1542.

the former the most intriguing prince of the BOOK age, VI. and the latter the most ambitious, was encumbered with fuch a multiplicity of fchemes, and involved in war with so many nations of Europe, that he had not leifure to attend to diftant and lefs interesting objects. The care of profecuting dif covery, or of attempting conqueft, was abandoned to individuals; and with fuch ardour did men push forward in this new career, on which novelty, the spirit of adventure, avarice, ambition, and the hope of meriting heaven, prompted them with combined influence to enter, that in less than half a century almost the whole of that extenfive empire which Spain now poffeffes in the New World, was subjected to its dominion. As the Spanish court contributed nothing towards the various expeditions undertaken in America, it was not entitled to claim much from their fuccefs. The fovereignty of the conquered provinces, with the fifth of the gold and filver, was referved for the crown; every thing else was feized by the affociates in each expedition as their own right. The plunder of the countries which they invaded ferved to indemnify them. for what they had expended in equipping themfelves for the fervice, and the conquered territory was divided among them, according to rules which custom had introduced, as permanent eftablifhn.ents which their fuccefsful valour merited.

VI.

$542.

BOOK In the infancy of those settlements, when their extent as well as their value were unknown, many irregularities efcaped obfervation, and it was found necessary to connive at many excesses, The conquered people were frequently pillaged with destructive rapacity, and their country parcelled out among its new masters in exorbitant fhares, far exceeding the highest recompence due to their fervices. The rude conquerors of America, incapable of forming their eftablishments upon any general or extenfive plan of policy, attentive only to private interest, unwilling to forego prefent gain from the prospect of remote or public benefit, feem to have had no object but to amass fudden wealth, without regarding what might be the confequences of the means by which they acquired it. But when time at length discovered to the Spanish court the importance of its American poffeffions, the neceffity of new-modelling their whole frame became obvious, and in place of the maxims and practices, prevalent among military adventurers, it was found requifite to fubftitute the inftitutions of regular government.

ONE evil in particular called for an immediate remedy. The conquerors of Mexico and Peru imitated the fatal example of their countrymen fettled in the islands, and employed themselves in

fearch

E

VI.

1542.

fearching for gold and filver with the fame incon- BOOK fiderate eagerness. Similar effects followed. The natives employed in this labour by masters, who in impofing tasks had no regard either to what they felt or to what they were able to perform, pined away and perished so fast, that there was reason to apprehend that Spain, instead of poffeffing countries peopled to fuch a degree as to be fufceptible of progreffive improvement, would foon remain proprietor only of a vast uninhabited defert.

THE emperor and his minifters were fo fenfible of this, and fo folicitous to prevent the extinction of the Indian race, which threatened to render their acquifitions of no value, that from time to time various laws, which I have mentioned, had been made for fecuring to that unhappy people more gentle and equitable treatment. But the diftance of America from the feat of empire, the feeblenefs of government in the new colonies, the avarice and audacity of foldiers unaccustomed to restraint, prevented these falutary regulations from operating with any confiderable influence. The evil continued to grow, and at this time the emperor found an interval of leifure from the affairs of Europe to take it into attentive confideration. He confulted The perfons not only with his minifters and the members of he advifes.

with whom

BOOK the council of the Indies, but called upon feveral

VI.

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perfons who had refided long in the New World, to aid them with the refult of their experience and obfervation. Fortunately for the people of America, among these was Bartholomew de las Cafas, who happened to be then at Madrid on a miffion from a Chapter of his order at Chiapa . Though, fince the mifcarriage of his former fchemes for the relief of the Indians, he had continued fhut up in his cloifter, or occupied in religious functions, his zeal in behalf of the former objects of his pity was fo far from abating, that, from an increased knowledge of their fufferings, its ardour had augmented. He feized eagerly this opportunity of reviving his favourite maxims concerning the treatment of the Indians. With the moving eloquence natural to a man on whofe mind the fcenes which he had beheld had made a deep impreffion, he defcribed the irreparable wafte of the human fpecies in the New World, the Indian race almoft totally swept away in the islands in less than fifty years, and haftening to extinction on the continent with the fame rapid decay. With the decifive tone of one ftrongly prepoffeffed with the truth of his own fyftem, he imputed all this to a fingle caufe, to the exactions and cruelty

Remefal Hift. de Chiapa, p. 146.

of

VI.

1542.

of his countrymen, and contended that nothing BOOK could prevent the depopulation of America, but the declaring of its natives to be freemen, and treating them as fubjects, not as flaves. Nor did he confide for the fuccefs of this propofal in the powers of his oratory alone. In order to enforce them, he compofed his famous treatise concerning the destruction of America", in which he relates, with many horrid circumftances, but with apparent marks of exaggerated defcription, the devastation of every province which had been vifited by the Spaniards.

His folici

tude to in

troduce a

formation

ment.

THE emperor was deeply afflicted with the recital of fo many actions fhocking to humanity. But as his views extended far beyond thofe of general 16Las Cafas, he perceived that relieving the Indians of governfrom oppreffion was but one step towards rendering his poffeffions in the New World a valuable acquifition, and would be of little avail, unless he could circumfcribe the power and ufurpations of his own fubjects there. The conquerors of America, however great their merit had been towards their country, were moftly perfons of fuch mean birth, and of fuch an abject rank in fociety, as gave no distinction in the eye of monarch. The exorbitant wealth with which

Remefal, p. 192. 199.

fome