EESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. 75 



the Indian communities. But taking it in its true sense, the Mestizo element 

 may be said at present to constitute over four-fifths of the population. Even 

 the " wild " Indians are slightly mixed, while the so-called " pure " whites will 

 occasionally boast of their descent from the ancient rulers of the land. 'No less 

 than three families jealously preserve in Mexico and Spain the records tracing 

 their lineage back to Montezuma. 



On the other hand the African element never acquired any importance in 

 Mexico, although negroes were introduced from the first years of the conquest. 

 But after an insurrection, suppressed by drastic measures, the Sjjanish landowners 

 were forbidden to purchase Africans in order to replace the natives. In any case 

 the black race could scarcely have become acclimatised in the cold regions of the 

 plateau. At present the negroes are almost exclusively confined to the towns of 

 the seaboard, and these have come for the most part from Cuba and Jamaica. 

 In the whole of Mexico they do not appear to exceed 20,000 persons. 



During the three centuries of colonial administration between the fall of 

 Tenochtitlan and the proclamation of Mexican independence, the one great 

 event in the national history may be said to have been this slow formation of 

 the Mestizo race from Nahua and Iberian elements. Doubtless the full-blood 

 Spaniards, constituting the first social caste, continued to keep haughtily aloof, 

 claiming the exclusive right to the title of gente de razon, or "rational beings." 

 But they were divided amongst themselves ; to the Spaniards born in the 

 Peninsula were reserved the lucrative offices, as well as all honours and authority. 

 But the Creoles, however pure their blood, however great their merits, were 

 kept in the background ; they were even refused admittance to a large number 

 of the monastic establishments. By the very fact of their birth in the Xew 

 World they seemed to have almost ceased to be Spaniards and were insulted 

 at every turn. But this treatment was bitterly resented, and until recently the 

 term usually applied to the Spaniards by birth was Gacliupincs, derived from two 

 Nahuatl words meaning "Men of the Spurs." '' Mueran los Gac/iupines" ("Death 

 to the Gachupines ! ") was the war-cry of the insurgents. 



The Indians properly so called, whether wild or mamos, that is, "civilised," 

 were also regarded as inferiors, beino-s intermediate between man and animals. 

 On some rare occasions acts of courage or devotion might perhaps earn for a 

 native recognition as a brother, and then he was raised to the rank of homhre 

 bianco or " a white," as if great qualities were incompatible with the nature of 

 the red man. But the true feeling was embodied in the current Mexican saying 

 that an Indian would never rule the land so long as there remained a muleteer 

 from La Mancha or a Castilian cobbler. 



However, the lack of " reason " attributed to the natives at least exempted 

 them after about the middle of the eighteenth century from the privilege of 

 being burnt by the Inquisition. They were regarded as possessing too little 

 human responsibility for their heresies to rouse the anger of the Inquisitors. But 

 the terrible tribunal had long been at work, and three years after its introduction 

 in 1571 had begun operations by an auto-da-fe of five persons. 



