Writers of Peru and New Granada in the first half of the seventeenth century had no single absorbing topic, such as the Araucanian war provided for the Chileans. Their attention was attracted by the abuses which the Indians suffered under hard masters, the exploration of the Amazon, the development of the religious orders, and the various phases of progress in the colonies. Juan Bautista Aguilar was one of those who appeared as defenders of the Indians. Their need of defence grew partly out of the fact that in Peru the Indians were less war-like than the Araucanians of Chile; they had been cowed by the rule of the Incas, the encomenderos, and the corregidores; and, in many cases, even the clergy and their concubines, taking advantage of a gentle-spirited people, imposed grievous burdens upon them. Aguilar was archdeacon of the cathedral of Arequipa, and in 1615 published, in folio, the _Restauración y reparo del Perú_. In this work and in a report which he sent to the king eight years later, he set forth the unfortunate state of the Indians, their needs, and the scandalous treatment of them by the corregidores, who enriched themselves by defrauding the Indians of their property, and by employing them as labourers with little or no compensation. This report was later sent from Spain to Peru, and Aguilar caused it to be printed together with communications from many prelates commending it. But the Spanish government in America, maintaining a certain esprit de corps, tolerated the notorious extortions of the corregidores, and remained generally unmoved by appeals for a more humane treatment of the natives. II [Sidenote: Exploration of the Amazon] [Sidenote: Vásquez’s _Relación_] [Sidenote: Position of Vásquez]