HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

Back Forward Menu

The Royal Decrees are Mentioned by Avendano. "The last thing which I
placed before him was the large number of decrees which His Majesty
(may God guard him) had despatched, and those which his predecessors of
eternal memory had despatched, which affirm the same thing which I
asked him, as in the case of the first instructions, which were given
(by the mandate of our Catholic King) to the Admiral Christopher
Colon....

"The same thing was urged afterwards by the same Catholic Kings,
in the year 1501, upon the Commander, Nicolas de Ovando, when he went
to govern the island of Santo Domingo, and this decree reads as
follows:--that he should arrange with great vigilance and care that all
the Indians of Espanola should be free from slavery, and that they
should not be molested by any one, but that they should live as free
vassals, governed and guarded in justice and that they should arrange
so that they be instructed in the holy Catholic faith; since his
intention was that they should be treated with love and kindness,