30 



INTHODUCTiON. 



aboriginal race; one a descemlant of the Incas, the 

 other a citizen of the republic Tlascala, who availed 

 himself of the Roman alphabet, forty years after the 

 conquest, to write a history of the important events 

 which had taken place. The preceptor of the cele- 

 brated astronomer Velasques, was a Mexican Indian. 

 In the universities of Lima and Mexico, there are 

 professorships of the native languages, into which se- 

 veral works have been translated. Tupac Amaru, 

 was a well educated and accomplished gentleman; he 

 was driven to desperation, in consequence of his un- 

 availing efforts to obtain some alleviation in tlie treat- 

 ment of the common people, the descendants of those 

 who had been the subjects of his ancestors. The 

 lower class of the Spaniards, think themselves supe- 

 rior to the Indian peasantry; but there is little or no 

 distinction between the higher classes of mixed blood, 

 and the American Spaniards. In fact, in all parts of 

 South America, with the exception of Caraccas, Chili 

 and the Provincias Internas, the American Spaniard 

 contains more or less mixture with the native races. 

 In the declamatory writings and speeches of the pa- 

 triots, when they cry out against their having been op- 

 pressed for three hundred years, one would suppose 

 they had no Spanish blood in their veins, but were 

 the very people who had been subdued by Cortes and 

 Pizarro. They continually identify themselves with 

 the aborigines, and in this manner have generally 

 succeeded in bringing them over to their side. The 

 distinction therefore, is not so much in blood, as in 

 condition; there is no deep rooted enmity to prevent 

 them from uniting in a common cause. In the insur- 

 rection of the Indians at first, made a distinc- 



