BOOK felves, and other officers employed in the coloVIII. nies, feveral of whom were as indigent and rapacious as the adventurers over whom they prefided, were too apt to adopt their contemptuous ideas of the conquered people; and inftead of checking, encouraged or connived at their exceffes. The defolation of the New World should not then be charged on the court of Spain, or be confidered as the effect of any fyftem of policy adopted there. It ought to be imputed wholly to the indigent and often unprincipled adventurers, whofe fortune it was to be the conquerors and firft planters of America, who, by measures no less inconfiderate than unjust, counteracted the edicts of their fovereign, and have brought disgrace upon their country.

nor the

effect of religion.

WITH ftill greater injustice have authors many represented the intolerating spirit of the Roman Catholic religion, as the cause of exterminating the Americans, and have accused the Spanish ecclefiaftics of animating their countrymen to the flaughter of that innocent people, as idolators and enemies of God. But the firft miffionaries who visited America, though weak and illiterate, were pious men. They early espoused the defence of the natives, and vindicated their character from the afperfions of their con

querors,

VIII.

querors, who, defcribing them as incapable of BOOK being formed to the offices of civil life, or of comprehending the doctrines of religion, contended, that they were a fubordinate race of men, on whom the hand of nature had fet the mark of fervitude. From the accounts which I have given of the humane and persevering zeal of the Spanish miffionaries, in protecting the helpless flock committed to their charge, they appear in a light which reflects luftre upon their function. They were minifters of peace, who endeavoured to wreft the rod from the hands of oppreffors. To their powerful interpofition the Americans were indebted for every regulation tending to mitigate the rigour of their fate. The clergy in the Spanish fettlements, regular as well as fecular, are still confidered by the Indians as their natural guardians, to whom they have recourse under the hardships and exactions to which they are too often expofed'.

ber of the

Indians till

remaining.

BUT, notwithstanding the rapid depopulation The num of America, a very confiderable number of the native race ftill remains both in Mexico and Peru, especially in those parts which were not exposed to the first fury of the Spanish arms, or defolated by the first efforts of their industry,

f See NOTE IV.

VIII.

BOOK ftill more ruinous. In Guatimala, Chiapa, Nicaragua, and the other delightful provinces of the Mexican empire, which ftretch along the South Sea, the race of Indians is still numerous. Their fettlements in fome places are fo populous, as to merit the name of cities. In the three audiences into which New Spain is divided, there are at least two millions of Indians; a pitiful remnant, indeed, of its ancient population, but fuch as ftill forms a body of people fuperior in number to that of all the other inhabitants of this extenfive country ". In Peru several districts, particularly in the kingdom of Quito, are occupied almost entirely by Indians. In other provinces they are mingled with the Spaniards, and in many of their fettlements are almoft the only perfons who practise the mechanic arts, and fill most of the inferior ftations in fociety. As the inhabitants both of Mexico and Peru were accustomed to a fixed residence, and to, a certain degree of regular industry, lefs violence was requifite in bringing them to fome conformity with the European modes of civil life. But wherever the Spaniards fettled among the favage tribes of America, their attempts to incorporate with them have been always fruitlefs, and often fatal to the natives. Impatient

See NOTE V.

h See NOTE VI.

of

VIII.

of restraint, and difdaining labour as a mark of BOOK fervility, they either abandoned their original seats, and fought for independence in mountains and forefts inacceffible to their oppreffors, or perished when reduced to a state repugnant to their ancient ideas and habits. In the districts adjacent to Carthagena, to Panama, and to Buenos-Ayres, the defolation is more general than even in those parts of Mexico and Peru, of which the Spaniards have taken most full poffeffion.

ideas of the

Spain in its

BUT the establishments of the Spaniards in the General New World, though fatal to its ancient inhabit- policy of ants, were made at a period when that monarchy colonies. was capable of forming them to beft advantage. By the union of all its petty kingdoms, Spain was become a powerful ftate, equal to fo great an undertaking. Its monarchs, having extended their prerogative far beyond the limits which once circumfcribed the regal power in every kingdom of Europe, were hardly fubject to controul, either in concerting or in executing their measures. In every wide extended empire, the form of government must be fimple, and the fovereign authority fuch, that its refolutions may be taken with promptitude, and may pervade the whole with fufficient force. Such was the power of the Spanish monarchs, when

they

VIII.

BOOK they were called to deliberate concerning the mode of establishing their dominion over the most remote provinces which had ever been fubjected to any European ftate. In this deliberation, they felt themselves under no conftitutional restraint, and that, as independent masters of their own refolves, they might iffue the edicts requifite for modelling the government of the new colonies, by a mere act of prerogative.

Early inter

putition of the regal authority.

THIS early interpofition of the Spanish crown, in order to regulate the policy and trade of its colonies, is a peculiarity which distinguishes their progrefs from that of the colonies of any other European nation. When the Portuguese, the English, and French, took poffeffion of the regions in America which they now occupy, the advantages which these promised to yield were so remote and uncertain, that their colonies were suffered to struggle through a hard infancy, almost without guidance or protection from the parent ftate. But gold and filver, the first productions of the Spanish fettlements in the New World, were more alluring, and immediately attracted the attention of their monarchs. Though they had contributed little to the difcovery, and almoft nothing to the conquest of the New World, they inftantly affumed the function

of