# History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 3/Chapter 34

Table of Contents
CHAPTER XXXIV.
SOCIETY.
1500-1800.
Evolution of a Race — Typical Characteristics — Statistics of Population — Proportion and Distribution of Races — Causes for Decrease OF Aborigines — Creole versus Spaniard — Jealousies and Impolitic Measures — Immigration and Character of Arrivals — Status of Foreigners — Indian Policy and its Effect — Race Stigma — Negro Slavery — Condition of the Mixed Breeds — Beggars and Nobles — Nature and Extent of Diseases — Matlazahuatl, Smallpox, Vómito Prieto, and Famines — Doctors and Treatment — Hospitals and Asylums — Mourning and Cemeteries — Meat and Drink — Sumptuary Laws — National Dress — Love of Display — False Gloss — Women, Morals, and Marriage — The Home — Holiday Celebration — Coaches and Riders — Barbaric Sport — Gambling — The Drama — Social Reunions.
Spanish Americans present the distinct features of what may be essentially classed as a new race, sprung from the union of the proudest of European peoples, and the most advanced of Americans; the former itself an anomalous mixture, wherein lay blended the physical and mental characteristics of half a dozen nations, from sturdy Goth to lithe and fiery Arab; the other possibly autochthonic, and evolved amidst the rise and fall of mighty empires, whose records are entombed in the most imposing monuments of the continent. While the latter may be divided into two great branches, the Maya and Nahua, originally cradled perhaps within the region drained by the ​Usumacinta, yet they consist of a large number of nations, distinct in language, and differing greatly in culture, such as the Otomís, Zapotecs, Tarascos, and the representative Aztecs, forming a greater variety even than that which could be distinguished on the Iberian peninsula at the opening of the conquest. There was, therefore, no homogeneity of race which might prevent intermingling, while the geographic features of the country with its profound influence on race development presented similarities to the new-comers that brought involuntarily to their lips the name New Spain, by which term it was thereafter for a time known. Although the name was first pronounced upon the seaboard, these resemblances existed more particularly on the high table land where a temperate clime had lured to settlement and culture most of the nations referred to. Here flourished the cereals and fruits of Spain, wheat and barley by the side of maize and maguey, while the slopes of lofty ranges, under snow-crowned peaks, stood clad in rugged firs. In the sheltered valley grew the sugar-cane and indigo, and on either side of the plateau a fringe of heated coast line revelled in all the luxuriance of tropic nature. But this line was comparatively narrow, and so scantily occupied as to have little influence on Mexican development. A strange commingling truly of peoples and of climates to form a new race, with characteristics now modified, now intensified, the inheritor of past glories, the guardian of a transplanted culture. Even two of the earth's great divisions did not suffice to create it, for during early stages already a third element was infused by negroes from the dark continent, with a slight sprinkling from the fourth part of the world by Chinese and Malays. The latter have never been counted as an element however, and the recognized mixed breeds are mestizos, mulattoes, and zambos, or Indian zambos, with their degrees of admixture. ​Of the three original races the Indian, which may be regarded as the mother, presents a less favorable appearance by the side of the symmetrical and bright-eyed Spaniard and the tall and muscular negro. While different provinces exhibit marked variations in stature, build, and comeliness, the general verdict must be that the aborigine is neither handsome nor graceful; nor has he the strength and adaptability of the others. The long black hair is thick and glossy, but the beard is so scant as to render more marked the uniformity of type in the black elongated e}ms set widely apart, the oval face, with its narrow forehead, the prominent cheek-bones, and the large lips. The complexion varies from olive to brown and copper color, in certain districts with a yellowish or bluish tinge, and inclining to black in the torrid region. The mestizo throws oft' many of these attributes, and may be classed as more intelligent and handsome, with fine eyes and hair, but he is generally small of stature, inclined to corpulency, and lacks energy and strength. The mulattoes inherit the vivacity of their dark sires, and unite with it greater industry. The zambos are ugly, fiery, and turbulent. Indeed, gentleness and beauty increase with the proportion of white admixture.
Whatever may be the case with mulatto castes the intermarriage of mestizos certainly does not tend toward sterility. Under favorable skies like those of California their fecundity has been surprising. and in ​other parts the birth rate varies according to climate and soil. Deformity is very rare, particularly among Indians. Age falls lightly upon the latter, with few instances of grey hair, and quite a number of centenarians are claimed, although the proportion of persons over fifty years of age appears larger among the white race, with their later puberty and better mode of living.
Orders were repeatedly issued from Spain to form statistics of population and resources, and viceroys and civil and ecclesiastic officials responded with more or less elaborate reports, but the first worthy to be called a census was that taken in 1793-4 by order of Viceroy Revilla Gigedo. Incomplete as even this proved, one sixth of the population being merely estimated, it has nevertheless been accepted in most respects as a base. The total here presented is 4,483,000, including the Californias, New Mexico, and Texas; but the pertinent objection has been raised that this figure was considerably below the actual number, owing to the general effort of the people to avoid registration, from economic and superstitious ideas. Humboldt accordingly added ten per cent to ​cover this deficiency, while expressing a belief that the addition of a sixth or seventh would not be wrong. Navarro, followed by several others, adds a fifth. The former author took special pains to obtain statistics, in order to arrive at an estimate for 1803. This was no easy task in a country subject to such extremes of climate from the hot malarious coast to the temperate plateau and the cold mountain region occupied by so many different races with varying modes of life. He came to the conclusion, however, that the birth-rate could be placed at one in seventeen, and the death-rate at one in thirty, and that the population would double in about thirty-eight years. The average proportion of births to deaths appearing as 183 to 100 he accepted this, within a small fraction, as a rate for calculating the increase during the decade following the census of 1793, and thus arrived at a total population for 1803 of 5,837,100.
Since this time a number of calculations have been made which take the census of 1793 for a base, but reduce the increase to about one and a half per cent yearly for the two following decades. During the revolutionary period this rate must be lowered still more, and even afterward the unsettled condition of affairs operated against large recuperation. The most valuable estimates appear to be those made for 1810 by the auditor-general of ways and means for New Spain, Fernando Navarro y Noriega, whose sources could not have been well surpassed by any contemporary. Even his calculations, however, had for several provinces to rest on comparative estimates, but for others he was able to present more reliable ​figures than those of Revilla Gigedo. Where this was not possible he added twenty per cent to the returns of 1793 for deficiency, and twenty-five more for the increase during the seventeen years, obtaining a total of 6,122,354. The proportion of races gives the Indians sixty hundredths, the castes twenty-two, and the whites eighteen. Of the last he assumes only fifteen thousand to have been European Spaniards, while raising the proportion of castes with negro blood to nearly half a million. Large as this number appears, it is certain that both economic motives among slave-holders, and natural predilection among aboriginal women favored the diffusion of African blood. Navarro agrees with Humboldt that the slaves could not exceed ten thousand, the pure blacks forming two thirds of this number.
Endemics and famines also ruled periodically, and different districts had their special afflictions. The former, however, had less effect, since the people either became inured to or avoided the pestiferous regions. There remains no doubt that their total has fallen greatly from what it was in the time of Montezuma, when Tezcuco, Cholula, and a number of other cities ​now decayed figured as populous centres, for which the Spaniards erected but sparse equivalents. Mexico appears from monumental and documentary evidence to have been more extensive and populous, and in Tlascala a census was taken by Cortés which showed that there were several times more occupants than toward the close of the colonial period. Franciscan missionaries alone claimed to have baptized 6,000,000 natives between 1524 and 1540, and Dominicans and Augustinians worked hard to swell the number, yet immense fields remained untrodden. These claims cannot of course be relied upon, nor the estimates of deaths from small-pox and other ravages. In 1576 about 2,000,000 are said to have been swept away in the central provinces alone, and at other times whole districts to have been almost depopulated.
We find the population distributed in a somewhat different manner from that of South America and the United States, not along the coasts, which are here low-lying and malarious, but mainly on the interior plateau, where culture and wealth had ever centred, notably along a narrow strip embracing Puebla and Mexico, and two other towns of from 35,000 to 130,000 inhabitants, and only one or two days' journey apart, while elsewhere great stretches of fine country lie almost uninhabited. With the influx of negroes the coast line received in time an increase of occupants, on whom the fevers had little effect, and with their aid thriving plantations of sugar-cane and other produce drew riches from a hitherto neglected soil. The Indians maintained their preponderance at the rate of three fourths to seven eighths in Puebla, ​Tlascala, Vera Cruz, Yucatan, Oajaca, and Alta California, particularly in the last two. In Mexico intendencia they formed two thirds of the population. The castes were most numerous in Guadalajara, Puebla, the north-east provinces, and the mining regions, and the whites mustered in force along the same parallels, where mining and stock-raising presented opportunity for enrichment, and predominated in Nuevo Leon and Sonora. Indeed the sparsely settled north was occupied chiefly by Spaniards and half-breeds, although they assisted to swell the central group of Guanajuato, Puebla, and Mexico, which greatly exceeded the rest in population.
Class distinctions have ever been jealously guarded in Spain, and, proud of his race and country, the Spaniard in early days especially looked upon the foreigner with pity and contempt. These ideas could not fail to become intensified in the New World where he trod the soil as conqueror and master over a dusky and half-naked lace to whom the possession of a soul was at first denied. Under such conditions it is not strange that even in framing the most benevolent of laws the preëminence of the superior people was sustained to the disadvantage of the others. Indeed, the education, wealth, and honors of the country centred almost exclusively in the whites. They held the civil, military, and highest ecclesiastic offices; they filled the professions; they controlled all the leading branches of trade and manufacture, and owned the ​large plantations and rich mines. Between them and the castes lay an immense gulf. To be of the former was to be of the noble race; to be of the latter was to be branded; and eager became the strife among the progeny of caste admixtures to enroll themselves as whites, the courts being frequently petitioned so to declare them. Such strife naturally led to many a severe discrimination against alliances that might imperil the color line, and the regard for this was significantly illustrated by the question which frequently could be heard during altercations; "Do you consider yourself whiter than I?"
Another gulf, less wide yet more dangerous to the nation, was formed by the government in granting the higher offices in state, army, and church almost exclusively to Spaniards born in Spain, a policy due partly to long established system, partly to the better opportunity of claimants near the throne for obtaining a hearing, but chiefly to jealousy of the more distant subjects whose occasional complaints supported by wealth and growing numbers often savored of disloyalty, and whose very right to the country with its offices, acquired by their efforts as conquerors and colonists, made them appear dangerous.
