122 REGULATIONS AS TO RELIGION. Chap. VIII. 



Spaniards, or as domestic servants. They may have been 

 descendants of captives in war, or of persons who had been 

 condemned to slavery in the time of the Incas, and thus 

 became the proj)erty of the conquerors ; but in IGOl an 

 enactment was promulgated to ameliorate their condition, 

 and fix the terms of their service.^ 



In matters connected with religion the Spanish legislators 

 allowed of no temporizing pohcy. All signs of idolatry must 

 disappear, and with the new religion came additional exac- 

 tions, in the shape of fees for masses, burials, and christenings. 

 Toledo enacted many laws for the suj)pression of the old 

 religion of the Incas : any Indian who married an idolatrous 

 woman was to receive one hundred stripes, " because that is 

 the punishment which they dishke most ;" the people were 

 prohibited from using surnames taken from the names of 

 birds, beasts, serpents, or rivers, which was their ancient 

 custom ; and no Indian who had been punished for idolatry, 

 joining in infidel rites, or dancing the dance called arihua, 

 could be appointed to hold any public office.^" 



On the whole, however, the legislation of the Sjjanish 

 kings, and the reports of the viceroys of Peru, display an 

 earnest desire to protect the Indians from tyranny, and to 

 render their condition tolerable. In 1615 the Marquis of 

 Montes Glares impressed on his successor the importance of 

 obliging all classes of Spaniards to treat the Indians well, and 

 of chastising oppression with rigour. In 1681 the Count of 

 Castellar states that one of the points most dwelt ujDon in the 

 instructions given to the viceroys, and in repeated royal 

 enactments, was the humane treatment of the Indians ; and 



8 IMontes Claros describes them as should degenerate into slavery, the 

 Indians domiciled on the estates or in king, in a cedula of 1601, declared 

 the houses of Spaniards, like servants ; that they were free, and desired that 

 their masters giving them food, clothes, this sliould be made known to them, 

 and a bit of land, and paying their , — Memorias, i. p. 27. 

 tribute for theui. Lest the system '. '" Ordenanzas, No. 34, 12, 140. 



