During Landecho's rule, a drought, which occurred in 1563, was followed by such great scarcity of corn as to cause much suffering among the natives,[XXI‑27] and in the early part of 1565 the country was visited by pestilence and earthquake. The epidemic appears to have been confined to the Indian town of Cinacantlan, in Chiapas, which it nearly depopulated, but the effects of the earthquake were more extended. In Santiago and the adjacent country it was destructive both to life and property.[XXI‑28] To mitigate the wrath of God the terrified inhabitants of the city chose the martyr Saint Stephen as their advocate, and erected in his honor a hermitage, to which a yearly procession was established.[XXI‑29]
A matter of greater moment than the change of governors now occupied the attention of the colonists of Guatemala. The transfer of the audiencia de los Confines to Panamá had been decided on by the crown, but for what cause is not recorded by the chroniclers.[XXI‑30] A decree to this effect was issued early in 1563, and confirmed by a second one dated the 8th of September in the same year in which its jurisdiction was defined.[XXI‑31]
A line extending from the gulf of Fonseca to the mouth of the river Ulúa formed the northern limit of the territory made subject to the new audiencia of Panamá. This did not include, however, the cities of Gracias á Dios and San Gil de Buenavista with their districts, which together with the provinces of Guatemala, Chiapas, Soconusco, and Vera Paz were made subject to the audiencia of New Spain.[XXI‑32]
Doctor Barros de San Millan, oidor of the audiencia of Panamá, was commissioned by the crown to remove the audiencia de los Confines, and before the end of December 1564 was on his way to Panamá with the seal, the visitador Brizeño having brought the order and published it soon after his arrival.[XXI‑33]
This change, which seriously affected the interests of Guatemala, was vigorously opposed by its inhabitants. Though informed early in 1564, as we have seen, that this measure had been resolved on, the cabildo refrained from decisive action till the arrival of Brizeño, when the publication of his orders would perhaps reveal its origin. In this, however, they were disappointed, for in their letter of December 20, 1564, they write: "Your Majesty, for certain causes which have moved you, has been pleased to order that the audiencia de los Confines be removed to the city of Panamá."
By making the audiencia of New Spain the court of appeals for Guatemala and the other provinces, under the former jurisdiction of the audiencia of the Confines great inconvenience and injustice resulted owing to distance. These facts were dwelt upon in the petitions to the crown, and were supplemented by the reports of the Dominicans, who represented the ill-treatment to which the natives would be exposed without the restraining presence of the audiencia. Las Casas, as we have seen, also employed his voice and influence at court to bring about its restoration, and the result was to induce the crown, by decree of 1568, to order its reëstablishment in Santiago, Doctor Antonio Gonzalez, oidor of the audiencia of Granada, being appointed president and arriving in Santiago with the oidores early in 1570.[XXI‑34]
During the absence of the audiencia the country was governed by the visitador Brizeño, whose administration appears to have been just, and with the exception of church affairs, uneventful. There is no evidence that Gonzalez was given the extraordinary powers granted to Landecho, perhaps because the experiment had not proven satisfactory, but according to Pelaez, a fiscal had been added to the officers of the audiencia during its absence.[XXI‑35] Brizeño's residencia was taken sometime in March, and the only charge brought against him was the granting of certain repartimientos at the suggestion of the cabildo of Santiago. The findings in the case were transmitted to the crown, and the cabildo immediately wrote defending the measure as necessary, and asking for his acquittal.[XXI‑36]
Gonzalez ruled until February 1572, when he was relieved by Doctor Pedro de Villalobos, who came as president and governor. We have no record of any event of importance during Gonzalez' administration; but that it was a just one is proven by his honorable acquittal in the residencia taken by his successor.
About the middle of the sixteenth century the affairs of the church underwent several important changes. Soconusco, which as we have seen was assigned to the bishopric of Chiapas, was subsequently included in the see of Bishop Marroquin, though again affiliated with the bishopric of Chiapas in 1596. Soon after their arrival the Dominicans sent to Soconusco a mission of several friars; but unable to withstand the excessive heat most of them fell sick, and the death of one of their number so dispirited the remainder as to cause the abandonment of the province.