The natural result of such injustice was a bitterness of feeling which manifested itself as early as the first decade of the conquest, when Cortés soldiers saw the best offices and the choicest grants bestowed on men who had done nothing toward acquiring the rich domains, and who showed themselves unworthy and ​dishonest. Frequent were the quarrels that resulted, leading often to bloodshed, and fostering a certain disloyalty which became manifest during such episodes as the Cortés-Ávila conspiracy, the overthrow of Gelves, and the burning of the palace in 1692. The whites indeed early divided themselves into two national parties, the creoles, or native-born, and chapetones or gachupines nicknames applied to those from Spain.
Many viceroys took special care to smooth the ruffled feelings, but this availed little against the insolence of the favored party and the measures of a distrusting government, at times blinded, at times clearly revealing a disposition to sow discord so as to strengthen itself at the expense of factions. This relined policy was brought into play also among Indians, and to keep apart the dangerous negroes. The party spirit raged with actual bitterness even among the religious orders, some provincias excluding creoles, others Europeans, from higher positions, and still others alternating or quarrelling when it came to the election of prelates.
While the nickname for European Spaniards could ​hardly be offensive owing to their superior position, the term creole did acquire a tinge of reproach from their indolent habits, and lack of sustained energy, which impeded them in competing with the enterprising immigrants in trade or industries. The latter were more precocious, but fell short in reflection and judgment; eager to do, they failed to execute. Climate had much to do with this, but the cause must partially be ascribed to their training as the children of rich or well-to-do men, with a superficial education which raised their pretensions above those of the toiler for fortune. They were spoiled by home indulgence. The frugality of the father disappeared; forethought and prudence were thrown to the winds; frivolity tainted even serious topics, and dissipation grew so fast that the saying, "the father a trader, the son a gentleman, the grandson a beggar," became general in application. Associated with such characteristics the term creole was not courted; and latterly those to whom it applied began to affect the designation of Americans, upholding it with great pride after a succession of reverses had lowered Spanish prestige in Europe. The education of the daughters saved them from most of the vices which clung to the sons; they became admirable wives and kind mothers, though wanting in parental strictness, and they were generally rated superior to the men.
Those who in early days under Cortés and subsequent leaders assisted in subduing the country, and thereupon retired to enjoy the reward of their toil on some encomienda, may be regarded as the founders of the leading creole aristocracy—military adventurers ​though they were, and that of all grades, from hidalgo to artisan, sailor, and even criminal, and drawn chiefly from Castile, Estremadura, and Andalusia. In later times the in-wanderers came principally from Vizcaya, Catalonia, Galicia, and the Santander mountains; they were young, of poor families, frugal and industrious, superior in character even to the average Spaniard, and vastly surpassing in energy and steadiness the spoiled creoles. Business men recognized their value and employed them; they were prudent also, watched for opportunity, and soon embarked in enterprises on their own account, often marrying daughters of their principals. They became owners of plantations and mines, and the holders of municipal offices, forming a sort of confederacy with the other Spaniards, the higher officials and judges, who numbered a proportion of men both educated and of good families. Although the mass of officials and traders were inferior to the prosperous creoles in requirements and manners, and therefore objects of contempt, yet a ready adaptability soon enabled them to make amends; and since they were as a rule sure to advance in wealth and position, the women of the soil looked upon them with favor, thus adding jealousy to the many enmities entertained by creoles against the new-comers. Aware of their superior advantages, the latter returned the feeling in the form of contempt, which cut deeper than overt acts. The Spaniard soon became himself a creole, however, for he begat children against whom the exasperated father might exclaim, "You are a creole and that accounts for it!
The influx of energetic men from the mother country could not under such circumstances have been otherwise than desirable, except in the case of officials, whose positions ought to have been shared more liberally with the children of the soil, as a matter of justice. Yet the government gave no impulse to ​emigration, but rather hampered it with restrictions. At one time none might go to the Indies without special permit from the king or the casa de contratacion. This relaxed for a while, and mere registration of name was demanded, so that a number of persons with Jewish, Moorish, Gypsy, and heretic blood slipped out. Such leaven would not answer in America, there to threaten eruption among half-converted natives and reckless colonists; and so sworn declarations were demanded from proposed adventurers; but it was soon found that the allurements of the new country frequently outweighed the fear of perjury, and henceforth the applicant for passage must bring certificates from his native district to vouch for his social and religious standing. The audiencias kept a record of the immigrants. Nevertheless a number of unregistered persons managed to enter, and severe laws were enacted against them, involving confiscation and eight years' service as soldiers, or transportation to the West Indies or Florida if married. Such interlopers were called polizones, a name applied as scurrilous to any foreigner. European was a term synonymous in New Spain with Spaniard, for the restrictions against foreigners allowed but a small number to gain entrance. They had either to be naturalized by a twenty years' residence in Spain, or live under surveillance with license till naturalized.
Special licenses were issued for traders to deal for a time at a port, and through their agency many not authorized managed to slip into the country, so that decrees came every now and then for their expulsion, ​particularly in war times. Those who were married generally received permission to remain. They did not as a rule enjoy great favor, to judge by decrees to protect them from abuse, and it was only in later times, with the spread of French and English literature, that the better classes began to form comparisons in favor of hitherto despised Europeans.
If torn by discord the white people in New Spain at the opening of the present century were nevertheless united in oppressing the lower orders, through whom they obtained wealth, and to a certain extent position, the Europeans being impelled to greater recklessness by want of sympathy for a people and country strange to them, and regarded only as a means to fortune. Indians, as the most remote in kinship, were oppressed more than others. We have seen how at first nearly all were distributed as serfs to labor on plantations, in mines, on roads, and in towns; how they were often torn from home and family, and dragged to a bitter death; how their complaints were carried by kind-hearted friars to the throne to evoke reforms—ineffective though they proved in only too many cases—and how they were gradually liberated from the control of encomenderos and placed under crown agents, free to sell their labor to whom they pleased. Maltreatment now became comparatively rare, but oppression hardly less cruel was practised by greedy officials, who used their position to extort products and labor in return for useless articles. During their term of five years, some of these corregidores and alcaldes mayores managed to rob their ​protégés of as much as two hundred thousand pesos. With the creation of intendentes and subdelegates the infliction decreased, so that in general the Indian enjoyed greater protection under royal than under republican rule, when the peonage system reduced large numbers to practical serfdom. During the last period of colonial sway this enslavement was counteracted by the law, which annulled any indebtedness exceeding five pesos, and regulated the conduct of the employer.
While freed from bondage they were kept in pupilage. They were exempt from tithes and most other imposts exacted from the whites, but subject to tribute. Fast days were reduced in their favor, and marriage made more easy—so that they might yield more toilers; the church must lower its rates to them, and the inquisition withhold its dreaded fangs. And all because they were held to possess less capacity than those with other blood infusion. The imputation must have been galling in the extreme to every manly spirit among them. They must not idle, however, and under cover of this order the officials, aided by native alcaldes, managed ever to exercise a despotic control for personal advantage. Thus the laws for their protection were often used as weapons against them. They were gathered under compulsion into village communities, and kept apart from the other races, an isolation which could serve only to retard advancement. Here they worked land held in common and granted to them for life only, permanent ownership of land being rare among them, thus causing a lack of the chief inducement for economy. They ​were ordered to be at home, out of the street, by eight o'clock in winter and nine in summer, and attendance at church was compulsory under penalty of the lash and the prison.
The secularization of missions served not to promote their welfare, for it gave a rather nominal freedom under a negligent curate, in lieu of the guardian care of a comparatively disinterested and unselfish friar who took a paternal delight in watching over his Hock. Mining labor still fell chiefly to their share, even after they became free to dispose of themselves; and allured by gain they freely submitted to the destructive methods in vogue. The lack of beasts of burden, which they were as a rule too poor to purchase, forced them to toil as such. The prohibition against riding also restricted the acquisition of horses. They were moreover forbidden to carry arms or to dress like Spaniards. These degrading and repressive measures were added to official tyranny to keep them poor, ignorant, and humble; a policy dictated partly by fear of their number, partly by caste jealousy; and so they remained the feet of the social body.
Centuries of serfdom and humiliation had not failed to leave its stamp on the Indian's character, already moulded under the despotic rule of native emperors. Accustomed to servitude, he yields with hypocritical servility and deceitful timidity, and is naturally suspicious, yet without harboring any deep malice or cruel vindictiveness. The bloody features of his ancestral religion are by no means an index to a cruel disposition. It indicates rather a stolid indifference to suffering and occurrences; and although the outward apathy is somewhat exaggerated, it veils no very sensitive feelings. This is shown by his ​taciturnity, his cold reasoning devoid of mobility and imagination. His look is gloomy, and a general air of melancholy hangs over him; his very dance and music lack gayety; his song is lugubrious; yet the more vivacious woman can evoke a smile which for sweetness belies the customary trait, and reveals a deep vein of gentleness that favors the attribute of patience under adversity, of fidelity and constancy. While rather chaste and frugal, he has not been trained in provident habits, and yields readily to the cup, though not more so than could be expected from persons in his condition. He shares in the general indolence of his surroundings; and kept in ignorance, he yields readily to superstition, and incorporates puerile and ridiculous fancies and practices in his worship, impressing the beholder with the idea that he is less intelligent than is really the case. Indeed, he is docile, and grasps any lessons easily enough, though not impulsively; but he lacks creative power; his speech and writing are rather bare, and his art servile imitation. These defects are due in part to the lack of opportutunity for development, and vary somewhat in different parts of the country, where environment and change of condition have evolved characteristics that may still be classed as distinctively tribal.
On the whole the Indian mind has not the breadth, strength, or subtilty of the European; and this was early intimated by the Spaniards in withholding from ​them alone the term gente de razon, rational people, as unfit to hold office or to govern themselves. With the growth of education among the better class they attained to the superior designation of ladinos, and laws opened the portal to civil and ecclesiastic offices, and to the orders; yet none but persons of great influence such as nobles managed to enter even the latter precincts. Certain few of the cacique class obtained military rank, but most of them had to rest content with petty municipal positions in the villages, of which they made the most by claiming exemptions, or even tribute, and joining the officials in oppressing the rest. A large portion obtained only a nominal recognition of their rank as nobles, and merged otherwise in the mass with little or no distinction in dress, mode of life, or attainments, affecting poverty even when rich. More conscious than the plebeians of the humility heaped upon them, rather than be buffeted by the arrogant whites they preferred to hide among their own race, nursing there together with the remembrance of ancestral glories a slumbering hatred or tenacious aversion for the invaders and their institutions which contributed to check advancement.
