Rodrigo de Albornoz - His Report To The Emperor

His Report To The Emperor

Albornoz sent a letter of report to Emperor Charles V, dated December 15, 1525. The letter included a number of observations and recommendations.

• He denounced the enslavement of the Indigenous: "t causes havoc in the land, and the people who may be converted will be lost if it is not remedied soon... t is a great matter of conscience." (The Spanish Crown prohibited or severely restricted enslavement of the Indians in 1523, 1526, 1528, 1530, 1534, 1542 (Leyes Nuevas), 1543, 1548, 1550, 1553, 1556, 1568, etc.). Albornoz did not, however, recommend the complete abolition of slavery, and in fact personally held a license to import 150 black slaves.

• He accused Cortés of killing many Indigenous.

• He reported on the state of agriculture, business, the Church and the administration in the colony.

• He gave strong support to the Christianization of the Indigenous, claiming that a single convert among them was worth 50 missionaries.

• He reported the periodic appearance of "distant traders" in dugout canoes who came to exchange "excellent things" for local goods in the port of Zacatula, located at the mouth of the Río Balsas in western Mexico. (This river forms the boundary between the present-day Mexican states of Michoacán and Guerrero.) These merchants sometimes remained in the area for five or six months, until good weather and calm seas permitted a safe return to their southern homeland. The origin of these traders is not known. There is speculation that they arrived from the Inca domains in South America.

• He proposed the enactment of sumptuary laws, and proposed moving the capital to a location more easily defensible (but without mentioning the advantage of moving somewhere not subject to nearly annual flooding).