consideration the means of redressing the evil of which he complained. But death prevented him from executing his resolutions. Charles of Austria, to whom all his crowns devolved, appointed cardinal Ximenes his regent. With him Las Casas pleaded the cause of the Indians, and obtained a commission from the monks of St. Jerome to go to America and examine their situation, and give them every relief that the case admitted.Las Casas was appointed to accompany them, with

the title of Protector of the Indians. The fathers of St. Jerome proceeded with caution and prudence; and having compared different accounts, and maturely considered every thing connected with the subject, they determined that the Spaniards must relinquish their conquests entirely, or give up the advantages to be derived from them, unless the repartimientos were tolerated. They used, however, their utmost endeavours to prevent the fatal effects of this establishment, and to secure to the Indians the consolation of the best treatment compatible with a state of servitude.

With these decisions, Las Casas, of all the Spaniards, was alone dissatisfied. He contended, that the Indians were by nature free, and, as their protector, he required the superintendants not to bereave them of the common privilege of humanity. They received his most virulent remonstrances with emotion, but adhered firmly to their own system. The Spanish planters did not bear with him so patiently, but were ready to tear him in pieces for insisting on a requisition so odious.-Las Casas found it necessary to take shelter in a convent; and perceiving that his efforts were fruitless, he soon set out for Europe, with a fixed

resolution never to abandon the people in whose cause he had engaged. When he arrived, he found Ximenes declining in health, and preparing to resign his authority to the young king. Him Las Casas plied with intercessions in behalf of the Americans, and at length obtained the recal of the monks of St. Jerome, and a new commission was appointed to examine their claims, and to alleviate their sufferings.

The impossibility of carrying on any improvement in America, unless the Spanish planters could command the labour of the natives, was an insuperable objection to his plan of treating them as free subjects. In order to provide some remedy for this, without which he knew it would be vain to mention his scheme, Las Casas proposed to purchase a sufficient number of negroes from the Portuguese settlements on the coast of Africa, and to transport them to America, that they might be employed as slaves in working the mines and cultivating the ground. One of the first advantages which the Portuguese had derived from their discoveries in Africa arose from the trade in slaves. Various circumstances concurred in reviving the odious and diabolical commerce which had been long abolished in Europe, and which is no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to the principles of religion. Some negro slaves had already been sent into the New World, who were found more robust and hardy than the natives, more capable of fatigue, more patient under servitude; and the labour of one negro was computed to be équal to that of four Indians. Cardinal Ximenes rejected this species of commerce, because he perceived the iniquity of reducing one race of men to slavery, while he VOL. XXIV. G

was consulting about the means of restoring liberty to another. Las Casas, however, seemed incapable of making this distinction. Whilst he contended zealously for the liberty of the people born in one quarter of the globe, he laboured to enslave the inhabitants of another region, and, in the warmth of his zeal to save the Americans from the yoke, pronounced it awful and expedient to impose one still heavier upon the Africans. Unfortunately for the latter, Las Casas's plan was adopted. Charles granted to a favourite a patent, containing an exclusive right of importing four thousand negroes into America. The favourite sold his patent to some Genoese merchants for twenty-five thousand ducats, and they were the first who brought into a regular form that commerce for slaves between Africa and America, which has since been carried on to such an amazing extent.

But the Genoese demanded such an high price for negroes, that the number imported into Hispaniola made but little change upon the state of the colony. Las Casas, whose ardour was no less inventive than indefatigable, had recourse to another expedient for the relief of the Indians. He applied for a grant of unoccupied country, stretching along the coast from the Gulf of Paria to the western frontier of that province, now known by the name of Santa Martha, intending to form there a new colony consisting of husbandmen, labourers, and ecclesiastics. After long and tedious discussions on the subject, his request was granted: but having fairly made the experiment, he was obliged to abandon it, having lost most of the people who accompanied him in his project. From that time Las Casas, ashamed to show his face,

shut himself up in the convent of the Dominicans at St. Domingo, and soon after assumed the habit of that order. But it is time to return to the Spanish discoveries.

Velasquez, who conquered Cuba, still retained the government of that island as the deputy of Diego Columbus ; and under his prudent administration Cuba became one of the most flourishing of the Spanish settlements. The fame of this allured thither many persons from the other colonies, in hopes of finding either some permanent establishment, or some employment for their activity. As Cuba lay to the west of all the islands occupied by the Spaniards, and as the ocean which stretches beyond it towards that quarter had not hitherto been explored, these circumstances naturally invited the inhabitants to attempt new discoveries. An association was formed for this purpose, at the head of which was Francisco Hernandez Cordova, Velasquez approved of the design, and assisted in carrying it on. He and Cordova

A. D.

1517.

advanced money for the purchase of three small vessels, on which they embarked one hundred and ten men. They stood directly west, in conformity to the opinion of the great Columbus, who uniformly maintained, that a westerly course would lead to the most important discoveries. On the twenty-first day after their departure from St. Jago they saw land, which proved to be the eastern point of the large peninsula of Yucatan. As they approached the shore, five canoes came off full of people decently clad in cotton garments. Cordova endeavoured by small presents to gain the good will of these people. They, in return, invited the Spaniards to visit their habitations, with an appearance of

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cordiality but they soon found that, if the people of Yucatan made progress in improvement be yond their countrymen, they were likewise more artful and warlike. For though the cazique received Cordova with many tokens of friendship, he had posted a considerable body of his subjects in an ambush behind a thicket, who, upon a signal given, rushed out and attacked the Spaniards with great boldness, and some degree of martial order. At the first flight of their arrows, fifteen of the Spaniards were wounded; but the Indians were struck with terror by the explosion of the fire arms, and so surprised at the execution done by them with the cross-bows, that they fled precipitately. Cordova quitted a country where he had met with such a fierce reception, carrying off two prisoners, together with the ornaments of a small temple, which he plundered in his retreat. continued his course towards the west, and on the sixteenth day arrived at Campeachy, where the natives received him hospitably. As their water began to fail, they advanced and discovered a river at Potonchan, some leagues beyond Campeachy. Cordova landed his troops in order to protect the sailors while employed in filling the casks; but notwithstanding this precaution, the natives rushed down upon them with such fury, and in such numbers, that forty-seven of the Spaniards were killed on the spot, and one man only of the whole body escaped unhurt. After this fatal repulse, nothing remained but to hasten back to Cuba with their shattered forces. In their passage they suffered exquisite distress for want of water: some of them sunk under these calamities, and died by the way. Cordova, their commander, expired soon after they landed at Cuba.