The impression left by most writers on the Indian question is that of a race ground into the dust by oppression, but their material condition was after all much better than that of the lowest classes in Europe, favored as they were by a beneflcent nature which called for little of the exhaustive toil falling to the lot of the laborer in civilized Germany or England. In later colonial times the despotism of official or employer was rarely severe enough to evoke despair or lamentation, and indignation must be confined rather to the measures which restrained the liberty and ​advancement of a race; and stamped it with ignominy. Nevertheless race stigma was not nearly so severe as in the United Statesor even in British India, as shown by the constant intermarriage of the peoples, which formed a bond between them of ever-growing strength. A proof of the greater liberality in the south is furnished by the condition of the negroes. Originally imported as slaves, provision was made for their liberation by self-purchase, at a rate fixed by the courts, and without much consideration for the price paid by the owner, or their value to him. Possessed both of strength and energy, they readily availed themselves of the privilege; so that at the beginning of this century those in bondage could not have exceeded ten thousand, congregated chiefly in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz and Acapulco. The introduction was limited in New Spain, partly for political reasons, owing to their turbulent disposition. The trade lay in the hands of certain licensed firms. The privilege of purchasing their freedom indicates considerable liberty of action, so as to acquire the necessary means. A number of laws were issued for their protection, giving orders that they ​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 ​continued, though more and more with mestizos, particularly with those who had grown white. While the intermarriage with darker mestizos came to be more and more discountenanced by the higher classes, alliances with negro admixtures actually received a check from the law itself. This open stigma cast upon a race numbering nearly half a million, and that as late as 1805, was hardly a judicious measure. The negro classes for that matter had ever been subject to limitations as degrading as those applying to Indians. Even the sacred profession was wholly closed to them; they must reside with recognized employers under penalty of being consigned to mines or contractors; and the women could not wear silks, gold, and similar articles unless allied to whites. Yet this population ranked among the most useful in the country for its strength and energy. Aware of their superiority, they looked down on the Indians, and were not a little encouraged in this respect by the evident preference accorded them by female aborigines, who were allured also by their greater vivacity. Slaveholders no doubt favored an inclination that increased their chattels with such vigorous specimens, superior also in certain moral traits, for the latter possessed greater boldness, or rather audacity, zambos being more vicious than mulattoes.
The creoles in particular were anxious to keep back intruders from the lower ranks, and to maintain the restrictions even against fairer mestizos, on the ground that their vindictiveness and arrogance might imperil the safety of Spaniards and the authority of the crown; not considering that as much or more peril lay in fostering the ignorance, misery, and hatred of an able and powerful class, ever growing stronger. The government nevertheless found it necessary to make certain concessions to the latter; yet these were not ​sufficient even to counteract the irritation created by certain other restrictive laws.
One result of the efforts for maintaining caste distinction, together with the prevalence of indolent and improvident habits, was the comparative absence of a middle class, so essential to the advancement of a country; and society could well be divided into rich and poor, noble and base, half-cultured and illiterate. This is readily understood from the concentration among the people of the wealth and refinement, and a mere glance at Mexico would confirm it with the extreme presented of nudity and glitter, grossness and refinement, profusion and squalor. This was here the more striking owing to the congregation of vagrants, beggars, and indigent sick, allured from all quarters by the fame of the capital for wealth, gorgeous displays, and liberality.
At the beginning of the century about one fifth of its inhabitants consisted of these classes known as zaragates, guachinangos, and zaramullos, the last being also termed léperos and corresponding to the lazzaroni of Naples; equally lazy and careless, but less vicious. Most of them depended for a livelihood on labor, but this was limited to a day or two in the week, sufficient to procure them a little food and liquor. The sky was their roof, and the bed their square mantle or blanket, which served also for almost sole raiment. Dress gave them indeed little concern, for as they lay basking in the sun the day long the covering was generally cast aside regardless of decency. Laws existed against such classes, and a special society had been formed, as we have seen, to discourage mendicancy and alms-giving, and provide for the deserving. ​The other extreme was presented by the nobility of local origin; for that of Spain found no inducement to abandon the sunshine of the court for a barbarous colony, save on temporary official duty. Cortés was the first of this titled nobility, and 'the marquis' long remained a distinctive attribute of him alone. In time, with the growing need of funds by the king, the reward bestowed for distinguished military and diplomatic services was extended to those who chose to promote such service by the gift of money. At first this was somewhat cautiously bestowed, and limited to a cross of Santiago or Calatrava: but in the eighteenth century almost any rich miner or trader might secure the title of marquis or count, or a military title. The ignorance, vulgarity, and want of merit in the holder, subjected the title to ridicule, which, however, decreased as it grew older. The creation usually brought about an entail for its maintenance, a reservation of estate frequent enough among the old creole families. The testamentary bond was not much respected, however, for the audiencias had power to interfere with the property and even to authorize its sale, and only too frequently the heirs squandered their fortune within two generations.
The two great causes affecting population, disease and famine, obtained in New Spain with periodic frequency and great virulence, owing to peculiar climatic conditions and national improvidence. The miasmatic ​coast lines formed an actual fever belt which could not fail to have a certain effect even beyond its limits. Still, the plateau, which contained the mass of the people, enjoyed as fine a climate as could be desired; and as the Indians with their frugal and more natural habits were a rather healthy race, ordinary maladies and slighter ills did not greatly affect them, such as indigestion and accompanying troubles. Colds, acute fevers, pleurisy, catarrh, diarrhoea, and consumption did of course have their victims, particularly with the increase of artificial habits among the wealthier classes. Spasms and intermittent fevers were frequent on the coast, bilious fevers on the.western slopes, and measles, introduced shortly after the conquest, committed at times extensive ravages. Leprosy, known as San Lázaro's evil, existed, and had its special hospitals, the use of pork and chile being reckoned among influencing causes, and also uncleanliness and venereal diseases, although the latter were not very severe.
The great scourges were matlazahuatl, small-pox, yellow-fever, and famine, of which the first two made seemingly periodic visitations with desolating effects, and almost exclusively among Indians, especially the matlazahuatl. Of this little is known save that it bore a resemblance to yellow fever in its vomit symptoms, and raged with equal vehemence on the highland, both before and after the advent of the Spaniards. The most severe years were 1545 and 1576, when from 800,000 to 2,000,000 persons perished, according to Torquemada. The years 1736-7 and 1761-2 were long remembered for their inflictions. Small-pox ​was introduced in 1520 by one of Narvaez' vessels, and committed such havoc that many districts became almost depopulated. Its recurrence may be placed at about every eighteenth year; and although later attacks did not equal the first, yet they committed great havoc. Inoculation was introduced during the latter half of the eighteenth century, but not properly made known, nor much appreciated; vaccination on the other hand received immediate acceptance. Viceroy Iturrigaray brought it with him in 1803, as we have seen, and in the following year the special commission from Spain secured its general application.
Vómito prieto, the name in New Spain for yellow-fever, had at least this difference from the matlazahuatl, that it was confined to the low-lying coast, and seldom attacked those born in such regions; it gathered victims chiefly among visitors from cooler climates, sometimes every year during the hot term, sometimes with an intermission of several years, yet ever infusing terror among the fleets, so that both vessels and caravans sought to avoid its dreaded hot-bed, the region of Vera Cruz, the west coast so far being free from it. Arguments have been adduced to show that it was not known till the beginning: of the eighteenth century, but the records are probably at fault. Its development depending on certain condition, as shown sufficiently in the preceding brief remarks, the growth from an ever present germ was gradual, the full effect appearing only in later times. Who can gainsay that the sudden and extensive mortality recorded among arrivals at Vera Cruz even during the sixteenth century was not due to a form of this disease? Famine cannot be classed as less destructive than ​epidemics; for while it may not kill so rapidly, the asthenic effect on population is even more injurious. In New Spain the causes for it existed in a fine sky and fertile soil, which fostered both indolence and improvidence; in a more than usual lack of means for communication by which to open markets for surplus produce; and in the simple tastes of the masses, with little or no inducement to extend the range of agriculture. It need not excite astonishment, therefore, when we learn that in 1784 alone three hundred thousand persons are supposed to have perished from hunger and its attendant train.
The practice of medicine was neither extensive nor well advanced, and the empiric and superstitious method of 'wise people' and quacks had free sway; notably the Indian medicine-men, whose art was not disdained even by the superior class, despite the efforts of Spanish physicians to restrict it. A protomédico was early sent over from Spain with power to supervise other members of the profession, and apothecaries to test their drugs, and to communicate discoveries to and from the mother country, and later to examine candidates and grant certificates to practise. In 1621 a chair of surgery and anatomy was established at the university of Mexico, and twenty-five years later the protomédico office was combined with the professorship, forming the head of a medical board with wide jurisdiction, including later the functions of a board of health. A protomédico-general came over at times to carry out reforms, such as to exact a more thorough hospital course for surgeons, and a more thorough training for apothecaries. ​Treatment varied with the influence exercised by the different medical schools and sects, the asthenic system being long in vogue, coupled with prophylactic measures.
The abuse of bleeding, purging, and the like grew altogether excessive, with inordinate application even to healthy persons. Adynamic forms were treated as inflammatory; and in prostration the crisis was passively awaited. With the propagation of the Brunonian theory toward the end of the last century, the profession awoke to the faults of the prevailing system which had cost so many lives; and now a headlong reaction set in which had at least the effect of directing to more independent study, and to diminish somewhat the reliance on unaided prayers, appeals for saintly interference, and superstitious mummery. The aboriginal vapor bath ever remained a favorite remedy, the health-giving qualities of mineral and hot springs, were recognized, and also the beneficial effects of change of climate.
Hospitals were founded at Mexico by Cortés, and the early friars and royalty took an interest in their extension, a law of 1541 ordering them to be established in all Spanish and Indian towns, which was in a measure carried out. By decree of 1540, an institution existing at Mexico was transformed into the famous Royal Hospital, with an encomienda for its support. This grant received ​additions at different times, notably from the tax of half a real on every Indian tributary, for whom the institution was intended. Furthermore, several special and general hospitals were erected in the capital, Cabrera describing nine in the middle of the last century, without counting private establishments; three were added by the beginning of the present cycle. Of these, three were cared for by the three charity orders of San Juan de Dios, San Hipólito, and the Bethlehemites, whose labors extended over the whole country, wherever the need for their special aid called them, and their means permitted the founding of hospitals. Mexico preponderated greatly, however, in the number both of hospitals and other benevolent institutions; to them the indigent sick and needy congregated from afar, and also the rich, who here found the best doctors and care.
Three of the hospitals were for the insane, a Magdalen asylum existed since the seventeenth century, and orphan asylums may be said to date from the time when Cortés opened his palace to a number of noble maidens and the early missionaries began to care for neglected children. Regular establishments to this end soon became numerous under royal, religious, and private patronage, with special attention to foundlings. The consideration for these castaway waifs was singularly ​marked. The king issued decrees declaring that they should all be hold legitimate before the law, and moreover enjoy the same exemption from shameful punishments as those of gentle birth on the ground that they might be of noble blood, a measure no doubt creditable to the heart of the prince, but questionable in its bearing on morality. Prominent among the benevolent institutions of the capital was the asylum for the poor opened in 1774, a huge establishment with a training school for the useful arts, with public and private reformatory, refuge, and lying-in departments; also the Monte de Piedad, or public pawnshop, founded in 1775 by Conde de Regla with a gift of three hundred thousand pesos.
