This plan was followed by one still more fatal, that of the _repartimientos_; according to which the governor or judge of the district was directed to supply the Indians in his department with cattle, seed corn, implements of agriculture, clothes and food at a fixed price. The abuses attendant on such a system were enormous, and so grievously were the natives afflicted that it at last was abolished in 1779. Spanish America was incorporated to the crown of Castile by Charles V. on September 14th, 1559, at a solemn council held in Barcelona; but notwithstanding this decree declared that the white inhabitants of America were to have no personal controul over the Indians, the greatest enormities were still committed. In Caraccas the natives were enslaved, and carried to the plantations in the West Indies, from which they were not freed till after the repeated remonstrances of Las Casas, Montesino, Cordova and others; these remonstrances gave rise to the establishment of the royal audiences and the council of the Indies; the jurisdiction of the latter extending to every department; all laws and ordinances relative to the government and police of the colonies originate in it, and must be approved by two-thirds of the members; all the offices, of which the nomination is reserved as a royal prerogative, are conferred on this council, and to it every person employed in Spanish America is responsible. It receives all dispatches, &c., and is in fact the government of the Indies. Since the establishment of this council, the royal audiences or superior tribunals, and the regular succession of viceroys and captain-generals, the Americas have been governed, if not with less rigour, at least with more beneficial results to the Indians. They are left to manage their own concerns as they please, and no one can interfere in the disposal of their property. In Peru alone they are subjected to the _mita_, a law obliging them to furnish certain quotas for the mining operations, but for which they are well paid, and generally become resident miners; they are not under the controul of the inquisition, and pay no other tax than a capitation tribute, which is very moderate, and rather a mark of vassalage or distinction from the other classes, than a burden.