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Show MEXICAN PEON SLAVES. THE CURIOUS SYSTEM BY WHICH THEY ARE HELD. Tae (hamalai tad Tuejapaa of tae SUU of lolapai tad Their lllatorlc Drrad ef the Spaniard! A Strange Policy of .Noa -Inter coarse. The little town of Tuxtla is situated in the State of Chiapas, which is one j of the extreme southwestern countries of Mexico. The country Is inhabited by tribes of pure blood Indians. Each tribe speaks a separate language and all are entirely different in habits and dress. These aborigines refuse to associate with the descendants of the Spaniards or with the people of any other nationality who have settled in this Bection. They even go so far, in order to maintain their identity, as to refuse to marry into other tribes, and have strictly adhered to endogamy for more than three hundred years. The principal tribes in the state of Chiapas Chia-pas are tho Chamulas and Tenejapas. It is stated in history, that Cortez captured a beautiful Tabascan girl, who was the princess of her tribe, and made her his concubino and interpreter. interpre-ter. An account of this action of tho conqueror of Mexico has been handed down from generation to generation by the members of the Indian tribes in this and adjoining countries, and it is said to be the cause of the exceedingly exceed-ingly groat caution exercised by the Indians here in dealing with tho Spaniards Span-iards even to the present day. Tuxtla is supplied with wood and products of tho farms, eardons and orchards by tho Indiars, but tho latter is dealing with the Spaniards here pretend to be unacquainted with tho Castilian language. lan-guage. It is sail that all the tribes can speak Spanish fluently, but that they claim to be Ignorant of the language lan-guage for fear that they will be captured cap-tured and forced into slavery. Tho fear that theso Indians entertain enter-tain for the Spaniards is eo strong that they will cross to the other side of the street to avoid meeting them. Such instances aro seen here every day. The Mexican government has attempted to educate and civilize these savages and a number of schools have been established in their midst, but the Indians refuse to send their children child-ren to school and a father has often been known to pay tho schoolmaster a liberal sum in order to bo given the privilego of keeping his children at home. In this country a schoolmaster is an Important personage. He is appointed ap-pointed by the governor of the state and is vested with judicial power, it being ono of his duties to decide all questions of difference among the people. A systom of peonago or slavery is extensively carried on in Chiapas, and its workings aro novel and interesting. The slaves nearly all come from the middle class of Spaniards, and are not Indians, as is generally supposed. The usual custom is for a family who may have a boy or girl 10 or 14 years of age to take the child to some plantation planta-tion owner or family of the first class " and propose that it shall take a posl- tion as servant on condition that an advance of ton or fifteen dollars is made to the parents. The contract also generally stipulates that the child shall receive a certain amount as wages and that the sum shall be placed to its credit until tho money advanced has boon paid, when the child will again be free. As the child grows older and bocomes able to earn more money its parents, so it happens in nearly every case, apply for more money, thus piling up tho debt. When the child becomes of age it generally asks for money for Its own personal u-o, and thus bound to its master it must continue in slavery until tho debt is paid. A peon cannot change masters at his will, but he must have a written Btatemeutof his debts from his first owner, which is accepted by his now master, should one be found who is willing to advance the amount If any attempt to escape paying this debt is mado by the Blave, he is carried car-ried to jail and punlshod until he Is willing to take up the yoke again. This system of slavery is contrary to the statute law of tho country, but it has been in operation so long that in this part of tho republic it is carried on without molestation. Owing to the ignorance of the mid- die classes, it is seldom that a slave becomes acquainted with his natural rights,, and there are very few cases of rebellion. One of theso exceptional cases recently occurred In the city of San Cristobal, in this state, the slave being a young woman who was the property of ix family to whom she owed a large debt. A prominent army officer, stationed in that city at the time, became enamored of the girl. He informed her what her rights wore under tho law, and she lost no time In leaving the family, without taking smy statement of the dobt or attempting attempt-ing to find another inasUir. Owing to the influence of tho army officer all efforts of the family to have her arrested and punished were unsuccessful. |