2 The Progress of

Spanish America
In Search of Justice

n 1496, after exploring the coast of South America,

Columbus returned to Hispaniola to find the island
in revolt. Spanish colonists were discontent with
the governorship of Columbus brother, Bartolom.
Instead of crushing the rebellion, though, Columbus pacified the rebels. He gave them free land grants and Indian
slaves to work them.
Columbus called these land grants repartimientos
partitions. Later, when the Spanish crown regulated
the repartimientos, they were called encomiendascomplimentary land grantsand the beneficiaries of these
grants, encomenderos. While, strictly speaking the Indians
on an encomienda were not slaves, their encomendero nevertheless could compel them to labor for him. Thus, on
Hispaniola and other islands, colonists forced Indians to
work in the fields and labor in the mines. Being unused to
such labor, and having no immunities for European sicknesses, thousands of natives died.
As governor of New Spain, Corts also established encomiendas, though he sought to regulate them justly. Under
Corts, Indians continued to live in their villages under
their native chiefs, and he enacted laws regulating the
number of hours an Indian should work and how much he
must be paid. Corts also required encomenderos to provide suitable religious instruction to their charges.
Nevertheless, the Indians were often abused in Mexico, as they were elsewhere in Spanish
America where the government was less benign.
The Spanish crown recognized the Indians as the equals of the Spanish colonists and
so forbade their enslavement. But because the crown had made slavery the punishment for
rebellion and cannibalism, unscrupulous Spaniards found the Americas teeming with rebels and cannibals. Thus began a brisk trade in human flesh.
The Spanish government enacted laws to deal with its extraordinary position in the
New World. The Laws of Burgos (1512) placed regulations on Indian labor, required that
colonists work to convert the natives, and decreed that no one may beat or whip or call an
Indian perro [dog] or any other name, unless it is his proper name. Another document, the

Map of Spanish
America, showing Cuba,
Hispaniola, Florida, and
New Spain

25

 26

LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

Requiriemento of 1513, required the Indians to acknowledge Spanish overlordship and permit the Faith to be preached to them. The conquistadors had to read the requiriemento when
entering an Indian village; only if the Indians resisted the requiriementos demands could
conquistadors subjugate them by force and enslave them as rebels. But since unscrupulous
conquistadors recited the requiriemento in Spanish (which the Indians did not understand)
and often out of earshot of the Indians, harsh conquests inevitably followed.
The Spanish crown justified the conquest of the Indians by appealing to Inter
CaeteraPope Alexander VIs 1493 donation of the Indies to Spain. But some questioned
the character of that donationdid it give Spain the right of conquest? Some argued that
it did not. The pope, they said, gave Spain the right to convert, not conquer, the natives.
Among those who argued in this way was a Spanish lawyer turned priest who would gain
fame as the Defender of the Indians. His name was Bartolom de Las Casas.

A Voice in the Wilderness

The text was the words of St. John the BaptistI am the voice of one crying in the wilderness (Matthew 3:3). Commenting on the text, the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos
declared: Are these Indians not men? Do they not have rational souls? Are you not obliged
to love them as you love yourselves?
Bartolom de Las Casas likely heard this sermon, preached in a straw-thatched church
on the island of Hispaniola in 1511. But the appeal of Fray Antonios cry in the wilderness
only gradually worked its way into his heart. Las Casas had come from Spain to Hispaniola
with Governor Don Nicols de Ovando in 1502 and had participated in expeditions against
the Taino, in which he witnessed atrocities. In reward for his service, Ovando gave Las
Casas an encomienda, which he continued to hold, with its Indian workers, even after 1510,
secular priest: a diocwhen at the age of 26 he was ordained a secular priest. But his own experience of the devesan priest; a priest
astation the Spanish conquest wrought on the Indians of Caribbean islands along with the
that does not belong
cries of Montesinos and others against injustice gradually worked on Las Casas mind and
to a religious order
heart. In 1514, he gave up his encomienda and a year later returned to Spain to plead for
justice for the Indians.
In 1517, Las Casas was a second time in Spain to complain of the encomienda system.
His denunciations caught the attention of Cardinal Francisco Ximnes de Cisneros, the
regent of Spain. Disturbed by Las Casas reports of abuse, Ximnes sent a commission of
Jeronymite Fathers to investigate and named Las Casas, Protector General of the Indians.
When he returned to America, Las Casas soon found cause to complain of the Jeronymites:
he thought they compromised too much with the colonial system. With other critics of
Spanish Indian policy in the New World, Las Casas suggested the importation of African
slaves to replace the Indian laborersa recommendation the government carried out. Las
Casas later regretted his advocacy of black slavery.
The same law, he wrote, applies equally to the
Negro as to the Indian.
The Source of the Black Legend
Las Casas believed that the Spanish government
as Casas was a stout defender of the Indians.
should place the American natives under the authorSometimes, though, in defending them, he exaggerated
ity and protection of the Church. In 1519 he won
both Indian virtues and Spanish cruelty. His most famous
approval for the establishment of a colony on Tierra
work, Brevssima Relacin de la Destruccin de Las Indias (A
Firma (as the mainland of Latin America was called)
Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies) is filled with
to be made up solely of Indians and peaceful setmany gross exaggerations of Spanish cruelty, recounting
tlersfarmers and artisans from Spain. This settleevents Las Casas could only know by hearsay. This work was
ment at Cuman on the coast of Venezuela was a
translated into several languages and became the source of
failure. First, Las Casas could not attract many
the Black Legend used to this day by Spains enemies to
farmers and artisans. Then, the Indians of Cuman
discredit her.
rose in revolt against the violence of the Spaniards of
a nearby settlement. The Indians seized supplies

