During the earliest periods of its colonization the reports from the New World were naturally somewhat nebulous in character, and the Spanish authorities themselves saw to it that as little authentic news as possible should be allowed to filter beyond their own frontiers.  This policy succeeded for a while in restraining the undesired enterprise of the rival peoples who were, so far as South America was concerned, groping in the dark.  This phase was naturally only fleeting.  At the first evidence of a desire on the part of the other nations to participate in the benefits accruing from South America, the Spanish Court thundered forth threats and edicts.

Thus on December 15, 1558, King Philip II. decreed that any foreign person who should traffic with Spanish America should be punished by death and confiscation of property.  The edict was emphatic and stern, and contained a clause which deprived the Royal Audiences in Spanish America of any powers of dispensation in the execution of these penalties: 

“If anyone shall disobey this law, whatever his state or condition, his life is forfeit, and his goods shall be divided in three parts, of which one shall go to our Royal Treasure, one to the judge, and one to the informer.”

It is, of course, notorious that the distance which separated the colonies from the motherland prevented the enforcing of many laws, whether good or bad, and that the Spanish-American local expression—­“The law is obeyed but not carried out”—­was common to nearly every district.  At the same time, the mischief caused by decrees such as these may readily be imagined.  A rich bribe to an informer was in itself an incentive to the stirring up of mischief where frequently none was intended.  Such official bribes as these, however, were wont to be more than counteracted by the private inducements held out by many of the foreign adventurers and traders themselves, and after a while a great number of the officials found it very much to their profit not only to wink at the wholesale commerce and smuggling that was being carried on, but even actively to promote it and to participate in its benefits.

This method of keeping Spanish America as the close property of the Crown was one which grew more and more difficult to preserve as time went on.  In the first place the authorities had merely to cope with the foreign seamen and the fleets of adventurous traders who were determined, at all costs, to win their share of financial profit from these golden shores.  After a while, with the growing population of the Continent, a new situation asserted itself, and the influence of the colonists themselves had to be considered.

[Illustration:  SECTIONS OF A SLAVE SHIP.

Typical of the small vessels employed in taking African slaves to South America.  The hundreds of negroes were packed between decks in the incredible fashion shown in the sectional views.]