BOOK III. BOOK 1504. colony in Hispaniola. WHILE Columbus was employed in his last voyage, several events worthy of notice happened in Hispaniola. The colony there, the parent and nurse of all the subse-State of the quent establishments of Spain in the New World, gradually acquired the form of a regular and prosperous society. The humane solicitude of Isabella to protect the Indians from oppression, and particularly the proclamation by which the Spaniards were prohibited to compel them to work, retarded, it is true, for some time the progress of improvement. The natives, who considered exemption from toil as supreme felicity, scorned every allurement and reward by which they were invited to labour. The Spaniards had not a sufficient number of hands either to work the mines, or to cultivate the soil.. Several of the first colonists, who had been accustomed to the service of the Indians, quitted the island when. deprived of those instruments without which they knew not how to carry on any operation. Many of the new settlers who came over with Ovando were seized with the distempers peculiar to the climate, and in a short space about a thousand of them died. At the same time, the exacting one half of the product of the mines as the royal share, was found to be a demand so exorbitant, that no adventurers would engage to work them upon 3505. BOCK such terms. In order to save the colony from ruin, Ovando ventured to relax the rigour of the royal edicts. He made a new distribution of the Indians among the Spaniards, and compelled them to labour for a stated time, in digging the mines, or in cultivating the ground; but, in order to screen himself from the imputation of having subjected them again to servitude, he enjoined their masters to pay them a certain sum, as the price of their work. He reduced the royal share of the gold found in the mines from the half to the third part, and soon after lowered it to a fifth, at which it long remained. Notwithstanding Isabella's tender concern for the good treatment of the Indians, and Ferdinand's eager ness to improve the royal revenue, Ovando persuaded the court to approve of both these regulations". War with the Indians. But the Indians, after enjoying respite from oppression, though during a short interval, now felt the yoke of bondage to be so galling, that they made several attempts to vindicate their own liberty. This the Spaniards considered as rebellion, and took arms in order to reduce them to subjection. When war is carried on between nations whose state of improvement is in any degree similar, the means of defence bear some proportion to those employed in the attack; and in this equal contest such efforts must be made, such talents are displayed, and such passions roused, as exhibit mankind to view in a situation no less striking than interesting. It is one of the noblest functions of history, to observe and to delineate men at a juncture when their minds are most violently agitated, and all their powers and passions are called forth. Hence the operations of war, and the struggles between contending states, have been deemed by historians, ancient as well as modern, a capital and important article in the annals of human actions. But, in a contest between naked savages and one of the most warlike of the European nations, where science, courage, and discipline, on one side, were opposed by ignorance, timidity, and disorder, on the other, a particular detail of events would be as unpleasant as uninstructive. a Herrera, dec. 1. lib. v. c. 3. 1505. If the simplicity and innocence of the Indians had inspi- BOOK red the Spaniards with humanity, had softened the pride of superiority into compassion, and had induced them to improve the inhabitants of the New World instead of oppressing them, some sudden acts of violence, like the too rigorous chastisements of impatient instructors, might have been related without horror. But, unfortunately, this consciousness of superiority operated in a different manner. The Spaniards were advanced so far beyond the natives of America in improvement of every kind, that they viewed them with contempt. They conceived the Americans to be animals of an inferior nature, who were not entitled to the rights and privileges of men. In peace, they subjected them to servitude; in war, they paid no regard to those laws which, by a tacit convention between contending nations, regulate hostility, and set some bounds to its rage; they considered them not as men fighting in defence of their liberty, but as slaves who had revolted against their masters Their caziques, when taken, were condemned, like the leaders of banditti, to the most cruel and ignominious punishments; and all their subjects, without regarding the distinction of ranks established among them, were reduced to the same state of abject slavery. With such a spirit and sentiments were hostilities carried on against the cazique of Higuey, a province at the eastern extremity of the island. This