Chapter 2 The Progress of Spanish America

from the colonys storehouse, killed as

many Europeans as they could find, and
escaped into the interior. Discouraged at
the failure of his hopes, Las Casas retired
to a Dominican monastery on Hispaniola.
He himself became a Dominican in 1522.
The Dominican Fray Bartolom, spent
the next 40 years in the wilderness of
Spanish America crying out that Indians,
as human beings, had the same rights
as Spaniards. The Spanish crown, he
declared, had no right to conquer the
Indians by force. Though he thought the
crown could exercise dominion over the
Indians, Las Casas insisted that it could
not abolish Indian tribal governments or
enslave natives. The encomienda system,
he argued, was little better than slavery and should be abolished. Force must
never be used in preaching the Gospel,
he maintained, and he fought strenuously
with those missionaries (most notably,
the Franciscans) who baptized converts
without first giving them sufficient instruction in the Faith.
Despite Fray Bartoloms opposition to Spanish policy in the New World, King Carlos I,
in 1544, appointed him bishop of Chiapas in southern Mexico. Episcopal consecration, however, did not temper Fray Bartolom; he remained as uncompromising in his defense of the
Indians as before. He provoked colonists by setting rigid standards encomenderos had to
meet before he would absolve them from their sinsbasically forbidding communion to
anyone who held an encomienda. Though he was unpopular with the colonists, Las Casas
policy of peaceful conversion drew many natives to the Church.
Las Casas labored hard for the passage of the Nuevas Leyes of 1542. These New Laws,
which forbade Indian slavery and the perpetuation of the encomienda system enraged the colonists. They thought the loss of their encomiendas
a sorry return for their labors in winning such
vast new territories for the king. A bloody civil
struggle erupted in Peru when the Spanish governor attempted to enforce the New Laws. Fearing
further civil strife, Carlos I revoked some of the
New Laws in 1545. The encomienda system would
continue as before.
The year 1547 found Las Casas again in Spain
engaged in a controversy with the Spanish jurist
Juan Gins de Sepulveda. Sepulveda had never
visited America; still, with all his limited knowledge of American natives, he had written a treatise that argued that Indians were natural slaves
and as such could be conquered and reduced to
servitude. Las Casas, of course, disagreed. Their
controversy climaxed in a famous debateat a
conference held at Valladolid in 1550.

27

Spanish soldiers
slaughter and enslave
Native Americans. This
1595 image by Theodor
de Bry helped perpetuate the Black Legend
of Spanish cruelty.

Bartolom de Las Casas

 28

LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

This debate was of intense interest to King Carlos I, for the question of the justice of the
Spanish conquests troubled his conscience. He suspended all further conquests until jurists
and theologians at Valladolid could discuss how conquests may be conducted justly with
sincerity of conscience. At Valladolid the king asked whether it were just to subjugate the
Indians by force in order more easily to Christianize them. Sepulveda answered, yes; Las
Casas insisted, no. No one, said the bishop of Chiapas, should resort to violence to win his
brother to Christ.
The fruits of the Valladolid conference came 23 years later, with the enactment of the
Basic Law of 1573. Though not as thoroughgoing as Las Casas would have liked, the Basic
Law codified many of his demands. The Basic Law said Spaniards were not to conquer, but
to pacify, the Indians. They were never to enslave them or exact tribute from them but to
explain to them the benefits of submitting to the Spanish crown. Force could be used if the
Indians refused to cooperate, but conquerors were to use as little force as possible. In preaching the Gospel, missionaries, said the law, should deal gently with the Indians vices so as
not to scandalize them or prejudice them against Christianity. The Basic Law however did
not abolish the encomienda system. Both encomiendas and the Basic Law would remain for
as long as Spain ruled in America.

