lib. 10, cap. 6, 7.
[109] "Per esser Sevilla nel loco che è, vi vanno tanti di loro alle Indie, che la città resta mal popolata, e quasi in man di donne." (Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 15.) Horace said, fifteen centuries before,
"Impiger extremes curris mercator ad Indos, Per mare pauperiem fugieus, per saxa, per ignes." Epist. i. 1.
[110] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 10.--Almost all the Spanish expeditions in the New World, whether on the northern or southern continent, have a tinge of romance, beyond what is found in those of other European nations. One of the most striking and least familiar of them is that of Ferdinand de Soto, the ill-fated discoverer of the Mississippi, whose bones bleach beneath its waters. His adventures are told with uncommon spirit by Mr. Bancroft, vol. i. chap. 2, of his History of the United States.
[111] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 2, lib. 1, cap. 7.
[112] The life of this daring cavalier forms one in the elegant series of national biographies by Quintana, "Vidas de Espanoles Celebres," (tom. ii. pp. 1-82), and is familiar to the English reader in Irving's "Companions of Columbus." The third volume of Navarrete's laborious compilation is devoted to the illustration of the minor Spanish voyagers, who followed up the bold track of discovery, between Columbus and Cortes. Coleccion de Viages.
[113] Las Casas, Mémoires, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 189.
[114] "Y crean (Vuestras Altezas) questa isla y todas las otras son asi suyas corao Castilla, que aqui no falta salvo asiento y mandarles hacer lo que quisieren." Primera Carta de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 93.
[115] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 8, cap. 9.--Las Casas, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. pp. 228, 229.
[116] See the various Memorials of Las Casas, some of them expressly prepared for the council of the Indies. He affirms, that more than 12,000,000 lives were wantonly destroyed in the New World, within thirty- eight years after the discovery, and this in addition to those exterminated in the conquest of the country. (Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 187.) Herrera admits that Hispaniola was reduced, in less than twenty-five years, from 1,000,000 to 14,000 souls. (Indias Occidentales, dec. 1. lib. 10, cap. 12.) The numerical estimates of a large savage population, must, of course, be in a great degree hypothetical. That it was large, however, in these fair regions, may readily be inferred from the facilities of subsistence, and the temperate habits of the natives. The minimum sum in the calculation, when the number had dwindled to a few thousand, might be more easily ascertained.
[117] Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 228.
[118] One resident at the court, says the bishop of Chiapa, was proprietor of 800, and another of 1100 Indians. (Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 238.) We learn their names from Herrera. The first was Bishop Fonseca, the latter the comendador Conchillos, both prominent men in the Indian department. (Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 14.) The last-named person was the same individual sent by Ferdinand to his daughter in Flanders, and imprisoned there by the archduke Philip. After that prince's death, he experienced signal favors from the Catholic king, and amassed great wealth as secretary of the Indian board. Oviedo has devoted one of his dialogues to him. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.
[119]The Dominican and other missionaries, to their credit be it told, labored with unwearied zeal and courage for the conversion of the natives, and the vindication of their natural rights. Yet these were the men, who lighted the fires of the Inquisition in their own land. To such opposite results may the same principle lead, under different circumstances!
[120] Las Casas concludes an elaborate memorial, prepared for the government, in 1542, on the best means of arresting the destruction of the aborigines, with two propositions. 1. That the Spaniards would still continue to settle in America, though slavery were abolished, from the superior advantages for acquiring riches it offered over the Old World. 2. That if they would not, this would not justify slavery, since "God forbids us to do evil that good may come of it." Rare maxim, from a Spanish churchman of the sixteenth century! The whole argument, which comprehends the sum of what has been since said more diffusely in defence of abolition, is singularly acute and cogent. In its abstract principles it is unanswerable, while it exposes and denounces the misconduct of his countrymen, with a freedom which shows the good bishop knew no other fear than that of his Maker.
[121] Recop. de Leyes de las Indias, August 14th, 1509, lib. 6, tit. 8, ley l.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 14.
