Note XIV‑10 — Chapter XIV · THREATENED DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES. 1526-1543.

In 1533 it was enacted that an Indian's load should not exceed two arrobas in weight. In 1536 it was ordered that natives who had been accustomed to move from place to place were not to be prevented from doing so. Other laws passed the same year were to the effect that no Spaniard of any rank could be carried about by Indians in hammock or palanquin. Negroes ill-treating Indians were to receive 100 lashes, or if blood were shed, a punishment adequate to the severity of the wound. Native villages and settlements were not to be inhabited by Spaniards, negroes, or mulattoes. A Spaniard when travelling could only remain one night, and Spanish traders three days, in an Indian village. In 1538 laws were made ordering that caciques were not to sell or barter their subjects. This year also a modification of previous enactments limited the use of natives as pack-animals to those under 18 years of age. The Indians were, by all possible means other than coercion, to be induced to live in communities. In 1541 viceroys, audiencias, and governors were ordered to ascertain whether encomenderos sold their slaves, and if any such were discovered they were to be exemplarily punished and the bondsmen thus sold restored to liberty. Recop. de Indias, ii. 192, 194, 201-2, 212, 277-8, 288-9. These laws were general and applied to all Spanish America. Vazquez states that, in the year 1714, there existed in the city archives of Guatemala royal cédulas, issued in 1531, 1533, and 1534, authorizing the branding of slaves taken in war or obtained by rescate. Chronica de Gvat., 37-8.