The see of Chiapas remained vacant until 1550, when Father Tomás Casillas, at the suggestion, no doubt, of Las Casas, was appointed to fill it. He visited the greater part of his diocese, including Tabasco; built an episcopal palace, and attended the provincial councils in Mexico in 1555 and 1565. After his decease in 1567, the see again remained vacant until 1574, when Fray Domingo de Lara was designated as his successor. The intelligence of the honor fell strangely upon the recipient; he prayed that he might die before it was confirmed; and curiously enough before the pope's bull came to hand, and while in the midst of preparations for consecration, he expired.[XXI‑37]
The next occupant of the see, Pedro de Fería, was called from the convent of Salamanca, and early in February 1575 was actively engaged in diocesan work. At his invitation the Franciscans sent some friars into the province, and a convent and church were soon erected. Chiapas had the rare fortune to possess in Fería a bishop who was an honest man, and one not greedy for gold or power. Finding himself too feeble for the work he begged the king to name another. In consequence of an order of the king that secular priests must not be displaced by Dominicans, or others who held a temporary dispensation from the pope, Fería appointed seculars to several vacancies to the no small chagrin of some of the friars. In 1592[XXI‑38] Don Fray Andrés de Ubilla was appointed successor to Fería, and continued in office until 1601, when he was promoted to the see of Michoacan.
At a Dominican provincial chapter held in 1576, at Ciudad Real, the convent of Santo Domingo de Chiapas was accepted as that of the province, and Pedro de Barrientos chosen as first vicar. At chapters held in Chiapas and Guatemala prior to 1600, it was forbidden the friars to sign their family name; to write to the president of the audiencia or to the oidores without showing the letters first to the superiors, and so in regard to writing to Spain under penalty of fifteen days' imprisonment. No moneys were to be sent to Spain through the hands of the religious.
Ciudad Real, where the last provincial chapter was held, had in 1580 two hundred Spanish vecinos. There were about ninety Indian towns in the province, within a radius of sixty leagues, containing some twenty-six thousand tributaries. The largest one, Chiapas de los Indios, had twelve hundred Indian vecinos.
In 1559, through the influence of Las Casas, the bishopric of Vera Paz was established, and Father Angulo appointed its first bishop. He accepted the charge and repaired to his see a year or two later, but died early in 1562 before proceeding to consecration.[XXI‑39] The establishment of this see was unwise in the extreme, and must be attributed solely to the representations of Las Casas. As already shown the country was barely capable of sustaining its inhabitants, and in 1564 the cabildo declared to the crown that it would be well to suppress the bishopric as it could not support a prelate; an opinion borne out by subsequent experience.[XXI‑40]
Angulo was succeeded by Father Tomás de Cárdenas, a Dominican. The date of his appointment according to Gonzalez Dávila was April 1, 1565, and according to Remesal he continued in possession until his death, in 1580.[XXI‑41]
In 1555 Bishop Marroquin, now old and wearied with over twenty-five years of constant service as priest and bishop, sought to retire, but though President Quesada recommended to the crown that his petition be granted it was refused, and he died at Santiago on holy Friday of 1563,[XXI‑42] and was buried with the highest honors in the cathedral of Santiago.[XXI‑43] His successor was Bernardino de Villalpando, bishop of Cuba, who arrived in Santiago in 1564.[XXI‑44]
The Franciscans and Dominicans in the mean time had made but little progress owing to petty rivalries and dissensions between them, and the interference of the secular clergy. Though the Dominicans had always been the principal confessors and preachers in Santiago, they were less popular than the Franciscans, who were also favored by Bishop Marroquin. As early as 1550 a strong rivalry sprung up between the two orders in regard to the right of possession of sites for churches and convents. These being then determined by the simple act of taking possession, many towns and districts were seized upon by the ecclesiastics which they could not attend to themselves, and would not permit their rivals to control. Dissensions and mutual detractions followed, which the prelates of the respective orders were powerless to suppress in their subordinates.
