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keeping their fellow citizens in a state of the most profound BOOK ignorance. Restricted to a narrow space, the radius of LXXXIV. which is only 542 yards, the boundary assigned by an ancient law to the Indian villages, the natives are, in some measure, destitute of individual property; they are bound to cultivate the common property, without the hope of ever reaping the fruit of their labours. The new regulation of the intendencies directs that the natives are no longer to receive assistance from the general funds without special permission from the College of Finances of Mexico. The common property has been farmed out by the intendants, and the produce is paid into the royal treasury, where the government-clerks keep, under particular heads, an account of what they call the property of every village. But it has become so tedious and so difficult to obtain for the natives any assistance from these funds, that they have ceased applying for it. Either by a singular fatality, or from a fault inherent in all social organization, the privileges accorded to the Indians, far from being the means of obtaining them any advantage, have, in reality, produced effects constantly unfavourable to this caste, and have actually furnished the means of oppressing them.

The Spaniards occupy the first rank in the population Mexican of New Spain. It is in their hands that almost all the Spaniards. property and riches of the kingdom are retained. Yet they would fill only the second place among the inbabitants of the pure race, if they were considered according to their numbers, which, in New Spain, may amount to 1,200,000, of which one quarter inhabits the provinces of the interior. They are divided into the whites born in Europe, and the descendants of Europeans, born in the Spanish colonies of America, and the islands of Asia. The former have received the appellation of Chapetons, or Gachupinas; petons and the second, that of Criollos, [Creoles]. The natives of the Canary Islands, who are generally designated by the denomination of Islenos, and who, for the most part, are over

seers and agents of plantations, look upon themselves as Europeans. The Chapetons are estimated as one to four

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Creoles."

BOOK teen. To all of them the laws grant the same rights; but LXXXIV. those who are nominated to assist in their execution, exert themselves to destroy that equality which wounds European pride so deeply. The government bestows the higher offices exclusively on natives of old Spain; and for some years back, has disposed of the most trifling situations in the management of the customs, or in the office for administration of property on trust, even at Madrid. The most miserable European, without education, without intellectual culture, thinks himself superior to the whites who are born on the New Continent. He knows that, protected by his countrymen, and favoured by those chances which are common in a country where fortunes are acquired as rapidly as they are destroyed, he may, one day or other, attain those offices to which the access is almost interdicted to the natives, even those who are distinguished by their talents, their knowledge, and their moral qualities. A system of venality, in particular, has made frightful progress amongst them. From this have arisen motives of jealousy and perpetual hatred between the Chapetons and the Creoles. Since the emancipation of the English colonies, and particularly since 1789, the latter are often heard to exclaim, in a haughty manner, "I am not a Spaniard, I am an American!" expressions which betray the effects of long cherished re

Castes of mixed blood.

sentment.

The castes of mixed blood, proceeding from an intermixture with the pure race, compose almost as considerable a portion of the people as the indigenous natives. We may estimate the total number of individuals of mixed blood at nearly 2,400,000 souls. By a refinement of vanity, the inhabitants of the colonies have enriched their language, by applying names to the most delicate shades of tint that arise from the degeneration of the primitive colour. The son of a white, born either of a European, or a Creole, and of a native female of the copper-colour, is callThe Mesti- ed Metis, or Mestizo. His colour is almost a perfect white, and his skin has a particular transparency. His scanty beard, the small size of his hands and feet, and a

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certain obliquity of his eyes, oftener serve to proclaim a mix- BOOK ture of Indian blood, than the nature of his hair. If a fe- LXXXIV. male Metis marry a white, the second generation which results from this union scarcely differs in any respect from the race of Europeans. The Metis compose, in all probability, seven-eighths of the whole population of the casts. They are looked upon as possessing a milder character Mulattoes. than the Mulattoes-the offspring of the whites and the negroes, who are conspicuous for the intensity of their colour, the violence of their passions, and their singular volubility of speech. The descendants of negroes and Indian women are known at Mexico, at Lima, and even at the Havannah, by the absurd name of Chino, Chinese. On the The Chicoast of Caraccas, and even in New-Spain itself, they are Zambos. likewise called Zambos. At present, this latter term is principally confined to the descendants of a negro and a female Mulatto, or of a negro and a female Chino. These common Zambos are distinguished from the Zambos-Prictos,* who are born of a negro and a female Zambo. The castes of Indian and African blood preserve the odour which is peculiar to the cutaneous transpiration of these two primitive races. From a union of a white with a female Mulatto, proceeds the caste of the Quarterons. When a female The QuarQuarteron marries an European, or a Creole, her children. Quinteare termed Quinterons. A fresh alliance with the white race rons. so completely obliterates all remaining traces of colour, that the children of a white and a female Quinteron, are also white. Those mixtures by which the colour of the infant becomes darker than that of its mother, are called Saltaatras, or back-steps.†

terons, and

tives of the whites.

