of his councils; and the laws of Spanish America
were made by the king through the Council of the
Indies. In fine, Spanish America did not belong to
Spain, but was a part of the hereditary domains of
the sovereigns of Castile as heirs of Queen Isabella,
with which the cortes of Castile had little more to
do than with the kingdom of Naples or the Nether-
lands.

That English political institutions were trans-
planted to America by the colonists is one of the
most familiar as well as one of the most fundamental
facts in our history. That contemporary Spanish
institutions and the general machinery of govern-
ment were likewise transplanted and adapted to
Spanish-American conditions is less familiar but
not less important.

The first step in framing an administrative system
for the government of their new possessions was
taken by the sovereigns in May, 1493, when they
appointed a member of their council, Juan de
Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville, to act with the ad-
miral in making preparations for a second voyage. ¹
For the next ten years, until the establishment of
the Casa de Contratacion, and, in fact, during the
entire reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, Fonseca
was practically the colonial minister and zealously
guarded the interests of the crown. His character
has been blackened by the partial biographers of
Columbus, who have followed the lead of Ferdinand

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