This scandalous example estranged both the civil authorities and the citizens, and Marroquin, finding his efforts to settle these quarrels fruitless, began to appoint persons to the vacant and neglected towns, in some cases depriving the ecclesiastics of those in their charge. This condition of affairs was duly reported by the authorities, and as a result the religious were reproved, and the selection of sites for convents and the appointment of clergy made subject to the approval of the audiencia, and the bishop was instructed to respect the privileges of the friars and treat them with due consideration.[XXI‑45]
In 1551 the Dominicans of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Chiapas were organized into an independent provincia with the title of San Vicente de Chiapas. Father Tomás de la Torre was appointed provincial, and the first provincial chapter was held at Santiago in January.[XXI‑46] Several convents were founded, mostly in Guatemala, churches built among the Zoques and Quelenes, and with the arrival from time to time of additional friars the organization of new districts was begun. In Chiapas the Dominicans in their labors continued to suffer occasional molestation from the colonists. The provinces of San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica were visited, a convent was founded in the city of San Salvador, and two attempts were made to establish the order in Nicaragua.[XXI‑47]
In 1559 a custodia was formed of the Franciscans in Guatemala and Yucatan, by which provinces the vicar was alternately chosen. This lasted until 1565, when the religious of Guatemala were authorized to establish a separate provincia with the title of The Holy Name of Jesus. Their first provincial was Father Gonzalo Mendez, and the first provincial chapter was opened in Santiago on the 12th of October, 1566.[XXI‑48]
Owing to the dissensions with the Dominicans and among themselves, many friars left the province, so that in 1566 there were but thirty ecclesiastics and seven convents. In 1574 the audiencia issued a decree permitting the Franciscans to found convents in the provinces of Izalcos, Cuscatlan, and Honduras. About the same time convents were established in the villas of San Salvador and San Miguel.[XXI‑49]
One of the first acts of Bishop Villalpando was the publication of the decrees of the late council of Trent. Among other measures these restricted the privileges of mendicant friars, and believing or affecting to believe that this extended to a total deprivation of their right to administer the sacraments, the prelate began to secularize the towns in their charge. In vain were the protests of the Franciscan and Dominican provincials and the audiencia, and the representations of all that the secular priests, ignorant of the Indian languages, regardless of their interest, and in many cases of disreputable character, were unfit to succeed the regular orders in the charge of a numerous people, the majority of whom were yet new in the faith. The bishop absolutely insisted on obedience. In consequence recourse was had to the crown, but in the interim the prelate persistently carried out his measures notwithstanding the opposition of the friars, the colonists, and the natives, the religious being prevented from abandoning the province only at the entreaties of the colonists, and the Indians in some instances refusing to receive them in their towns.
At the solicitation of the king the pope restored the privileges of the friars, the extreme measures of the bishop were condemned, and the archbishop of New Spain ordered to send a visitador to examine into certain serious charges made against Villalpando.[XXI‑50] When notified of these decrees, Villalpando is said to have replied: "I have received my church not from the king but from God, to whom I am prepared to render an account." According to Juarros he left Santiago soon after and died suddenly at Chalchuapa, four days' journey from the capital.[XXI‑51] Francisco Cambranes, dean of the cathedral of Santiago and after him Father Alonso de Lamilla, a Dominican, appear to have been appointed to succeed Villalpando. The former died before his appointment reached him and the latter declined the mitre. The see remained vacant until the appointment in 1574 of Bishop Gomez Fernandez de Córdoba who was transferred from the bishopric of Nicaragua.[XXI‑52]
Córdoba was a man simple in habit, humble in spirit, and pure in life. Foppery troubled some of the clergy, and the prelate, who could be stern when needful, took occasion to call up one of the would-be clerical gallants, and severely admonished him upon the extravagance of his dress. The mortifying lesson was not without effect, and he, with not a few others, carefully avoided such display ever after.
In 1575 Córdoba set out on his official visits, and everywhere met with complaints from the natives concerning their priests, especially among the Ochitepiques, who asked to have the Franciscans put in charge. But those in possession were not always willing to gracefully yield as was shown by an incident which occurred in the same year. Father Pedro Diaz, visiting Guatemala for the purpose of founding Franciscan convents, arrived in the little town of Zamayaque, and called to pay his respects to the priest. His advances were coolly received, and the padre, seeking to conciliate him, asked his permission to say mass in the town and confess some of the Indians. From indifference the latter became fiercely indignant, and expressed himself in very unclerical language. His words were violent and his speech so loud that a number of the Indians were attracted to the spot. Thereupon Diaz assumed a humble attitude and deferentially withdrew, after making his apologies, and repaired to the cabildo, where the people flocked to him. Improvising an altar beneath a cotton-tree close by, he then insisted upon performing service, taking care that the priest should be informed and begging him not to interfere. At the consecration, the latter, accompanied by a few armed favorites, rushed in and gave unbridled license to his tongue, calling the people dogs and the Franciscan a madman. It was a strange spectacle—an angry priest wildly gesticulating in his black robe, surrounded by armed men, who momentarily threatened assault, and a padre calmly reciting his orisons, holding the host in uplifted hands in the midst of the people. The priest, exasperated beyond control, ordered his men to charge, which they did, wounding not a few and causing a general stampede.
