" Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]
In this way, a large amount of valuable information was obtained,
which enabled Gasca, with the aid of a council of ecclesiastics
and jurists, to digest a uniform system of taxation for the
natives, lighter even than that imposed on them by the Peruvian
princes. The president would gladly have relieved the conquered
races from the obligations of personal service; but, on mature
consideration, this was judged impracticable in the present state
of the country, since the colonists, more especially in the
tropical regions, looked to the natives for the performance of
labor, and the latter, it was found from experience, would not
work at all, unless compelled to do so. The president, however,
limited the amount of service to be exacted with great precision,
so that it was in the nature of a moderate personal tax. No
Peruvian was to be required to change his place of residence,
from the climate to which he had been accustomed, to another; a
fruitful source of discomfort, as well as of disease, in past
times. By these various regulations, the condition of the
natives, though not such as had been contemplated by the sanguine
philanthropy of Las Casas, was improved far more than was
compatible with the craving demands of the colonists; and all the
firmness of the Audience was required to enforce provisions so
unpalatable to the latter. Still they were enforced. Slavery,
in its most odious sense, was no longer tolerated in Peru.
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