It is a matter of regret, but not of surprize, that the fourth and last part of the above Dissertation was suppressed by the very authority, the chief magistrate of Peru, whom the author compliments in closing his third part. That any portion of such a dissertation should have been allowed to meet the public view, under a government similar to that of the Spanish colonies, must appear extraordinary to those who have paid any attention to its contents. The destruction of the Indian tribes, in consequence of the hard labours to which they are subjected by the oppressive service of the mita, and which, combined with other circumstances, threaten their speedy extermination; the avowal, at the same time, that they are indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the mines; the inconsiderable produce of the mines themselves, when compared with the advantages that might be derived from them; and the cruelties exercised on the wretched negroes; are points which it is well to know, but which, it might have been expected, prudence, or the mandate of authority, would have concealed. The Academical Society of Lima has attempted to excuse the omission of the fourth part of the Dissertation, by the following
APPENDIX.
In the preceding Dissertation, the fruit of the meditations, and of the eloquent pen of our Cephalio, it has been deemed necessary to omit various particulars, which, however they may be adapted to a ministerial work, are superior to the comprehension and limits of a periodical publication, similar to that of the Peruvian Mercury. A reform which
should
