This unblushing dishonesty and extortion, which was winked at by the Royal Audience at Lima, the highest court of judicial appeal, drove the Indian population to a state of desperation, which only required a spark to set it in a blaze. The humane laws, and the elaborate system of legislation for the Indians, had, after 200 years of hopeless inefficiency, ended in this. The careful enactments to limit the amount of tribute, to prevent the Indians from suffering by forced personal service, the laws of ecclesiastical councils to protect them from the exactions of the curas, the benevolent intentions evinced in declaring all Indians to be minors in the eye of the law, the "_residencias_," or arrangements for examining the conduct of every official at the close of his term of office; all these provisions, which have justly called forth the praise of Mr. Helps, Mr. Merivale,[185] and other modern writers, had become dead letters, absolutely and hopelessly, towards the end of the last century. The laws remained the same, but they were habitually set aside by those whose duty it was to administer them. The tribute fixed for villages when they contained a thousand men was continued the same when the population had decreased to a hundred;[186] the _mita_ was enforced so mercilessly that whole districts were left without a single adult male inhabitant;[187] the curas extorted exorbitant fees from their victims, in spite of the law;[188] and the judges, who were sent to take the "_residencias_," received bribes to overlook all offences, and usually handed over the complaints which were submitted to them to the officials who were complained of in exchange for a sum of money, the price of their silence.[189] These evils were long borne patiently; but when the shameless enormities of the _Repartos_ were superadded, the poor remnant of the descendants of the subjects of the Incas at length rose as one man against their oppressors.
There were not wanting, amongst the Spaniards in Peru, as well as amongst the native Caciques, many good and humane men who raised their voices against the lawless cruelty of the majority of the officials, and earnestly warned the Government of the inevitable consequences. Don Ventura Santalices, the Governor of La Paz, devoted his time and fortune to the cause of the oppressed Indians, and was appointed to a seat in the Council of the Indies, but he was poisoned on his arrival in Spain: the energetic remonstrances of Blas Tupac Amaru, a descendant of the Incas, caused him also to be summoned to Spain, where he obtained promises of many concessions, but he was assassinated at sea, during the return voyage: and the names of other bold and fearless defenders of the Indians deserve to be recorded, such as Don Manuel Arroyo, Don Ignacio Castro, Don Agustin de Gurruchategui, Bishop of Cuzco, and Don Francisco Campos, Bishop of La Paz.