III. 1506. BOOK it in one direction, the working of the mines was carried on with amazing rapidity and success. During several years, the gold brought into the royal smelting-houses in Hispaniola amounted annually to four hundred and sixty thousand pesos, above a hundred thousand pounds sterling; which, if we attend to the great change in the value of money since the beginning of the sixteenth century to the present times, must appear a considerable sum. Vast fortunes were created of a sudden by some; others dissipated, in ostentatious profusion, what they acquired with facility. Dazzled by both, new adventurers crowded to America, with the most eager impatience, to share in those treasures which had enriched their countrymen; and, notwithstanding the mortality occasioned by the unhealthiness of the climate, the colony continued to increase a. Progress of the co lony. Ovando governed the Spaniards with wisdom and justice, not inferior to the rigour with which he treated the Indians. He established equal laws, and, by executing them with impartiality, accustomed the people of the colony to reverence them. He founded several new towns in different parts of the island, and allured inhabitants to them, by the concession of various immunities. He endeavoured to turn the attention of the Spaniards to some branch of industry more useful than that of searching for gold in the mines. Some slips of the sugar cane having been brought from the Canary islands, by way of experiment, they were found to thrive with such increase in the rich soil and warm climate to which they were transplanted, that the cultivation of them soon became an object of commerce. Extensive plantations were begun; sugar-works, which the Spaniards called ingenios, from the various machinery employed in them, were erected, and in a few years the manufacture of this commodity was the great occupation of the inhabitants of Hispaniola, and the most considerable source of their wealth, nand. 1507. The prudent endeavours of Ovando to promote the 1506. welfare of the colony, were powerfully seconded by Fer-Political regulation dinand. The large remittances which he received from of Ferdithe New World opened his eyes, at length, with respect to the importance of those discoveries which he had hitherto affected to undervalue. Fortune and his own address having now extricated him out of those difficulties in which he had been involved by the death of his queen, and by his disputes with his son-in-law about the government of her dominions, he had full leisure to turn his attention to the affairs of America. To his provident sagacity Spain is indebted for many of those regulations which gradually formed that system of profound but jealous policy by which she governs her dominions in the New World. He erected a court, distinguished by the title of the casa de contratacion, or board of trade, composed of persons eminent for rank and abilities, to whom he committed the administration of American affairs. This board assembled regularly in Seville, and was invested with a distinct and extensive jurisdiction. He gave a regular form to ecclesiastical government in America, by nominating archbishops, bishops, deans, together with clergymen of subordinate ranks, to take charge of the Spaniards established there, as well as of the natives who should embrace the Christian faith. But, notwithstanding the obsequious devotion of the Spanish court to the papal see, such was Ferdinand's solicitude to prevent any foreign power from claiming jurisdiction, or acquiring influence in his new dominions, that he reserved to the crown of Spain the sole right of patronage to the benefices in America, and stipulated, that no papal bull or mandate should be promulgated there, until it was previously examined and approved of by his council. With the same spirit of jealousy he prohibited any goods to be exported to America, or any person to settle there, without a speeial licence from that councils. * Hist. of the reign of Charles V. vol ií. p. 6, &. 3 BOOK III. 1507. The num Indians di mishes fast. But, notwithstanding this attention to the police and welfare of the colony, a calamity impended which threatened its dissolution. The original inhabitants, on whose ber of the labour the Spaniards in Hispaniola depended for their prosperity, and even their existence, wasted so fast, that the extinction of the whole race seemed to be inevitable. When Columbus discovered Hispaniola, the number of its inhabitants was computed to be at least a million". They were now reduced to sixty thousand in the space of fifteen years. This consumption of the human species, no less amazing than rapid, was the effect of several con. curring causes. The natives of the American islands were of a more feeble constitution than the inhabitants of the other hemisphere; they could neither perform the same work, nor endure the same fatigue, with men whose organs were of a more vigorous conformation. The listless indolence in which they delighted to pass their days, as it was the effect of their debility, contributed likewise to increase it, and rendered