ing to their efficiency. They, as well as other castes, could also be sent to convents or public works,[1] or even sold for a term to contractors; and in view of the prevailing official corruption it is easy to imagine the extreme oppression to which this law gave rise.
Punishments in America were more severe than in Spain, fines being double.[2] The greater number of criminals were sent to the frontier, the worst to hard work under the garrisons, others to form settlements there, or even to enlist, particularly for the Philippines, greatly dreaded on account of their climate, the distance and intervening sea lending additional terror. The galleys in Spain and Tierra Firme received a certain number; halters were long in use,[3] and the lash was freely administered, even feathering being legally applied. Death penalties were often cruel and preceded by torture, both during the examination and as part of the punishment. The most common form of execution was by garrote, but highway robbery usually entailed hanging and quartering, the head of the criminal being fixed on a stake. The acordada also used the more prolonged method of dragging with horses, and giving the coup de gréce with lances before quartering.[4] Burning at the stake was not restricted to the inquisition, for counterfeiters and persons guilty of bestiality received this sentence.[5] A not uncommon mode of dealing with wife-murderers and the like was to cast them into a water-butt, with a cock, a monkey, and a viper. Inso far so good
- ↑ A man and woman were sold to obraje labor for six years for concealing stolen goods, Robles, Diario, 376-7. At least one third of the pay must be given for sustenance, but no new loans could be contracted whereby the servitude was prolonged. Four months formed the limit in ordinary cases. For drunkenness no servitude should be imposed. Cedulario, MS., iii. 205-11.
- ↑ Recop. Ind., ii. 379.
- ↑ For restrictions, see Ordenes de la Corona, MS., i. 187-92; criminals who enlisted for the Moluccas received both pardon and high pay, 125 pesos. Robles, Diario, ii. 230-2.
- ↑ Gazetas Mex. (1790), iv. 62.
- ↑ 'Quemado con una yegua, complice de su bestial crimen.' Id., 1787-9, ii. 411, iii. 410. Sodomites were also burned. Robles, Diario, 99, 110-11, 135-6, 157, 222, 271; Guijo, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série i. tom. i. 38-9, 307, 371-2.
