The Spanish authority being at length consolidated in _Peru_, it is desirable to show, in so far as may be possible, the nature of the government which succeeded to that of the _Incas_. The first visible consequence of the Spanish domination was the diminution in number of the _Peruvians_, to a degree more deplorable than astonishing. However great may have been the mortality caused among them by war, it was slight in comparison to that which resulted when tranquillity had been restored. All were now compelled to labour, their tasks bearing no proportion to their strength, but being exacted, nevertheless, with undeviating severity. Many of them were driven by despair to put an end to their own lives; whilst fatigue and famine destroyed many more. When _Peru_ was divided amongst the conquerors, each of the latter was eager to obtain an instantaneous recompense for his services. Men accustomed to the carelessness of a military life had neither industry to carry on any plan of regular cultivation nor patience to wait for its slow returns. Disdaining to profit by the certain results of agriculture in the fertile valleys, they selected for their habitations the mountainous regions, which abounded in the precious mines. In order to develop these, many hands were wanted; and the natives were accordingly driven in crowds to the mountains. The sudden transition from the sultry valleys to the penetrating air of the higher altitudes combined with inordinate labour and scanty nourishment to produce an unwonted despondency, under which they rapidly melted away. In addition to this, large numbers were carried off by that scourge of the New World, the small-pox. These united causes were more than sufficient to thwart such well-meant regulations for the protection of the Indians as were promulgated by the Spanish Government, and as were invariably seconded, if not initiated, by the Church. Nevertheless, a considerable number of the native race remained in _Peru_, more especially in the more remote regions. The fundamental maxim of Spanish jurisprudence with respect to her colonies was to consider these acquisitions as being vested in the Crown rather than in the State. By the celebrated Bull of Alexander VI., on which Spain founded its rights in the New World, the regions that had been or should be discovered were bestowed as a free gift upon Ferdinand and Isabella. Hence their successors were held to be the proprietors of the territories conquered by the arms of their subjects. All grants proceeded from them, and from them only all power issued,--with the exception, that is to say, of local municipal authority.