CnAP. VIII. OPPRESSION IN THE OnUAJEH. ]2.j 



mines of Huancavelica, while they were obliged to work ui 

 the fields like men. They declared that when a man was 

 once taken for the mita his wife seldom or never saw him 

 agam, unless she went herself to the place of his torments.^ 



The oppression of the owners of ohrajes or manufactories of 

 coarse woollen and cotton cloths, in enforcing the mitas, was 

 as crushing as that of the miners. These people employed 

 men, called ffuatacos, to hunt the Indians, and drive them into 

 the ohrajes. If they could not find the particular men for 

 whom they were in search, they took their children, wives, 

 and nearest neighbours, robbed them of all they possessed, 

 and frequently violated the women and young gu-ls.'^ The 

 masters, in the ohrajes, then forced their victims to get deeply 

 in debt to them, and thus obtained an excuse for keeping 

 them in perpetual slavery. In many ohrajes there were 

 Indians who had not been outside the walls for forty years 

 and upwards. The law was that the natives should be free 

 from tribute and personal service until they attained the age 

 of eighteen ; but it was the general practice to drag chiklren 

 from their homes at the ages of six or eight, force them to 

 work hard at twisting woollen and cotton threads, and flog 

 them cruelly.^ 



Thus the work of depopulation went on until, in 1622, 

 many encomiendas which originally contained a thousand adult 

 male. Indians, and yielded eight thousand dollars of tribute, 

 were reduced to a hundred ; yet these unfortunate survivors 

 were forced to continue the payment of the original tribute, 

 or to render personal service instead. There was an enco- 

 mienda in Huanuco where the Indians had paid more than one 

 hundred thousand dollars over and above what was legally 

 due, during fifty years.^ 



^ Carta sobre trahajos, agravios, y ^ Papehs Varios. No. 4. SIS. 



injustictus que padecen los Indios del ^ IMS. in Lima library. 



Peru ; por Don Juun de Padilla, 1G57. '■• Manifesto del os agravion que jutde- 



— MS. in the National Libiarv at Lima, cen los Iiidios. — MS. at Lima. 



