Note V-2 — Chapter V · ADMINISTRATION OF THE INDIES. 1492-1526.

As this word will often occur in these pages, and as neither the term nor the institution it symbolizes has any equivalent in English, I will enter here a full explanation. Residencia was the examination or account taken of the official acts of an executive or judicial officer during the term of his residence within the province of his jurisdiction, and while in the exercise of the functions of his office. This was done at the expiration of the term of office, or at stated periods, or in case of malefeasance at any time. The person making the examination was appointed by the king, or in New World affairs by the Consejo de Indias, or by a viceroy, and was called a juez de residencia. Before this judge, within a given time, any one might appear and make complaint, and offer evidence against the retiring or suspended official, who might refute and rebut as in an ordinary tribunal. The residencia of any officer appointed by the crown must be taken by a judge appointed by the crown; the residencia of officers appointed in the Indies by viceroys, audiencias, or president-governors, was taken by a judge appointed by the same authority. Following are some of the changes rung upon the subject by royal decrees, the better to make it fit the government of the Indies. The 10th of June, 1523, and again the 17th of November, 1526, Charles V. decreed that appeal might be made from the judge of residencia to the Council of the Indies, except in private demands not exceeding 600 pesos de oro, when appeal was to the audiencia. In 1530 viceroys and president-governors were directed to take the residencia of visitadores de Indios that wrong-doing to the natives might not escape punishment; and by a later law proclamations of residencias must be made in such manner that the Indians might know thereof. The Ordenanzas de Audiencias of Philip II. of 1563 and 1567, state that in some cities of the Indies it was customary to appoint at certain seasons two regidores, who, with an alcalde, acted as fieles ejecutores. At the beginning of every year the viceroy, or the president, in a city which was the residence of an audiencia, had to appoint an oidor to take the residencia of the fieles ejecutores of the previous year. The same was to be done if those offices had been sold to the city, villa, or lugar; but in such cases it was left to the discretion of the viceroy or president to cause them to be taken when necessary, not allowing them to become too commonplace. Philip II. in 1573, and his successors as late as 1680, directed that in residencias of governors and their subordinates, when the fine did not exceed 20,000 maravedís, execution should issue immediately; in damages granted from private demands to the amount of 200 ducats, the condemned was to give bonds to respond. While an official was undergoing his residencia it was equivalent to his being under arrest, as he could neither exercise office nor, except in certain cases specified, leave the place. Thus the law of 1530, reiterated in 1581, stated that from the time of the proclamation of a residencia till its conclusion alguaciles mayores and their tenientes should be suspended from carrying the varas, or from exercising any of the functions of office. In 1583, in 1620, and in 1680, it was ordered that such judges of residencia as were appointed in the Indies should be selected by a viceroy and audiencia, or by a president and audiencia, acting in accord. Salaries of jueces de residencia were ordered by Felipe III. in 1618 to be paid by the official tried if found guilty, if not by the audiencia appointing. Before this, in 1610, the same sovereign had ordered notaries employed in residencias taken by corregidores to be paid in like manner. The next monarch directed that ships' officers should be subject to residencia in the form of a visita; and in visitas to galeones and flotas none but common sailors, artillerymen, and soldiers should be exempt. Cárlos II. in 1667 decreed that the residencia of a viceroy must be terminated within six months from the publication of the notice of the judge taking it. Felipe III. in 1619, and Cárlos II. in 1680, ordered that viceroys and presidents should send annually to the crown lists of persons suitable for conducting residencias, so that no one might be chosen to act upon the official under whose jurisdiction he resided. See Recop. de Indias, ii. 176-89. Of the report of the residencia the original was sent to the Council of the Indies, and a copy deposited in the archives of the audiencia. So burdensome were these trials, so corrupt became the judges, that later, in America, the residencia seemed rather to defeat than to promote justice, and in 1799 it was abolished so far as the subordinate officers were concerned.