Reign of Terror

Map of New Spain,

1570

Corts departure for Spain in 1528 marked the beginning of a period of terror in Mexico.
Suspicious of Corts power in Mexico, King Carlos I had sent three men Nuo de
Guzman, Juan Ortiz de Matienzo, and Diego Degadilloas the Audiencia Real to investigate the conquistadors administration of New Spain. Instead, for three years, Guzman,
Matienzo, and Delgadillo imposed heavy taxes on the Indians, enslaved them, branded
them with hot irons, violated their women, and persecuted Corts Spanish supporters.
Into this hell of injustice came Juan de Zumrraga. As the newly appointed bishop of
Mexico and Protector of the Indians, Zumrragas task was immense. Though appointed
bishop, he had not yet been consecratedthough even a bishop could not have influenced the cruel members of the Audiencia. A Franciscan, Zumrraga was envied by
other religious orders already
in Mexico, who thus sided
with the auditors. When the
bishop-elect tried to notify
the Spanish court of what
was happening in Mexico,
the audiencia took to censoring all letters sent out from
New Spain. At last, with the
help of a sailor, Zumarraga
placed a letter to the king
in a block of wax, which
was dropped into a barrel
of oil. In this way, the letter
escaped the scrutiny of the
Audiencia Real and reached
the king.
News of the audiencias
oppressions angered Carlos.
In 1531, he sent a new audiencia to New Spain to take the
place of Guzmn, Matienzo,
and Delgadillo. With them

Chapter 2 The Progress of Spanish America

29

went Corts, with the title of Captain General. The new audiencia imprisoned Matienzo and
Degadillo, but Guzmn escaped. He had departed on an expedition to Michoacn, Jalisco,
and Sinaloa to the north.

Conquistadors of the Spirit

In 1524, a small band of 12 Franciscans, clad in rugged habits, passed through Tlaxcala on
foot. Hearing the Indians repeating the word, motlinia, the friars wondered what it meant.
Learning that the word meant poor man, one of the friars, Fray Toribio de Benavente,
said, it is the first word I have learned in this language, and that I may not forget it, it shall
henceforth be my name.
Bearing wooden crosses, Motlinia and his companions continued on to Mexico City.
When they arrived before the city, Corts came out to greet them, and kneeling before them,
kissed their hands. The Indians marveled, for they deemed Corts a great being, nearly
divineand here he was honoring mere beggars! Corts told the Indians that they, too,
should reverence the holy men, who had come to teach them about the true God.
The Spanish missionaries evangelized with the zeal of conquistadors. They were conquerors, subduing the souls of men, submitting them to the rule of Christ. Their weapons were
not worldly arms of iron but the more powerful weapons of the Spirit: faith, zeal for souls,
and charity. Unworthy missionaries there were, who used physical force to convert the
Indians; yet, most of the missionaries were noted for their holiness and charity. Like conquistadors, they undertook extremely difficult labors and suffered terrifying trials. Some
even died heroically for the Faith they preached.
The Spanish government shared the missionaries zeal for evangelization. In fact, the
king was the protagonist of all missionary work in the New World. In 1508, Pope Julius II
granted to the Spanish kings the patronato real, the royal patronagethe right to select all
bishops and abbots in the Spanish domains, and to publish papal decrees in the New World.

La Guadalupana

nto the maelstrom of violence and

tyranny over which New Spains first
Audiencia Real presided came an event
that would change Mexico forever. On
December 12, 1531, the Virgin Mary
appeared to the Indian Juan Diego on
Tepeyac hillt he site where an Aztec
temple to the goddess Tonantzin had
once stood. Appearing as an Aztec
princess, the Virgin told Juan Diego to
ask Bishop Zumrraga to build a church
on the spot dedicated to her under the
title of Nuestra Seora de Guadalupe.
Zumrraga was at first unwilling to
believe Juan Diego; however, when
the Indian opened his tilma, or cloak,
from which a flood of roses poured,
the bishop believed. Not only was it
wondrous that the Indian should find

roses in the dead of winter, but upon

the tilma appeared the image of the
Lady. Zumrraga commanded that
the church be built on Tepeyac hill in
honor of the Virgin, under the title of
Our Lady of Guadalupe.
This apparition of the Virgin brought
on an amazing increase in native baptisms. The Spanish government had
not been remiss in trying to convert
the Indians of Mexico, but because of
the brutality of the Spaniards, many
Indians had remained aloof from the
Church.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is to this
day the patroness of Mexico and all of
the Americas.
Our Lady of
Guadalupe

