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INTRODUCTION. 



it SO great wlieri not performed as a task, and the la- 

 borer is allowed to withdraw at the first signal of ap- 

 proaching disease. The Indians are besides, liable 

 to a great many personal services, not so unhealthy but 

 equally oppressive. The revolution has uniformly 

 relieved them from all of these: one of the first steps 

 on the part of the patriots being to publish by procla- 

 mation, the entire liberation of the Indians from every 

 species of thraldrom, and placing him upon the same 

 footing as to political and civil rights with all other 

 citizens. 1 have in my possession curious specimens 

 of these decrees printed in the three principal native 

 languages of La Plata, the Guarany, Aymara, and 

 Quechu. Every change in these devoted countries 

 cannot but be for the better. 



The outline I have sketched of the Spanish colo- 

 nial policy, would be incomplete without some ac- 

 count of the course pursued with respect to its com- 

 merce. The first years of the discovery of America, 

 were almost exclusively taken up in a restless search 

 after the precious metals, while sober and regular in- 

 dustry was dispersed. Immense sums were extorted 

 from the Mexicans and the Peruvians, while the rich- ' 

 est mines of the universe were laid open to the ava- 

 rice of the conquerors. With the exception of Mexi- 

 co and Peru, and the fabled eldorado, America was 

 neglected. It was natural for the Spaniards to sup- 

 pose, that the exhaustless treasures of the new world,; 

 would enable them to dispense with those arts, which 

 other nations, less fortunate, were compelled to pursue 

 as the means of obtaining that which their discoveries 

 and conquests had enabled them at once to possess: 

 ignorant of the principles now so firmly established 



