124 



THE MiTA. 



Chap. Vlll. 



in Peru ; but I have only space for a few brief notes, which 

 must serve to illustrate this part of the subject. 



The mines of Potosi were supplied with labourers from the 

 nearest provinces, by enforcing a mita of a seventh of the 

 adult male population. In 1573 this mita consisted of 

 11,199 Indians, in 1620 of 4249, and in 1678 of 1674,^ a 

 decrease which marks the rapid depopulation of the country ; 

 and, at the latter date, when the authorities at Potosi failed 

 to receive a suflGcient number of labourers by the ordinary 

 mita, they kidnapped people in their homes, and on the roads, 

 and carried them off to forced labour in the mines. The law 

 was that the mitayos should be paid for coming and going, 

 and that they should not be forced to work at night; but 

 these laws were habitually set at nought, and Potosi became 

 an exhausting drain to the sm-rounding country.'* 



The mines of Huancavelica, which supplied the quick- 

 silver necessary for extracting the silver of Potosi from 

 its ores,^ also desolated the ten adjoining provinces. In 

 1645 the 7nita or seventh part of the adult male popu- 

 lation amounted to 620, and in 1678 to only 354 In- 

 dians. The 7nita was a service wliich was abhorred and 

 dreaded by the people, and mothers maimed the arms and 

 legs of their children to deliver them from this slavery. 

 Don Juan de Padilla relates that, in 1657, when he was at 

 Santa Lucia, in the province of Lucanas, he saw the women 

 of the village go out to assist each other in sowing their fields, 

 and, at the end of then- labour, they returned hand in hand, 

 singing a most melancholy song, and lamenting the cruel 

 fate of their husbands and brothers, who were slaving in the 



3 II. p. SO-i of the Meniorias de lus 

 Vireyes. But no safe calculation can 

 be made respecting tLe actual popula- 

 tion from these numbers. 



^ I'apeleg Varies. No. -1. MB. in 

 tlie li))rary at Lhna. 



* The amalgamation with quicksilver 



was introduced at Potosi by Velasco 

 in 1571. Tiie quicksilver was sent down 

 from Huancavelica to the jiort of Cliin- 

 clia, tlienee to Arica by sea, and fi-om 

 Ai'ica over the cordillera to Potosi. — 

 Eejiort of the I'rtncc of Et«iuiluchc. 