 30

LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

In return, the king was responsible for funding all missionary endeavors and for founding
churches and monasteries.
The missionary endeavor was twofoldto evangelize and civilize. In accomplishing the
first, the missionaries worked to adapt Church teaching to the native mind. They learned
native tongues, and they even used drama, so eager were they to convey the message of
Christ. On the sites of pagan temples, which they had ordered destroyed, they erected
churches. Though they could be ruthless in stamping out paganism (and along with it, much
of native culture), the missionaries preserved much of what was good in the Indians culture
and attempted to find in it a new Christian meaning. In Mexico, some missionaries translated Aztec hieroglyphics and so preserved the knowledge of Aztec institutions and history.
Though some missionaries could be harshly critical of the Indians, others saw the natives
as especially suited to receive the Faith. Some missionaries viewed the conversion of the
Indians as an opportunity to renew Christian civilization that, they thought, had been corrupted in Europe. Missionaries thus not only toiled to save souls; they labored to found a
new Christendom.

Schools and Colleges

One way New Spains missionaries sought to Christianize and civilize native cultures
was by founding institutions of learning. In New Spain, every church and convent had its
school where the children of the rich and poor learned writing, music, and Latin, as well
as practical arts, such as tailoring, carpentry, and painting. At the college of Santa Cruz
in Mexico City (founded 1536), students studied native American languages. Girls, too,
went to schoolBishop Zumrraga himself founded eight schools for girls in Mexico. The
Franciscan friar, Pedro de Gante (Peter of Ghent), a relative of Carlos I, opened a school in
Mexico City for about 1,000 children where they studied religion, music, singing, and Latin.
He founded a school of fine arts and practical trades, as well as a college for higher studies.
The Spaniards established the first universities in the New World, the oldest being the
University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Santo Domingo, founded by the Dominicans in 1538.
There students studied theology, philosophy, natural sciences, languages, and history. Other
universities included Santiago de la Paz (1540) and the universities of Lima, Peru (1551), and
Mexico City (1557). By the 18th century, there were 26 universities in Spanish America.
In South America, in Paraguay, the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), carried out a more radical plan to Christianize Indian culture. In the early 17th century, the Jesuits sought and
obtained permission to separate the
mission field of Paraguay from the
Spanish colony of Peru. In Paraguay
Motlinia
they established Indian republics, or
ray Toribio de Benavente, called Motlinia,
reductions (because they reduced
eventually left Mexico for the regions of what
or brought the natives into subjecare now Nicaragua and Guatemala. He became
tion to the Gospel), which they kept
a bitter opponent of Las Casas, whose ideas
isolated from the influences of the
on the encomienda he thought impractical and
Spanish colonists. In this way, the
destructive of whatever good Spain had brought
Jesuits hoped to preserve Indians
to America. Even so, the Indians loved Motlinia
from the influence of lax Christians
well, for he was most virtuous and filled with
and protect them from injustice and
ardent charity. Of Motlinias charity, an eyewitslavery.
ness wrote: Whatever was given him he gave
In harmony with traditional
to the Indians, and sometimes was left without
native ways, the Indians on a reducfood. He wore very torn clothing and went baretion held and farmed their lands in
foot, and the Indians loved him much, because
common, though each family had its
he was a holy person.
own house and garden. Indian leaders, elected by their communities,

Chapter 2 The Progress of Spanish America

31

helped the Jesuits govern the villages. To protect the villagers from raids
carried out by other Indians and by Portuguese slavers from Brazil, the
Jesuits oversaw the military training of the village men. The Reductions
became quite prosperous between 1650 and 1720 and presented such
a unique and humane way of colonization that they even earned the
praise of some of the Churchs enemies in Europe.
It was a treaty that Spain signed with Portugal in January 1750
that spelled the end of the Reductions. The treaty granted Portugal
seven districts of Paraguay in return for the Portuguese colony of San
Sacramento. Once in control of Paraguay, the Portuguese ordered the
30,000 or so Indians on the Reductions to abandon their lands. In 1759,
Portugal expelled the Jesuits from its colonies.

Nuevo Mxico
Captain Castaeda de Najera had warned him of the dangers of his
plan, but it did no good. Fray Juan cared little for safety if it stood in the
way of his mission.
After Coronados return to Mexico, Castaeda had remained with a
few soldiers in the Gran Quivira (now Kansas) as escorts to Fray Juan
Padilla and his companions: Fray Luis de Ubeda and two Indian
Franciscan postulants, Lucas and Sebastin.

