{*} [The exact date is given at the close of the document--“fecha en esta dicha ciudad [de Temixtitan] á veinte dias del mes de marzo de mil y quinientos é veinte y cuatro años.” Sir Arthur Helps says a copy sent by Cortés to the emperor in October of the same year “has been lost, but the orders manifestly related to this subject of _encomiendas_.” The original seems also to have disappeared. But an ancient copy of these, as well as of subsequent ordinances and instructions of a similar nature, is preserved in the archives of the duke of Terranova y Monteleone in the Hospital of Jesus at Mexico, and the whole series was published, so far back as 1844, by Señor Alaman, in his Disertaciones históricas, tom. i. pp. 105-143. The contents, therefore, are not a matter of inference. They do not relate chiefly or directly to the _encomiendas_, that system having been already established and become, in the language of Alaman, “the basis of the whole organization of the country.” The “Ordenanzas,” while they incidentally modify the system, consist for the most part of regulations suggested by the general condition and circumstances of a new colony. They make provision for the military equipment and inspection of the settlers, with a view to their readiness for service; for their permanent residence in the country, which is made a condition of their holding _repartimientos_; for the conversion of the natives, their protection against robbery and oppression, and the education of the children of their chiefs; for the cultivation of imported plants and grain, and the raising of cattle, sheep, and swine; for facilitating traffic by the establishment of markets, adjustment of prices, etc.; and for the organization of the municipalities, prescribing their powers and forms of administration. Some of these provisions are still in force, while others, though obsolete, indicate the origin of certain existing customs. Taken together, they contain, in the opinion of Alaman, the foundation of all the later institutions of the country,--“el fundamento de todas nuestras instituciones.”--K.] [173] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 160. [174] _Ante_, vol. i. p. 310. [175] Of asthma, according to Bernal Diaz (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 160); but her death seems to have been too sudden to be attributed to that disease. I shall return to the subject hereafter. [176] Rel. Terc., ap. Lorenzana, pp. 319, 320. [177] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 5, cap. 1. [178] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 6, cap. 5.--Ordenanzas, MS.--The ordinances prescribe the service of the Indians, the hours they may be employed, their food, compensation, and the like. They require the _encomendero_ to provide them with suitable means of religious instruction and places of worship. But what avail good laws, which in their very nature imply the toleration of a great abuse?