Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/751

Rh COLONISATION.] A M ERICA tious people. The vices naturally inherent in the colo nial system existed in full force in the Spanish American dominions. There was tolerable security for all classes except the miserable Indians, who were regarded and treated precisely as beasts of burden, out of whose toil and sufferings a provision as ample as possible was to be extracted, first to supply the wants of the royal treasury, and next to provide for and satisfy the cupidity of a shoal of do-nothing public officers and priests. Edicts were indeed issued for the protection of the Indians, and persons appointed to enforce them ; but these were feeble correctives of the evils rooted in the system, and not unfrequently increased their weight. The Indians, after the conquest, were at first slaves ; they paid a capitation tax to the crown, and their labour was entirely at the disposal of their lord. This system was modified from time to time ; but all the changes introduced down to the revolution did not release them from their state of vas salage. They still continued liable, in a less or greater degree, to the performance of compulsory labour, under the orders of persons against whom they had no protection, This was an enormous grievance ; but, what was equally bad, being held incompetent in law to buy or sell, or enter into any pecuniary engagement beyond the value of a few shillings, without the agency of white men, the swarm of public functionaries had an unlimited power of inter fering in their concerns, of vexing, harassing, and plunder ing them, under the forms of law. The memoir of Ulloa, long buried amidst the Spanish archives, with various other documents published since the revolution, depicts acts of extortion, perfidy, cruelty, and oppression prac tised upon the Indians which have rarely been paralleled. Men rose to affluence in offices without salaries ; and the priests rivalled the laymen in the art of extracting money from those whom they ought to have protected. As the sole aim of the Spaniards in the colonies was to enrich themselves, so the government at home made all its acts and regulations subordinate to the grand object of raising a revenue. Spain retained in her hands the whole trade of the colonies, and guarded her monopoly with the most severe penalties. The price of all European commodities was enhanced three, foiir, or six fold, in America. The colonists were not allowed to manufacture or raise any article which the mother country could supply ; they were compelled to root up their vines and olives ; and for a long period one colony was not even permitted to send a ship to another. To support such a system it was necessary to keep the people in profound ignorance, and to cherish prejudices and superstition. The schools were extremely few, and permission to establish them was often refused, even in towns where the Spaniards and Creoles were numerous. The importation of books, except books of Catholic devotion, was rigorously prohibited. Even the more grave and dry sciences, such as botany, che mistry, and geometry, were objects of suspicion. And the more effectually to crush all mental activity, natives of America could rarely obtain leave to go abroad, to seek in foreign countries what was denied them in their own. On the other hand, the priests, sharing in the spoil, filled the minds of the people with childish superstitions, as a means of confirming their own power, and employed the terrors of religion to teach them patience under oppression. To create a race of servants devoted to its purposes, the court bestowed all offices, from the highest to the lowest, on natives of the peninsula exclusively. The wisdom of the plan seems questionable, but that it was adhered to with wonderful pertinacity is certain. &quot; It was the darling policy of Spain,&quot; says Mr Ward, &quot; to dis seminate through hei American dominions a class of men distinct from the people in feelings, habits, and interests, taught to consider themselves as a privileged caste, and to regard their own existence as intimately connected with that of the system of which they were the principal sup port.&quot; With all those means and appliances, it is extra ordinary that Spain should have been able to uphold for three centuries a system in which the interests of so many millions of human beings were so habitually and unrelentingly sacrificed. It was the course of events, much more than its own inherent weakness, which ultimately caused its subversion. After the seizure of Ferdinand and the elevation of Jlevol Joseph Buonaparte to the throne of Spain, orders were dis-tions patched to all the colonies with the view of securing their Spani obedience to the new dynasty. The men in office were generally disposed to submit, but the treacherous conduct of the French excited a universal hatred of their cause among the people ; and when the regency established in Spain presented the semblance of a patriot government, the loyalty of the Americans blazed forth, and poured large contributions of money into the hands of Ferdi nand s adherents. The weak and suspicious conduct of the regency, however, and its subserviency to the grasp ing spirit of the merchants of Cadiz, at length alienated the colonists, and roused them to take measures for their own security. But the diversity of views and interests among the colonists rendered the course to be adopted a matter of some delicacy. Ferdinand, being a prisoner, was, politically speaking, a nonentity. Napoleon s brother was clearly an usurper, odious to, and rejected by, the mass of the Spanish people. The regency, shut up in Cadiz, without troops or revenue, was but a phantom ; and the little power it had was so employed as to raise doubts whether its members were not secretly in league with tho enemy. In these circumstances, when the only govern ment to which the colonists owed allegiance had fallen into abeyance, the wisest course they could have pursued was to declare themselves independent. This would at once put a stop to the machinations of France, which they dreaded, and prevent the regency from compromising or sacrificing their interests by its weakness or treachery. The Spaniards, however, who occupied all public situa tions, were averse to a change which they foresaw must lead to the downfall of their power. This was perfectly understood by the other classes ; and in the first move ments which took place in the different colonies nothing was said derogatory to the supremacy of Spain, though independence was clearly aimed at. By spontaneous efforts of the people &quot;juntas of government&quot; were formed, at Caraccas in April 1 809, at La Paz in Upper Peru Chili i in July, at Quito in August, at Santa Fe and at Bue- Pem - nos Ayres in May 1810, and at Santiago in Chili in September the same year. In 1810, also, the first insur rection broke out in Mexico. The colonists unluckily had been too long the slaves of superstition and tyranny to be fit for conducting so bold an experiment ; and after a struggle, which was generally short, but almost every where bloody, the juntas were all put down except in Colombia and Buenos Ayres. But in the stir and tumult of the contest old prejudices had received a shock, and the seeds of political change had struck their roots too deep in the soil to be eradicated. A desultory Avar was carried on for six years between Buenos Ayres and Upper Peru, with little advantage on either side. At length, in 1817, the former state, which had assumed the style of an independent republic four years before, sent an army across the Andes to Chili, under General San Martin, and defeated the Spaniards at Chacabuco. A second victory, gained at Maipo in April 1818, led to the entire subver sion of the Spanish power in this colony. The Avar was now transferred to Peru, where the Spaniards continued