339, Which, Being Too Long For A Note, Is Distinguished In The Text By Inverted Commas - E.

[7] The remainder of the circumstances relative to de Castro, here quoted, are to be found in Robertson II.

353.; the other events in the history of Peru having been already given from Zarate. - E.

[8] We now return to the narrative of Zarate. - E.

[9] Garcilasso says, that on this occasion, the Inca Manca Capac, who had retired to the mountains, in remembrance of the friendship which had subsisted between him and the elder Almagro, provided Don Diego with large quantities of armour, swords and saddles, which had been formerly taken from the Spaniards, sufficient to arm two hundred men. - E.

[10] The rank of serjeant major in the Spanish service appears to answer to our adjutant, as applied to a battalion: On the present occasion Carvajal may be considered as adjutant general under Vaca de Castro. Maestre de Campo seems equivalent to Major-General. - E.

[11] Garcilasso, himself a mestee, says that Don Diego was the bravest Mestizo, or son of a Spaniard by an Indian woman, that ever the New World produced. - E.

[12] According to Garcilasso, of 1500 combatants, including both sides, 500 men were slain, and about an equal number wounded; the royalists having 500 killed and 400 wounded, while the rebels had only 200 slain and 100 wounded. In this estimate he has surely made a material error, as he makes the killed and wounded of the royalists equal to the whole number thay had in the field. - E.

[13] At this place, a naked list of a great number of names of those who signalized themselves in the battle, are enumerated by Zarate, but omitted here as altogether uninteresting. - E.

[14] This appears to countenance the account of Garcilasso in a former note, who probably quoted from Zarate; but the latter does not limit this number to the royal troops. - E.

[15] Obviously a misunderstood description of alligators. Indeed the whole account of this country, now called Colona, seems to have been derived from the reports of Indians, and is in many circumstances entirely fabulous, as is well known from the more recent accounts of the Jesuit missions. - E.

[16] Carabaya is an elevated valley of considerable extent, to the south east of Cuzco. A mark of gold or eight ounces is worth about L.32; hence we may readily believe so rich a days work was seldom made. - E.

SECTION II.

_Commencement of the Viceroyalty of Blasco Nunnez Vela, and renewal of the civil war in Peru by the usurpation of Gonzalo Pizarro_.

At this period, some of the clergy who had been in the New World, represented to the Emperor Don Carlos and the lords of his council, that the Spaniards treated the natives in the conquered provinces of America with extreme cruelty, depriving them of all their property by excessive exactions, forcing them to labour in the mines and to dive for pearls beyond their strength, obliging them to carry heavy burdens in long journeys, and frequently subjecting them to arbitrary punishments, and even wantonly putting them to death; insomuch that their numbers were fast diminishing, and that in a short time they would be entirely extirpated from Mexico and Peru and the other continental dominions of Spain in America, as was already the case in the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and others, where hardly any trace remained of the original inhabitants. To confirm these representations, they particularly recited many instances of cruelty exercised by the Spaniards upon the Indians, among which were numerous circumstances that were by no means well authenticated. They alleged as one of the greatest of these evils, and a principal cause of the destruction of the Indians, that they were forced to carry heavy burdens on long journeys, far beyond their strength, without any consideration of justice or humanity. They added that these tyrannical practices had been carried to the greatest excess by the governors, lieutenants, and other officers of the crown, and by the bishops, monks, and other favoured and privileged persons, trusting to their authority and immunities to be exempted from punishment for their improper conduct, by which they were encouraged to the commission of every excess. He who insisted in these remonstrances with the greatest zeal and perseverance was Fra Bartholomew de las Casas, a Dominican monk, whom his majesty had raised to the bishopric of Chiapa.

After maturely considering these representations, his majesty was anxious to devise proper means to relieve the Indians from oppression; and for this purpose he assembled a council of all those persons to whom the administration of affairs in the Indies was confided, with several other persons of probity learned in the laws. By this assembly the whole affair was deliberately examined, and a code of regulations drawn up by which it was expected to remedy the abuses complained of. By these regulations it was enacted that no Indian should be forced to labour in the mines, or to dive for pearls; that no excessive labours should be imposed on them, and even that they should not be obliged to carry burdens except in places where no other means could be employed; that all Indians should be paid for their labour, and that the tribute which they were to pay to their masters should be fixed; that upon the death of any person to whom lands and Indians now belonged, they were to revert to the crown. Besides, that all lands and Indians belonging to bishops, monasteries, and hospitals, or to governors, lieutenant-governors, or other officers of the crown, should be taken from them and annexed to the crown, even although the possessor should incline to demit their offices for the purpose of enabling them to retain their repartitions. It was particularly ordered in regard to Peru, that all who had taken any share in the civil wars between the marquis and Almagro should forfeit their lands and Indians.

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