A Strange Occurrence

n 1629, a group of Indians of the Jumano people from the northwest of Texas arrived in
Santa F. They came requesting baptism. Questioning these Indians, the friars were surprised by their knowledge of Christian prayer
and their grasp of Church teaching. How had
they come to learn all this?
The Jumano related a strange story. Many
times, they said, a beautiful lady in blue
had appeared to them and instructed them
in the Christian religion. It was by her command, they said, that they sought baptism.
When some friars traveled the 200 miles to
the Jumano settlement, a group of Indians
greeted them, bearing a cross covered with
wildflowers. Everyone in the tribe requested
baptism.
Later, in 1631, when some of the friars
returned to Spain, they found a convent of
Poor Clare nuns who wore blue habits. The
head of this convent, Sister Mara de Agreda, Blessed Mara de Agreda, right, displays her
claimed that in an ecstasy she had several
book, The Mystical City of God, while St.
Francis of Assisi holds three globes, atop
times visited the Jumanos and instructed
of which stands the Blessed Virgin. Blessed
them in the Faith. The appearance of
Duns Scotus, left, holds his text defending the
Sister Mara agreed well with the Jumanos
Immaculate Conception. Fresco in the Church of
description of a lady dressed in blue.
the Immaculate Conception, Ozumba, Mexico.

Bell tower of the old

mission church of San
Geronimo, Taos Pueblo,
New Mexico

 32

LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

Castaeda could see that the friars had made progress converting the Pawnee and Guia
tribes. Why jeopardize this success with an imprudent foray into the eastward plains? After
all, the enemies of the Pawnee and Guia lived therehow would they receive those who
been the friends of their enemies? Such thoughts likely passed through the captains mind
as Fray Juan with Lucas and Sebastin, the soldier Andrs Ocampo, and a few other soldiers,
set forth on their dangerous journey.
Castaedas judgment was well foundedFray Juan and his companions never returned
to New Mexico. After traversing the wide, grass-covered plains, they met, on November
30, 1542, a band of Aciales Indians, who attacked them near the present site of Dodge City,
Kansas. Pierced through with arrows, Fray Juan fell to his knees. In his hands he held a cross,
and raising it, he promised to keep it standing there for as long as it was possible to do so.
These were the words of an eyewitness of the death of the first martyr in what would one
day be one of the United States of America. Fray Juans companions, who escaped death,
returned to bury Fray Juan. For several years they wandered through what would one day
be Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, until, traversing hundred of miles of desert, they returned
at last to Mexico City. Years later, Fray Juans remains were removed from his Kansas grave
and buried at Isleta pueblo in New Mexico.
Fray Juan Padilla was not the sole martyr of this period. In 1542, his companion, Fray
Luis de Ubeda, met his death at the hands of the Indians of the Pecos River region. That
same year, natives killed Fray Juan Escalosa on the Ro Grande. In 1581, the friars Agustn
Rodriguez, Francisco Lpez, and Juan de Santa Maria, were killed by the Indians of Cibola,
in New Mexico.

A Successful Settlement
Juan de Oate was one of the richest men in Mexico. A conquistador and the husband of
Hernn Corts granddaughter, he was also one of the most well known. So the viceroy of
New Spain could not doubt Oates competence when he promised to finance an expedition to found a settlement in New Mexico. With Oate would go 200 soldiers and colonists, a contingent of Christian Indians from Mexico, 7,000 head of livestock, and eight
Franciscan friars.
The journey to New Mexico was, as ever, long, hard, and dangerous. After crossing the
harsh desert lands of northern Mexico, Oate and the settlers forded the Ro Grande at a
place called El Paso (the ford). On Ascension Thursday, April 30, 1598, he took possession
of the land in the name of the king of Spain. Continuing on to the north, Oate established
a settlement at the confluence of the Ro Grande and Chama rivers. By the end of 1598, the
friars who had accompanied Oate had established three missions for the Pueblo Indians
of the region.
The Pueblo Indians, however, did not submit easily to Spanish rule or the Spanish religion. In 1598, the Indians of coma (a pueblo set atop a mesa of sheer cliffs) assaulted and
killed a small escort led by Juan Zaldivar. To avenge his brother, Vicente Zaldivar led a
Spanish force against coma and for three days fought a hard battle against the Indians.
Using thick ropes, the Spaniards scaled the sheer rock walls of the mesa and took the pueblo,
capturing 500 Indians. The Spaniards harshly punished their captives to teach them never
again to resist Spanish authority.
The coma war was the last major rebellion in New Mexico for about 80 years. Still,
despite the long peace, the settlers of New Mexico were unhappy. The land was poor and the
task of colonization hard. When, in 1601, Oate returned to the settlements after a fivemonth, eight-hundred mile expedition across New Mexico and Kansas, the settlers discontent was acute. They had complained to the viceroy in Mexico of the settlement and of
Oate. They wanted permission to return to Mexico. The Spanish officials would have
acquiesced to this demand, but for one considerationif there were no settlement, the
Indians would be deprived of the Gospel.

