148

AMERICAN MINES.

CHAP XXII.

money to defray the expenses of government. Thetaxes paid on all goods by the more populous di-stricts and in the cities where the Spaniards hadformed settlements could not have been collectedfrom the Indians, or would have cost more in thecollection than their amount. Instead of imposingothers, a capitation tax was levied on the Indians,for which each chief was made answerable accord-ing to the numbers of which the tribe consisted ;and though it was but a trifle from each individual,it was made an instrument of oppression by thechiefs towards those of the several persons whocomposed the tribe. The Indians were prohibitedfrom buying or selling without the interventionof their chief, who treated all of them as thoughthey were in a state of nonage, directing theirlabours, superintending their domestic concerns,and punishing them as children are punished whendisobeying their parents.

In the early progress of mining the chiefs wereable to send a part of their tribe to labour in thesubterranean works ; and the wages of their labourwas received by the cacique, and by him distri-buted among those employed after reserving ashare to his own use.

The change of this condition of society beganearly and continued gradually. The Spanish ad-venturers brought with them few females, theynaturally formed unions with native women, anda new race increasing in numbers in every genera-