Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/219

Rh along the river-beds, few and not uniformly reliable, two, and sometimes three, crops a year are produced. The condition of the tenant, compared with what it was in the beginning of the century, has considerably improved. His lot then was like that of tenants elsewhere. The Mexican landlord got the tiller into debt, and then, giving him a little land for his own use, barely enough to raise the corn essential to life, made him and his family work out the debt in labor on the farm or hacienda.

It is a relief to find the Spaniards attempting to improve the status of these victims of imported feudalism. Las Casas and others drew the attention of the Spanish court to their sufferings : —

"The first attempt at amelioration was the repartimientos de Indios, by which they were divided among the Spaniards, who had the profits of their labor without a right to their persons; next the encomiendas, by which they were placed under the superintendence and protection of the Spaniards. The encomendero was bound to live in the district which contained the Indians of his encomienda, to watch over their conduct, instruct and civilize them, to protect them from