[Evils from officials in trade.] Independent, however, of the serious injuries and great errors persons of the class above described cannot fail to commit in the exercise of their functions, purely judicial, the consequences of their inordinate avarice are still more lamentable, and the tacit permission to satisfy it, granted to them by the government under the specious title of a licence to trade.  Hence may it be affirmed, that the first of the evils, and the one the native immediately feels, is occasioned by the very person the law has destined for his relief and protection.  In a word, he experiences injuries from the civil magistrates presiding over the provinces, who, at the same time, are the natural enemies of the inhabitants, and the real oppressors of their industry.

It is a known and melancholy fact that, far from promoting the felicity of the provinces intrusted to their care, the magistrates attend to nothing else but their own fortunes and personal interests; nor do they hesitate as to the means by which their object is to be attained.  Scarcely are they seated in the place of authority, when they become the chief consumers, purchasers, and exporters of every thing produced and manufactured within the districts under their command, thus converting their licence to trade into a positive monopoly.  In all lucrative speculations the magistrate seeks to have the largest share; in all his enterprises he calls in the forced aid of his subjects, and if he deigns to remunerate their labor, at most it is only on the same terms as if they had been working on account of the king.  These unhappy people bring in their produce and crude manufactures to the very person who, directly or indirectly, is to fix upon them an arbitrary value.  To offer such and such a price for the articles is the same as to say, another bidding shall not be made.  To insinuate is to command—­the native is not allowed to hesitate, he must either please the magistrate, or submit to his persecutions.  Being besides free from all competition in the prosecution of his traffic, since he is frequently the only Spaniard resident in the province, the magistrate therein acts with unbounded sway, without dread, and almost without risk of his tyranny ever being denounced to the superior tribunals.

[Speculating in tributes.] In order, however, that a more correct idea may be formed of the iniquitous conduct of many of these public functionaries, it is necessary to lay open some part of their irregular dealings in the collection of the Indian tributes.  It is well known that the government, anxious to conciliate the interests of the tributary classes with those of the revenue, frequently commutes the pecuniary capitation tax into an obligation to pay the amount in produce or manufactures.  A season comes when, owing to the failure of the crops, the productions have risen to an excessive price, and consequently infinitely above the ordinary rates affixed by law,