Chapter 2 The Progress of Spanish America

The discontent continued until, in 1608, Felipe III (who had become king of Spain in
1598) decided to withdraw the settlers. However, hearing reports of the great number of converts among the Indians in New Mexico and the growth of the missions, the king relented.
Instead of abandoning New Mexico, he made it a royal province. Oate did not fare so well.
Forced to resign his governorship, he returned to Mexico, where he died in modest circumstances. He had spent his fortune on the New Mexico settlements.
In time, New Mexico began to flourish. By 1630, there were 25 missions and 90 villages
of nearly 60,000 Christian Indians. Santa F (Holy Faith), a settlement founded in 1610 by
Oates successor, Governor Pedro de Peralta, boasted 1,000 Spanish inhabitants.

La Florida
On August 27, 1565, sailors and passengers of a fleet sailing off the eastern coast of Florida
saw a miracle from heaven. About nine oclock in the evening, wrote one eyewitness,
Fray Francisco Lpez de Mendoza Grajales, a comet appeared, which showed itself directly
above us, a little eastward, giving so much light that it might have been taken for the sun.
The comet traveled westward toward the coast of Florida, where the fleet was bound. The
next day, August 28, the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, the sailors sighted land. Sailing
further north, the captain, Pedro Menndez de Avils, found a small bay and named it San
Agustn in honor of the saint on whose feast he first saw the coast.
When he had learned that French Huguenots had settled on the eastern coast of Florida,
King Felipe II (Carlos Is son) sent Menndez de Avils to establish a settlement in Florida
and to drive out the Huguenots. Menndez founded a settlement on the small bay he had

33

coma pueblo, atop a

sheer sandstone mesa

 34

LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

discovered, naming it also San Agustn. As

for driving out the Huguenotsif it had not
been for another miracle, the Spaniards and
not the French might have been the ones
driven from La Florida.
It did not take long for the French at Fort
Caroline, north of San Agustn, to learn of
the Spanish settlement. Hoping to destroy
San Agustn before the Spanish perfected its
fortifications, Jean Ribault, a French naval
officer, directed his fleet south on September
10, 1565. The French fleet would have made
short work of the Spanish settlement, which
was less than a fortnight old, had not a hurricane suddenly struck the Florida coast and
driven Ribaults fleet onto the beaches south
of San Agustn.
Meanwhile, learning of Ribaults foray
that drew most of the men of arms from
the French settlement, Menndez surprised
Fort Caroline and overwhelmed it. Then,
Menndez went after Ribault; and, discovering the French force at a place called Slaughter
Inlet, captured both captain and men. Unable
to keep prisoners at so fledgling a settlement
as San Agustn, Menndez executed them all,
sparing only the Catholics among them and
some 50 women and children.

Felipe III by Juan

Pantoja de la Cruz,
Museo del Prado,
Madrid

Rampage of the Polygamist

Once they had secured the eastern coast of Florida, the Spaniards began the slow work of
colonizing the land and establishing missions. By the 1590s, Franciscans had set up missions
in Florida, and northward into the region of the Guale people, in what is now southern
Georgia. Missionary work in the region was not easy, for the Indians had to learn an entirely
new culture and morality, including monogamy. Indian men had multiple wives and so
found the Christian teaching on marriage difficult to embrace. Still, the Franciscans made
progress in this and other areas, and many Indians became Christian.
In 1597, however, Juanillo, a converted Indian and the son of a cacique of the Guale people, took a second wife. Fearing other natives might emulate Juanillo, Fray Pedro de Campo,
pastor of Juanillos misson, Nuestra Seora de Guadalupe, privately exhorted him to give up
his concubine. When, after another private exhortation, the cacique again refused, Fray Blas
Rodriguez, who directed the Guale missions, publicly denounced Juanillo and removed him
from the leadership of the Christian Guales.
Juanillo felt his public humiliation to be a grave affront. Seeking revenge, he gathered a
group of warriors and commenced a rampage of murder. On September 13, he beheaded
Fray Pedro de Campo and stuck the severed head on a pole. Juanillo and his followers then
attacked several missions, killing four other missionaries, including Fray Blas Rodriguez.
One priest they captured, however, they did not killFray Francisco de vila. Instead, Fray
Francisco had to spend ten months among the Guales, undergoing tortures and humiliations. Once the Indians sent a squaw to tempt Fray Francisco to violate his vow of chastity,
but the priest fled into the forest.

