as high as 90%. Various explanations for this catastrophe have been adduced: introduction of Oíd World diseases; abuse, overwork, and outright slaughter; dissolution of indigenous social patterns and structures; and sexual appropriation of Indian women by European men.1 Many members of Spanish colonial society were astonished and bewildered by the precipitous decline of Indian populations. Some few were outraged by the brutal acts toward native peoples committed by many of their fellows. First to publicly cali for an end to violence against Native Americans was fray Antonio de Montesinos on the island of Hispaniola in late 1511. Not unexpectedly, attempts were quickly made to silence the outspoken cleric. He was successfiíl, though, in laying his charges directly before the king. The result was convocation of an ecclesiastical and civil panel for the s Lorenzo de Tejada and ihe Beginning ofthe Investigarían 27 purpose of drafting laws to remedywhat the king understood as awidespread outrage. In December 1512, therefore, King Fernando issued a series of laws, known as the Laws of Burgos, regulating relations with Indians ofthe Americas .2 This first code governing treatment of Indians specified the kinds and amount of labor that could be exacted from American natives held in encomienda; required that encomenderos provide food, lodging, clothing, and religious instruction to their charges; and prohibited corporal punishment of Indians except by designated justices.The Laws of Burgos, however, did not address treatment of native peoples during the course of conquest.3 At about the same time as issuance of the Laws of Burgos, though, the practice of reading the requerimiento or official summons to submit peacefully was instituted as standard practice for expeditions of conquest. This formal document ostensibly provided justification of Spanish rule to native peoples and offered them the option of voluntarily rendering allegiance to the king.4 In the wake of Montesinos s agitation on behalf of more benevolent, if paternalistic, treatment of Indians, an increasingly poweríul movement aróse both in Spain and the New World dedicated to ameliorating the conditions and treatment of Indians. In 1530 that movement achieved a major accomplishment , the announcement of a royal decree prohibiting enslavement of Indians.5 Though the provisions were revoked four years later, they are a barometer of the strength of the Spanish "Indian rights" movement of the time. Its greatest champion, former encomendero fray Bartolomé de las Casas, forcefully and repeatedly made the case for more humane treatment of Native Americans before the royal court. In 1542, as the Coronado expedition was returning from its disappointing reconnaissance of Tierra Nueva, las Casas read before the king a draft of his virulent indictment of Spanish activities in the New World, Brevísima Relación dela Destrucción delasIndias,A Very Brief Account ofthe Destruction ofthe Indies. Hard on the heels of that reading, on November 20, 1542, the king issued the "Leyes y ordenanzas nuevamente hechas por su Magestad para la gobernación de las Indias y buen tratamiento y conservación de los Indios," commonly called the New Laws. This lengthy set of ordinances sought to end the encomienda system and charged govern- 28 Chapter3 ment officials and the citizenry at large to take special and perpetual care to preserve and protect the Indians of the Americas. The royal courts were enjoined to "enquire continually into the excessesand ill-treatment which are or shall be done to them by governors or prívate persons."6 On the thirteenth of March 1544 a copy of the New Laws was presented before the audiencia in México City. In attendance were Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and oidores of the court Francisco Ceynos and Lorenzo deTejada, as well as the visitadorgeneralFrancisco Tello de Sandoval.The laws were then read aloud in public in México City eleven days later.7 The Residencia, Visita, andPesquisaTraditíons The sixteenth-century Spanish royal bureaucracy provided several sometimes redundant means bywhich malfeasance and criminality of government íunctionaries and...