were not cross-examined. If no new facts were elicited,
the record of the lower court would be accepted by the _Audiencia_,
errors of law being the only point at issue, and this court might
at once pass sentence. In practice the _Audiencia_ usually treated
the finding of the lower court as sentence (not merely opinion),
and confirmed it, if no new testimony were produced and there were no
errors of law. But, although the opinion of the lower court might be
practically an acquittal, the _Audiencia_ might find errors of law,
thus placing the accused twice in jeopardy. If the case were remitted
back, in view of new testimony, it finally returned to the _Audiencia_
for decision, nine judges being required to give their opinion in a
grave case, so that if the Court of First Instance and five judges
of the _Audiencia_ found the accused guilty, there was a majority
against him. The sentencing court was always the _Audiencia_. If
the sentence were against the accused, a final appeal could be made,
by "writ of error," to the Supreme Court of Spain, whose decision,
however, rested not on facts, but on errors of law.

The (American) Insular Government tacitly admitted that the Spanish
written law was excellent, notwithstanding its fulfilment being
dilatory. The Spanish Penal Code has been adopted in its general
application, but a new code, based on it, was in course of compilation
in 1904. The application of the Spanish Code occasionally evolves
some curious issues, showing its variance with fundamental American
law. For instance, in September, 1905, a native adulteress having
been found by her husband _in flagrante delicto_, he stabbed her
to death. The Spanish law sustains the husband's right to slay his
faithless consort and her paramour, in such circumstances (_vide_
p. 80), but provides that the lawful slayer shall be banished
from the country. The principle of this law is based on Roman law,
human instinctive reasoning, and the spirit of the law among the
Latin nations of Europe. American law assumes this natural act of
the husband to be a crime, but whilst admitting the validity of the
Spanish Code in these Islands, the American bench was puzzled to
decide what punishment could be inflicted if the arraigned husband
committed contempt of court by thereafter returning to his native land.

CHAPTER XV

Trade of the Islands
Its Early History

From within a year after the foundation of the Colony up to the
second de