*ffaA,tptzv1rrt

LETTERS AND PEOPLE OF

THE SPAI\ISH INDIES
SIXTEENTH CENTIJRY

Translated and edited by

James Lockhart and Enrique Otte

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Letter by Ana Macias, in Puebla, to her cousin Maria Deza in Talavera, Badajoz, CAMBRIDGE
1575. (Published in Otte, 'Cartas privadas de Puebla'.) LONDON o NEW YORK r MELBOURNE

THH A:\,lEni:'i^/S l_llRiiR'/

THE C*LtI.fi[ *i WOO.STIR
U/Oif$"t-[H, i]iliC
 An encomendero's establishment 65

All this is not only basic to the organization of sixteenth-

century society, it also points ahead, because the complex, as a
pattern, would outlive the encomienda itself and survive in later
estate forms. Everywhere the trend was for the encomenderos
to put increasing emphasis on the more flexible, secure private
aspect of their estates, which with the growth of Spanish cities
often became the more lucrative part as well, so that as their
rights to Indian tribute diminished under attack from non-
encomendero Spaniards and crown officials, many maintained
their economic position quite well. Another reason for empha-
sizing enterprises over tribute was the continued decrease of the
tribute-paying Indian population. The l:;te of diminution was
uniformly fastest at low altitudes and on routes much traveled
by Spaniards; both attributes apply to Casma, which is on the
coast and located on the main route south to the capital of
Lima. Chac6n is not being gratuitously benevolent to his
Indians by helping them with money payments and reducing
their tribute in kind. He has grasped that the tribute is not as
important to him as a general dominance in the area, that it is
better to have a little maize and fish and keep the Indians as
potential employees in his enterprises than to push tribute
demands and see them run off as servants with Spanish passers
by.
The situation we see here is well advanced towards patterns
typical of the mature colonial period, but it flows out of the
conquest period. Chac6n has been in the Indies forty years and
has held his encomienda for over thirty, or since 1540. He must
have been in Peru since the conquest phase, surviving far into
the second generation, still pithy and plain-spoken, if now be-
coming a little pontifical and, in this letter, wavering comically
between bragging about his affairs to impress his relatives and
magnifying his expenses so that they will understand why he
doesn't send money.

Dlr:
For a long time no one there has written me. In this fleet that
just came from Spain, I thought there might be some lerters,