It would be difficult to find another city so richly endowed by benevolence as Mexico. To this contributed no doubt the congregation there of wealthy people, some the possessors of seemingly inexhaustible mines, and with comparatively few means for investment; but the explanation lies mainly in the indolence, improvidence, and impulsiveness of the people, traits closely allied to generosity and sympathy; yet it does not require these evidences to indicate that the Mexicans are kind-hearted. The Roman Catholic religion also fosters a less selfish sentiment than the colder reasoning creeds of Protestantism.
Reverence for the dead was also more marked among this warm-hearted though volatile people, and ​funerals were pompous; the mourning was deep and of long duration. Indeed, the king found it necessary to interfere in more than one decree with the reckless extravagance in this respect that must prove a serious burden to many. The draping of the church and house was limited to the coffin vault and the widow's reception room; candles or torches were reduced to about a dozen, coaches forbidden for the funeral procession, and the funeral dress was prescribed to narrow forms. Mourning should be worn for not more than six months, and only for nearer relatives, not by servants of the family. The fees of the clergy for the necessary masses, tolling of bolls, and other ceremonies, also suffered a reduction. These like other regulations were either overruled or fell into disuse, and had to be repeated with different modifications, and with indifferent result. A peculiar feature was the rejoicing which attended the funeral of a child, with singing, drinking, and dancing, in token of gladness over its incorporation among the angels while yet uncorrupted. Cemeteries beyond the limits of the towns were rare before the time of Revilla Gigedo, who urged their formation on sanitary grounds, but it required special royal and ecclesiastic orders to enforce the measure.
It did not require much effort to sustain life in so sunny a clime, where the masses were content to ​sist on stewed frijoles or brown beans, and tortilla, the plain hot maize cakes, seasoned with a pepper sauce of chile, varying occasionally with a maize porridge called atolli, similarly seasoned. These Indian dishes appeared also on the tables of the higher classes, as adjuncts, for with them both meals and dishes were numerous. They began the day with chocolate, thin, foaming, and flavored with vanilla or other ingredients, and taken with cake and fruit, a refreshment indulged in by the women at frequent intervals.
The regular breakfast with meats and other substantial dishes came a little later. In some parts a las once, wine or liquor with cake, or other light food, was taken before the heavy noon meal, with its soup, sopa, cooked rice or roasted bread with melted fat, puchero, equivalent to the Spanish olla podrida, a mixture of different meats and vegetables, supported by plainer dishes, including the frijoles with fresh cheese, and followed by the excessively sweet preserves and confectionery. Hot tortillas were served throughout the meal instead of bread, although this lay on the table. Wine or water was seldom taken till after eating. The siesta lasted till four o'clock. Toward dusk was laid a lighter meal, and chocolate with sweets and other drinks, or even tamales, meat pies, served for supper.
​This excess, in a climate demanding comparatively little sustenance, could hardly be said to extend to drinking, although a good deal of liquor was consumed, and although the frequent laws against intoxication might lead to this belief. The Indians were certainly addicted to the fermented liquors prepared from the maguey and the sugar-cane, but drunkards were not numerous. In its pure state the favorite pulque, which had to be drunk the day after its brewing, was less intoxicating than grape wine; but the desire to preserve it, and the longing for something stronger, caused it to be adulterated with different preparations, and against this abuse the laws were more especially directed. The higher classes, deeming these drinks unfashionable, patronized grape wine from Spain, the introduction of which increased as the Brunonian medical theory came in vogue. Dress in New Spain at the beginning of the nineteenth century served to mark the classes, not alone by its abundance and quality, but by its distinctive features for different professions and ranks. Thus the official, the judge, the doctor, the barber, could be recognized by their hats, capes, collars, cuffs, sword, and the like; and so with the humble classes and Indians, the latter being restricted to their peculiar covering, which must not be adopted by even the lower mixed breeds. Nevertheless the simple maxtli, ​or short cotton drawers, with the straw hat, and square mantle, were widely encroached upon, with a disregard for decency that was particularly striking and objectionable in the large towns, and evoked several decrees with the usual ineffectiveness. Revilla Gigedo took a more energetic course in compelling the numerous workmen in public factories and departments to adopt a better dress, consisting of shirt, vest, and chupa, a linen coat similar in form to our dress coat; also trousers, shoes, and socks. None might join in public meetings or processions covered in mantle or serape.
Those with means, whether white or of mixed blood, were naturally impelled by the common class vanity to distinguish themselves from the poor by an extravagant display which again provoked frequent repressive edicts, as instanced already in the time of the first audiencias. Whatever effect these may have had for the time, the pent-up love for finery burst forth with strength renewed by its momentary check, and Gage describes how those standing examples of humility, the religious and curates, sallied forth in state to reprove sinners. He saw a "Frier of the Cloister riding with his lackey-boy by his side, upon a good gelding, with his long habit tucked up to his girdle, making shew of a fine silk Orange-colour Stockin upon his legs, and a neat Cordovan shoe upon his foot, with a fine Holland pair of Drawers, with a lace three inches broad at knee." He speaks of other friars "under whose broad sleeves we could perceive their Doublets quilted with silk, and at their wrists the Laces of their Holland shirts."
The characteristic dress of the people can be recognized in that of the different provinces of Spain, as ​described in the introduction to my History of Central America, the shielding capa and mantilla, for the respective sexes, being also here the striking feature. Among men prevailed the broad-brimmed hat with low crown, shirt with wide collar loosely bound by a bright necktie, gaudy vest, and short jacket, kneebreeches with leggings, or long trousers open on the outer side below the knee, and provided with rows of metal buttons and displaying the white drawers. Reaching only to the hips, the trousers, often with flaps thrown back, allowed a glimpse of the many colored sash which bound the drawers and hung: in a knot behind from under the jacket. Each of these vestments, from hat to leggings, was braided and embroided with silk, according to the wealth of the wearer and the skill and devotion of the wife or mistress. It was only too common to invest all surplus means on these decorations, and to combine them with superior fabrics. When travelling a serape or manga was used, consisting of an oblong or square blanket with a slit in the center through which the head was passed. The dress of women appeared less complex, and included a chemise, with woollen or starched muslin skirt, and the small rebozo shawl which hung from the head over the shoulder, with one end flung across the bosom to the opposite shoulder, and high enough to cover the lower half of the face. Bodices and jackets more or less gaudy were added according to the occasion; then there were glittering glass beads for the neck, and satin shoes for the bare feet. Silk and velvet were widely used, and rich embroidery and braiding like those of the men, a favorite gala-covering being a shawl called batas, so stiff with this embroidery as to stand erect. Variegated sashes could be seen everywhere, and bright colors prevailed among the upper classes; except in the more substantial ​articles of dress, which were generally black, the Indians adhered to the quieter blue. Latterly the European fashions received more attention among the wealthy, but ever combined with an excessive parade of jewelry and a frequent change of attire. Even the men affected jewelry, and often sprinkled their apparel and belongings with diamonds. Particular pride was taken in the abundant black hair, which the women wore exceedingly long, even to the feet, often loose, but generally in broad plaits, with floral and other more elaborate adornments that formed as a rule its sole covering even when they went abroad. Indian males allowed their hair to reach the shoulder, and regarded its curtailment as a disgrace.
While the bath was general enough, the women cannot be accused of excessive tidiness; a slovenly appearance too often prevailed among the better classes during the morning hours, and among the rest during the week days, manifesting itself especially in uncombed hair and stale oily cosmetics, but covered as well as fostered by the all-shielding mantilla or shawl. Another not exactly attractive feature was the prevalence of smoking among the fair sex, even in public assemblies; and yet they sought to dissimulate on this point, especially before parents, in the presence of whom it was considered disrespectful to display the cigarette.
Gloss seemed to cover almost everything. A legal whitening covered the aboriginal admixture in the veins; a title the horny hand or stigma of tradesman; a showy dress or shielding mantle the negligence beneath; a few shallow acquirements the lack of education; a self-deceptive egotism the absence of profundity; a lightsome smile and sympathetic tone the lurking love for such barbaric sports as bull and cock ​fighting; oppressive social ceremonies the want of more elevating means for intercourse. After all, there was nothing harmful beneath this simulation, nothing more than that covered by the politeness of society which hides the disagreeable in order to promote the happiness of all concerned. In this case the gloss covered crudities which a really kind disposition served greatly to excuse. Relaxing somewhat from the proud dignity of the Spanish ancestor, the creole intensified his proverbial courtesy and decorum till they became tiresome. In sprightliness of spirit, volubility, and neatness of manner both he and the mestizo resembled the French, whom they began to copy, without possessing their ability or innate taste.
While not to be classed as beautiful the women of New Spain possessed a confiding and affectionate disposition which was most alluring; add to this a bright eye, a pretty arm, and a small foot indicative of a fine figure, and they need not complain of nature's gifts. Those of Puebla and Sonora were even famed for beauty. The lack of education extended among all classes, and even the smattering of music, drawing, and cognate arts was denied domestic life until of late. The cultivation of the passions was paramount; and thus taught they abandoned themselves to frivolities, to dress and blandishments; but, while guarded by formalities similar to those which protected their sisters in Spain, these forms, like the laws in general, were less strictly enforced. Social and legal class and caste restrictions in New Spain, as well as certain habits, tended rather to foster a lax feeling and conduct, and where the curate, vowed to celibacy and chastity, openly recognized his progeny, the flock could hardly be blamed for following the example.
The young people knew little or nothing of the ​bliss connected with courtship, for the opportunity was withheld, or spoiled by the congealing presence of a dueña; but then marriage took place so much earlier. According to Navarro the number of persons joined in matrimony before the age of sixteen was 16.27 in 1000, a proportion due chiefly to the climate, but also to food, and to interested encouragement from ecclesiastic and civil officers. The courtesy of the men and the affectionate disposition of the women tended toward a happy family relation, which was increased by the ever respectful obedience of the children, manifested by such acts as abstaining from smoking in the parental presence, and by the requirement of the parents' consent to the marriage of a son even when past the age of twenty-five.
This happy intercourse depended wholly on character; for no systematic or strict training was brought to bear upon the youthful mind, and few of the cherished comforts and conveniences of a northern home existed in this southern clime to strengthen the family bond, unless we seek it in such features as the shaded courts of the superior houses, cooled by playing fountains, and in the comparatively small number of attractions beyond their precincts. The apartments surrounding the court were poorly and deficiently furnished, more attention evidently being paid to carpets, pictures, and fancy articles for show than to useful things. The comparative abundance of table plate was due as much to the difficulty of introducing ​chinaware as to ostentation. The native pottery was hardly deemed sufficiently good for the banquettable.
