Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/89

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��suppression of the repartimentos, or divisions of the people, with the soil on which they were born. In ano- ther memorial, after detailing at great length the mea- sures which ought to be pursued for the redress of the Indians, (the proper opportunity, certainly, to advocate the Negro Slave Trade, if he approved of it,) he adds, —

  • The Indians are not more tormented by their masters
  • and the diflferent public officers, than by their servants

' and by the negroes.'

The original accusation of Las Casas, translated from the words of Herrera, is as follows : — ' The licentiate

  • Bartholomew Las Casas, perceiving that liis plans ex-
  • perienced on all sides great difficulties, and that the ex-
  • pectations which he had formed from his connexion
  • with the High Chancellor, and the favourable opinion
  • the latter entertained of him, had not produced any

' effect, projected other expedients, such as, to procure 'Jbr the Castilians established in the Indies a cargo of ' negroes, to relieve the Indians in the culture of the

  • earth and the labour of the mines ; also, to obtain a

' great number of working men, (from Europe,) who

  • should pass over into those regions with certain privi-

' leges, and on certain conditions, which he detailed.'

Let this statement be compared with Dr Robertson's most exaggerated account, avowedly taken /ro?« Herre- ra alone, and let every man judge for himself, whether one of the most zealous and indefatigable advocates of

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