miles away, paid no attention to these laws, and the red men were almost

everywhere reduced to slavery, or where free and given political rights,

were looked upon as far inferior to the whites. In every district Spain

placed an official called the "Protector of the Indians," but it does not

appear that they were much the better off for their "Protectors." It is

our purpose here to say something about the cruel treatment of the natives

in South America.






INDIANS OF THE PLATEAU.





The Spanish settlers had three terms which applied to their dealings with

the Indians, the encomiendo, the mitad, and the repartimiento, each

indicating a form of injustice. The conquerors divided the country between

them, and the encomiendos were rights granted them to hold the Indians

for a number of years as workers in their fields or their mines. Under

these grants, the natives were converted into beasts of burden, and forced

to do the hardest work without the least compensation. They were obliged

to labor all day long under the burning tropical sun, to dive into the sea

in search of pearls for their masters, or to toil buried from the light of

day in the depths of the mines. It is not surprising that these miserable

slaves, accustomed to a life of indolence and ease, perished as if exposed

to a killing plague.



The mitad was a law formed for their protection, but it soon became one

of the worst of the abuses. Under it every man from the age of eighteen to

fifty was required to render bodily service, the natives of each mining

colony of South America being divided into seven sections, each of which

had to work six months in the mines. Every mine-owner could demand the

number of Indians he needed. In Peru alone fourteen hundred mines were

worked, and labor of this kind was in constant demand.



As to the kind of labor they had to do, we need only say that when any man

was called upon to work in the mines he looked upon it as a sentence of

death. Before going he gave all his possessions to his relatives, and they

went through the funeral service, as if he were already dead. They well

knew the usual end of labor in the mines. A mass was said for him at the

church, and he had to take an oath of fidelity to the king. Then he was

sprinkled with holy water and sent away to his deadly service. Deadly we

may well call it, for it is said that scarcely a fifth part of these

miners lived through their term of labor.



Lowered from the light of the sun into the deep underground shafts and

galleries, and passing from the pure air of heaven to a pestilential

atmosphere, excessive labor and bad food soon robbed them of strength and

often of life. If they survived this, a species of asthma usually carried

them off during the year. We may judge of the results from the calculation

that the mitad in Peru alone had eight million victims.



The law limited the mitad to those living within thirty miles of a mine,

but laborers were often brought by force from hundreds of miles away. As

for the small wages paid them, the masters took part of it from them in

payment for their food, and usually got the remainder by giving credit for

clothes or liquor or in other ways. In fact, if by good fortune the Indian

had not lost his life at the end of his term of service, he might be

brought into debt which he could not pay, and thus held a slave for life.



The repartimiento was another protective law, which also became a means

of oppression. Under it the district officials were required to supply all

things needed by the Indians, there being, when the law was passed, no

peddlers or travelling dealers. This privilege was quickly and shamelessly

abused, the natives being sold poor clothing, spoiled grain, sour wine,

and other inferior supplies, often at three or four times their value when

of good quality. They were even made to buy things at high prices which

were of no possible use to them, such as silk stockings for men who went

barefoot, and razors for those who had scarcely any beard to shave. One

corregidor bought a box of spectacles from a trader, and made the

natives buy these at his own price, to wear when they went to mass,

without regard to the fact that they were utterly useless to them.



The oppression of the natives was not confined to the laity, but the

clergy were often as unjust. They forced them to pay not only the tithes,

but extravagant prices for every church service, forty reals being charged

for a baptism, twenty for a marriage certificate, thirty-two for a burial,

etc. Such sums as these, which fairly beggared the poor Indians, enabled

the clergy to build costly churches and mission houses and to keep up

abundant revenues.



These general statements very faintly picture the actual state to which

the Indians were reduced. This may be better shown by some instances of

their sufferings. The Timebos Indians, for example, of the province of

Velez, New Grenada, were reduced to such extreme misery by the

embezzlement of the funds, that whole families flung themselves from the

top of a rock twelve hundred feet high into the river below. One night, in

order to escape from the cruelty of the colonists, the whole tribes of the

Agatoas and Cocomes killed themselves, preferring death to the horrors of

Spanish rule. Many Indians strangled themselves when in peril of being

enslaved by the Spaniards, feeling that a quick death was better than a

slow one under the torture of incessant toil.



In one instance, when a party of hopeless natives had come together with

the intention of killing themselves, an intendant came to them with a rope

in his hand, and told them that if they did not give up their purpose he

would hang himself with them. This threat filled them with such horror at

the prospect of meeting a Spaniard in the spirit world, that they fled

from the spot, preferring life with all its terrors to such a companion.



As may well be imagined, the natives did not all yield resistlessly to

their tyrants. Thus, in exasperation at the quantity of gold-dust which

they were forced to pay as tribute, the people of Aconcalm, in the

province of Canas, seized the brutal Spanish collector one day, and gave

him melted gold to drink, "to satisfy in this way his insatiable thirst

for gold."