At this point the encomendero Leon Cardena interposed between the contestants, and the Franciscan tried to assuage the tumult with words of peace. The priest would not be pacified until the Indians tried their skill at stone-throwing, when he ignominiously turned and fled to his house, where he had to undergo a siege until he promised to depart for Guatemala taking all his paraphernalia with him.[XXI‑53] The Franciscan remained master of the field, and was eventually appointed guardian of Zamayaque, but the consequences of the unseemly quarrel were far-reaching, and the discussions to which it gave rise went far to reform the character of priests put in charge of the natives.
Bishop Córdoba labored in Guatemala for twenty-three years, Fray Antonio de Hinojosa being appointed his colleague two years before the decease of the former, which occurred in 1598. During his administration the king gave orders that no expense should be spared in supporting all the religious who might be needed for the conversion of the natives, and that money should be placed at the disposal of the friars for the purpose of administering the sacrament to the Indians in places remote from the settlements. The Franciscans especially multiplied in Guatemala, sixty-six arriving in that province between 1571 and 1573. In 1576 the audiencia was directed by the crown to make an annual grant of fifty thousand maravedís for each mission established by them. In 1578 García de Valverde, who during that year was appointed president of the audiencia, undertook the rebuilding or enlargement of several Franciscan convents[XXI‑54] and the erection of several churches. Such was his enthusiasm that he was often seen carrying stone and mortar for the workmen, and his example spread among the inhabitants of Santiago, men of noble birth imitating the prelate's example.
In the year 1600 when Juan Ramirez was appointed bishop there were in Guatemala twenty-two convents of the Franciscans and fourteen of the Dominican order.[XXI‑55] In 1578 a nunnery was completed and occupied, the funds having been provided by a bequest from the first bishop of Guatemala. In 1592 a college was opened in Santiago, and we learn that the cabildo, encouraged by its success, desired to have a university established there in order that students might complete their education without proceeding to Mexico as was then the custom among the wealthier class of Spaniards.
During Valverde's administration the news of Drake's expedition to the South Sea, of which mention will be made in connection with the raids of that famous adventurer, spread consternation throughout the provinces. On this occasion the president of Guatemala showed himself worthy of the trust imposed in him. Ships and cannon were procured; small arms and ammunition were obtained from Mexico, and an expedition was quickly despatched in search of the enemy. No encounter took place, however, and the commander of the fleet was placed under arrest for non-fulfilment of his orders, which were to proceed in quest of the intruders to the gulf of California where they were supposed to be stationed. In 1586 when news arrived of Drake's capture of Santo Domingo a review was held in the plaza of Santiago, and it was found that the city could put into the field five hundred foot and one hundred horse.[XXI‑56]
Valverde's decease occurred in September 1589, and when on his death-bed he received intelligence of his promotion to the presidency of the audiencia of Nueva Galicia. His successor was Pedro Mayen de Rueda, a man of strong but narrow views, and one who by his injudicious measures soon made enemies both of the oidores and the ecclesiastics, the members of the municipality, however, remaining firm in their allegiance to him. "Rueda," writes the cabildo to the king in 1592, "has given vacant encomiendas to the deserving, and strictly carried out royal cédulas. He has embellished the capital with many a fine building so that it is far other than it was." Nevertheless his enemies were too strong for him, and in the following year he was superseded by Doctor Francisco Sandé, who came to the province vested with the authority of a visitador, but appears to have found nothing specially worthy of censure in the former's administration.[XXI‑57]
The new president incurred the enmity of the cabildo by abolishing one of its most cherished privileges,[XXI‑58] and by causing the office of alférez, the holder of which became ex officio the senior member of the cabildo, to be disposed of for five thousand ducados to one Francisco de Mesa, whose chief recommendation seems to have been that he was a kinsman of the president's wife. In November 1596 Sandé departed for New Granada, of which province he had been appointed governor.[XXI‑59] His successor was Doctor Alonso Criado de Castilla, who assumed office in September 1598, the reins of power being during the interval in the hands of the senior oidor, Alvaro Gomez de Abaunza.
