NOTICES OF PERU. 



4^5 



then he was quartered -^live, being jerked asunder by the vio- 

 lent efforts of four horses pulling in opposite directions ! This 

 rebellion put an end to the repartimientos, but in every other 

 respect their cruel state was not ameliorated.* 



Connected with the corregid6res and repartimientos, was a 

 system of cruelty practised on the Indians, known by the name 

 of Mita, 



The Mita was a law, which obliged every estate and district 

 to give a certa,in numher of Indians, to labor in the mines and 

 on the haci6nd\is. By this law the Indian vvas free at the end 

 of a year ; but it was a matter of no importance ; for whether a 

 <*mitayo*' or not, his toils were the same, whether employed 

 for the benefit of the corregidor, the miner, or haciendado 

 (farmer.) All the provinces of Quito and the Serrania, except 

 Pisco and Nasca, were under the mita. The customs observed 

 in Quito will illustrate those of the others. The haciendas were 

 divided into four classes : first, the agricultural; second, those 

 for grazing large cattle ; third, those for rearing small cattle ; 

 and fourth, those on which cotton and wool were manufac- 

 tured. 



On an hacienda of the first class, an Indian received from 

 fourteen to eighteen dollars a year, together with a piece of 

 ground from twenty to thirty yards square for his own culti- 

 vation. For this sum he was obliged to work three hundred 

 days in the year, sixty-five being allowed for Sundays and 

 other prescribed feasts of the church. The mayordomo, or 

 overseer, carefully noted the number of days the Indian had 

 worked, in order to settle the account at the end of the year. 



Each Indian paid from his salary, eight dollars tribute, and 

 supposing that he received eighteen, ten were left, from which 

 two dollars and two reales were deducted for a ^'capisayo" to 

 cover his nakedness, leaving him seven dollars and six reales 

 to maintain his family, and to pay the fees exacted by the cu- 

 rate. This was not all. The land allotted to him was so small, 

 that it would not yield sufficient maize to nourish his family; 

 he was therefore usually forced to purchase from his master, 



* Noticias Secretas. 



54 