The greater or less quantity of European blood, and the Prerogaskin being more or less clear, are at once decisive of the consideration which a man enjoys in society, and of the opinion which he entertains of himself. A white who rides. barefooted, fancies that he belongs to the nobility of the country. Colour even establishes a certain equality between

Black-Samboes.

+ Memoir of the Bishop of Mechoacan, quoted by M. de Humboldt.

BOOK those who, as everywhere happens where civilization is eiLXXXIV. ther little advanced, or in a state of retrograde movement,

Negroes.

take pleasure in refining on the prerogatives of race and origin. When an individual of the lower orders enters into a dispute with one of the titled lords of the country, it is no unusual thing to hear him exclaim to the nobleman, "Is it possible that you really thought yourself whiter than I am?" Among the Metis and Mulattoes there are many individuals who, by their colour, their physiognomy, and their intelligence, might be confounded with the Spaniards; but the laws keep them down in a state of degradation and contempt. Possessing an energetic and ardent character, these men of colour live in a state of constant irritation against the whites; and resentment too often hurries them into vengeance. It frequently occurs, too, that families who are suspected of being of mixed blood, claim, at the high court of justice, a declaration that they appertain to the whites. In this way, very dark coloured Mulattoes have had the address to get themselves whitened, according to the popular expression. When the judgment of the senses is too palpably in opposition to the solicitations of the applicant, he is forced to content himself with somewhat problematical terms; for, in that case, the sentence simply states, that such and such individuals may consider themselves as white."

Of all the European colonies under the torrid zone, the kingdom of New Spain is the one in which there are the fewest negroes. One may walk through every part of the city of Mexico, without seeing one single black face. Slaves are never employed to perform the domestic services of any house there. According to the most authentic information, it would appear that in the whole of New Spain there are not 6000 negroes, and, at the very utmost, 9000 or 10,000 slaves, the greater part of whom inhabit the ports of Acapulco and Vera Cruz, or the hot region in the vicinity of the coasts. These slaves are prisoners who have been taken in the petty warfare that is almost continual on the frontiers of the internal provinces. For the

of slaves.

most part, they belong to the nation of the Mecos, or Apa- BOOK ches, a race of untractable and ferocious mountaineers, who LXXXIV. most commonly sink speedily under the influence of despair, or of the change of climate. The increase of the colonial prosperity of Mexico is altogether independent, therefore, of the employment of negroes. It is only twenty years ago that Mexican sugar was almost unknown in Europe; at present, however, Vera Cruz alone exports more than 120,000 quintals, and yet the number of slaves is not augmented by the progress which has been made in the cultivation of the sugar cane in New Spain, since the revolutionary changes in St. Domingo. As for the rest, in Mex- Condition ico, as in all the Spanish possessions, slaves are rather better protected by the laws than the negroes who inhabit the colonies of the other European nations. The law is always interpreted in favour of liberty. The government is desirous of seeing the number of enfranchised slaves increase. A slave who, by his own industry, has become possessed of some money, may force his master to enfranchise him, on paying him the sum of from £62 to £85. 6s. Sterling, even where he has originally cost the proprietor twice that amount, or is gifted with some particular talent for exercising a lucrative business. A slave, who has been cruelly ill-treated, obtains, according to law, a right to his freedom from that very circumstance. M. de Humboldt himself saw an instance of this.

Mexico.

The languages spoken throughout the vast extent of Languages Mexico, are more than twenty in number, and are many of spoken in them however known only by name. The Creoles, and the greater part of the mixed races, have not adopted here, as they do in Peru, an indigenous dialect, but make use of the Spanish language, both in conversation and in writing. Among the native dialects, the Aztec or Mexican tongue is the most widely diffused; it extends at present from the parallel of the 37° to the vicinity of the lake Nicaragua, but the peculiar regions of several other languages appear to be inclosed, in some degree, within that of the Mexican. The historian Clavigero, has proved that

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