212 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



been swept off by the cruelty of the con- 

 querors. 



It must not, however, be supposed that 

 the whole of the Indian population, even of 

 Mexico or Peru, much less of Spanish 

 America generally, was thus destroyed ; 

 on the contrary, numbers of Indians ex- 

 isted in Mexico, whom the Spaniards never 

 conquered, and their descendants remain 

 there to this day. In the same manner, in 

 South America, a considerable portion of 

 the Indian population was not only never 

 subjected to Spcinish domination, but the 

 Spaniards never even pretended to have 

 conquered them. And at the present time 

 there exist some hundred thousand Indians 

 in South America, regularly descended from 

 their Indian ancestors, who have never been 

 compelled, in any way, to recognize Spa- 

 nish authority. They may now find it their 

 interest to form a part of the South Ame- 



