The poorer Spaniards and the Indian serfs had no means of making their complaints heard in the palace. There was no press or public opinion to give voice to the sorrows of the masses, and personal fear often silenced the few who might have reached the ear of merciful and just rulers. At court, the rich, powerful and influential miners or land holders, always discovered pliant tools who were ready by intrigue and corruption to smother the cry of discontent, or to account plausibly for the murmurs, which upon extraordinary occasions, burst through all restraints until they reached either the Audiencia or the representative of the sovereign. These slender excuses may, in some degree, account for and palliate the maladministration of Spanish America from the middle of the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. * * * * * The ensuing chapters of this book contain the annals of New Spain from the foundation of the viceroyal system to the beginning of the revolution that grew out of its corruptions. The materials for this portion of Mexican history are exceedingly scant. During the jealous despotism and ecclesiastical vigilance of old Spanish rule, and the anarchy of modern miscalled republicanism, few authors have ventured to penetrate the gloom of this mysterious period. The Jesuit Father Cavo, and Don Carlos Maria Bustamante have alone essayed to narrate, consecutively, the events of the viceroyalty; and although no student of the past is attracted by their crude and careless style, yet we may confidently rely on the characteristic facts detailed in their tedious work.[30] [Footnote 19: Recop. de las leyes, lib. 2, title 2, ley 2.] [Footnote 20: Mendez, Observaciones sobre les leyes de Indias y sobre la independencia de America. London, 1823. p. 174.] [Footnote 21: Ward's Mexico in 1827, vol. 1, p. 116.] [Footnote 22: North American Review, vol. xix. p. 117.] [Footnote 23: See Pazo's letters on South America, pages 88, 89, North American Review, art. antec., pages 186 and 187, et Depons.] [Footnote 24: Recopilacion, lib. i, Tit. vi, Ley 2, North American Review, art. antec. p. 189.] [Footnote 25: Robertson's Hist. of Amer.; Zavala Hist. Revo. of Mexico.] [Footnote 26: Otero, Cuestion social, pages 38, 39, 43.] [Footnote 27: Zavala Hist. Revo. de Mexico, pages 16, 17, vol. 1.] [Footnote 28: See Zavala, vol. 1, p. 52.] [Footnote 29: See British Parliamentary Report on the condition of the miners and mining districts.] [Footnote 30: "Los Tres Siglos de Mejico, durante el Gobierno Español," 1521 to 1766, written by Father Andres Cavo, of the Society of Jesus; 1767 to 1821, written by Don Carlos Maria Bustamante.] CHAPTER II. 1530-1551.