I
 An encornendero's establishment 67
66 The uarietY of life in the Indies
have there, each one looks after himself. As I say, I have great
but it seems that none came, because I inquired, and there is no
need of someone to go about, because I am old and tired and
io". of anyrhing. I don,t know the reason. It must be that you
can no longer run everywhere, and as these mines are far from
there don't want to write except when I send money' Truly you
should write more often, or 1."rt remember me from time to
Trujillo in the mountains, it is hard on me to go, and the cold
"i ro me that would be best. Also, up there doesn't agree with me. To avoid going I would like to
ii*" if I am neglectful; it seems have one ofthose boys here, though none have ever managed to
I suppose you"haven't had letters from me for a long time'
'b""*r" come, and he would flourish and lighten my work, if he is the
year I wfote and sent a gold ingot to Licentiate
"rrother right person. In case one who wanted to come should be free, tr
nnorrtrlbo who lives in Panami, and unfortunaiely for you and
have written to a friend or two of mine in Seville who will help
the resr who were to have it, the fleet had abeady departed for
him along his way. When they come, they should bring my
ip"i",'toonly one ship^a was left there, and the Licentiate didn't letters along. I believe Juan Antonio Corso, a very rich man, will
want send it in single ship, for which I yas very sorry,
outfit them for the trip, because he wrote me here. He carries
because in fact he didn't-send ii, and it was left behind. Latet
on business here, and he will get the boy passage without his
when I sent to Panami to buy some blacks for some mines I
paying anything. I will pay here what it should cost, as I am
have, there wasn't enough money, and he sPent the-gold ingot
now writing to Corso. Let them come and leave that misery in
to*"rd the purchase of ifte bhcks. Now at Present I don't know which they are immersed. Somehow two thousand paupers
if I will ,"rid "rrything, because I am outside my house thirty manage to get here; they look for a way to come across and
i;"g"tt from trujillo airrong my villages, and the messenger who finally they find it. But in forty years rhat I have been away
is soins to Spain *i11 not"touch in-Trujillo, I believe, and for from home, not one person from our town has come here
;"dt-;;?t;; i'io"', kno* if anything t"i b" sent' If he should except Alonso de Lara, son of Rodrigo deLara the Red, who
not go ar present and there rhipr-*lrgn Igo to Trujiilo, I will
"."- became a priest, and he has a living now; if he had wanted to go
,r' io ,"r,'d ,o-"thing, even if it ihouldn't be much, because at
jLr"", I don,t have?uch, with the aid of God if these
but_ seek his fortune before he was a priest, he would have things
even better. I have written other times that if some of the boys
mines that I'm working do well, I will mafe up for it, if God
I'm should take to learning, they should be trained up as lawyers or
sives me life and healih. I hope to God that these mines
for both, priests. If everything is to be digging and plowing, they and
i""rli"f will yield us enough ,ilu., for here and there
their fathers will be at it their whole lives. And however many
be."orJI have some silver"*in.t that I think will be good, and
ii;h;t are, I will make up for what was lost; if you had the of them come or make something of themselves, I will do my
;;;;i th.i" thrt I've speni on them' it would take care of you part to support them, and I say that when the mines begin to
#.ff. I have dor'en and a half blacks at the mine, and show profit, I will send money for it every year as long as I live.
""rf "
toois and things. So far I harle sPent more than 7,000 Pesos on
I've been awaiting news about my papers of nobility, and
blacks and thJ rest, and with tire aid of God, the mines will haven't seen a thing. It must all be a joke, or I don't know what
yield silver; until now everything has been spending' - to say, when at the end of ten years there still has been no
' Wh", I would ,re"d no* is rihat there iJ too much of there, judgment" I consider it ajoke.
whici is a boy from among those nephews of mine, to ride As to things here, I am well, and Ana L6pez too, though we
about on horseback inspecting *y propefties and these mines; are old and tired, and in the end this is very poor counmy, and
they need someone to iake .ir.'of thlm, because the blacks all the properties aren't worth two pennies any more. If it
ou.'rlook norhing they can steal, and as to the Spaniards that I
weren't for a mulebreeding business I have, I don't know what
68 The uariety of ltf" bz the Indies An encomendero's establishment 69
would come of us, because this has sustained me in my great say that it would be better to give this to my relatives than to
expenses; to the priest who insructs my Indians and to Spanish the Indians. But I owe it to these children who have served me
employees and Indians, I pay L,000 pesos for salaries alone, not for thirty-odd years; it is a debt of life, and if t did not repay it
counting the cost of their food. Consider what I need to keep I would go to hell. t am obliged to do what I can for my
up with costs, since I have to spend another 2,000 to maintain relatives, but if I don't, I won't go to hell for it.
my household. And now there's the added cost of the mines, I am here in this place much of the year because it is so
but with the aid of God they will yield enough for everything. luxuriant. To be able to stay, I have sheep, goats and pigs here,
