NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 3.87

NOTE LII. p. 268,

In New Spain, on account of the extraordinary merit andfervices of the firft conquerors, as well as the fmall revenueatifing from the country previous to the difcovery of themines of Sacatecas , the encomiendas were granted for three,and fometimes for four lives. Recopil lib. vi. tit. ii. 0.14, &c,

NOTE LIII. p. 269.

D Ant. Ulloa contends, that working in mines is notnoxious, and as a proof of this informs us, that manyMeftizos and Indians, who do not belong to any Reparti-miento, voluntarily hire themfelves as miners ; and feveralof the Indians, when the legal term of their ferviceexpires , continue to work in the mines of choice. Entreten.p. 26?. But his opinion concerning the wholefomnefs ofthis occupation is contrary to the experience of all ages;and wherever men are allured by high wages, they willengage in any fpecies of labor, however fatiguing orpernicious it may be. D. Hern. Carillo Altemirano relatesa curious fadt incompatible with this opinion. Wherevermines are wrought , fays he , the number of Indiansdecreafes; but in the province of Campeachy, where thereare no mines , the number of Indians has increafed morethan a third fince the conqueft of America , though neitherthe foil nor climate be fo favorable as in Peru or Mexico .Colbert, Colledt. In another memorial prefented to PhilipIII . in the year 1609, Captain Juan Gonzalez de Azevedoafferts, that in every diftrict of Peru , where the Indiansare compelled to labor in the mines, their numbers werereduced to the half, and in fome places to the third, ofwhat it was under the viceroyalty of Don. Fran. Toledo in158.1. Colb. Colledh

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