In the same manner as at the Lucayas, other Islands of the West Indies, and different parts of the Continent, were resorted to for recruits. A pearl fishery was established, in which the Indians were not more spared as divers, than on the land as miners.
Porto Rico was conquered at this time. Fate of the native Inhabitants of Porto Rico. Ore had been brought thence, which was not so pure as that of Hayti; but it was of sufficient value to determine Ovando to the conquest of the Island. The Islanders were terrified by the carnage which the Spaniards with their dogs made in the commencement of the war, and, from the fear of irritating them by further resistance, they yielded wholly at discretion, and were immediately sent to the mines, where in a short time they all perished. In the same year with Porto Rico, the Island of Jamaica was taken possession of by the Spaniards.
1509. D. Diego Columbus, Governor of Hispaniola. Ovando was at length recalled, and was succeeded in the government of Hispaniola by Don Diego Columbus, the eldest son and inheritor of the rights and titles of the Admiral Christopher. To conclude with Ovando, it is related that he was regretted by his countrymen in the Indies, and was well received at Court.
Don Diego did not make any alteration in the repartimientos, except that some of them changed hands in favour of his own adherents. During his government, some fathers of the Dominican Order had the courage to inveigh from the pulpit against the enormity of the repartimientos, and were so persevering in their representations, that the Court of Spain found it necessary, to avoid scandal, to order an enquiry into the condition of the Indians. In this enquiry it was seriously disputed, whether it was just or unjust to make them slaves.
1511. Increase of Cattle in Hayti. The Histories of Hispaniola first notice about this time a great increase in the number of cattle in the Island. As the human race disappeared, less and less land was occupied in husbandry, till almost the whole country became pasturage for cattle, by far the greater part of which were wild. An ordonnance, issued in the year 1511, specified, that as beasts of burthen were so much multiplied, the Indians should not be made to carry or drag heavy loads.
Cuba. In 1511, the conquest of Cuba was undertaken and completed. The terror conceived of the Spaniards is not to be expressed. The story of the conquest is related in a Spanish history in the following terms: 'A leader was chosen, who had acquitted himself in high employments with fortune and good conduct. He had in other respects amiable qualities, and was esteemed a man of honour and rectitude. He went from S. Domingo with regular troops and above 300 volunteers. He landed in Cuba, not without opposition from the natives. In a few days, he surprised and took the principal Cacique, named Hatuey, prisoner, and made him expiate in the flames the fault he had been guilty of in not submitting with a good grace to the conqueror.' This Cacique, when at the stake, being importuned by a Spanish priest to become a Christian, that he might go to Heaven, replied, that if any Spaniard was to be met in Heaven, he hoped not to go there.
1514. The Reader will be detained a very little longer with these irksome scenes. In 1514, the number of the inhabitants of Hayti was reckoned 14,000. A distributor of Indians was appointed, with powers independent of the Governor, with intention to save the few remaining natives of Hayti. The new distributor began the exercise of his office by a general revocation of all the encomiendas, except those which had been granted by the King; and almost immediately afterwards, in the most open and shameless manner, he made new grants, and sold them to the highest bidder. 1515. He was speedily recalled; and another (the Licentiate Ybarra) was sent to supply his place, who had a high character for probity and resolution; but he died immediately on his arrival at Santo Domingo, and not without suspicion that he was poisoned.
Bart. de las Casas, and Cardinal Ximenes; their endeavours to serve the Indians. The Cardinal dies. The endeavours of the Dominican Friars in behalf of the natives were seconded by the Licentiate Bartolomeo de las Casas, and by Cardinal Ximenes when he became Prime Minister of Spain; and, to their great honour, they were both resolute to exert all their power to preserve the natives of America. The Cardinal sent Commissioners, and with them las Casas, with the title of Protector of the Indians. But the Cardinal died in 1517; after which all the exertions of las Casas and the Dominicans could not shake the repartimientos.
1519. At length, among the native Islanders there sprung up one who had the courage to put himself at the head of a number of his countrymen, and the address to withdraw with them from the gripe of the Spaniards, and to find refuge among the mountains. Cacique Henriquez. This man was the son, and, according to the laws of inheritance, should have been the successor, of one of the principal Caciques. He had been christened by the name of Henriquez, and, in consequence of a regulation made by the late Queen Ysabel of Castile, he had been educated, on account of his former rank, in a Convent of the Franciscans. He defended his retreat in the mountains by skilful management and resolute conduct, and had the good fortune in the commencement to defeat some parties of Spanish troops sent against him, which encouraged more of his countrymen, and as many of the Africans as could escape, to flock to him; and under his government, as of a sovereign prince, they withstood the attempts of the Spaniards to subdue them. Fortunately for Henriquez and his followers, the conquest and settlement of Cuba, and the invasion of Mexico, which was begun at this time, lessened the strength of the Spaniards in Hispaniola, and enabled the insurgents for many years to keep all the Spanish settlements in the Island in continual alarm, and to maintain their own independence.
During this time, the question of the propriety of keeping the Islanders in slavery, underwent grave examinations. It is related that the experiment was tried, of allowing a number of the natives to build themselves two villages, to live in them according to their own customs and liking; and that the result was, they were found to be so improvident, and so utterly unable to take care of themselves, that the encomiendas were pronounced to be necessary for their preservation. Such an experiment is a mockery. Before the conquest, and now under Don Henriquez, the people of Hayti shewed they wanted not the Spaniards to take care of them.
CHAPTER III
1518. Adventure of an English Ship. In the year 1517 or 1518, some Spaniards in a caravela going from St. Domingo to the Island Porto Rico, to take in a lading of cassava, were surprised at seeing a ship there of about 250 tons, armed with cannon, which did not appear to belong to the Spanish nation; and on sending a boat to make enquiry, she was found to be English. The account given by the English Commander was, that two ships had sailed from England in company, with the intention to discover the country of the Great Cham; that they were soon separated from each other by a tempest, and that this ship was afterwards in a sea almost covered with ice; that thence she had sailed southward to Brasil, and, after various adventures, had found the way to Porto Rico. This same English ship, being provided with merchandise, went afterwards to Hispaniola, and anchored near the entrance of the port of San Domingo, where the Captain sent on shore to demand leave to sell their goods. The demand was forwarded to the Audiencia, or superior court in San Domingo; but the Castellana, or Governor of the Castle, Francisco de Tapia, could not endure with patience to see a ship of another nation in that part of the world, and, without waiting for the determination of the Audiencia, ordered the cannon of the fort to be fired against her; on which she took up her anchor and returned to Porto Rico, where she purchased provisions, paying for what she got with wrought iron, and afterwards departed for Europe3. When this visit of an English ship to the West Indies was known in Spain, it caused there great inquietude; and the Governor of the Castle of San Domingo, it is said, was much blamed, because he had not, instead of forcing the ship to depart by firing his cannon, contrived to seize her, so that no one might have returned to teach others of their nation the route to the Spanish Indies.
The French and other Europeans resort to the West Indies; The English were not the only people of whom the Spaniards had cause to be jealous, nor those from whom the most mischief