During the closing years of the sixteenth century it was the policy of the cabildo in their reports to the king to represent the industrial condition of Guatemala in as unfavorable a light as possible. Nevertheless there is sufficient evidence that trade was restricted, mining almost neglected, and that agriculture received little attention. Rich mines were discovered in various places, but Indians could not be procured to work them, and mine-owners becoming every day poorer, threatened altogether to abandon the field, thus causing the cabildo to petition for the importation of slaves for the purpose of developing them. So great was the falling-off in receipts at the smelting-works that the royal officials resolved to exact only one tenth instead of the fifth of the proceeds which had before been collected as the king's dues.
The possibility of extending the commerce of the province by the opening of the port of Iztapa, ten or twelve leagues from Santiago, and the point where it will be remembered Alvarado's vessels were built and equipped for his promised expedition to the Spice Islands, was the subject of many petitions to the king. It seemed to present many facilities for an extensive traffic on the South Sea, and its contiguity to Guatemala would afford merchants and speculators an opportunity of dealing in the products of the country. Ship-building especially might become an important industry. Woods of finest quality and in limitless quantity could be had in the district. Large cedars were abundant; while cordage could be had in inexhaustible quantity. The pita, which furnished excellent material for ropes and cables, grew profusely all over the coast. Pitch and tar could also be procured in the valley of Inmais, only a short distance from the port. So far, however, little success had attended the various attempts made to utilize these advantages, but in after years further efforts were made. In 1591, measures were also taken for opening another port named Estero del Salto, seven leagues from Iztapa and capable of accommodating vessels of a hundred tons.[XXI‑60]
While thus struggling for new avenues of trade, the members of the cabildo were tenacious of those already in their possession. Neither the importation of slaves nor a reduction of the royal dues would satisfy them, while cacao, the only product which really did pay and thus preserved the balance of trade, was improperly taxed. Writing in 1575, they alleged that for two years past this once highly profitable trade had been nearly destroyed by excessive taxation and that in consequence the prosperity of Santiago had been greatly diminished.[XXI‑61]
But commercial decadence was not the only misfortune from which the province suffered. In 1575 and the two subsequent years earthquakes occurred in Guatemala,[XXI‑62] attended with great destruction of property. In December 1581 a violent eruption occurred in the volcano west of Santiago. The land for miles around was covered with scoriæ; the sun was darkened, and the lurid flames darting from the cone spread terror throughout the neighborhood. The inhabitants, believing that the day of judgment had come, marched in penitential procession loudly bewailing their sins. Presently a sharp north wind dispersed the gloom and scattered the ashes. On this occasion no lives were lost. In 1585 and 1586 there were numerous earthquakes, the most violent one occurring just before Christmas of the latter year. Hill-tops were rent, wide chasms appeared in the earth, and the greater part of the city was destroyed, many of the inhabitants being buried in the ruins. In 1587 we hear of another severe earthquake by which fifteen lives were lost and fifty buildings shaken down, among them the old Franciscan convent.[XXI‑63]
Revolt of the Cimarrones—Pedro de Ursua Sent against Them—A Second Revolt—Bayano Caught and Sent to Spain—Regulations concerning Negroes—Commercial Decadence—Restrictions on Trade—Home Industries—Pearl Fisheries—Mining—Decay of Settlements—Proposed Change in the Port of Entry—Its Removal from Nombre de Dios to Portobello—Changes in the Seat of the Audiencia—Tierra Firme Made Subject to the Viceroy of Peru—Defalcations in the Royal Treasury—Preparations for Defence against Corsairs and Foreign Powers.
