428 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



of the workshops were then closed till mid-day, when the 

 wives were admitted to give their husbands the scanty noon- 

 day meal, for which a very short time was allowed. When 

 darkness prevented them from working any longer, the over- 

 seer entered, and collected the tasks ; those Indians who had 

 been unable to conclude them, without listening to reasons or 

 excuses, were most inhumanly scourged, and, to complete the 

 punishment, imprisoned, though the workshop was nothing 

 but a jail ! During the day, the master and overseer made fre- 

 quent visits to the manufactory, and if any negligence were 

 discovered, on the part of any one of the workmen, he was 

 immediately chastised. All of the task left unfinished was 

 charged at the end of the year, so that the debt went on in- 

 creasing, till the master acquired a right to enslave, not only 

 the Indian, but his whole family. 



Those who failed to pay the tribute to the corregid&r, and 

 who were consequently condemned to the manufactories, shared 

 a still more cruel fate. They received a real a day, one half 

 of which was retained on account of the tribute, and the other 

 for the Indian's maintenance, and as he was not allowed to go 

 out of his prison, he was compelled to receive for it, whatever 

 his master pleased to give him. Always looking to the accu- 

 mulation of wealth, without regarding the means, the master 

 usually gave such corn as had become damaged in his granary, 

 and the carcasses of those animals that died on the estate. For 

 want of nourishment, nature was exhausted ; the unhappy In- 

 dian fell sick, and often died, without paying off his tribute. 

 The Indian lost his life, and the country that inhabitant; here 

 is one source of the great depopulation of Peru. The greater 

 number of the Indians died with their tasks in their hands. 

 Complaint of sickness was unheeded, and he was deemed hap- 

 py who reached a wretched hospital, where to expire ! An 

 order to labor in the manufactories, was regarded with the 

 greatest horror. Wives considered their husbands already 

 dead, and children wept for their parents, when the order was 

 received ! 



It was no uncommon thing, to meet Indians on the road, 

 tied by the hair to a horse's tail, dragged to the manufactories ! 



