by right of Mayorafgo, and cannot be alienated, that defolation and thofe ruins become perpetual. Teatr. Amer. vol. i. p. 34.

NOTE L. p. 288.

There is no law that excludes Creoles from offices either civil or ecclefiaftick. On the contrary, there are many Cedulas which recommend the conferring places of truft indifcriminately on the natives of Spain and America. Betancurt y Figueroa Derecho, &c. p. 5, 6. But notwithstanding fuch repeated recommendations, preferment in almost every different line is conferred on native Spaniards. A remarkable proof of this is produced by the author laft quoted. From the difcovery of America to the year 1637, three hundred and fixty-nine bifhops, or archbishops, have been appointed to the different diocefes in that country, and of all that number only twelve were Creoles, p. 40. This predilection for Europeans feems ftill to continue. By a royal mandate, iffued in 1776, the chapter of the Cathedral of Mexico is directed to nominate European ecclefiafticks of known merit and abilities, that the King may appoint them to fupply vacant benefices. MS. penes me,

NOTE LI. p. 294.

Moderate as this tribute may appear, fuch is the extreme poverty of the Indians in many provinces of America, that the exacting of it is intolerably oppreffive. Pegna Itiner. par Parochos de Indios, p. 192.

rors,

NOTE LII. p. 295.

In New Spain, on account of the extraordinary merit and fervices of the firft conqueas well as the fmall revenue arifing from the country previous to the discovery of the mines of Sacatecas, the encomiendas were granted for three, and fometimes for four lives.

lib. vi. tit. ii. c.

14, &c.

NOTE LIII. p. 296.

Recopil.

D. Ant. Ulloa contends, that working in mines is not noxious, and as a proof of this informs us, that many Meftizos and Indians who do not belong to any Repartimiento, voluntarily hire themfelves as miners; and fe veral of the Indians, when the legal term of their fervice expires, continue to work in the mines of choice. Entreten. p. 265. But his opinion concerning the wholesomeness of this occupation is contrary to the experience of all ages; and wherever men are allured by high wages, they will engage in any fpecies of labour, however fatiguing or pernicious it may be.

D. Hern. Carillo Altemirano relates a curious fact incompatible with this opinion. Wherever

mines are wrought, fays he, the number of Indians decreases; but in the province of Campeachy, where there are no mines, the number of Indians has increafed more than a third fince the conqueft of America, though neither the foil nor climate be fo favourable as in Peru or Mexico. Colbert Collect. In another memorial prefented to Philip III. in the year 1609. Captain Juan Gonzalez de Azevedo afferts, that in every diftrict of Peru, where the Indians are compelled to labour in the mines, their numbers were reduced to the half, and in fome places to the third, of what it was under the viceroyalty of Don Fran. Toledo in 1581. Colb. Collect.

NOTE LIV. p. 297.

As labour of this kind cannot be prescribed with legal accuracy, the tafks feem to be in a great measure arbitrary, and like the fervices exacted by feudal fuperiors, in vinea, prato aut meffe, from their vaffals, are extremely burdenfome, and often wantonly oppreffive. Pegna Itiner. par Parochos de Indios.

NOTE LV. p. 297.

The turn of fervice known in Peru by the name of Mita, is called Tanda in New Spain.

1

There it continues no longer than a week at a time. No perfon is called to ferve at a greater diftance from his habitation than 24 miles. This arrangement is lefs oppreffive to the Indians than that established in Peru. Memorial of Hern. Carillo Altamirano. Colbert Collect.

NOTE LVI. p. 300.

The strongest proof of this may be dedaced from the laws themselves. By the multitude and variety of regulations to prevent abufes, we may form an idea of their number. Though the laws have, wifely, provided that no Indian fhall be obliged to ferve in any mine at a greater diftance from his place of refidence than thirty miles; we are informed in a memorial of D. Hernan Carillo Altamirano prefented to the king, that the Indians of Peru are often compelled to ferve in mines at the diftance of a hundred, a hundred and fifty, and even two hundred leagues from their habitation. Colbert Collect. Many mines are fituated in parts of the country, fo barren, and fo diftant from the ordinary habitations of the Indians, that the neceffity of procuring labourers to work there, has obliged the Spanish monarchs to difpence with their own regulations in feveral inftances, and to permit the viceroys to compel the people of more remote provinces to refort to thofe mines. Efcalona Gazophyl.

Perub. lib. i. c. 16. But in juftice to them it fhould be observed, that they have been ftu dious to alleviate this oppreffion, as much as poffible, by enjoicing the viceroys to employ every method, in order to induce the Indians to fettle in fome part of the country adjacent to the mines. Id. Ibid.

NOTE LVII. p. 306.

rec

Torquemada, after a long enumeration; which has the appearance of accuracy, concludes the number of monafteries in New Spain to be four hundred. Mon. Ind. lib. xix. c. 32. The number of monafteries in the city of Mexico alone was, in the year 1745, fifty-five. Villa Segnor, Teatr. Amer. i. 34. Ulloa kons up forty convents in Lima; and mentioning those for nuns, he fays, that a small town might be peopled out of them, the number of perfons fhut up there is fo great. Voy. i. 429. Philip III. in a letter to the viceroy of Peru, A. D. 1620, obferves, that the number of convents in Lima was fo great, that they covered more ground than all the rest of the city. Solorz. lib. iii. c. 23. n. 57. Lib. iii. c. 16. Torquem. lib. xv. c. 3. The first monaftery in New Spain was founded A. D. 1525, four years only after the conqueft. Torq. lib. xv. c. 16.