Chapter 2 The Progress of Spanish America

M02_01.eps

35

APALACHEE

SOUTH
CAROLINA

Spanish missions in
17th century Georgia
and Florida.

Charleston

GEORGIA

SPANISH MISSIONS IN GEORGIA

Spanish missions in Georgia
Spanish missions in Florida

30N

APALACHEE

St. Augustine

Atlantic
Ocean

Gulf
of
Mexico

St. Joh
R.
ns

FLORIDA
0
0

100 miles
100 kilometers
80W

Juanillo met his death in 1598 at the hands of a Guale cacique faithful to the missionaries. But Juanillo did not die before his rampage had destroyed the Guale missions. It would
be another eight years before more friars arrived and reestablished the missions among
the Guale.

Progress and More Rebellion

80W

In 1606, the same year that saw the beginnings of the reconstruction of the Guale missions,
Franciscans began establishing missions among the Timucuan people in the interior of
Florida, west of San Agustn. These missionaries were so successful that, by 1612, a large
number of caciques and whole villages were seeking baptism. In the 1630s, Franciscans
established missions among the Apalachee Indians in western Florida, baptizing nearly half
the population by 1639.
But it was not long before tension between the friars and the governors of Florida had
bad effects on the missions. As representatives of the king, the Spanish governors claimed
authority over all of colonial life. Outside of teaching the Faith, which they left to the friars,
the governors thought they had the right to direct all Church activities in the colony. The
friars disagreed. They saw the Church, not the government, as the source of their commission to go among the Indians; and so, they said, missionary activities were not subject to the
royal governor.
Many of the governors imposed labor on the Indians. They forced warriors to carry
baggage on long journeyswhich the Indians deemed a deep insult. The government
also required caciques to supply men for military and labor duty. These duties would not

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Puturiba
San Buenaventura de Guadalquini
San Diego de Satuache
San Joseph de Sapala
San Lorenzo de Ibihica
San Pedro de Mocama
San Phelipe de Alave
San Phelipe II
Santa Catalina de Guale
Santa Clara de Tupiqui/Espogache
Santa Cruz de Cachipile
Santa Isabel de Utinahica
Santa Mara de Los Angeles de Arapaja
Santiago de Oconi
Santo Domingo de Asao/Talaje
Santo Domingo de Asao/Talaje II
Talapo
Tolomato

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LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

have been so onerous except that the Indian population was dwindling due to contact
with European diseases. So great was the devastation wrought by disease on the Indian
population that of the estimated 150,000 Timucuan Indians who were alive in 1492, only
3,230 remained in 1689.
Such conditions incited further rebellions. In February 1647, pagan Apalachees revolted
and drove the Spaniards from Apalachee. The Indians burned seven missions and killed
three friars. By the end of March, however, the Spanish had subdued the rebels.
Another rebellion flared in 1656, this time among the Timucuan people. Governor Diego
de Rebolledo, fearing a British attack on San Agustn, had ordered the Timucuan caciques to
send him a large contingent of warriors to defend the city. Smarting from past insults from
Governor Rebolledo and from the burdensome levies for laborers he laid on their dwindling
population, the Indians revolted. Under the Christian cacique, Lucas Menndez, Timucuan
warriors killed Spanish soldiers and laborers, sparing only the friars. For the eight months
the rebellion raged, many friars continued to minister to the rebels.
When the rebellion at last was quelled, the royal government investigated Rebolledos
administration of Florida. Uncovering a number of abuses, the crown removed Rebolledo
as governor and brought him to Spain to stand trial. As for the Church, the years following
the rebellion saw a period of and expansion in the missions. By 1655, seventy friars were
laboring among 26,000 Christian Indians in Florida.

Chapter 2 Review
Summary
In 1496 Columbus pacified a revolt in Hispania by
giving rebels free land grants and Indian slaves.
This led to many problems concerning slavery and
abuse of the Indians in the Spanish New World
dominions.
The Spanish government established the Law of
Burgos in 1512, which placed regulations on Indian
labor in an attempt to reduce the abuse of Indians
on encomiendas.
In 1513 Spain established the Requiriemento, a document requiring Indians to acknowledge Spanish
overlordship and permit the Catholic faith to be
preached to them.
Corts departed for Spain, and the Reign of Terror
began in Mexico. The Audiencia Real, sent to investigate the conquistadors administration of New
Spain, imposed heavy taxes on the Indians and persecuted them in many violent ways.
The Spanish priest Bartolom de Las Casas labored
hard for the passage of the Nuevas Leyes (New
Laws) of 1542, forbidding slavery and the perpetu-