The dwelling-houses on the plateau were usually of adobes, or sun-dried bricks, with a flat cement roof, containing one large room, sola, the general reception and living apartment, a bedroom, and a kitchen. The sala had seldom more than one paneless window, as a rule not toward the street, and this was generally closed with a shutter, so that light came from the door, which opened direct upon the street. While the walls shone with lustrous whiteness, the ceiling disclosed the bare beams, and the floor consisted either of cement or bricks. At one end of the sala extended a rough carpet, bordered along the walls with low cushioned benches, elsewhere a few chairs. In some of the corners stood small gilded tables supporting candlesticks and porcelain figures, and the walls were relieved with a few gaudy pictures or images of saints, the madonna figure with its burning light in front being accorded the place of honor.
Dwellings among the lower classes descended the scale until they reached the common standard in the hot region of a cane hut thatched with palm leaves and provided with a portico, but without windows, for the wide chinks between the canes of the wall admitted both light and air. Its one room served for the whole family, with pigs and poultry, and it was but occasionally that a partition appeared in one corner. The bed consisted of a rush or palm-leaf mat, sometimes raised on a framework of canes, on which the women would sit cross-legged during the leisure moments of the day. This and the earthenware, with the stone for grinding maize, and the saint images, comprised the furniture, for even a bench was deemed ​unnecessary. Yet in the poorest households hospitality was extended to any one with a profusion and good-will that seemed religious in its universality.
The light-hearted disposition of the people was best manifested at their numerous and spirited festivities, connected principally with the church, but multiplied by holidays in honor of birthdays and other incidents pertaining to the royal family; on the occasion of good news, and on the birthday of the viceroy there was likewise rejoicing. Nearly all these were celebrated with processions, bell-ringing, bull-fights, balls, fireworks, and general merriment. On royal birthdays the ceremonies began with solemn mass, attended by the official bodies, and were followed by a public reception at the viceregal palace, where the hand of the ruler was kissed by the different bodies, in prescribed order of precedence. . Meanwhile artillery salvos resounded, and in the afternoon a promenade in coaches and on horseback was made by the leading personages in the alameda of Mexico.
This afternoon promenade was for that matter a daily feature, which gave the best opportunity for displays of toilets and wealth. Hundreds of the heavy springless coaches of the time, covered and embellished with profuse designs, then rolled slowly ​down the avenue, drawn by two or four horses or mules, and attended by servants in conspicuous livery, generally negro slaves, some walking, some seated. Within sat the ladies in rich evening dress, without veil or head-covering, and glittering with jewels, exchanging glances or greetings with those passing them. Litters could be seen on the sides; and high above the throng, between the two lines of carriages, were prancing steeds whose riders were seated in saddles stamped, gilded, or even embossed in massive gold or silver, and forming one piece with the leather or fur covering that extended over the hind-quarters of the horse. The covering was embellished like the saddle, and fringed with dangling pieces of precious or common metal which jingled at every step. The bridle was also heavily ornamented, and the rider still more adorned, in broad-brimmed hat edged with gold or silver lace, his fur-trimmed and embroidered jacket, breeches with silver buttons, stamped leather leggings, immense silver spurs, and inlaid whip, the whole representing quite a fortune, and forming a picturesque feature, heightened by a display of the fine horsemanship for which the people are well known, especially in the northern provinces. A humbler imitation of this guise is still common in the country. Women ride chiefly on the right side of the animal, sometimes astride, or seated before the cavalier.
Church festivals were exceedingly gorgeous at the capital and attracted people from afar, stands being frequently erected for spectators on such occasions, while windows were rented at prices measured both by the length of the procession and the sacredness of the relics wherewith the clergy impressed the eye and stirred the emotion. The privilege to participate and to carry some banner was much sought, and involved no little expense for costume and other accessories. The sacred portion of the programme ​over, the multitude turned with haste to the profane entertainments, notably the bull-fight, for which one of the city squares was usually reserved; or to the boisterous amusements of the fair-ground with its gambling, cock-fighting, and other sports, combined of course with drinking and other excesses glaringly in contrast to the solemnity of the day.
Cock-fighting was a favorite sport among all classes, and under its alluring excitement rich and poor, noble and beggar, freely mingled their shouts and bets. While hardly any restrictions were imposed on brutal pastimes of this nature, gambling with dice, cards, and other implements was subject to a number of prohibitions, which embraced certain games of hazard, limited the stakes of a person to ten pesos de oro a day, and excluded from any contact with the vice judges, agents of merchants, and some other classes. Safeguards were no doubt required among a people with whom the passion for gambling, so prevalent already among the Spaniards, was greatly intensified by a frivolous and impulsive nature; yet the government fostered it in another direction by extending royal patronage over lotteries. An official institution of this kind was established in 1770, with fourteen drawings a year, and prizes ranging as high as twelve thousand pesos. Within fifteen years the government made a profit of over a million pesos.
For a people so addicted to the drama as the Spanish, and boasting such names as Lope de Vega and
​Calderon, it must be confessed that the efforts made in behalf of the stage by their American children were meagre indeed. Comedies had been presented at the palace of Mexico, and sacred pieces at the convents, as early as the first decade after the conquest, and a theatre appears to have been erected in the seventeenth century, but at the close of the following only one worthy of the term existed, in the Coliseo, supplied by mediocre actors from Spain. Nevertheless, encouragement for a better personnel was not wanting, for favorites frequently received liberal presents from the impressed audience, which showered gold and silver on the stage, and even pieces of jewelry.
Although the performance began somewhat earlier than with us, yet it lasted at times till midnight, owing partly to extended entr'actes for exchanging visits in the boxes, and indulging in chat, confectionery, and smoking, the vivacious ladies delighting in such by play as casting cigarette stumps at the public. The custom of bestowing presents on performers extended also to private reunions, where any one excelling in a song or dance was obliged to accept the contributions of admirers known as la gala.
The social party, tertulia, lasting from about half past six till half past nine in the evening, was a merry affair with its exuberant fun and its comparative freedom. With volubility of tongue conversation flowed fast, and a trifle sufficed to provoke merriment. ​Parlor games were frequently indulged in, with forfeits, but singing and dancing prevailed. Words were readily improvised to the simple melody, and all joined in the refrain. Dancers also sang at times, while the spectators assisted tile guitar orchestra with occasional clapping of hands. The favorite dances were the minuet, confined to the higher class, the waltz, bolero, and fandango, all executed with a grace for which Spaniards are well known, yet not free from features that savored of the indelicate.
Athletic sports were rare, except in connection with horseback-riding, and even aboriginal games and feats had fallen into neglect. Equally lacking was love for natural scenery and rustic life as manifested in our picnics and rambles, yet the fondness for flowers remained as strong;; as in aboriginal times, when it entered as the chief decoration for festive occasions, and as the choicest gift to the guest. Even now the market stalls appeared as bowers, and the fruit lay hidden in a fringe of green and blossoms, while from the dark; tresses of the passing señoras gleamed the opening buds in white and red.
Thus have passed two more centuries of viceregal sway in New Spain; so quietly they* passed as to cause not a ripple beyond its immediate vicinity. It is the unattractive period of the growing child, who has yet all his mark to make.
We still hear occasionally the din of battle, but not for conquest: merely the skirmish with rude tribes of the north, at bay against an encroaching civilization, upon which they retaliate in organized descents from shielding mountain fastnesses, or in flitting like lowering shadows along the outskirts of ​settlements. The conqueror disappeared with the fading mirage of newer, richer lands which had urged him onward till repeated disappointment shattered his hopes. He yielded to the change of circumstances calling to settled life and development of resources so far discovered, and to rearing a varied progeny. Military operations against Indians dwindled to a cordon of outposts, assisted by a temporizing and even humiliating policy savoring little of the spirit which impelled a handful to overthrow an empire and disclose a southern sea. But it promoted peaceful enjoyment, with farming and stock-raising in the secure provinces of the south and centre, while in the exposed regions of the north the mines proved the main incentive to face isolation and danger. The latter branch ever received special attention with its prospect of immediate returns, but commerce and other industries as a rule lacked the beneficent impulses springing from improved communication, wider range of markets, and fostering care.
As for the Indians, while ever subjected to the whims of greedy officials who were protected in their disregard for laws by interested colonists, their lot, since the inauguration of viceregal rule, could not at any period have b'een worse than under the exactions of Aztec tyrants and their unscrupulous tax collectors and garrisons; and it certainly became better with the progress of centuries. Add to this the absence of wars which in aboriginal times kept the country in turmoil and under constant drain; add the new beneficent arts and industries bestowed by Caucasian civilization and the products brought by trans-oceanic trade; add the gentle religion which replaced bloody rites, and finally the effort toward a higher and more general education which for a time placed the country on a level with many a European state, and the natives may indeed congratulate themselves on the change. In vain do we look for similar results among Anglo-Saxon colonizers. ​The improvements should have been greater, but the policy of Spain was short-sighted and selfish, despite the benevolent motives often impelling it. That policy was aggravated by the rule of appointing to nearly all positions of control officials born in the Peninsula, whose inclination leaned too strongly toward the mother country and against the colony, at least where their interests clashed. They managed moreover to set aside or thwart many a humane and progressive measure, and to subordinate the interests of the crown and the people to their own dishonest aims.
Official integrity was not a prominent virtue, as we have seen, even among the viceroys; yet the latter must on the whole be classed as men of fair character and ability. Several shine brightly for their wise and philanthropic administration, and many more would no doubt have attained a similar record but for their duty to carry out the mandates of the home government, swayed too frequently by an impoverished treasury. The aim was to make the American possessions subservient in every respect to the will of Spain, although these efforts proved in the main disastrous, as I shall have occasion to show in a later volume. This aim went so far as to cause a rigid isolation of the colonies from foreign intercourse, attended by suppression of information about them which evoked wide-spread comments among writers on the New World. Such policy could not fail to meet objections within the countries concerned, though it might not have created any decided ill-feeling but for the jealous reservation of officers which touched a weak spot among the creoles, ever eager for position and honor, and drove them to sympathize and seek common cause with the disturbing elements to be expected among a mixture of races, with antagonistic interests and feelings, especially against the dominant classes. It is the maturing and coalescing of these elements, and the mighty convulsions which ensue, that will form the subject of my next volume.
