Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/772

752 should be housed, fed, and clothed just as well as free laborers, and instructed in religion; tasks could not be imposed when under seventeen or over the seventieth year, and the aged and sick had to be cared for. Branding was stopped in 1784. The roll of free negroes was swelled by means of a law of 1750 which conferred liberty on all slaves who escaped from the Dutch and English colonies, and adopted the Roman Catholic religion; but they as well as the free negro admixtures were subject to tribute like the 'irrational' Indians.

The disadvantages under which Indians and negroes labored, applied also in a measure to mixed breeds, though less so to the mestizos. Although the latter were recognized as citizens and gente de razon in not being subject to the damning tribute, to restriction in ordinary dress or of movement, or to exemption from tithes, regular church fees, or the inquisition, yet the' were almost wholly excluded from civil, military, ant ecclesiastical offices, subject to forced labor in cases of crime, and to other disabilities, from which they could become free only by intermarriage with a superior race. In early days there was no hesitation about a union with the colored classes, owing to the informality of the first ties and to the almost entire lack of white women; and since the Indian maidens were only too eager to wed conquerors, the latter could choose from among the most select. Comparatively few Spanish women came over; and so the mingling