420 THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



which a corregid&r or prastor was appointed to rule, with pow- 

 er to judge and punish civil and crinninal offences in the name 

 of the king. A tribute of one-third was exacted by law from 

 every Indian over eighteen years of age, which was collected 

 till he completed fifty-five, when he became exempt. The cor- 

 regid&r or praetor was charged with its collection, and for this 

 purpose visited all the villages and estates twice annually. The 

 praetors made arbitrary distributions of goods amongst the In- 

 dians, at most exorbitant prices, and which the individual 

 dared not refuse, however useless the articles allotted to him 

 might be. These repartimientos, or distributions, were made 

 throughout Peru, excepting in the Audiencia of Quito, Para- 

 guay, and the modern missions in the Sierra. The tribute was 

 intended by the Spanish court for the benefit of the Indians, 

 in paying the curates, teachers, and alcaldes, but, from the cu- 

 pidity of the corregid6res, became a system of most cruel and 

 unheard-of oppression. No crime was alleged against the un- 

 happy aborigines; there was no fault save their docility and 

 ignorance. 



Two modes of collecting the tribute were adopted. In the 

 first, a register of the number of Indians in the praetorship, lia- 

 ble to pay tribute, was made out from the baptismal and burial 

 records, and an account rendered to the Royal Audiencia at 

 Lima. This plan gave room to great fraud on the public trea- 

 sury, for the corregidores sometimes detained the tribute col- 

 lected, in their own hands, for years, under various pretexts, 

 and employed it in trade. A second plan, resorted to in the pro- 

 vince of Quito, and approved by the Viceroy of Peru, Marques 

 <ie Villa de Garcia, was to sell the tribute to the highest bidder 

 at auction, and in this case the corregid&r always had the pre- 

 ference. Notwithstanding the law, tribute was exacted from 

 Indians two or three years before they completed the eight- 

 eenth year, and long after they had attained fifty-five — even 

 decrepid old men, of more than seventy years of age, and who 

 begged for their subsistence, were forced to pay the tribute. 

 The law exempted all the Caciques and their heirs; alcaldes; 

 all who served in the church, and all those who were corpo- 

 really or mentally deficient ; yet they did not escape the grasp- 



