Note 37 — PART I

The Mestizos are the next class of men who inhabit these islands: under this name are not only included the descendants of Spaniards by Indian women and their progeny, but also those of the Chinese, who are in general whiter than either parent, and carefully distinguish themselves from the Indians. The Mestizos are, as the name denotes, a mixed class, and, with the creoles of the country, like those of all colonies, when uncorrected by an European education, inherit the vices of both progenitors, with but few of the virtues of either. Their character has but few marked traits; the principal ones are their vanity, industry, and trading ingenuity: as to the rest, money is their god; to obtain it they take all shapes, promise and betray, submit to everything, trample and are trampled on; all is alike to them, if they get money; and this, when obtained, they dissipate in lawsuits, firing cannon, fireworks, illuminations, processions on feast days and rejoicings, in gifts to the churches, or in gambling. This anomaly of actions is the business of their lives. Too proud to consider themselves as Indians, and not sufficiently pure in blood to be acknowledged as Spaniards, they affect the manners of the last, with the dress of the first, and despising, are despised by both.37 They however, cautiously mark on all occasions the lines which separate them from the Indians, and have their own processions, ceremonies, inferior officers of justice, &c., &c. The Indian repays them with a keen contempt, not unmixed with hatred. And these feuds, while they contribute to the safety of a government too imbecile and corrupt to unite the good wishes of all classes, have not unfrequently given rise to affrays which have polluted even the churches and their altars with blood.