In the first place came the _Chapetones_, being the Spaniards who arrived from Europe. The Court of Spain, jealously anxious to ensure the dependence of the colonies on the mother country, made it a rule to fill all departments of the state by Spaniards born. Each _employé_ was required to furnish proof of a clear descent from a family of old Christians, untainted by Hebrew or Moorish blood, and uncontaminated by having appeared in the records of the Inquisition. Next in order come the _Creoles_, or the descendants of Europeans settled in America. This class very soon began to exhibit the degeneracy which has invariably resulted wherever a portion of a vigorous race inhabiting an invigorating climate has migrated to an enervating one. It resulted, for example, in a marked degree with the Portuguese in India; and if it has not the same result with the English, this is to be attributed entirely to the fact that in almost all instances Anglo-Indians send their children, at an early age, to be brought up and educated in Europe, and that they themselves are being continually recruited from the mother country. In the instance of such English as are born and brought up in India, who are fortunately too few in number to require to be classified like _Creoles_, the invariable rule of nature holds good, as it does amongst the Italians and French who, ever since the Crusades, have lived in greater or less numbers in the Levant, the word “Levantine” being a synonym for moral and physical degeneracy. Thus the _Creoles_, though many of them were descended from the conquerors of the New World; though others could trace their pedigree to the noblest families of Spain; though some possessed the advantage of great patrimonial wealth, yet, owing to moral and physical causes, as well as to special legislation, sank naturally into a second-class position. Their mental vigour was in a marked degree lost, and such of it as remained was devoted to the indulgences of pleasure and superstition. Even the operations of commerce, in addition to the functions of government, fell to the lot of the _Chapetones_ or natives of Spain. The third class in the Spanish colonists arose from the offspring, either of Europeans with negroes, or of Europeans with original natives of America. These were called, respectively, _Mulattoes_ and _Mestizas_, and they multiplied so greatly as to constitute a very considerable portion of the population throughout the transatlantic dominions of Spain. The several stages of descent in this race were distinguished by a peculiar name. In the third generation the hue of the Indian disappeared, and in the fifth the blood of the _Mulatto_ became so undistinguishable that his offspring obtained all the privileges of the European. This robust and hardy race were invaluable in the Spanish settlements in practising the mechanical arts.