1835. 



TITHES OPPRESSION TASKS. 



385 



manding positions and outer points, such as Cocotue heights, 

 Guabun Head, and Point Centinela ; but at the present time 

 no such precautions being thought necessary, there is a supine 

 indifference to molestation. 



Wherever Mr. Sulivan went with our boats, nearly all the 

 Indians showed an anxiety for the island to be again under the 

 dominion of Old Spain, and asserted that they were much 

 happier and more prosperous before the revolution than they 

 had ever been since. In a place where he passed two days 

 (Huildad) there was an unusual difficulty in obtaining provi- 

 sions, and it was accounted for by the natives in the follow- 

 ing manner : the proprietor of the tithes had just been there, 

 and had taken from them, in sheep and pigs, the full tenth, 

 not only of those animals, but of the growing crops of corn, 

 apples, and potatoes. He had taken away all that the poor 

 people could be deprived of, excepting only what was abso- 

 lutely necessary as stock for next year'*s supply. 



Lieut. Suhvan says, in his journal : — " Besides the tithes, 

 they have also to give 'first fruits'* to the priests, and so hard 

 are they on their parishioners, with respect to tithes and first 

 fruits, that whether the yearly produce be bad or good, the 

 same quantity must be contributed to swell the revenue of a 

 pei"^on whom they seldom see, except at the times of collection." 



This oppression, however, is not allowed by the superiors of 

 the Church, when it is duly represented and proved: for not long 

 ago a curate was dismissed from his parish in Childe, because 

 he was a severe extortioner : I was informed that durinir five 

 years that man had amassed more than thirty thousand dol- 

 lars.* Some of the natives complained bitterly to Lieut. 

 Sulivan of the task- work they were compelled to perform. 



At Lemuy he met a small piragua with only three men in 

 it, who were on their way from Castro to Quelan. They had 

 walked across the island from San Carlos where they had been 

 working at the new mole, which all the ' militia'-[* were obhged 



* The number stated to me was 35,000. 



t Ever}' able-bodied native man is enrolled in the local militia, and 

 obliged to work thus till disabled by infirmity. 

 VOL. II. 2 c 



