mixture of Jewifh or Mahometan blood, and never difgraced by any cenfure of the inquifition. e) In fuch pure hands, power is deemed to be fafely lodged, and almoft every publick function, from the viceroyalty downwards, is committed to them alone. Every perfon, who by his birth, or refidence in America, may be fufpected of any attachment or intereft adverfe to the mother-country, is the object of diftruft to fuch a degree, as amounts nearly to an exclufion from all offices of confidence or authority. f) By this confpicuous predilection of the court, the Chapetones are raised to fuch pre-eminence in America, that they look down with disdain on every other order of men.

Creoles the fecond.

The character and state of the Ceroles, or defcendants of Europeans fettled in America, the second clafs of subjects in the Spanish colonies, have enabled the Chapetones to acquire other advantages, hardly lefs confiderable than those which they derive from the partial favour of government. Though fome of the Creolin race are defcended from the conquerors of the New World; though others can trace up their pedigree to the nobleft families in Spain; though many are poffeffed of ample fortunes, yet, by the enervating influence of a fultry climate, by

e) Recopil. lib. ix. tit. xxvi. l. 15, 16.

f) See NOTE L.

the

the rigour of a jealous government, and by their despair of attaining that distinction to which mankind naturally afpire, the vigour of their minds is fo entirely brokep, that a great part of them wafte life in luxurious indulgencies, mingled with an illiberal superftition ftill more debafing. Languid and uninterprifing, the operations of an active extended commerce would be to them fo cumbersome and oppreffive, that in almost every part of America they decline engaging in it. The interior traffick of every colony, as well as its trade with the neighbouring provinces, and with Spain itself, are carried on chiefly by the Chapetones; g) who, as the recompence of their induftry, amafs immense wealth, while the Creoles, funk in floth, are fatisfied with the revenues of their paternal estates,

Rival hip between these.

From this stated competition for power and wealth between those two orders of citizens, and the various paffions excited by a rivalship fo interefting, their hatred is violent and implacable. On every occafion, fymptoms of this averfion break out, and the common appellations which each beftows on the other, are as contemptuous as thofe which flow from the moft deep-rooted national antipathy, h) The

g) Voy. de Ulloa, i. 27. 251. Voy. de Frezier, 227. h) Gage's Survey. p. 9. Frezier, 226,

ROBERTSON Vol. III.

T

court of Spain, from a refinement of diftruftful policy, cherishes thofe feeds of difcord, and foments this mutual jealousy which not only prevents the two most powerful claffes of its fubjects in the New World from combining against the parent ftate, but prompts each, with the most vigilant zeal, to obferve the motions and to counteract the fchemes of the other.

A mixed race forms the third order of citizens.

The third clafs of inhabitants in the Spanifh colonies is a mixed race, the offspring either of an European and a negro, or of an European and Indian, the former called Mulattoes, the latter Meftizos. As the court of Spain, folicitous, to incorporate its new vaffals with its ancient fubjects, early encouraged the Spaniards fettled in America to marry the natives of that country, feveral alliances of this kind were formed in their infant colonies. i) But it has been more owing to licentious indulgence, than to compliance with this injunction of their fover eigns, that this mixed breed has multiplied fo greatly, as to conftitute a confiderable part of the population in all the Spanish fettlements. The feveral ftages of defcent in this race, and the gradual variations of fhade until the African black, or the copper colour of America, brighten into an European complexion, are accurately

i) Recopil. lib. vi. tit. i. 1. 2. Herrera, dec. I. lib. v. c. 12. dec. 3. lib. vii. c. 2.

marked by the Spaniards, and each distinguished by a peculiar name. Thofe of the firft and fecond generations are confidered, and treated as Indians and Negroes; but in the third defcent, the characteristick hue of the former difappears; and in the fifth, the deeper tint of the latter is fo entirely effaced, that they can no longer be diftinguifhed from Europeans, and become entitled to all their privileges. k) It is chiefly by this mixed race, whofe frame is remarkably robuft and hardy, that the mechanick arts are carried on, and other active functions in fociety are discharged, which the two higher claffes of citizens, from pride, or from indolence, disdain to exercise. 1)

Negroes form the fourth order.

The negroes hold the fourth rank among the inhabitants of the Spanish colonies. The introduction of that unhappy part of the human fpecies into America, together with their fervices and fufferings there, fhall be fully explained in onother place; here they are mentioned chiefly, in order to point out a peculi-` arity in their fituation under the Spanish dominion. In feveral of their fettlements, particularly in New Spain, negroes are chiefly employed in domeftick fervice. They form a prinᎢ 2

k) Voy. de Ulloa, i. p. 27.

1) Voy. de Ulloa, i. 29. Voy. de Bouguer, p. 104. Melendez, Teforos Verdaderos, i. 354.

cipal part in the train of luxury, and are cherifhed and careffed by their fuperiors, to whofe vanity and pleasures they are equally fubfervient. Their drefs and appearance are hardly lefs fplendid than that of their mafters, whofe manners they imitate, and whofe paffions they imbibe. m) Elevated by this distinction, they have affumed fuch a tone of fuperiority over the Indians, and treat them with fuch infolence and fcorn, that antipathy between the two races has become implacable. Even in Peru where negroes feem to be more numerous, and are employed in field-work as well as domeftick fervice, they maintain their afcendant over the Indians, and the mutual hatred of one to the other fubfifts with equal violence. The laws have induftriofly fomented this averfion, to which accident gave rife, and, by moft rigorous injunctions, have endeavoured to prevent every intercourfe that might form a bond of union between the two races. Thus, by an artful policy, the Spaniards derive ftrength from that circumftance in population which is the weaknefs of other European colonies, and have fecur, ed as affociates and defenders, thofe very perfons who elsewhere are objects of jealousy and terror. n)

m) Gage, p. 56. Voy. de Ulloa, i. 451.

a) Recopil. lib. vii. tit. v. 1. 7. Herrera, dec. 8. lib. vii. c. 12. Frezier, 244.