It has already been stated that Las Casas was the first to urge the substitution of African for Indian slavery, and as early as 1517 such a measure was authorized by the crown. The natives lacked the physical strength needed to meet the demands of their taskmasters, and negroes from the Portuguese settlements on the coast of Guinea were largely imported into the Spanish West Indies. Numbers of them were driven by ill-usage to take refuge in the forests and mountain fastnesses, where they led a nomadic life or made common cause with the natives, and when attacked by the Spaniards neither gave nor accepted quarter. About the middle of the sixteenth century the woods in the vicinity of Nombre de Dios swarmed with these runaways, who attacked the treasure-trains on their way across the Isthmus, defeated the parties sent against them by the governor of the province, and lurked in wait for passengers, assailing them with poisoned arrows, and cutting into pieces those who fell alive into their hands. Organized as marauding companies they became widely known as cimarrones[XXII‑1] or Maroons as they were called in Jamaica and Dutch Guiana. At times they would unite their forces and ravage a wide extent of country, leaving ruin on every side. Houses were burned, plantations destroyed, women seized, merchandise stolen, and settlers slain. Such was the attendant terror that masters dared not chastise their slaves, nor did merchants venture to travel the highways except in companies of twenty or more.[XXII‑2] In the year 1554 many hundreds of them were thus banded in Tierra Firme alone.
About this time the new viceroy of Peru, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, marqués de Cañete, opportunely arriving at Nombre de Dios from Spain, en route for his capital, resolved on the subjugation of these outlaws. Not long before his arrival, Pedro de Ursua, a brave and distinguished soldier, had taken refuge from his enemies in the province of Cartagena, where he had founded the city of Pamplona and made discoveries. The viceroy, believing Ursua to be unjustly persecuted and recognizing his eminent fitness, authorized him to raise troops and march against the offenders. Accordingly Ursua equipped upward of two hundred men, and set out from Nombre de Dios. The cimarrones had mustered under Bayano,[XXII‑3] a man of their own race, of singular courage, who had been elected king by those occupying the mountains between Plagon and Pacora, and whose number now exceeded six hundred.
Bayano retreated slowly and warily, posting ambuscades at every favorable point, and engaging the foe in frequent encounters, the negroes fighting with desperation and the Spaniards advancing with the coolness of well disciplined soldiers. For two years Ursua[XXII‑4] carried on the campaign with unwearied patience, and at last surrounded the remnant of the cimarrones and compelled them to sue for peace. Bayano was sent a prisoner to Spain. In 1570 his followers founded the town of Santiago del Príncipe. A cédula of June 21, 1574, declared that on full submission and on condition of their leading a peaceful life the negroes should be free men. One of the articles of a treaty which was concluded at Panamá binds the emancipated slaves to capture runaways and return them to their masters.
After a short-lived peace the cimarrones again took the field, reënforced by maltreated or discontented negro fugitives from the mines, and committed such depredations that the king resolved on a war of extermination against them and their allies. In a cédula dated 23d of May 1578 he appointed his factor and veedor Pedro de Ortega Valencia, captain general of the forces levied for that purpose, with instructions not to desist until the rebels were vanquished. Funds were to be drawn freely from the royal treasury. Panamá and the adjoining provinces of Quito and Cartago were enjoined to provide all necessary supplies, and the Casa de la Contratacion de Seville was to furnish four hundred arquebuses and a supply of ammunition. The Spaniards were only partially successful, and in the following year the king found it necessary to address the president and oidores of the audiencia, urging them to renewed efforts, but in vain. In 1596 the cimarrones, in concert with buccaneers, opened a road from their own town to the Chagre River only a league below the highway to Venta de las Cruces, their object being to steal and secrete treasure and merchandise. On the 25th of August the king peremptorily orders the destruction of the road and the execution of the ringleaders, but nevertheless the cimarrones in collusion with English corsairs for years set the Spaniards at defiance.
The regulations framed during the sixteenth century concerning negroes, whether bond or free, prescribed with the utmost minuteness their deportment, their social relations, and the restrictions under which they were to live.[XXII‑5] It was provided in the case of runaways that pardon should only be extended once, and never to the leaders of a revolt. One fifth of the cost incurred in their capture was to be met by the royal treasury and the remainder by the owners; and all expeditions were to be conducted by experienced officers, the property value of the negro being so great that his recovery could not be intrusted to inferior hands.