ation of encomiendas. These laws angered colonists

and resulted in a bloody civil war in Peru.
King Carlos I revoked the New Laws in 1545. A
debate took place in which it was discussed whether
Indians are natural slaves or not. This conference of
Valladolid resulted in the Basic Law in 1573, which
said that Spaniards were not to conquer but to
pacify the Native Americans.
The era of the Spanish missionaries began as an
attempt to evangelize and civilize the Indians.
Key Concepts
repartimientos: land grants and Indian slaves given
to the rebels in Hispaniola
encomiendas: complimentary land grants given to
Spanish colonists in which the Indians were not slaves
but were forced to labor for the colonists, who were
required to civilize and evangelize them
Laws of Burgos: laws approved in 1512 that put regulations on Indian labor and required the Spaniards to
convert the Indians
Requiriemento: a document of the Spanish government, written in 1513, requiring Indians to acknowl-

Chapter 2 The Progress of Spanish America

37

Chapter 2 Review (continued)

edge Spanish overlordship and permit the Catholic
faith to be preached to them
Audiencia Real: the Royal Audience of Spain, which
served as an appeals court
secular priest: a diocesan priest; a priest that does not
belong to a religious order
Reductions: Indian republics founded by the Jesuits
in Paraguay to isolate new Indian converts from
Spanish settlers, many of whom were lax Christians,
and to prevent injustice and slavery
Dates to Remember
1496: Columbus quells the revolts of Spanish colonists by instituting repartimientos.
1512: the passage of the Laws of Burgos
1513: the Spanish government issues the
Requiriemento.
1524: Franciscan missionaries come to the New
World
1528: the Reign of Terror begins in Mexico
1531: the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to
Saint Juan Diego
1538: the founding of the first university in the New
World, St. Thomas Aquinas in Santo Domingo
1542: the passage of the New Laws
the death of Fray Juan Padilla, the first martyr
in what would be the United States
1550: the Valladolid Conference
1573: the passage of the Basic Law
Central Characters
Bartolom de Las Casas (14841566): Spanish lawyer
turned priest who gained fame as the Defender of the
Indians
Juan de Zumrraga (14681548): the first Bishop of
New Spain.
Fray Juan Padilla (15001542): the first martyr in
what would become the United States

Pedro Menndez de Avils (15191574): Spanish

admiral who discovered and named the bay of San
Agustn in Florida, and established a settlement there.
Questions for Review
1. What situation in the New World brought about
the establishment of the repartimientos and the
encomiendas?
2. What abuses arose from the establishment of the
encomiendas, and why did so many of the Indians
on the encomiendas die?
3. What role did Corts play in the establishment of
encomiendas?
4. What were the benefits of the Laws of Burgos?
5. What were supposed to be the benefits of the
Requiriemento, but what abuses did it lead to?
6. Why did the establishment of the New Laws result
in civil war in Peru? Why were the New Laws
revoked?
7. Explain the controversy that climaxed in the
Conference of Valladolid. Who were the two main
opponents involved?
8. Why were the missionaries so avid in their
preaching and evangelizing?
9. Name two ways in which the missionaries evangelized and civilized the Indians.
10. What events led to the revival and expansion of
the missions in Florida?
Ideas in Action
1. Research the lives of the early Spanish-American
saints and martyrs.
2. Choose a mission church of colonial Mexico and
research its founding and mission.
3. Look up the art and music of the Spanish missions.
Listen to composers such as Ignacio de Jerusalem y
Stella and Manuel de Zumaya. Look up the works
of artists such as Sebastan Lpez de Arteaga and
Fray Alonso Lpez de Herrera.

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LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

Chapter 2 Review (continued)

Highways and Byways
Pagan Christianity
When the Spanish came to the Americas, it was
customary for their missionaries to adopt elements
of the native pagan religion when converting the
Indians. This made it was easier for the Indians to
adapt to the Christian faith without too much resistance. For example, many of the native Indian tribes
practiced human sacrifice, so they could easily accept
the idea of consuming the body and blood of Christ.

The Indians had bestowed the title Tonantzin, Our

Reverend Mother, upon female deities, giving them
the status of a mother figure; the idea of the Virgin
Mary was thus easily introduced among the Aztecs.
The Church strove to put an end to most pagan
practices, but she also made a point of assimilating
pagan celebrations into Christian celebrations. All
Souls Day on November 2 closely coincided with the
Aztec autumn rituals in honor of departed ancestors.
This assimilation gave rise to the Day of the Dead,
which is still observed in Mexico today.