self-sufficient autocrat.[1] His domains extended in a broad belt from the coast inward, under the name of Pénuco and Victoria Garayana,[2] penetrating a region as yet almost unknown, and looked upon as rich in gold, so much so that the authorities had issued special reculations securing the crown dues thereon.[3] All this had raised the hopes of Guzman, only to be brought low when he beheld the comparatively poverty-stricken expanse before him. He was resolved to make the most of it, however, and in particular to exercise the newly acquired dignity in a manner befitting his training as slave-owner on the Islands. Sweeping changes were made in offices and regulations, and agents were sent round to investigate the titles of all grants of land and natives, and to seize all that were not fully secured. As a partisan of Velazquez his efforts were directed with especial severity against the adherents of Cortés, who had assisted to conquer and settle the region. Of their repartimientos, indeed, almost every one was deprived on some pretence. The natives were treated with absolute disregard of justice. Their houses and lands were ravaged, and everything of value was carried away, including slaves, and even their scanty stuck of provisions, so that some of them were reduced to actual want. In his imperious cruelty he caused several natives to be hanged for omitting to sweep the roads before him.[4]
These outrages were not prompted so much by avarice, which formed the main impulse with New World adventurers, as by egotism. Of a noble and
- ↑ Of noble birth, discreet, inclined to great deeds, enduring, and intrepid, are the features added by Beaumont, Crón. Mich., iv. 99.
- ↑ Puga, Cedulario, 22. Guzman claimed the whole parallel to the South Sea. Zumárraga calls the province 25 leagues at its greatest width. Ternaux-Compans, Voy., serie ii. tom. v. 91. A later report gives it 50 leagues in length and breadth. Informes, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xv. 446. This was probably after the audiencia defined the limits, as ordered.
- ↑ 'Que el oro de Panuco, se labrasse en barras por los quales . . . y corriesse por aquel precio . . . sopena de muerte . . . ni labrasse oro fuera de las fundiciones.' Herrera, dec. iii. lib. x. cap. vii. Another significant rule was that soldiers should not be used in agriculture.
- ↑ His alguacil mayor, Halcon, appears to have been a zealous tool in these performances.
