intermediate state: we are rich or miserable, noble or degraded, by the laws or the force of opinion (infame de derecho y hecho.)

"In fact, the Indians and the races of mixed blood (castas) are in a state of extreme humiliation. The colour peculiar to the Indians, their ignorance, and especially their poverty, remove them to an infinite distance from the whites, who occupy the first rank in the population of New Spain. The privileges which the laws, seem to concede to the Indians are of small advantage to them, perhaps they are rather hurtful. Shut up in a narrow space of 600 varas (500 metres *) of radius, assigned by an ancient law to the Indian villages, the natives may be said to have no individual property, and are bound to cultivate the common property (bienes de communidad). This cultivation is a load so much the more insupportable to them, as they have now for several years back lost all hope of ever being able to enjoy the fruit of their labour. The new arrangement of intendancies bears, that the natives can receive no assistance from the funds of the communalty without a special permission of the Board of Finances of Mexico (junta superior de la Real Hacienda"). (The communal property has been farmed out by the intendants; and the produce of the labour of the natives is poured into the royal treasury,

where the officiales reales keep an account, under special heads, of what they call the property of each village. I say what they call the property, for this property is nothing more than a fiction for these last twenty years. The intendant even cannot dispose of it in favour of the natives, who are wearied of demanding assistance from the communalty funds. The junta de Real Hacienda demands informes from the fiscal and the asesor of the viceroy. Whole years pass in accumulat ing documents, but the Indians remain without any answer. The money of the caras de commu nidades is so habitually considered as having no fixed destination, that the intendant of Valladolid sent in 1798 more than a million of francs to Madrid, which had been accumulating for twelve years. The king was told that it was a gratuitous and patriotic gift from the Indians of Mechoacan to the sovereign, to aid in the prosecution of the war against England!)

*

"The law prohibits the mixture of casts; it prohibits the whites from taking up their residence in Indian villages; and it prevents the natives from establishing themselves among the Spaniards. This state of insulation opposes obstacles to civilization. The Indians are governed by themselves; all their subaltern magistrates are of the copper-coloured race. In every village

* 41,6701. sterling. Trans.

we find eight or ten old Indians who live at the expence of the rest, in the most complete idleness, whose authority is founded either on a pretended elevation of birth, or on a cunning policy transmitted from father to son. These chiefs, generally the only inhabitants of the village who speak Spanish, have the greatest interest in maintaining their fellow citizens in the most profound ignorance; and they contribute the most to perpetuate prejudices, ignorance, and the ancient barbarity of manners.

"Incapable, from the Indian laws, of entering into any contract, or running in debt to the extent of more than five piastres, the natives can only attain to an amelioration of their lot, and enjoy some sort of comfort as common labourers, or as artisans. Solorzano, Fraso, and other Spanish authors, have in vain endeavoured to investigate the secret cause why the privileges conceded to the Indians have constantly produced the most unfavourable effects to them. I am astonished that these celebrated jurisconsults never conceived that what they call a secret cause springs from the very nature of these privileges. They are arms which have never served for the protection of those which they were destined to defend, and which the citizens of the other casts could not fail to employ against the Indian race. Such a union of deplorable circumstances has produced in them

an indolence of mind, and that state of indiffer ence and apathy in which man is neither af fected by hope nor fear.

"The casts, descendants of negro slaves, are branded with infamy by the law; and are subjected to tribute. This direct impost imprints on them an indelible stain: they consider it as a mark of slavery transmissible to the latest generations. Among the mixed race, among the mestizoes and mulattoes, there are many families, who from their colour, their physiognomy, and their culti vation, might be confounded with the Spaniards; but the law keeps them in a state of degradation and contempt. Endowed with an energetic and ardent character, these men of colour live in a constant state of irritation against the whites; and we must be astonished that their resentment does not more frequently dispose them to acts of vengeance.

"The Indians and the casts are in the hands of the magistrates of districts (justicias territoriales), whose immorality has not a little contributed to their misery. So long as the alcaldias mayores subsisted in Mexico, the alcaldes considered themselves as merchants who had acquired an exclusive privilege of buying and selling in their provinces, and who could draw from this privilege, in some sort or other, from 30,000 to 200,000 piastres, from 150,000 to 1,000,000 francs*, and, what is

* From 62501, to 41,670l. sterling. Trans.

more, in the short space of five years. These usurious magistrates compelled the Indians to purchase, at arbitrary prices, a certain number of cattle. By this means the natives became their debtors. Under the pretext of recovering the capital and usury, the alcalde mayor disposed of the Indians, the whole year round, as true slaves. The individual happiness of these unfortunate wretches was not certainly increased by the sacri fice of their liberty, for a horse or a mule to work for their master's profit. But yet in the midst of this state of things, brought on by abuses, agriculture and industry were seen to increase.

"On the establishment of intendancies, the government wished to put an end to the oppressions which arose from the repartimientos. In place of alcaldes mayores, they named subdelegados, subaltern magistrates, to whom every sort of traffic was prohibited. As no salaries were assigned to them, or any sort of fixed emolument, the evil has become worse. The alcaldes mayores administered justice with impartiality, whenever their own interests were not concerned. The subdelegates of the intendants having no other revenues but casualties, believed themselves authorised to employ illicit means to procure themselves a comfortable subsistence. Hence the perpetual oppressions and the abuses of authority to which the poor were subject; and hence the indulgence towards the rich, and the shameful traffic