To engage in the importation of slaves it was necessary first to obtain a royal license, a privilege jealously guarded, and seldom if ever granted to Spain's ancient rivals, the Portuguese, but freely bestowed on the English, who gradually monopolized the trade. So great were the profits that Portuguese and English alike were found continually violating the law and setting the king at defiance.[XXII‑6] The regulations embraced also their intercourse with Indians, so as to discourage as much as possible their association with lawless bands, dangerous to Spanish security, and prejudicial to peaceable natives; for, with the presumption so common among lower races and classes, the negro failed not to take advantage of any privilege he might obtain over his red-skinned neighbor.[XXII‑7] Such checks proved of little use, however, since they also applied in part at least to Spanish task-masters. Indeed, in a royal cédula issued in 1593, attention is called to the fact that no one had been brought to justice for any of the extortions or cruelties to which the Indians had been subjected.[XXII‑8] Other stringent laws were issued, but they came too late, or were neglected like the rest. Under the yoke of their various oppressors the native population of the Isthmus gradually disappeared, and toward the close of the century their numbers had become insignificant.
In the affairs of Panamá, we enter now an era of decline. Progress hitherto on the Isthmus has been on no permanent basis. For a time the gold and pearls of seaboard and islands kept alive the spirit of speculation, which was swollen to greater dimensions by the inflowing treasures from Peru and Chile, and from scores of other places in South and North America. When these began to diminish, commerce fell off, and as it had little else to depend upon there was necessarily a reaction.
Panamá had comparatively but little indigenous wealth and was largely dependent for prosperity on Spain's colonial policy. Unfortunately this was characterized by a short-sightedness which eventually proved disastrous both to the province and the empire. The great fleets which arrived from Spain came in reduced numbers, at longer intervals, and with depleted stores. In 1589, ninety-four vessels reached the Isthmus laden with merchandise; sixteen years later the fleet mustered only seventeen ships.[XXII‑9] To the depredations of buccaneers which will be hereafter described this state of affairs may in part be attributed, but other causes were at work. The king of Spain had already appeared before his subjects at Panamá in the character of a royal mendicant;[XXII‑10] and now he laid restrictions on their trade which could not fail to prove disastrous to the commercial interests of the city.
Hitherto there had been a large and lucrative traffic with the Philippine Islands, yielding often six-fold increase to the fortunate trader.[XXII‑11] But the cupidity of the monarch prompted more and more restrictive measures, until it was altogether forbidden to Panamá, and indeed to all the West Indies save New Spain, the king being determined to have what was known as the Asiatic trade monopolized by Castilian merchants.[XXII‑12] No Chinese goods were to be brought to Panamá and the other provinces, even from New Spain. None were to be used there, except such as were in actual use at date of the royal commands, and any surplus was to be carried to Spain within four years.
Of course the American provinces were gradually developing home industries, and bringing into the market home productions that displaced to a certain extent goods from which Spain had hitherto made large profits. Thus Peru supplied wine, leather, and oil; soap was manufactured in Guayaquil and Nicaragua; Campeche yielded wax, Guayaquil, Riobamba, and Puerto Viejo, cordage for ships, and Nicaragua a good quality of pitch. Quito and other places manufactured cloths, and New Spain silken and woolen goods. Had Philip adopted a generous colonial policy he would have fostered and profited by these new industries, but all fiscal regulations looked to the advancement of Spanish commerce without regard for the development of trade within the colonies.
Two commodities were watched and guarded with peculiar jealousy—wine and tobacco. Peru produced a wine that found favor with many and obtained a ready sale. In an ordinance of Philip II. dated the 16th of September 1586, no wine but that imported from Spain was allowed to be sold on the Isthmus; nor was it to be mixed with wine obtained elsewhere. The penalties attached to infringements of this law were heavy fines and even perpetual banishment. The reason assigned for these measures was the injurious effect of Peruvian wine upon the public health, but the real motive was the prejudicial effect of its sale upon the Spanish wine trade.[XXII‑13] Tobacco was a monopoly of the crown, and one rigidly protected, its sale, importation, or cultivation being forbidden under severe penalties.[XXII‑14]
Panamá imported most of her provisions, and the difficulties in obtaining a regular and cheap supply were augmented by the monopolies acquired by wealthy merchants who were enabled to control the market. New measures to correct this abuse were continually adopted, and as often evaded or violated.[XXII‑15] The scarcity of provisions sometimes caused distress approaching to famine, and at certain seasons was liable to be aggravated by the crowds of travellers and adventurers who crossed the Isthmus.[XXII‑16] Peru was the great source of supply and the trade with that country was the subject of frequent cédulas addressed to the viceroy.[XXII‑17]