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colonies without exprefs permiffion, no vef fel of any foreign nation is received into their harbours; and the pains of death, with confifcation of moveables, are denounced against every inhabitant who prefumes to trade with them. u) Thus the colonies are kept in a ftate of perpetual pupillage; and by the introduction of this commercial dependence, a refinement in policy of which Spain fet the first example to the European nations, the fupremacy of the parent ftate hath been maintained over remote colonies during two centuries and a half.

Slow progrefs of population from Europe,

Such are the capital maxims to which the Spanish monarchs feem to have attended in forming their new fettlements in America. But they could not plant with the fame rapidity that they had deftroyed; and, from many concurring caufes, their progrefs was extremely flow, in filling up the immenfe void which their devastations had occafioned. As foon as the rage for discovery and adventure began to abate, the Spaniards opened their eyes to dangers and diftreffes, which at first they did not perceive, or had despised. The numerous hardships with which the members of infant colonies have to ftruggle, the difeafes of unwholesome climates, fatal to the conftitution of Europeans; the difficulty of bringing a coun

u) Recopil, lib, ix. tit. xxvii. 1, I. 4. 7, &c,

try, covered with forefts, into culture; the want of hands neceffary for labour in fome provinces, and the flow reward of industry in all, unless where the accidental discovery of mines enriched a few fortunate adventurers, were evils univerfally felt and magnified. Difcouraged by

the view of thefe, the fpirit of migration was fo much damped, that fixty years after the difcovery of the New World, the number of Spaniards in all its provinces is computed not to have exceeded fifteen thousand. x)

Difcouraged by the ftate of property,

In

The mode in which property was distributed in the Spanish colonies, and the regulations established with respect to the tranfmif¬. fion of it, whether by defcent or by fale, were extremely unfavourable to population. order to promote a rapid increase of people in any new fettlement, property in land ought to be divided into fmall fhares, and the alienation of it fhould be rendered extremely eafy. y) But the rapacioufnefs of the Spanish conquerors of the New World paid no regard to this fundamental maxim of policy; and, as they poffeffed power, which enabled them to gratify the utmost extravagance of their wifhes, many feized diftricts and provinces of vaft extent,

x) See NOTE XLVIII.

y) Dr. Smith's Inquiry, ii. 166.

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and held them as encomiendas. By degrees they obtained the privilege of converting a part of thefe into Mayorafgos, a fpecies of fief, introduced into the Spanish fyftem of feudal jurisprudence, z) which can neither be divided nor alienated. Thus a great portion of landed property, under this rigid form of entail, is withheld from circulation, and defcends from father to fon unimproved, and of little value either to the proprietor or to the community. In the account which I have given of the reduction of Peru, various examples occur of enormous tracts of country occupied by fome of the conquerors. a) The exceffes in other provinces were fimilar, for as the value of the lands which they acquired, was originally estimated according to the number of Indians which lived upon them, America was in general fo thinly peopled, that only districts of great extent could afford fuch a number of labourers as might be employed in the mines with any prospect of confiderable gain. The pernicious effects of thofe radical errors in the diftribution and nature of property in the Spanish fettlements, are felt through every department of industry, and may be confidered as one great cause of a progrefs of population fa much flower than that which has taken place in better conftituted colonies, b)

z) Recop. lib. iv. tit. iii, 1. 24.

a) Book. vi,

See NOTE XLIX,

and the nature of their ecclefiaftical policy.

To this we may add, that the support of the enormous and expenfive fabrick of their ecclefiaftical eftablishment, has been a burden on the Spanish colonies, which has greatly retarded the progre fs of population and industry. The payment of tythes is a heavy tax on induftry; and if the exaction of them be not régulated and circumfcribed by the wifdom of the civil magiftrate, it becomes intolerable and ruinous. But, inftead of any restraint on the claims of ecclefiafticks, the inconfiderate zeal of the Spanish legiflators admitted them into America in their full extent, and at once impofed on their infant colonies a burden which is in no flight degree oppreffive to fociety, even in its moft improved ftate. As early as the year 1501, the payment of tythes in the colonies was enjoined, and the mode of it regulated by law. Every article of primary teceffity, towards which the attention of new fettlers muft naturally be turned, is fubjected to that grievous exaction. c) Nor were the demands

of the clergy confined to articles of fimple culture. Its more artificial and operofe productions, fuch as fugar, indigo, and cochineal, were foon declared to be tythable; d) and thus the industry of the planter was taxed in every

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ftate of its progrefs, from its rudeft effay to its highest improvement. To the weight of this legal impofition, the bigotry of the American Spaniards has made many voluntary additions. From their fond delight in the external pomp and parade of religion, and from fuperftitious reverence for ecclefiafticks of everydenomination, they have bestowed profufe donatives on churches and monafteries, and have unprofitably wafted a large proportion of that wealth, which might have nourished and given vigour to productive labour in growing colonies.

Various orders of people in the colonies.

But fo fertile and inviting are the regions of America which the Spaniards have occupied, that, notwithstanding all the circumftances il which have checked and retarded population, it has gradually increafed, and filled the colonies of Spain which citizens of various orders.

Chapetones the first.

Among thefe, the Spaniards, who arrive from Europe, diftinguithed by the name of Chapetones, are the first in rank and power. From the jealous attention of the Spanish court to fecure the dependence of the colonies, all departments of confequence are filled by perfons fent from Europe; and, in order to prevent any of dubious fidelity from being employed, each muft bring proof of a clear defcent from a family of Old Chriftians, untainted with any

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