188 



MEXICO. 



Mexico, high degree of aptitude and acutencss ; but have in 

 '""Y"" 1 ' general appeared to succeed in any of the fine arts, 

 particularly in painting, more from application than 

 from genius. Their amusements even partake of the 

 same sedate and sombre character. Their music and 

 dancing are terrific and melancholy ; and, though the 

 females would probably introduce a little more viva- 

 vacity, yet, in the usual depressed state of savage and 

 half-civilized life, they are not permitted to join in 

 these exhibitions, and are merely admitted to supply 

 the male performers with liquor. In one particular, 

 however, these Indians evince a refined and elegant 

 taste, which would seem to betoken the remains of 

 higher attainments, viz. in their universal love of flow- 

 ers, and skilful arrangement of nosegays, herbs, and 

 fruits. With regard to their political condition, they 

 Lave derived few means of improvement from their 

 European rulers. The great body of the people were 

 indeed found by the Spaniards in a state of the utmost 

 poverty, and subjection to their despotic princes and 

 feudal chiefs ; but their new masters, instead of alle- 

 viating, made haste to aggravate their oppressions ; 

 dragging them from their homes to work in the mines, 

 or to carry the luggage of the armies, and appropriat- 

 ing to themselves, as a right of conquest, all that they 

 possessed in lands or goods. Since the commence- 

 ment, however, of the 18th century, their situation has 

 become progressively better, and their interests have 

 been taken under the protection of the intendants. A 

 few of the great Indian families, or Caciques, who still 

 remain, are entitled by the Spanish laws to share the 

 privileges of the Castilian nobility ; and they receive 

 all the former homage which used to be paid to them 

 by the inferior ranks. But their own privileges are 

 more illusory than real ; and, even where they have 

 some authority as magistrates of the native villages, 

 they are more oppressive than even the whites towards 

 the tributary casts, and not at all superior to the low- 

 est peasantry in point of knowledge or civilization. 

 The Mexican Indians, when considered in a mass, 

 present a picture of extreme misery ; and scarcely any 

 individuals are to be found among them who enjoy 

 mediocrity of fortune. The greater part, banished in- 

 to the more barren districts, and indolent from natu- 

 ral disposition, as well as discouraged by their politi- 

 cal bondage, live in daily poverty ; and even the few 

 noble families who possess great plantations and vine- 

 yards, (to the value sometimes of 30,000 or 40,000,) 

 carefully conceal their wealth, generally going bare- 

 footed, and clothed in the same coarse garment with 

 the lowest of their countrymen. The Indians are ex- 

 empted from all direct imposts, but are subjected to a 

 tribute or capitation tax, which has varied at different 

 periods and in different districts, but at present is usu- 

 ally eleven francs per annum. They pay also to the 

 clergy 10 francs for baptism, 20 for a certificate of 

 marriage, 10 for interments, and from 2o to 30 in the 

 form of voluntary offerings for masses, &c. They are 

 deprived of the most important rights of citizens, by 

 being counted as minors under the tutory of the whites; 

 so that every act which they sign, and every obliga- 

 tion which they incur beyond the value of 15 francs 

 are declared null. They are kept in a state of com- 

 plete insulation; prohibited from intermarriage with 

 the whites; shut up in villages of their own ; subjected 

 to subaltern magistrates among themselves, who find 

 their interest in perpetuating the ignorance and bar- 

 barism of the people; rendered incapable of commer- 

 cial transactions; confined to the situation of common 

 labourers or artisans; and thus completely excluded 



white in- 



from all chance of advancing in civilization of man- Mexico. 



ners, or acquisition of property. " Ltt the odious "~~~f-~* 1 



personal impost of the iiiJmlo be. abolished," ('>}- the 



enlightened Bishop of Mechoacan, in a memoir pre- 



sented in 1799 - to the Spanish monarch,) " let the in- 



famy which unjust laws have attempted to stamp on 



the people of colour be at an end ; let them be de- 



clared cnpable of filling every civil employment which 



does not require a special title of nobility ;> let a por- 



tion of the demesnes of the crown, which are general. 



ly uncultivated, be granted to the Indians and the 



casts ; let an Agrarian law be passed for Mexico, 



similar to that of the Asturias and Gallicia, by which 



the poor cultivator is permitted to bring in, under 



certain conditions, the land which the great proprie- 



tors have left so many ages uncultivated, to the detri- 



ment of the national industry; let full liberty be 



granted to the Indians, the casts, and the whites, to 



settle in villages, which at present belong only to one 



of these classes ; let salaries be appointed for all 



judges and all magistrates of districts; these are the 



six principal points on which the felicity of the Mexi- 



can people depends." 



The white inhabitants consist of whites born in Eu- 

 rope, called chapetones or gachupines, and those de- 

 scended of Europeans in the Spanish ccle.nies ot' 

 America, or in the Asiatic islands, called Creoles. The 

 laws allow the same rights to all whites ; but the go- 

 vernment, suspicious of the Creoles, has granted (or 

 rather sold) public offices chiefly to the natives of Old 

 Spain. Hence a perpetual hatred and jealously exists 

 between the Chapetones and Creoles ; the meaner of 

 the former counting themselves superior in blood, and 

 having the chance of becoming superior in rank, to 

 the most distinguished natives of the New Continent ; 

 and the latter, in contempt ot this assumed pre-emi- 

 nence, as wellas in a spirit of alienation from a coun- 

 try which subjects them to such unworthy treatment, 

 preferring the name of Americans to that of Spaniards. 

 There are about 1,200,000 whites in Xew Spain, or a 

 proportion of 16 to every 100 of the other casts; of 

 whom not above 70,000 or 80,000 (a 70th part of the 

 whole population, and only one to fourteen of the 

 Creoles,) are natives of Europe. In all Spanish Ame- 

 rica, the word European is synonimous witli Span- 

 iard ; and no Europeans, except such as are born in 

 Old Spain, are admitted into the American colonies. 

 The inhabitants of the more remote provinces, still 

 conceiving the ancient power of Old Spain us predo- 

 minant in Europe, regard the peninsula as the centre 

 of civilization, and consider it as a mark of low ex- 

 traction to be ignorant of the Spanish language. But 

 in the capital of Mexico, the Creoles being better ac- 

 quainted with the present state of Europe, and in- 

 structed in French or English literature, fall into the 

 contrary extreme ; consider their own intellectual pro- 

 gress as superior to that of the peninsula; and prefer 

 strangers from other countries before the Spaniards 

 themselves. There is indeed considerable intellectual 

 activity among ttie young Creoles, who apprehend the 

 principles of science with great facility. At Mexico 

 and Santa Ft', the study of mathematics, chemistry, mi- 

 neralogy, and botany, is very general, and the former 

 city surpasses every other in the New Continent, not 

 excepting those of the United States, in solid scientific 

 establishments. The whites are also the exclusive pos- 

 sessors of great wealth, and nothing is more striking 

 than the inequality of its distribution. There are many 

 individuals, whose annual income, without any profit 

 drawn from the mines, amounts to a million of francs, 





