On the whole, however, the legislation of the Spanish kings, and the reports of the viceroys of Peru, display an earnest desire to protect the Indians from tyranny, and to render their condition tolerable. In 1615 the Marquis of Montes Claros impressed on his successor the importance of obliging all classes of Spaniards to treat the Indians well, and of chastising oppression with rigour. In 1681 the Count of Castellar states that one of the points most dwelt upon in the instructions given to the viceroys, and in repeated royal enactments, was the humane treatment of the Indians; and he declares that he always sought to enforce these orders from the day that he landed in Peru; and words to the same effect are to be found in the reports of most of the other viceroys.[170] But side by side with these evidences of the good intentions of the Government, is the testimony of the viceroys that their efforts to comply with these beneficent orders, and enforce these humane laws, were fruitless, and rendered of no effect by the unworthiness of their subordinates; and almost all complain of the rapid depopulation of the country. In 1620 the Prince of Esquilache reported that "the arm of the viceroy was not powerful against the negligence and maladministration of the corregidors;" in 1681 the Count of Castellar said that he had to correct and punish the excesses both of the corregidors and the curas; in 1697 the Duke of La Palata speaks of the depopulation of the villages and towns, caused by the forcible detention of the Indians to work at the mines, in cloth and cotton workshops, and in farms; and another viceroy attributes the rapid depopulation of the country to the same causes, and also to drink, and urges a closer supervision of the conduct of the corregidors and curas. I have, in a former work, given a brief account of the treatment of the Indians, and of the way in which the laws intended for their defence were evaded; from the evidence of the brothers Ulloa, who were commissioned to make a special and secret report on the subject to the King of Spain in 1740.[171] I have since collected abundant testimony to the same effect, printed and in manuscript, both at Madrid and in Peru; but I have only space for a few brief notes, which must serve to illustrate this part of the subject.