In December, 1767, the descendants of the two tribes which had owned the

mining valley of Caravaya descended on the white inhabitants in revenge

for a usurpation of their lands which had taken place more than two

centuries before. They settled the question of ownership by burning the

city and killing all the inhabitants with arrows and clubs. When news of

this was received by the viceroy, Don Antonio Amat, he swore on a piece of

the true cross to kill all the savages in Peru. He was prevented from

carrying out this threat only by the prayers of the actress Mariquita

Gallegas, whom he loved, and who convinced him that it was his duty as a

Christian to convert them to the religion of Christ rather than to

massacre them.



In 1780 there began a memorable insurrection of the persecuted natives. It

was especially notable as being led by a direct descendant of the Inca

Tupac-Amaru, who had been beheaded by the Spaniards in 1562. This noble

Indian, the last of the Incas, had been well educated by the Jesuits in

Cuzco, and became the cacique of Tungasac. His virtues were such as to

gain him the respect and esteem of all the Peruvian Indians, who venerated

him also as the lineal descendant of their ancient emperors.



One day this cacique, exasperated by the rapacity of the corregidor of

Tuita, who had laid three repartimientos on the Indians in a single

year, seized the tyrannical wretch and strangled him with his own hands.

Then, taking the name of his ancestor, Tupac-Amaru, he proclaimed himself

the chief of all those who were in rebellion against the Spaniards.



His error seems to have been in not fraternizing with the creoles, or

white natives of the country, who hated the Spaniards as bitterly as the

Indians themselves. On the contrary he treated these as enemies also, and

thus greatly augmented the number of his foes. The Indians, their memories

of their ancient freedom aroused by his call, joined his ranks in

enthusiastic numbers and won several victories over the whites, the whole

of Upper Peru breaking out in insurrection. Lacking fire-arms as they did,

they kept up the struggle for a year, the outbreak being brought to an end

at last by treachery instead of arms. Betrayed by a cacique to whom the

Spaniards promised a colonel's commission,--a promise they did not

keep,--the Inca was taken prisoner by his enemies, and conducted to Cuzco,

the ancient capital of his ancestors. Here he was tried and condemned to

death, and executed with a frightful excess of cruelty that filled with

horror all the civilized world, when the terrible tale became known.



Conducted to the place of execution, his wife and children, and his

brother-in-law, Bastidas, were brought before him, their tongues cut out,

and then put to death by the Spanish method of strangling before his eyes.

His little son was left alive to witness his death. This was one in which

the most brutal tortures of mediaeval times seemed revived. His tongue

being torn out, his limbs were tied to four horses, which were driven in

different directions with the purpose of tearing him limb from limb. The

horses proved unable to do this, and he remained suspended in agony, until

one of the more merciful of the Spaniards ended his torture by cutting off

his head. During this revolting scene the little son of the victim gave

vent to a terrible scream of agony, the memory of which haunted many of

the executioners to their death.



The legs and arms of the victim were sent to the rebellious towns, his

body was burned to ashes, his house was razed, his property confiscated,

and his family declared infamous forever. One of his brothers was sent to

Spain and condemned to the galleys, in which he remained for thirty years.

Such were the means taken by the Spaniards to overcome the love of liberty

in the natives of Peru.



As for the natives themselves, what few privileges they had retained were

taken from them, their meetings and festivals were forbidden, and for any

one to assume the name of Inca was declared criminal. These severe

measures were thought sufficient to intimidate the Indians, but they only

exasperated them, and they took a terrible revenge. Andres, a cousin of

Amaru, who had escaped capture, and another chief named Catari, led them

in a campaign of revenge in which they fought with the fury of despair.

The lives of five hundred Spaniards, it is said, paid the penalty for each

of the victims of that dread execution in Cuzco.



Andres besieged the city of Sorata, in which all the white families of the

vicinity had taken refuge with their treasures. The artillery of the

fortifications seemed an invulnerable defence against the poorly armed

besiegers, but Andres succeeded in making a breach by turning the mountain

streams against the walls. Once within, the exasperated Indians took a

terrible revenge, a single priest being, as we are told, the sole survivor

of the twenty thousand inhabitants. In the end the Spaniards put down the

insurrection by treachery and cunning, seized the chiefs, and sent Andres

to Ceuta, in Spain, where he remained in prison till 1820.



We shall only say in addition that the Portuguese of Brazil treated the

natives of that land with a cruelty little less than that shown by the

Spaniards, sending out hunting expeditions to bring in Indians to serve as

slaves. Those who opposed them were shot down without mercy, and it is

said that, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, peasants infected

with the virus of smallpox were sent to the Botocudos, as a convenient

means of getting rid of that hostile tribe. As a result of all this, the

greater part of the tribes of Brazil completely disappeared. The natives

of South America obtained justice and honorable treatment only after the

people of that country had won their liberty.