71 Yet the different races continued to
be distinguished by difference of dress; since, by the law of the land,
every citizen was required to wear the costume of his native province.72
Neither could the colonist, who had been thus unceremoniously
transplanted, return to his native district for, by another law, it was
forbidden to any one to change his residence without license.73 He was
settled for life. The Peruvian government ascribed to every man his
local habitation, his sphere of action, nay, the very nature and quality of
that action. He ceased to be a free agent; it might be almost said, that it
relieved him of personal responsibility.
In following out this singular arrangement, the Incas showed as much
regard for the comfort and convenience of the colonist as was compatible
with the execution of their design. They were careful that the mitimaes,
as these emigrants were styled, should be removed to climates most
congenial with their own. The inhabitants of the cold countries were not
transplanted to the warm, nor the inhabitants of the warm countries to the
cold.74 Even their habitual occupations were consulted, and the
fisherman was settled in the neighborhood of the ocean, or the great
lakes; while such lands were assigned to the husbandman as were best
adapted to the culture with which he was most familiar.
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