war was occasioned by the perfidy of the Spaniards in violating a treaty which they had made with the natives, and it was terminated by hanging up the cazique, who defended his people with bravery so far superior to that of his countrymen as entitled him to a better fate ". and treach Ovando The conduct of Ovando, in another part of the island, The cruel was still more treacherous and cruel. The province an- erou conciently named Xaragua, which extends from the fertile duct of plain where Leogane is now situated to the western extremity of the island, was subject to a female cazique, named Anacoana, highly respected by the natives. She, from b Herrera, dec. 1. lib. vi. c. 9, 10. III. 1505. BOOK that partial fondness with which the women of America were attached to the Europeans (the cause of which shall be afterwards explained), had always courted the friendship of the Spaniards, and loaded them with benefits. But some of the adherents of Roldan, having settled in her country, were so much exasperated at her endeavouring 'to restrain their excesses, that they accused her of having formed a plan to throw off the yoke, and to exterminate the Spaniards. Ovando, though he knew well what little credit was due to such profligate men, marched, without farther inquiry, towards Xaragua, with three hundred foot and seventy horsemen. To prevent the Indians from taking alarm at this hostile appearance, he gave out that his sole intention was to visit Anacoana, to whom his countrymen had been so much indebted, in the most respectful manner, and to regulate with her the mode of levying the tribute payable to the king of Spain. Anacoana, in order to receive this illustrious guest with due honour, assembled the principal men in her dominions, to the number of three hundred, and advancing at the head of these, accompanied by a great crowd of persons of in, ferior rank, she welcomed Ovando with songs and dances, according to the mode of the country, and conducted him to the place of her residence. There he was feasted for some days, with all the kindness of simple hospitality, and amused with the games and spectacles usual among the Americans upon occasions of mirth and festivity. But, amidst the security which this inspired, Ovando was meditating the destruction of his unsuspicious entertainer and her subjects; and the mean perfidy with which he executed this scheme equalled his barbarity in forming it. Under colour of exhibiting to the Indians the parade of an European tournament, he advanced with his troops, in battle array, towards the house in which Anacoana and the chiefs who attended her were assembled. The infantry took possession of all the avenues which led to the village. The horsemen encompassed the house. These movements were the object of admiration without any mixture of fear; III. until, upon a signal which had been concerted, the Spa- BOOK niards suddenly drew their swords, and rushed upon the Indians, defenceless, and astonished at an act of treachery which exceeded the conception of undesigning men. In 15051 of the In a moment Anacoana was secured. All her attendants were seized and bound. Fire was set to the house; and, without examination or conviction, all these unhappy persons, the most illustrious in their own country, were consumed in the flames. Anacoana was reserved for a more ignominious fate. She was carried in chains to St Do mingo, and, after the formality of a trial before Spanish judges, she was condemned, upon the evidence of those very men who had betrayed her, to be publicly hanged . Overawed and humbled by this atrocious treatment of Reduction their princes and nobles, who were objects of their highest dians, and reverence, the people in all the provinces of Hispaniola its effects. submitted, without farther resistance, to the Spanish yoke. Upon the death of Isabella, all the regulations tending to mitigate the rigour of their servitude were forgotten. The small gratuity paid to them as the price of their labour was withdrawn; and at the same time the tasks imposed upon them were increased. Ovando, without any restraint, 1506 distributed Indians among his friends in the island. Ferdinand, to whom the queen had left by will one half of the revenue arising from the settlements in the New World, conferred grants of a similar nature upon his courtiers, as the least expensive mode of rewarding their services. They farmed out the Indians, of whom they were rendered proprietors, to their countrymen settled in Hispaniola; and that wretched people, being compelled to labour, in order to satisfy the rapacity of both, the exactions of their oppressors no longer knew any bounds. But, barbarous as their policy was, and fatal to the inhabitants of Hispaniola, it produced, for some time, very considerable effects. By calling forth the force of a whole nation, and exerting, e Oviedo, lib. iii. c. 12. Herrera, dec. 1. lib. vi. c. 4. Relacion de destruyc. de las Indias, por Bart. de las Casas, p. 8. |