For almost three centuries Spain governed Central America (1524-1821) by the Audiencia Real. Every act of oppression that could be exercised upon the Indios was invented by the foreign rulers, and the native population was greatly reduced by this mismanagement; but such a course always reacts most terribly upon the perpetrators. The thirst for wealth that brought the foreigners to these shores pursued them still, and the brave resistance to wrongs unlimited, that the Spaniards themselves chronicle, does not seem to have awakened that respect in the bosoms of the Conquistadores that it now rouses in the heart of every generous student of the past. The Indios were lawful prey, it was “spoiling the Egyptians;” and although Las Casas and some of the missionaries tried faithfully to protect their flock, and although the King of Spain made decrees, the powers of evil seemed to have their own way in this distant colony. We cannot but admire the undoubted courage and indifference to personal hardship exhibited by the Conquistadores; but that must not blind us to the fact that they were little better than freebooters in their treatment of the American nations they subdued, and that their policy, so far as they had any, was of the most selfish and narrow kind. Jealousy of other nations, especially of England, who was now beginning to try her hand in ruling the sea, although in a rather irregular way, led to the establishment of all the important cities in the mountain region of the interior, where they might well escape the notice of other nations. The natural walls that Nature had provided were made very useful to their utmost extent; the ports were but conveniences to help the invaders to supplies from the mother-country and afford a necessary means for the exportation of their ill-gotten gains, and general commerce was discouraged in every way. The buccaneers helped to discourage the growth of ports, but the Home Government did quite as much in this direction. The atrocious system of _encomiendas_, by which the native population was reduced to an almost hopeless slavery, was permitted, if not encouraged, by the Church, and no attempt was ever made to develop the country on a basis of improvement in the Indian population; and the animal, vegetable, and mineral wealth of Guatemala were treated much in the same way,—a prey for the present robber. The Indios were all subdued, except the Lacandones far on the northern frontier, who were too poor to pay for subjugation; and the iniquitous policy of selfishness began to bear fruit. Unlimited power and immunity in the hands of the clergy begot intolerance. The shepherds became the wolves, and not only devoured their own flocks, but the entire country as well. Monopolies, corruption, oppression grew like true tropical vegetation, until the air became too close for healthful life; and then came the fermentation. Uprisings of the Indios had occurred before the death of Alvarado (1541),—for