*37
Unfortunately, such was not the policy of the Crown.
[Footnote 37: "I asi lo escrivieron al Rei la Ciudad del Cuzco,
la Villa de la Plata, i otras Comunidades, suplicandole, que los
dexase por Governador a Vaca de Castro, como Persona, que
procedia con rectitud, i que ia entendia el Govierno de aquellos
Reinos." Herrera, Ibid., loc. cit.]
Chapter VII
Abuses By The Conquerors. - Code For The Colonies. - Great
Excitement In Peru. - Blasco Nunez The Viceroy. - His Severe
Policy. - Opposed By Gonzalo Pizarro.
1543-1544.
Before continuing the narrative of events in Peru, we must turn
to the mother-country, where important changes were in progress
in respect to the administration of the colonies.
Since his accession to the Crown, Charles the Fifth had been
chiefly engrossed by the politics of Europe, where a theatre was
opened more stimulating to his ambition than could be found in a
struggle with the barbarian princes of the New World. In this
quarter, therefore, an empire almost unheeded, as it were, had
been suffered to grow up, until it had expanded into dimensions
greater than those of his European dominions, and destined soon
to become far more opulent. A scheme of government had, it is
true, been devised, and laws enacted from time to time for the
regulation of the colonies. But these laws were often
accommodated less to the interests of the colonies themselves,
than to those of the parent country; and, when contrived in a
better spirit, they were but imperfectly executed; for the voice
of authority, however loudly proclaimed at home, too often died
away in feeble echoes before it had crossed the waters.
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