Like the subject of industries, information regarding society is meagre. It is chiefly based on scraps gathered during the researches called for by the general history, and woven with the threads of observation resulting therefrom, yet on several points the information has been more massed or more fully considered. Thus, in the different collections of laws, as Puga, Cedulario, Ordenes de la Corona, and other MS. sets, Recop. de Ind., Beleña, Solórzano, Dé Ind. Ivre, I have found decrees relating to different features of social life and institutions, supplemented in such books as Calle, Mem. y Not., with statistical data. Clavigero in his dissertations, Storia, Mess., iv., gives some admirable reflections on the origin of diseases and ancient condition of the Indians. Humboldt speaks at length on epidemics and on population statistics, the latter receiving some valuable comments from Navarro, Mem. sobre la Poblacion. Pimentel, Raza Indígena, considers the treatment to which the aborigines have been subjected, and shows a considerable study of his theme, although it does not cover the whole field or the whole period in question. More interesting and exhaustive is the Hist. Repartimientos, by Saco. Portilla takes up the same subject in España en Mexico, but as a defender of Spanish policy, and consequently with less freedom from bias; yet offering thereby some useful arguments for one side of the issue. The policy of the government in this and other social respects finds a commentator, rare for this period, in Villarroel, Enfermedades Politicas, who suggests some very useful reforms. The need for these can be readily understood by the glimpses of character and life to be found in the New Survey of that noted friar Thomas Gage, who peeped behind the scenes and failed not to relieve his burdened mind. Less committing are the sketches given by Estalla, Pike, Explor., in the introductories of Alaman, Hist. Mej., i., and Mora, Mej. y sus Rev., by Guerra, Hist. Rev., and others. More varied are the facts presented in Instrucciones de Vireyes, in the biographic sketches of Gallo, Hombres, Ilustres and Dicc. Univ., in the critical paragraphs of the learned Alzate, Gacetas Lit., and in the news items and articles of the Gaceta de Mexico and Diario de Mex.
* ↑ See introduction to Hist. Cent. Am., i. this series, for the evolution and characteristics of Spaniards.
* ↑ Humboldt, who favors an Asiatic origin for the Americans, sees in this meeting with the Spaniard a reunion of two branches that once parted on the plains of Asia in opposite directions. Essai Pol.,i. 134-5. The different theories on origin are discussed in Native Races, v. chapter i. this series.
* ↑ The term for the offspring of negroes and Indians varies in different countries, and even the lexicographers are at a loss. They have been called zambos in decrees within New Spain, and especially Caracas; yet at Mexico, Habana, and Lima, chino was a common appellation, and in the latter place also Chino-cholo. Zambo by itself more generally denotes three fourths of black admixture, and zambo prieto seven eighths. A deepening of color is termed salto atras, 'back-leap,' and a heightening by greater mingling with white, tente en el aire, 'holding one's self in the air.' The Asiatic mixture was brought by the Philippine fleets.
* ↑ The Indian type is fully considered in Native Races, i.-ii., and the Spanish in Hist. Cent. Am., i. introd., this series.
* ↑ The hands and feet are usually praised and the teeth condemned.
* ↑ The odor of the different races can be distinguished also in the castes; and for the different effluvia the Peruvians have distinct names. Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 136.
* ↑ Navarro applies this in general to half-castes: 'la fecundidad notoria de las castas.' Mem., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ii. 83. Instances of fecundity are to be found in Gaceta Mex., i. 35 etc.
* ↑ Certain afflictions like goitre do not affect Indians and rarely mestizos. Giants and dwarfs are uncommon although such giants as Salmeron and more than one dwarf have come from this country. In Diario, Mex., xi. 128, a pigmy is spoken of as less than three fourths of a vara in height.
* ↑ Yet the exemption from wrinkles observed by Humboldt does not appear to be sustained. Instances of longevity are given in Panes, Vireyes, MS., 136; Gaceta Mex., i. 291, 379-80, 397, 403--4, x. etc.; Diario, Mex., iii. 128, 159, vi. 11-12 etc.; Viagero Univ., xxvi. 343. One working-man of 135 left 400 descendants; another had sons varying from 8 to 120 years of age. The average claimed for the centenarians is 116-120.
* ↑ Besides a number of statements on special departments or subjects a record exists of 19 formal reports made by order of the government between 1585 and 1787; for a compiled list thereof, with names of the framers, see Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, i. 10. A specimen of the orders to this effect and a district report may be seen in Tamaron, Visita Dur., MS., i. et seq.
* ↑ Different copies vary slightly.
* ↑ In evidence of this it was pointed out that while Mexico City in 1793 received 112,926 inhabitants, this figure rose to 168,846 in 1811, although it fell greatly during the following two years. This variation must be attributed greatly to the war, which at times drove fugitives in large numbers to the capital. A better test for the deficiency was the birth-rate, which raised the estimate for the city to more than 130,000, instead of 112,926.
* ↑ This was the corrected calculation of a later date. He brings in a number of comparisons with the rates in European countries, and finds that those ruling in Prussia approximate more closely. The proportion there of births to deaths stood as 180 to 100, while in the United States it rose to 201: 100, and in France it fell to 110: 100. Although the births of males in New Spain exceeded those of females—Humboldt has it 100; 95, others, more correctly, 100:98.6—yet it appeared that males preponderated among Indians and castes. The studies of the German savant are very exhaustive and interesting, although in several respects less exact than could have been desired, owing chiefly to unreliable data. Essai Pol., i. 54 et seq.
* ↑ While several points in the table on page 737 are subject to criticism, the area for instance being in some cases obviously inexact, yet these defects affect the value of the paper so little as not to render changes and attempts at better estimates advisable at this stage of the history. Indeed, the figures tend in this form to better represent the official views at the close of the colonial period. In a later volume the population topic will demand and necessarily receive a more critical treatment.
* ↑ Humboldt raised the whites slightly to one fifth and lowered the Indians to about two fifths, leaving a large remainder to castes. Navarro has the tribute lists to prove the greater correctness of his Indian figures, those of 1807 showing 2,925,179 aborigines.
* ↑ Humboldt estimated their number in 1803 at about 70,000, but this appears to have been based on their proportion at the capital, where they were gathered in large force as the leading holders of offices and commercial positions. Navarro's figure certainly is very low, but he had access to migration statistics, and such a careful student as Alaman corrects his own larger estimates by this. The government gave no special encouragement to emigration.
* ↑ The negroes and negro mixtures rest on rather vague estimates, for those recognized as of this class were included among Indians as tributaries, and those not so recognized merged into other classes. The estimate for white people is also somewhat misleading, since amid the general effort to approach the superior race a number of persons with imperceptible Indian or negro admixture declared themselves white, many indeed obtaining legal permission to do so.
* ↑ Las Casas' exaggerated attacks on his countrymen for cruelty have already been exposed, and I have also alluded to De Pauw's views in his Recherches. Raynal lowers the estimate of losses suffered by the Indians, but places too much stress on the effect of mines. Zamacois in seeking to prove that they increased under Spanish rule finds no difficulty in dealing with figures and readily accepts the vague statements of early chroniclers concerning the ravages of epidemics.
* ↑ As indicated in Hist. Mex., i., this series. It is true that many Tlascaltecs were sent away to colonize other provinces, but this could not have affected the total very seriously. An estimate for 1729 reduces the Indians greatly. Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. iv. 341-2.
* ↑ As referred to in this and the preceding volume. Clavigero indulges in quite a dissertation on this topic, chiefly as a reply to de Pauw. Storia, Mess., iv. 271-87. It is widely claimed that excepting the ravages suffered from epidemics, the aboriginal race has increased in number during the colonial rule, and this assertion cannot well be disproved for want of reliable data concerning either the pests or the original population.
* ↑ The excess of females in the large towns, as noticed by Humboldt, is attributable to the influx of domestic servants and the exodus of men for mines and traffic. The evident care with which Navarro prepared his table on population indicates an amount of research that would have given value to comments and speculations on its different items, but his remarks are confined to a few criticisms on Humboldt and to indicating the sources for the figures. The treatise was prepared in 1814 for the body of national representatives and published at Mexico in 1820 as Memoria sobre la Poblacion del Reino de Nueva España, 12mo, 23 pp. with a table. It has been reprinted in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ii. 75-83. The facts therein are greatly confirmed by the calculations made two years before by Cancelada in his Ruina de la Nueva España, Cádiz, 1811, 12mo, 84 pp. But in this the estimate for towns and mining camps has fallen too low, being placed merely at 55 and 97 respectively.
* ↑ This legal whitewashing was conveyed in the rather ambiguous term, 'que se tengan por blancos.' They may regard themselves as white.
* ↑ Frequent remonstrances were made, notably in the representation by the city council of Mexico in 1792, which elicited decrees favorable to the creoles, but these were either disregarded or overruled by the counsel of prejudiced Spanish dignitaries, like Archbishop Haro, who suggested that American-born subjects should be kept at a distance, in humbler positions, and not fostered in arrogance with lofty aspirations. The liberation of the United States was pointed to as a warning. According to Vetancurt, Derecho, 40, less than four per cent of the bishoprics in America had been tilled by creoles during the first century of Spanish rule; by the end of the eighteenth century their proportion had increased to fifteen per cent, but chiefly of inferior sees.
* ↑ From criollo, nursed, brought up, that is, on the new soil.
* ↑ According to the learned professor Chimalpopocatl Galicia, this word is derived from cactli, Aztec for shoe, and tzopinia, to prick; as shown in Molina, Vocabulario. In combining words the Aztecs would drop or modify the last syllables, leaving caetzopin, he who pricks with the shoe, in allusion to the spur. Gachupin or Cachupin would be a natural corruption by Spaniards. This is the general version supported by Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. 7, Guerra, Hist. Rev., i. 142, etc., and others; but Ramirez, Hist. Dur., 78-9, is rather inclined to attribute the word to some corrupted term introduced by the creoles. Guerra traces chapeton from chapi, a Haitian word signifying a man from far off lands, but it is also likely to have been taken from the last two syllables of gachupin, with addition of the common ending ton. Gage, Voy., i. 201, states that it was applied only to the new-comers, who soon fell under the more general head of gachupin. While the names are of early date, as shown in Herrera, dec. v., lib. iv.,*cap. xii. etc., and Garcilaso de la Veja, Coment. Reales, i., cap. 36, yet Indians in many parts called Spaniards for a long time Christians, till instructed not to apply a term indicating a religious distinction. Panes, Vireyes, MS., 81.
* ↑ Mancera commended a similar course to his successors. Instruc. Vireyes, 259.
* ↑ This is revealed in the tenor of restrictive laws; and Gage, ubi sup., alludes to the effect; but Robertson, Hist. Am., ii. 308, is rather carried away by exaggerated deductions.
* ↑ Robertson attributes the cause wholly to enervating climate and government policy, which broke the vigor of mind and led to luxurious indulgence, superstition and effeminacy; but Mexican writers will not admit climatic influence. Alaman dwells on bad training. Hist. Mej., i. 10 et seq., and Mora adds the restrictive laws on advancement and education. Yet Feijoo wrote an apology to prove that premature decrepitude was not general among Americans. Ulioa, Voy. i., 27, etc., hints at wider causes. See also Consulado, Mem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 303; Papeles Franciscanos, MS., serie i. tom. i. pt. i. 31 etc.
