Page:A history of Chile.djvu/143

 THE RE VOL UTIONAR Y PER WD 1 3 1 rule was the system of tithes. By a special act of the papal authorities the king of Spain was given the church under his special care, and by him the tithes were claimed and collected. Nominally these were distrib- uted in the following manner : one-fourth to arch- bishops and bishops, one-fourth to deacons and canons, one-fourth to curates, the remainder to the building of churches. In time corruption crept in ; the king appro- priated large sums to other purposes and cut down ecclesiastical salaries ; the tithes were farmed out to individuals in large lots, and these again to smaller bidders, all seeking to niake large profits from the pur- chases. This came at length to be a severe burden and imposition upon the peasantr}', who had the tithes to pay- Again, Spain had given the territories belonging to the natives to military favorites in immense grants. Between two hundred and three hundred held the lands of Chile in this manner, half the number probably, holding all the best estates. Pizarro and Valdivia had assigned estates to their followers, with the Indians upon them. The rich ruled the countries, and, form- ing a combination, regulated markets ; in Peru, there was a system of enforced labor ; everywhere military exactions were cruel and intolerable. A system of checking, one official by another, was thought by the Spanish court to be sufficient to prevent frauds and peculations, but it was as bad as no regula- tion ; officials winked at each other's robberies and con- nived at frauds to make themselves rich. Getting an appointment meant getting rich. All these frauds and extortions going on year after year, from one administration to another, with no pros- pect of amelioration, at length aroused the passive na- tives to a sense of their wrongs. If the wealthy Span-