planters with respect to the Americans and condemned the repartimientos, or diftributions, by which they were given up as flaves to their conquerors, as no lefs contrary to natural juftice and the precepts of Chriftianity, than to found policy. The Dominicans, to whom the inftruction of the Americans was originally committed, were moft vehement in teftifying against the repartimientos. In the year one thousand five hundred and eleven, Montefino, one of their moft eminent preachers, inveighed againft this practice in the great church at St. Domingo, with all the impetuofity of popular eloquence. Don Diego Columbus, the principal officers of the colony, and all the laymen who had been his hearers, complained of the monk to his fuperiors; but they, instead of condemning, applauded his doctrine, equally pious and feasonable. The Francifcans, influenced by the spirit of oppofition and rivalfhip which fubfifts between the two orders, discovered fome inclination to take part with the laity, and to espouse the defence of the repartimientos. But as they could not with decency give their avowed approbation to a system of oppreffion, fo repugnant to the spirit of religion, they endeavoured to palliate what they could not justify, and alleged, in excufe for the conduct of their countrymen, that it was impoffible to carry on any improvement in the colony, unless the Spaniards poffeffed as fuch dominion over the natives, that they could compel them to labour. t) Contrary decifions concerning this point. The Dominicans, regardless of such political and interefted confiderations, would not relax in any degree the rigour of their fentiments, and even refufed to abfolve, or admit to the facraments, fuch of their countrymen as held the natives in fervitude. u) Both parties applied to the king for his decifion in a matter of fuch importance. Ferdinand empowered a committee of his privy-council, affifted by fome of the most eminent civilians and divines in Spain, to hear the deputies fent from Hifpaniola, in fupport of their respective opinions. After a long difcuffion, the fpeculative point in controverfy was determined in favour of the Dominicans, the Indians were declared to be a free people, intitled to all the natural rights of men; but, notwithstanding this decifion, the repartimientos were continued upon their ancient footing. w) As this determination admitted the principle upon which the Do.minicans founded their opinion, it was not calculated either to filence or to convince them. t) Herrera, dec. 1. lib. viii. c. 11. Oviedo, lib. iii. c. 6. P. 97. u) Oviedo, lib. iii, c. 6. p. 97. w) Herrera, dec. 1. lib. viii. c. 12. lib. ix. c. 5. At length, in order to quiet the colony, which was alarmed by their remonftrances and cenfures, Ferdinand iffued a decree of his privycouncil, (1513.) declaring, that after mature confideration of the Apoftolick Bull, and other titles by which the crown of Castile claimed å right to its poffeffions in the New World, the fervitude of the Indians was warranted both by the laws of God and of man; that unlefs they were fubjected to the dominion of the Spaniards, and compelled to refide under their inspection; it would be impoffible to reclaim them from idolatry, or to inftruct them in the principles of the Chriftian faith; that no farther fcruple ought to be entertained concerning the lawfulnefs of the repartimientos, as the king and council were willing to take the charge of that upon their own consciences; and that therefore the Dominicans, and 'monks of other religious orders, fhould abftain, for the future, from those invectives, which, from an excefs of charitable, but ill informed zeal, they had uttered againft that practice. y) That his intention of adhering to this decree might be fully understood, Ferdinand conferred new grants of Indians upon feveral of his cour tiers. z) But, in order that he might not feem altogether inattentive to the rights of hu y) Herrera, dec. 1. lib. ix. c. 14. z) See NOTE XXV. manity, he publifhed an edict, in which he endeavoured to provide for the mild treatment of the Indians under the yoke to which he fubjected them; he regulated the nature of the work which they should be required to perform, he prefcribed the mode in which they should be clothed and fed, and gave directions with refpect to their inftruction in the principles of Christianity. a) Effect of these. But the Dominicans, who, from their experience of what was paft, judged concerning the future, foon perceived the inefficacy of those provifions, and foretold, that as long as it was the intereft of individuals to treat the Indians with rigour, no publick regulations could render their fervitude mild or tolerable. They confidered it as vain to wafte their own time and strength in attempting to communicate the fublime truths of religion to men, whose fpirits were broken, and their faculties impaired by oppreffion. Some of them, in despair, requested the permiffion of their fuperiors to remove to the continent, and to pursue the object of their miflion, among fuch of the natives as were not hitherto corrupted by the example of the Spaniards, or alienated by their cruelty from the Chriftian faith. Such as re a) Herrera, dec. 1. lib. ix, c. 14. mained in Hifpaniola continued to remonftrate, with decent firmnefs, against the fervitude of the Indians. b) Bartholomew de las Cafas appears in defence of the the The violent operations of Albuquerque, the new diftributor of Indians, revived the zeal of the Dominicans against the repartimientos, and called forth an advocate for that oppreffed people, who poffeffed all the courage, talents, and activity requifite in fupporting fuch a defperate caufe. This was Bartholomew de las Cafas, a native of Seville, and one of the clergymen fent out with Columbus in his fecond voyage to Hifpaniola, in order to fettle in that ifland. He early adopted the opinion prevalent among ecclefiafticks, with refpect to the unlawfulness of reducing the natives to fervitude; and that he might demonftrate the fincerity of his conviction, he relinquifhed all the Indians who had fallen to his own share in the divifion of the inhabitants among their conquerors, declaring that he fhould ever bewail his own misfortune and guilt, in having exercised for a moment this impious dominion over b) Hertera, dec. 1. lib. ix. c. 14. Touron. Hift. Gener. de l'Amerique, tom. i. p. 252. |