the oppression of the strong; that as these oppressed ones died away, he collected the survivors together again, like a pack of cards, and dealt them out anew to those whom he favored, thus mingling folly with cruelty, till nature pronounced against his government by its desolation.* * "En tiempo de los dichos ocho años que aquel gobernó, perecieron mas de las nueve de diez partes."-LAS CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. ii., cap. 14. CHAPTER I. DON DIEGO COLUMBUS LANDS AT ST. DOMINGO. NEW REPAR TIMIENTOS.-EARLIEST NOTICE OF LAS CASAS. — ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST DOMINICAN FRIARS. HISPANIOLA DISPEOPLED.MODES OF REPLENISHING THE CULONY WITH INDIANS. NEGROES IN THE INDIES. CHAPTER II. THE DOMINICANS PROTEST AGAINST INDIAN SLAVERY.-FATHER BOTH THE COLONISTS AND THE MONKS ANTONIO'S SERMON. APPEAL TO SPAIN.-FATHER ANTONIO SEES THE KING. THE LAWS OF BURGOS. CHAPTER I. DON DIEGO COLUMBUS LANDS AT ST. DOMINGO.-NEW REPARTIMIENTOS.-EARLIEST NOTICE OF LAS CASAS.-ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST DOMINICAN FRIARS.-HISPANIOLA DISPEOPLED.-MODES OF REPLENISHING THE COLONY WITH INDIANS.-NEGROES IN THE INDIES. IN N the midst of the crash of dynasties, the downfall of kingdoms, and the wild havoc in great cities which prevails in these unquiet times,* the study of any transaction which occurred a long while ago, which may not be dramatic, or, at least, not of the same liveliness as the present proceedings in the world, and which derives most of its importance from the largeness of the result, and not from the imposing presence of the means, seems somewhat tame and profitless. And, indeed, in all stirring periods, those engaged in the ordinary affairs of life, especially those who are students, whether readers or writers, feel as if they had been left behind, or as a man sitting in a gloomy room, confined by ill health or dull business, while at intervals comes in the merry noise of boisterous children playing in the sun. The But these feelings and fancies are fallacious. essential greatness of a thing often lies altogether in the principle upon which it is done. The mere physical fate of empires, monarchies, and popedoms, much less of mere swarms of thoughtless people, may not be * Written A.D. 1848. equal in depth and significance to one man's one sin; nor, on the other hand, is a great example of duty performed, though of a simple character (as we shall find in this coming chapter of the doings of some poor monks), to be postponed in consideration to the most loud-sounding battle-fields and ever so much.frivolous slaughter. There is a similar thing in fiction: an old Greek drama, which shall have but one mind brought before you greatly tortured by conflicting passions and duties, presents some picture of the universe, throws a sudden light down into the abysses of human misery and madness, and rivets the attention immeasurably more than an ill-told, inconsequent tragedy, in which, however, the deaths may be as numerous as the perplexed spectator can desire. Still less is the benefit which may be derived from the study of history to be measured by the noise and pageantry of the things recorded, but rather by the examples they afford and the formation of character they give rise to. Men have not outgrown the aid which history might afford them: duty-political duty --still requires to be expounded and inculcated; greatness is not yet fully understood; and to revert to the image used above, the man who would come down from his dull chamber and play well with those children in the sun, had better have made up his mind in quiet of what it is well to play at, and what should be the rules of the game. So, too, the student of the records of Spanish America may be content, in the midst of all this present tumult, to go on quietly with his work, and make the most he can of a story which will show what the vain doctrines and desires of men, their cruelty, their piety, and their charity, all mingling together, did with the |