them, from habit as well as constitution, incapable of hard labour. The food on which they subsisted afforded little nourishment, and they were accustomed to take it in small quantities, not sufficient to invigorate a languid frame, and render it equal to the efforts of active industry. The Spaniards, without attending to those peculiarities in the constitution of the Americans, imposed tasks upon them, which, though not greater than Europeans might have performed with ease, were so disproportioned to their strength, that many sunk under the fatigue, and ended their wretched days. Others, prompted by impatience and despair, cut short their own lives with a violent hand. Famine, brought on by compelling such numbers to abandon the culture of their lands in order to labour in the mines, proved fatal to many. Diseases of various kinds, some occasioned by the hardships to which they were exposed, and others by their intercourse with the Europeans, who communicated to them some of their peculiar maladies, completed the de Herrera, dec. 1. lib. x. c. 12. III. 1507. solation of the island. The Spaniards being thus deprived BOOK of the instruments which they were accustomed to employ, found it impossible to extend their improvements, or even to carry on the works which they had already begun. In order to provide an immediate remedy for 1508. an evil so alarming, Ovando proposed to transport the inhabitants of the Lucayo islands to Hispaniola, under pretence that they might be civilized with more facility, and instructed to greater advantage in the Christian religion, if they were united to the Spanish colony, and placed under the immediate inspection of the missionaries settled there. Ferdinand, deceived by this artifice, or willing to connive at an act of violence which policy represented as necessary, gave his assent to the proposal. Several vessels were fitted out for the Lucayos, the commanders of which informed the natives, with whose language they were now well acquainted, that they came from a delicious country, in which the departed ancestors of the Indians resided, by whom they were sent to invite their descendants to resort thither, to partake of the bliss enjoyed there by happy spirits. That simple people listened with wonder and credulity; and, fond of visiting their relations and friends in that happy region, followed the Spaniards with eagerness. By this artifice above forty thousand were decoyed into Hispaniola, to share in the sufferings which were the lot of the inhabitants of that island, and to mingle their groans and tears with those of that wretched race of men1. The Spaniards had, for some time, carried on their New disoperations in the mines of Hispaniola with such ardour, coveries as well as success, that these seemed to have engrossed ments. their whole attention. The spirit of discovery languished; and, since the last voyage of Columbus, no enterprise of any moment had been undertaken. But, as the decrease of the Indians rendered it impossible to acquire wealth in that island with the same rapidity as formerly, this ¡ Herrera, dec. 1. lib. vii. c. 3. Oviedo, lib. iii. c. 6. Gomara, Hist. c. 41. BOOK III. 1508. urged some of the more adventurous Spaniards to search for new countries, where their avarice might be gratified with more facility. Juan Ponce de Leon, who commanded under Ovando in the eastern district of Hispaniola, passed over to the island of St Juan de Puerto Rico, which Columbus had discovered in his second voyage, and penetrated into the interior part of the country. As he found the soil to be fertile, and expected, from some symptoms, as well as from the information of the inhabitants, to discover mines of gold in the mountains, Ovando permitted him to attempt making a settlement in the island. This was easily effected by an officer eminent for conduct no less than for courage. In a few years Puerto Rico was subjected to the Spanish government, the natives were reduced to servitude; and, being treated with the same inconsiderate rigour as their neighbours in Hispaniola, the race of original inhabitants, worn out with fatigue and sufferings, was soon exterminated *. About the same time Juan Diaz de Solis, in conjunction with Vincent Yanez Pinzon, one of Columbus's original companions, made a voyage to the continent. They held the same course which Columbus had taken, as far as to the island of Guanaios; but, standing from thence to the west, they discovered a new and extensive province, afterwards known by the name of Yucatan, and proceeded a considerable way along the coast of that country'. Though nothing memorable occurred in this voyage, it deserves notice, because it led to discoveries of greater importance. For the same reason, the voyage of Sebastian de Ocampo must be mentioned. By the command of Ovando he sailed round Cuba, and first discovered, with certainty, that this country, which Columbus once supposed to be a part of the continent, was a large island m. Herrera, dec. 1. lib. vii. c. 1-4. Gomara, Hist. c. 44. Relacion de B. de las Casas, p. 10, 1 Herrera, dec. 1. lib. vi. c. 17. Ibid, dec. 1, lib. vi. c. 1. |