As I said, I have a mulebreeding business and five or six stud and I did have cows, but recently I sold them because they
donkeys; there's one they've offered me 1,000 pesos for, but I damaged the Indians' crops. I have a constant supply of milk,
wouldn't sell him for 1,500, he's so good and so big. Most of cream, and curds. This valley, or rather the Indians and my
the mules he sires are worth L00 pesos to me, and some more. property, are close to the sea, where the Indians catch a thou-
The small livestock I have, sheep and goats, are worth nothing. sand kinds of fish, and have many ners they fish with. And as
A ewe can sell for 3 tomines or so, and a mutton brings me a they like me well, when they have good luck they bring fish to
peso at most. Meat is dirt cheap in this country. Every day at me. I have maize from tributes, and a mill where wheat is
the mines the blacks and Christians eat up a goat or mutton. ground. And certainly we have very good fare, with the capons
And here at Casma and in Trujillo we eat another every day, so they give me as tribute, and the very fat kids and muttons; all is
that I have the expense of two head of stock daily and even from the harvest and tribute, and praise to God, the excess here
then, truly, the blacks are not h"ppy with it, so what am I to do could feed all of those boys. I have four pounds of fish and two
with the rest, that is, the other expenses? I've said this so that chickens in tribute daily. In the previous assessment they were
you there understand that for all a man may have here, he needs obliged to give me 600 bushels of wheat and 500 of maize, but
it all, and hopes to God it is enough. in this assessment that was just made the amounts were reduced
I know that those who have been here say that I am rich. by half, because I requested it of the inspector, since if I die, I
Certainly I have more than I deserve from God. But as I said, want them relieved; I have more than enough with the wheat
everything goes for expenses, and at the end of the year the and the maize they give me now"
income only covers operations, and even sometimes isn't I have here next to the mill four or five hundred fig trees that
enough. And as the Indians give me nothing, that is, I take little yield a harvest of fifty hundredweight, and there are orange
from them and have expenses for priests and other things for trees and some vines that yield grapes to eat. The Indians here
them and they have been destroyed in past wars, since they are suffer because the river of the valley is so variable, full of water
on the main highway and have been mistreated and destroyed, in the winter and empty in the spring, and some years they have
few of them remain. Once there were more than 2,000 Indians, scarcity, but since they are fishermen, they get everything they
and now there are about 200. I consider them as if they were need from the neighboring people in exchange for fish.
my children; they have helped me earn a living and, as I say, I I have a farm in Trujillo where I grow wheat to maintain my
relieve them of ributes and everything else that I can. I have household, and I have a mill in the middle of it to grind the
given them 220 pesos in income, [1?] 60 at my pleasure and 60 wheat that is harvested and other wheat that is grown by sur-
perpetually, and if God gives me life, I will leave them free of rounding neighbors. I have there a dozen Indian couples and
tributes when I die, so that whoever enjoys the tributes will not two blacks, one of whom watches a flock of goats and sheep to
mistreat the Indians to get his revenue. Probably you there will supply the house. But since there are many livestock around the
 70 The uariety of life in the Ind.ies
town, the animals are thin, and the milk is less abundanr than
here. And besides I have in Trujillo two black women who make
bread and cook for everyone, and a mulatto woman who serves
Ana Lopez, and sewing and serving at table along
-embroidering
with the Indian women and girls. There are five or six othei
Indian women who are laundresses and help the black women
make bread, so that there are twenty or twenry-five people
eating there, including the Indian women and boys and blaiks
serving at the house. I have said this so you will see whether or
not I have much to _maintain and support. You will ask why I
never wrote this before. I say that since Trujillo causes it all,
Trujillo is what I have written about.
Many salutations to milady sister Mari L6pez and the gende-
men your sons. May our Lord give you the desired contentment
and repose. From this valley of Casma, lst of January,1,S7O"
Your servant,
Andrds Chac6n
lpublished in spanish,
with comment, in otte, 'Die europiischen siedler.'

12. An encomenderoos opinions

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, encomendero, council-
man and conqueror of Santiago de Guatemala,
to the crown, L552 and 15581
. . . And we don't know when another boatload of
Cerratos might arrive, to be given Indians . . .
What encomenderos wrote to their relatives was one thing.
What they wrote to governors and the crown was another. Tlie
encomenderos of the middle and later sixteenth century, many
still conquerors or their direct descendants, had a well-definei
public position, varying little from place to place. They were
goof; their tributes had diminished to nothing; they were being
displaced by newcomers to wh6m the governors
-undeserving
were giving the whole land. Hidden in such words was their
desire to maintain the monopoly and total dominance they had
in the conquest period, and measured against that unreasonable
hope, they indeed fell short and were diprived. Immigration to