r in any other way, and we
desire that they shall be treated as our vassals of the Crown of Castile,
for such they are."

"No one may press the Indians into service by way of naboria or tapia(51)
nor in any other manner against their will. And since we have ordered
that from henceforth the Indians shall not be made slaves, we likewise
ordain and command that in the case of such as have been heretofore
enslaved contrary to right and justice, the Audiencias shall summon the
parties, and without process of law, but promptly and briefly upon the
truth being known, shall liberate them. Nor may the Indians be unjustly
enslaved in default of persons to solicit the aforesaid [procedure]; we
command that the Audiencia shall appoint persons who may pursue this cause
for the Indians and that such persons shall be conscientious and diligent
men and shall be paid out of the fines of the Exchequer."

Neither the spirit nor the provisions of these laws differ from those of
the various ordinances and cedulas which the Spanish sovereigns from the
reign of Isabella the Catholic had from time to time promulgated. So true
is the saying of Dr. Johnson that wisdom may make laws but it requires
virtue to execute them. The Spanish sovereigns were more humane than
their subjects, but the latter were ready with expedients for evading laws
whose execution would have hindered their avaricious undertakings in the
distant colonies, while venal officials lent their connivance to these
violations, instead of administering the laws in the spirit in which their
authors had conceived them. The statute books of the worst despotisms are
adorned with the wisest and most liberal ordinances. From the irades of
the Ottoman Sultans and ukases of the Russian Tsars, those empires might
be easily shown to possess ideal systems of government, under whose
enlightened and beneficent sway happy and prosperous peoples have enjoyed
the delights of religious and political liberty.

The most important article of the New Laws concerning the encomienda
system provided as follows:

"Furthermore we ordain and command that from now and henceforth no
Viceroy, Governor, Audiencia, discoverer, or any other persons whatsoever
shall allot Indians in encomienda, neither by new provision or
resignation, donation, sale, nor in any other form or manner; neither by
vacancies, nor inheritance, but, that on the death of any person holding
the said Indians, they shall revert to ou