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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
principles of humanity and justice as the policy itself.5 1 To enter into a minute exposition of the early arrangement made between the Crown and the Conquerors of the country-the partition of lands-the system of revenues-and the various efforts to reduce the Indians to labor in the mines, as well as to make them adopt the Catholic Religion, would not only extend this sketch beyond our intended limits; but would lead us into a multiplicity of details which would prove more wearisome than interesting to the reader. Suffice it to say, in reference to the aborigines, that almost every human means were adopted to wring from this unfortunate race, the greatest possible amount of profit, without any regard to the precepts of the Bible or the claims of common hu- manity. The reduction to unconditional Slavery of a wild and wan- dering people, whose whole nature and habits were averse to confine- ment, and who regarded labor as one of the greatest of all calamities, was certainly a task of no easy execution; and one which the Spaniards scarcely effected after all their atrocious cruelties. The disappearance of the Aborigines under the rapacious and .sanguinary attempt at their enslavement, was like the melting of snows before the sun. The race seemed to be threatened with sudden extinction. In fifteen years from the first settlement of St Domingo, they had declined under the perse- cutions of the Spaniards, from one million, to sixty thousand-making a dreadful chasm which was sought to be filled, under the sanction of the King, by inveigling with false promises, from the neighboring Islands forty thousand Indians, who, instead of realizing the alluring prospects which had been held out to them, were doomed to toil and disappear as those wlio had gone before them. )loved to compassion by their sufferings, the venerable Las Cassas, proposed to relieve them from servitude and thus to save them from utter destruction, by the substitution of African slaves in their place-a proposition which was finally adopted, and gave rise to a regular Slave-Trade in the Spanish Dominions.- A few slaves had been sent into the New World in 1503 -eight years afterwards they were imported in larger numbers by per- mission of Ferdinand; and in 1518, the plan of Las Cassas being adopted Charles the Fifth, granted a regular license for the trade. The contract for supplying the Colonies with negroes was called the As- siento-& was a long while enjoyed by France; until transferred to England 1713 by the treaty of Utrecht. The Commerce which was carried on between the mother country and the Colonies, requires a more extended notice, on account of the singular principles upon which it was conducted. The importations from the New-world, being chiefly gold and silver., the Court of :i\Iadrid, guarded its interest with a vigilent eye; and in order that the Royal revenues might not be improperly curtailed, an arrangement was made with a few wealthv merchants of SeYille, by which the entire commer- cial intercourse between the l\Iother countrv and her American Colonies , was confided to their exclusive managem~nt. They were accordingly organised into a board of trade called "Cassa de Contratacion"; which was followed up by a Royal edict, declaring that all vessels destined for the Colonies must sail from the port of Seville; and must also, not only procure a license for the voyage from this Board; but must have their
'· 1 rNote in document]: See Zavala, page 14.
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