[122] The text expresses nearly enough the subsequent condition of things in Spanish America. "No government," says Heeren, "has done so much for the aborigines as the Spanish." (Modern History, Bancroft's trans., vol. i. p. 77.) Whoever peruses its colonial codes, may find much ground for the eulogium. But are not the very number and repetition of these humane provisions sufficient proof of their inefficacy?
[123] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 2, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Las Casas, Mémoire, apud Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 239.
[124] In the remarkable discussion between the doctor Sepulveda and Las Casas, before a commission named by Charles V., in 1550, the former vindicated the persecution of the aborigines by the conduct of the Israelites towards their idolatrous neighbors. But the Spanish Fenelon replied, that "the behavior of the Jews was no precedent for Christians; that the law of Moses was a law of rigor; but that of Jesus Christ, one of grace, mercy, peace, good-will, and charity." (Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 374.) The Spaniard first persecuted the Jews, and then quoted them as an authority for persecuting all other infidels.
[125] It is only necessary to notice the contemptuous language of Philip II.'s laws, which designate the most useful mechanic arts, as those of blacksmiths, shoemakers, leather-dressers, and the like, as "oficios viles y baxos."
A whimsical distinction prevails in Castile, in reference to the more humble occupations. A man of gentle blood may be a coachman, lacquey, scullion, or any other menial, without disparaging his nobility, which is said to sleep in the mean while. But he fixes on it an indelible stain, if he exercises any mechanical vocation. "Hence," says Capmany, "I have often seen a village in this province, in which the vagabonds, smugglers, and hangmen even, were natives, while the farrier, shoemaker, etc., was a foreigner." (Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 3, p. 40; tom. iii. part. 2, pp. 317, 318.) See also some sensible remarks on the subject, by Blanco White, the ingenious author of Doblado's Letters from Spain, p. 44.
[126] "The interval between the acquisition of money, and the rise of prices," Hume observes," is the only time when increasing gold and silver are favorable to industry." (Essays, part 2, essay 3.) An ordinance of June 13th, 1497, complains of the scarcity of the precious metals, and their insufficiency to the demands of trade. (Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 93.) It appears, however, from Zuñiga, that the importation of gold from the New World began to have a sensible effect on the prices of commodities, from that very year. Annales de Sevilla, p. 415.
[127] Mr. Turner has made several extracts from the Harleian MSS., showing that the trade of Castile with England was very considerable in Isabella's time. (History of England, vol. iv. p. 90.) A pragmatic of July 21st, 1494, for the erection of a consulate at Burgos, notices the commercial establishments in England, France, Italy, and the Low Countries. This tribunal, with other extensive privileges, was empowered to hear and determine suits between merchants; "which," says the plain spoken ordinance, "in the hands of lawyers are never brought to a close; porque se presentauan escritos y libelos de letrados de manera que por mal pleyto que fuesse le sostenian los letrados de manera que los hazian immortales." (Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 146-148.) This institution rose soon to be of the greatest importance in Castile.
[128] The sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of History contains a schedule of the respective revenues afforded by the cities of Castile, in the years 1477, 1482, and 1504; embracing, of course, the commencement and close of Isabella's reign. The original document exists in the archives of Simancas. We may notice the large amount and great increase of taxes in Toledo, particularly, and in Seville; the former thriving from its manufactories, and the latter from the Indian trade. Seville, in 1504, furnished near a tenth of the whole revenue. Ilustracion 5.
[129] "No ay en ella," says Marineo of the latter city, "gente ociosa, ni baldia, sino que todos trabajan, ansi mugeres como hombres, y los chicos como los grandes, buscando la vida con sus manos, y con sudores de sus carnes. Unos exercitan las artes mecánicas: y otros las liberales. Los que tratan las mercaderias, y hazen rica la ciudad, son muy fieles, y liberales." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 16.) It will not be easy to meet, in prose or verse, with a finer colored picture of departed glory, than Mr. Slidell has given of the former city, the venerable Gothic capital, in his "Year in Spain," chap. 12.
[130] Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 60.
[131] It was a common saying in Navagiero's time, "Barcelona la ricca, Saragossa la barta, Valentia la hermosa." (Viaggio, fol. 5.) The grandeur and commercial splendor of the first-named city, which forms the subject of Capmany's elaborate work, have been sufficiently displayed in