* ↑ 'Eres criollo y basta.' Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. 10 et seq.; Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 114, 136, etc.
* ↑ Recop. de Ind., i. 365 etc.; Solorzano, i. 397 etc.; Antuñez, Mem. Com., 307-25.
* ↑ Vagrants were sent to the Philippines. Beleña, Recop., i. 182, 284.
* ↑ For 10 out of the 20 years they must own real estate to the value of 4,000 ducats, and be married to a Spanish-born subject. Their children were Spaniards. They must give an inventory of their property, and infringement of the law sent them to the Philippines. Id., 190. Forms of application for migration and passport may be found in Papeles Franciscanos, MS., série i. tom. i. 261, and Ordenes de Corona, MS., ii. 159.
* ↑ Grambila, Tumultos,'MS.,l; Recop.de Ind., i. 166; Montemayor, Sumarios, 136-9. Portuguese were among those regarded as foreigners, and at one time natives of other Spanish provinces than those of Castile, Leon, Aragon, Valencia, Cataluña, and Navarre, were held as such so far as concerned the Indies. See regulations in Linage, Norte, i. 238 etc. One reason for official objections to foreigners lay in the impulse they gave to freemasonry, to which consideration is given in Farol, 314-28, and other works.
* ↑ Gaceta Mex., 1808, xviii. 557. In remote districts many could not grasp the fact that nations existed beyond the sea who were not Spanish, and where they did understand it such peoples were classed as very low, on the ground that only low strata in New Spain did not know Spanish, as Humboldt observes.
* ↑ Whether in free labor, or when sent to forced labor for crime or debt. Cedulario, MS., iii. 45-9; Reales Cedulas, MS., i. 183. In obrages, or freed labor, four months' advance was allowed. Beleña, Recop., i. pt. ii. 77. Negroes and castes could contract for any advance, and otherwise act freely as 'abites y capaces.'
* ↑ As shown in the chapter on the church.
* ↑ Regulations to this effect are to be found in Recop. de Ind., ii. 285, etc., and a synopsis of privileges is to be found in Concilios Prov., 1555-65, 391.
* ↑ See the chapter on agriculture.
* ↑ Gage relates some anecdotes concerning the method of Indian officials in hunting up negligent worshippers. Voy., ii. 67-250; Montemayor, Sumarios, 15-16. Of course the rules for Indian conduct were occasionally relaxed or disregarded, as in the case of other races, yet less frequently, since so many persons existed, from alcalde and curate to subdelegate and intendente, who Bought to be officious.
* ↑ Many writers, with the beggarly idlers of the capital ever before them, have been led to exaggerate his defects, calling him cunning, false, and vindictive, or pusillanimous and atrocious, as Mancera writes in Doc. Inéd., xxi. 445, while sympathizing friars extol inordinately his virtues. Las Casas dwells on his ingenuity and goodness; Zumárraga on his chastity, favored indeed by stolidity of nature; Motolinia on his prudence and wide capacity for acquiring anything, and herein Clavigero agrees by declaring him fully as able as a Spaniard. Humboldt invests him with a natural logic, with a ready perception; Mora makes him persevering and temperate; and Alaman, Portilla, and others exhibit a non-committal description of traits. Many of the contradictory attributes may be explained by the claim that Indian children are more precocious than whites, but the latter certainly attain a higher degree of maturity. The Tlascaltecs held themselves rather high on the strength of the special privileges accorded them since the conquest; a love for litigation augmented their poverty. The adjoining Cholultecs, with few claims to nobility, were more sober and prosperous.
* ↑ Anciently applied in Spain to a person who knew a foreign tongue, and now given to a native who acquired Spanish.
* ↑ Arrangoiz, Hist. Mex., iii. app. 75, shows that this feeling exists even to-day, and that many an Indian is by his village people shamed out of any attempt to adopt the habits of the superior race. The learned Sigüenza comments on this feeling in 1691-2. Carta al Almirante, MS., 40-4. See also Mex., Manifesto al Rey, 22, etc.
* ↑ It is the feeling we would entertain for a slave, happier though he might be in servitude than as a free man. Only too many writers on the topic have confined their studies to works like Solorzano, De Ind. Ivre, of the seventeenth century, without considering the improvements since effected among Indians; but there are also more comprehensive investigators; and among them I notice with pleasure José Antonio Saco, who in Revista de Cuba, a most attractive and well edited review of Habana, contributes a series of articles on the encomienda system, which indicate much research and promise to be quite exhaustive.
* ↑ It must be admitted, however, that the Indians of northern latitudes had not attained to the same high level of culture as in Mexico, so that intercourse there could not be so readily entertained.
* ↑ Some estimates reduce them to 6,000, including mulattoes and zambos.
* ↑ Humboldt estimates it at less than $^1$⁄$_{100}$ of the export from Africa. Essai Pol, i. 130.
* ↑ As shown in Hist. Mex., ii. 384-5, this series, and at the beginning of this volume.
* ↑ Between 1664 and 1673 two Genoese had the sole contract and introduced only four cargoes. Mancera, Instruc., in Col Doc. Inéd., xxi. 465-7. In 1699 the Compañia Real de Guinea del Reino de Portugal had an agent in New Spain for their trade. Reales Céulas, MS., i. 103. Shortly after Frenchmen obtained the exclusive right to import slaves and established a factory at Vera Cruz in 1702; ten years later Englishmen tried the business, and so the privilege changed hands. In 1794 a tax of 6% was placed on money and goods exported for the purchase of negroes. Ordenes de Corona, MS., vi. 84. Sales of slaves are frequently recorded in Gaceta Mex., i.-x., and Diario Mex., i. et seq. Between 1807 and 1810 we find good servant girls of above 20 years sold as low as 100 and 150 pesos. See also Guerra, Hist. Rev., 151-5.
* ↑ Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 74, 265, etc. For those in non-productive domestic service, a tax of $2 a year had to be paid. Cedulario, MS., iii. 98-164. Further regulations are given in Recop. de Ind., ii. 360-4, 539, etc.
* ↑ Spaniards enjoyed certain exemption wherever the dignity of the white race might be imperilled. Ordenes de Corona, MS., i. 33, etc.
* ↑ Humboldt shows that less than ten per cent of the European Spanish population at Mexico in 1803 were females. In the provinces the proportion must have been still smaller.
* ↑ Cedulario, MS., i. 92.
* ↑ It is even said that they preferred them to Europeans. Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 94.
* ↑ This society was given control of the asylum for the poor, with power to deal summarily with all impostors and idlers. Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 203. Different decrees against vagabonds are also given in Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., vi. 173-8; Recop. de Ind., ii. 358-60. Males were to be sent to mines and plantations, females into families, children to asylums.
* ↑ Viceroy Mendoza revived the native order of tecuhtli, not long after the conquest, in order to bind the Indian nobles. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, ii. 201-2. The order of Cárlos III, was rather limited in distribution.
* ↑ A list of these from the conquest down to 1792 is given in Fonseca, Hist. Hac., iv. 249-53. In Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 14, 107 etc.; Morfi, Nobleza, 37 etc.; Vireyes, Instruc., serie i. pts. 5-6, 18-20 etc., maybe found additional names, and in a later volume will figure a number of them. The census of 1790 mentions 44 persons at Mexico with nobility titles and 38 with knighthood. Gaz. Mex., v. 8.
* ↑ Several of these mayorazgos existed with a rental of from 10,000 to 60,000 pesos, chiefly held by the descendants of traders and miners, but also by those of conquerors and officials. Conde de Regla founded several; two untitled sons were consoled with $700,000 each. Alaman, Hist. Méj., i. 17.
* ↑ Providencias Reales, MS., 25-6, 152-3; Col. de Diarios, MS., 424.
* ↑ Degenerating into adynamic form. Humboldt, Essai Pol., ii. 757. Certain marshes near Acapulco gave rise to cholera morbus. A common affliction was a sort of frenzy followed by alternate cold and heat, with fits of laughter, weeping, and convulsions. St Anthony's fire was not uncommon, and apoplectic attacks, called insultos. Estalla, xxvi. 299-300. At one time appeared a disease called bola, which infected through the breath; and numbered among its victims the great philanthropist, Conde de Valenciana.
* ↑ As Alegre relates. Hist. Comp. Jesus, iii. 233-4, and Guijo, Diario, i. 428-9.
* ↑ 'Quizá por la benignidad del clima.' Estalla, xxvi. 288, 299. Concerning its origin see Native Races, ii. 594.
* ↑ As referred to in this and the preceding volume.
* ↑ Alzate insists on attributing this to Doctor Morell, in 1779, Gacetas Lit., i. 365, but it appears to have been used here earlier.
* ↑ The deaths did not exceed 2,000 to 3,000 a year. From 1706 to 1774 it did not appear. Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 69, ii. 750 et seq. The people at Vera Cruz believed in a las once luncheon with stimulants to keep it off. Estalla, xxvii; 300.
* ↑ 'Mon era ivi conosciata avanti l'anno 1725,' says that the learned Clavigero, Storia Mess., i. 117, in which statement he is widely followed.
* ↑ The attainments of the native doctors will be found described in Native Races, ii. 598 et seq., this series.
* ↑ See Hist. Mex., ii. 251, this series
* ↑ Protomedicato, Vindicacion, 1-18. Four courses were required after 1784. Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 126. Earlier regulations for the profession may be found in Recop. de Ind.; Montemayor, Sumarios, 167-8; and other collections. The Cesarean operation was well understood. Cedulario, MS., iii. 64-5. In 1790 there were in Mexico 51 doctors, and 221 surgeons and barbers Gaceta Mex., v. 8. The last two offices were often combined at this period. In other parts medical men were scarce, and Yucatan does not appear to have had one till about 1710.
* ↑ In Guijo, Diario, i. 428-9, and similar chronicles, are given instances of the common recourse to the saints and to religious rites. In fluxion, the women used to tie a handkerchief to the hair on one side of the head, and in certain cases round the forehead, the color of the bandage being duly considered. Estalla, xxvi. 302.
* ↑ As described in Native Races, ii. 595-6.
* ↑ As Herrera already indicated, dec. iii. lib. iii. cap. ix.
* ↑ Recop. de Ind., i. 23. As recommended by the royal council in 1533. Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xii. 135.
* ↑ Copies of decrees in Ramirez, Doc., MS., 10-221. The founding has been a mooted question, some like Fonseca placing it much later. This Cabrera, Escudo, 396, etc., seeks to disprove in an elaborate argument, although he himself merely hovers round the true fact.
* ↑ The history of this tax is given in Fonseca, Hist. Hac., vi. 199 et seq., together with rules for the hospitals. The income of the Royal Hospital in 1808 reached 40,000 pesos. Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., iii. 529-30.
