CHAPTER XII. 1734–1760.

The collection of tributes was not effected invariably in the same manner throughout the territory of New Spain. In Mexico the Administrador-General imposed this task on the justices whose duty it was to watch over the Indians. The aborigines in the capital were divided into two sections, one comprising the Tenochas of San Juan, and the other the Tlaltelolcos of Santiago, both of which had their governors and other police officers, according to Spanish custom. The first of these bands, dwelling on the north and east of the capital, was, in the olden time, the most powerful and noble, and at that period numbered five thousand nine hundred families. The other division, existing on the west and south, was reduced to two thousand five hundred families. In the several provinces of the viceroyalty the Indian tributes were collected through the intervention of one hundred and forty-nine chief alcaldes who governed them, and who, before they took possession of their offices, were required to give security for the tribute taxed within their jurisdiction. The frontier provinces of this vast territory, inhabited only by garrisons, and a few scattered colonists, were exempt from this odious charge. In all the various sections of the nation, however, the Indians were accurately enumerated. Two natives were taxed together, in order to facilitate the collection by making both responsible, and, every four months, from this united pair, six reales were collected, making in all eighteen in the course of the year. This gross tax of two dollars and twenty-five cents was divided as follows: eight reales were taxed as tribute;—four for the royal service;—four and a half as commutation for a half fanega of corn which was due to the royal granary;—half a real for the