74 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



Under the Aztec regime the lack of pack animals had introduced the custom of 

 making captives and outcasts tlamcmes, or carriers, for the transport of goods and 

 supplies. This service they continued to perform under the Spanish administration, 

 though the law fixing the \o?A at " two arrobas," or about sixty pounds, was too 

 often violated. The landed proprietors, more ignorant than the natives of the 

 climatic conditions, often employed bands of porters in zones where the tempera- 

 ture was fatal ; those descending from the plateaux perished in thousands on the 

 hot coastlands, while others, transferred to the bleak uplands, yielded to the cold. 



But while the race of aborigines was rapidly diminishing and even disappear- 

 ing in certain districts, another race, that of the Mestizoes, was being developed 

 and acquiring ever-increasing importance. The conquerors, having brought no 

 women with them, soon formed alliances with the natives, Cortes setting the 



Fig. 30. — FiEST Conquests op Coktes. 

 Scale 1 : 4,000,000. 



201 



77-^ 



■i^-nt 



^ ^""^ >- ^'^-*v*>**,nuejotl Dan , 







^' 



' -)# Tzompàcire^tj" 





96" 



60 Miles. 



example by his connection with Malitzin or Dona Marina, who proved so useful 

 in times of extreme peril. All his captains and soldiers were presented with 

 native wives ; all Indian chiefs, whether pleading for favour or concluding an 

 alliance, sealed the treaty by cementing unions between the new arrivals and the 

 women of his household or kindred ; every tribe suing for peace brought women 

 as presents for the conquerors. 



Even after the conquest the adventurers and traders attracted to the Xew 

 World by the fame of the treasures of Mexico were seldom accompanied by 

 Spanish helpmates ; hence most of the unions continued to be made with native 

 women, despite the decrees which declared null and void all grants of land made 

 to whites who left their wives behind them. Thus the Mestizoes continued rapidly 

 to increase, and soon outnumbered the Spaniards. 



In ordinary language this term " Mestizo " indicates rather the class tlian the 

 origin, and is applied exclusively to the proletariates who do not keep aloof from 