* ↑ One attended more particularly to ecclesiastics; another to venereal diseases, a third to leprosy, a fourth to St. Anthony's fire, and so forth. Cabrera, Escudo, 82, 396 et seq. The viceroys gave them special attention and suggested reforms as instanced in the Relacion of Mendoza, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., vi. 497, and the Instruccion of Revilla Gigedo, MS., i. 33-7, and Azanza, MS., 67-9; the chroniclers Motolinia, Mendieta, Torquemada, Vetancurt, Beaumont, Villa-Señor, and others speak freely of them, the latter especially alluding to them in every town; and in the series of Gaceta de Mex., and Diario de Mex., are constant reports of their operations.
* ↑ For the history of these orders I refer the reader to the epoch when they were founded or introduced. The Bethlehemite hospital at Mexico was for convalescents; the Hipólito for lunatics.
* ↑ This feature, together with the number of ecclesiastics and idle people without family tics, explains the small number of births as compared with deaths, so misleading to the careless student.
* ↑ Cedulario, MS., i. 55-6; Mex., Prov. Dioces., MS., 189-90. The regulations for the royal asylum, which in 1803 contained 213 children, are given in Nuñez, Constit. de la Real Casa del Señor S. Joseph, Mex. (1775), 8vo, 60 pages; Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, iii. 239.
* ↑ Its different features are fully explained in Dublan, Leg. Mex., i. 307-13; Diario Mex., iii. 201-8; iv. 45-7; vi. 294-6. It was founded by a church dignitary with royal aid.
* ↑ Under royal patronage; a charge of three per cent was made on loans. Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 255-6.
* ↑ Among the philanthropists of New Spain are the condes of Bassoco, Valenciana, and Regla, the marquises of San Francisco and San Cristóbal, and workers like Andrés de Carbajal, who gave to the poor more than $2,000,000 during his life, besides founding colleges and other institutions. During epidemics the wealthy vied with a benevolent clergy in distributing food and medicine. An association called the Junta de Caridad was latterly active in relieving the poor by a judicious system which had for its aim to discourage indiscriminate charity, and the consequent dismissal of the pest of beggars infesting the capital. Diario, Mex., iv. 308-74. A royal decree sought to regulate bequests by recommending that preference should be given to the people or church of the district where the testator had lived and acquired his means. Recop. de Ind., i. 155.
* ↑ Even for royalty the servants in a family were not to wear the mourning expected from the master. Ordenes de la Corona, MS., iii. 65-7; Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 221-2; Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 134.
* ↑ And here papal ordinances came to support the decree. Morelli, Fasti Novi Orbis, 348-9.
* ↑ Cedulario, MS., iii. 188-92. For a description of a pompous funeral I refer the reader to the opening chapter of this volume.
* ↑ As early as 1554 burying-grounds distant from churches were ordered to be set apart for the poor, to whom removal to the temple might prove too costly. Recop. de Ind., i. 155-8. The first remote cemetery opened at Revilla Gigedo's instance was at Vera Cruz in 1790. Puebla followed the examp le in the following year, but Mexico delayed longer. Revilla Gigedo, Instruc., 48-52. Distinguished persons were not supposed to be consigned beyond the church precincts, but decrees of 1813-14 abolished this exemption. Mex., Prov. Dioces., MS., 490-1.
* ↑ Described in Native Races, ii. 354 et seq., this series.
* ↑ Gage relates that they used even to take it during mass at church, pleading the need of sustenance. In Chiapas a bishop attempted to stop the custom, but only evoked hostility which resulted in his death by poisoning. Thenceforth it became a saying: Beware of the Chiapas chocolate. Voy., ii. 165-70.
* ↑ Most European vegetables were used, but veal and butter rarely.
* ↑ Estalla, xxvi. 301-2, rightly attributes much decrepitude to this excessive indulgence, and declares that this together with the climate made women of 30 appear as old as those of 50 in Spain. See also Pike, Explor., 373-4. Humboldt gives a list of the staple food of Mexico, and shows that this city consumed more meat per head than Paris, although the large Indian population hardly ever touched this article; the bread consumption was slightly less than in Paris. His estimates show that $72 was expended on the food and clothing of a laborer's family in the hot regions, and $20 less on the plateau. One third of the colored classes expended $300 a year. Essai Pol., i. 110, 198, etc. The last observation may explain the peculiarity in the preceding figures.
* ↑ Three days in the street-cleaning gang was one of the punishments.
* ↑ See Native Races, ii. 359, this series.
* ↑ The wine-shops were reduced in number, their hours limited, a special body was formed to supervise the enforcement of liquor laws—Azanza, Instruc., MS., 32-4, dwells on this measure—and other steps were taken at different times, often dictated by excessive prudence, and of little value, except as regards the adulteration.
* ↑ For which I refer the reader to the Native Races, ii. 363 et seq.
* ↑ Even Indians could adopt this new regulation, issued in 1799, although it was not compulsory with them. Diario, Mex., vi. 262-72; Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., iii. 33-4; Revilla Gigedo, Instruc., 58; Maltrat. de Indios, MS., pt. xviii. 14; Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 111, etc.
* ↑ And as spoken of by early officials in Florida, Col. Doc., 120-1; Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii. tom. v. 233—4; Herrera, dec. vi. lib. vii. cap. vi.
* ↑ New Survey, 67.
* ↑ i. 39, et seq., and as given in Menonville, Voy., i. 105, etc.; Gage, Voy., i. 202-3; Estalla, xxvi. 306; Pike's Explor., 372; Walton, ii. 301; Reales Ordenes, iv. 407.
* ↑ 'La sequedad del clima los hace tambien precisos con mucha frecuencia.' Revilla Gigedo, Instruc., 58. Owing to a lack of change of underclothing, or of drawers and shirt, it was common for the family to resort to the river or lake at intervals, and while the wife washed for the husband and children they awaited the operation wrapped in their mantles.
* ↑ I have already commented on the loose ideas in this respect prevalent in Spain. Hist. Cent. Am., i. 54, etc., this series. Regulations existed for restricting illicit love, for the compulsory reunion of absent husbands with their wives, and similar measures, Recop. de Ind., ii. 355, 380, etc. But what availed these against tacit permission and fostering causes? Mora, Hist. Rev., i. 135-8, seeks to palliate these defects by attributing them to a faulty training. The decade following the Independence brought about a radical reform he declares.
* ↑ Marriage regulations are set forth in Nuñez de Haro, Edicto, Mex. 1779, 1-30; Mex., Provid. Diocesanas, MS., passim; Providencias Reales, MS., 197, 285, etc. The last authority treats of marriage and the separate property of women. Navarro, Mem., 22-3.
* ↑ If withheld, the judge could interfere, however. Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 186. Tatita and nanita were the affectionate terms for father and mother; the latter often called the daughter hermanita, little sister. Estalla, xxvi. 341, 379-80.
* ↑ Not unlike the arrangement in the houses of aboriginal Mexico, as described in Native Races, ii. 570-1.
* ↑ Even the rarer two-story buildings had f«w windows in the upper story, the door opening on the balcony serving chiefly to admit light. Where appropriate timber abounded, shingles and other wood work entered more freely into the construction.
* ↑ Even rich Indians seldom made an effort to rise above the poor neighbor in comforts. Alzate, Gazeta Lit., ii. 99; Estalla, xxvi. 307; Ward's Mex., ii. 179-80; Pike's Explor., 373. While benches or chairs were provided in the churches for certain classes of men, the women had to sit humbly on the floor, with or without mats.
* ↑ For the tribunals the holidays extended over easter, the week precedit, and Christmas, ash- Wednesday, and two carnival days preceding, and over 30 other days, chiefly of saints. Ordenes de Corona, 1747-50, MS., i. 42-3. In Guijo, Diario, i., passim, and Robles, Diario, are indicated a number of casual festivals. Reales Ordenes, iv. 375-6.
* ↑ As prescribed in Ordenes de Corona, MS., v. 113-15.
* ↑ Curtains were at one time used instead of doors. Latterly English vehicles came into vogue. Estalla alludes to the frequent sight of incomplete livery, a half-naked coachman with one boot, and so forth. More than once coaches had been forbidden in connection with other sumptuary restrictions, but this served only as a momentary check, and in 1785 the capital had 637 with an average of 4 or 5 servants attending. Villarroel, Enferm. Pub., 103. Gage claims that in his time, 1625, there were about 2,000, Voy., i. 213, but this is a mere guess.
* ↑ Carrying the banner on August 13th, the anniversary of the capture of Mexico, devolved on a regidor, and was declined by many owing to the outlay required.
* ↑ In addition to the necessary stands for the occasion the windows of the houses around were controlled by the committee in charge. Beleña, Recop., i. 161; Villaroel, Enferm. Pol., 86.
* ↑ At the instance of the archbishop the sport was forbidden in 1688, and the revenue therefrom ordered to be drawn from other sources, with the usual result. Robles, Diario, ii. 474, etc. Later the stakes were limited to a small amount. Recop. de Ind., ii. 218. But this served only the better to protect the dishonorable. Museo Mex., i. 284-6. In the time of Revlla Gigedo, Instruc., 324-5, it yielded a revenue to the crown of $50,000.
* ↑ Recop. de Ind., ii. 352-3; Beleña, Recop., i. pt. iii. 217; Estalla, xxvi. 377; Concilios Prov., MS., pt. iii. 120-1; pt. iv. 36, 49.
* ↑ As more fully explained in the chapter on finance.
* ↑ Cavo certainly mentions that the 'mievo coliseo' was burned in 1722, Tres Siglos, ii. 122, implying the existence of an earlier building.
* ↑ Vera Cruz opened one in 1791, and other towns were aspiring toward the same end; even Mérida possessed a theatre in 1806, although a fire soon destroyed it. Ancona, Hist. Yuc., iii. 240.
* ↑ One actress thus lured 3,000 pesos in gold by a recitation. Estalla, xxvi. 284. The supervision of drama and order devolved on a regidor. Boxes were frequently rented by the year. Villarroel, Enferm. Polit., 92-5. The personnel and salaries at Mexico were quite numerous and high, as shown by a table of 1806, in Diario Mex., ii. 306-7. Reviews of performances may be read in Vega, Discurso, 1-16; Gacetas Mex., iii. 69-72, 83, xv. 116 etc.
* ↑ Marionettes and masks and disguises were forbidden in 1731 and 1749 owing to scandalous proceedings. Beleña, Recop., i. 129, 225.
* ↑ Hence llevarse la gala was a term for 'carrying off the prize.'
* ↑ Both in motion and accompanying words. Pike expresses himself strongly on this subject. Explor., 373.
* ↑ As shown in Hist. Cent. Am., i. 50, this series. In Diario, Mex., ii. 279, is described a house for the game of ball. Laws concerning the hunt are given in Galvan, Ord., 89; Tierras, 33-6. For aboriginal games see Native Races, ii. 283-301.