INTRODUCTION. 



the circumstance of the Spaniards occupying the same 

 seats, with the half-civilized aborigines whom they 

 subdued. In Mexico^ in the kingdom of the Incas in 

 Peru, and of the Zac of St. Fee de Bogota, the pop- 

 ulation was very considerable, and in a state of civi- 

 lization, not much helvw that of the East Indies. 

 In these countries the Indians still constitute the great 

 mass of population; the lower class are an indolent, 

 harmless peasantry, and in the comforts of civilized 

 life, probably not below the boors of Russia, or even 

 the peasantry of Poland or Hungary. By a long and 

 systematic coursa of oppression, they have become 

 spiritless and submissive, although on a few occa- 

 sions, when roused by chiefs of their own origin, whom 

 they venerate, they have manifested acts of great des- 

 peration; as in the instance of the insurrection of Ta- 

 pac Amaru, which broke out in the year 1783, in the 

 upper provinces of La Plata. 



The number of female Spanish emigrants to South 

 America, compared to the males, especially in Mexico 

 and Peru, having always been very small, there were 

 many intermarriages between the Europeans and the 

 natives. There was less repugnance to this, than in any 

 part of our country, those natives being in some measure 

 a civilized people. The Spanish conquerors willing- 

 ly contracted alliances with the principal families; by 

 which they acquired extensive possessions. Many of 

 the descendants of the native chiefs, are educated in the 

 same manner with persons of the first classes, and en- 

 joy wealth and consideration. There have even ap- 

 peared among the Indians, men distinguished for their 

 literary attainments; Garcillaso and Torquemada, two 

 of the best historians of the new world, were of the 



