returned the Indian queftion again upon their hands, faying that it must be placed upon the bafis arranged in Ifabella's will, which pronounced the Indians to be free men. Again, in the inftructions, before alluded to, which were given in 1514 to Pedrarias, the governor of Darien, the king makes a suggestion which may thus be paraphrafed. thus be paraphrased. You will have to confult your principal men about making war; but remember that it is their intereft to obtain Indians by war, therefore allow for that in any credit you may give to their advice. Liften rather to the Bishop of Darien and the priests who accompany him, who are lefs likely to be guided by paffion and felf-intereft than the reft. This is humane and confiderate, especially when we recollect that the king himself was one of those who profited by wars with the Indians, as he received a share of the prisoners taken in war. If it is faid, that at this period of his life, his affairs were mainly managed by his ministers (though I think this cannot be maintained), and that these inftructions to Pedrarias, for example, were not his, then in that cafe, he must be relieved from much of the refponfibility of the injudicious measures paffed at that time. With regard to the perfonal treatment of the Indians, my readers will have feen, that in fome of the king's letters there are minute orders for the good treatment of his new fubjects. It were certainly to be wished that he had repreffed the general ardour for getting gold, instead of encouraging it. But we must remember the neceffities which his wars brought upon him. In one of his short letters to Don Diego Columbus, he fays, "no gold refts" with us; and his last letter to his fucceffor, Charles the Fifth, in which Ferdinand commends, in the most touching manner, Germane his queen to Charles's protection, fhows the deftitute state, as regards money, in which the king died. Again, whatever may be charged against Ferdinand, it cannot be faid that he knowingly sent inferior men to take authority in the Indies. Bobadilla's appointment was a pure mistake; Ferdinand and Isabella supposed that they had chofen a high-minded, just man, while in reality he was a narrow-minded, hard, short-seeing man—a fort of mistake that has frequently occurred. But I am not aware that there is any other inftance of a manifeftly bad appointment having been made by Ferdinand, or of any appointment having been made from corrupt motives. It is probable that in later life Ferdinand trufted too much to his minifters; and it must always be the cafe in a pure monarchy, that it partakes of the failings of one man, and its action grows feeble as his powers decay.* The affairs, however, of Spain and of the Indies would have gone well enough, if all the powers of the ftate had been as well represented as the head of it was by the general ability and worth of Ferdinand. The laft notice that I have been able to find of what were King Ferdinand's views with regard to the importation of negroes in the Indies, is to be seen in a letter of his, very briefly expreffed, in which, replying to a request of the Bishop of La Concepcion in Hifpaniola, that more negroes fhould be imported, the king fays, that there are already many negroes, and that it may bring inconvenience (a thoroughly official phrase) if more male negroes should be introduced into the island.† Petyr Martyr speaking of the king in the year 1513, fays, "Non idem eft vultus, non eadem facilitas in audiendo, non eadem "lenitas.”—Epist. 529. † Valladolid 27 de Setiembre de 1514. Rey á Don Pedro Suarez de Deza obispo de la Concepcion. "Para mas presto acabar la Iglefia podréis pasar diez escla"vos. Decis que aí aprueban los esclavos negros i combendrá "pafen mas. Siendo varones no, pues parece que hay muchos i "podra traer incombeniente.”—Coleccion de Muñoz, MS. tomo 90. 216 CHAPTER VII. THE ADMINISTRATION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS BY T the time of Ferdinand's death, Juana, the occupant of the throne of Castile (for Ferdinand was but regent), and the immediate heirefs of that of Aragon, was infane; and her eldest son, Charles the Fifth, was but in his fixteenth year. Ferdinand, therefore, nominated by will a regent to the kingdom, choofing the celebrated Cardinal Ximenes for that office. The king, when difcuffing on his death-bed the question of the regency, is faid to have expreffed himself thus: "If we could make a man " for the occafion, I should wish for a more tract"able one than Ximenes; for to deal with the ways of men every day degenerating, after the rigorous old fashion which Ximenes holds by, "is wont to create difficulties in a state." But the king went on to say, that the integrity and justness of Ximenes were qualities of the first order; and then, again, that he had no connexions among the great nobles, and no private friendships which he would give way to; moreover, mindful of the benefits he had received from Ferdinand and Ifabella, he had been very intent upon their affairs; and, as the king concluded by saying, "Ximenes "has shown conftant and clear examples that he " is of our mint, if I may fo express myself.” * As there is good reason to think that Ferdinand had no especial liking for the cardinal, the king's choice does both of them the more credit. And, indeed, of all the men of those times in that kingdom, there was not one whom we read anything of, to be compared with Ximenes, especially in the faculty for government. There is now then Hope for some hope that, fhould he turn his attention to Indian affairs, fomething diftinct and forcible will be done in them. Adrian, the Dean of Louvain, who had been Charles the Fifth's tutor, and who, in the latter days of Ferdinand, had been sent to Spain to watch over the prince's interests, produced powers from the young prince, nominating him (Adrian) to the government. Ximenes would not admit the validity of these powers, it being contended on his fide that the regency of Caftile had been left * Gomecius de rebus geftis Ximenii, folio, Francofurti, p. 166. the Indies |