There were no less than thirty ships and twenty-five hundred persons comprising the expedition. Of the company were Alonso Maldonado, newly appointed alcalde mayor,[V-1] and twelve Franciscans, with a prelate, Antonio de Espinal. Las Casas was present; and Hernan Cortés would have been there but for an illness which prevented him. There were seventy-three respectable married women, who had come with their husbands and children, and who were to salt society at their several points of distribution. It was evident as the new governor entered his capital, elegantly attired, with a body-guard of sixty-two foot-soldiers and ten horsemen, and a large and brilliant retinue, that the colonization of the New World had now been assumed in earnest by the sovereigns of Spain. Nor was Ovando disposed to be dilatory in his duty. He at once announced the residencia[V-2] of Bobadilla, and put Roldan, ci-devant rebel, and later chief judge, under arrest. He built in Española several towns to which arms and other privileges were given, founded a hospital, removed Santo Domingo to a more healthful site on the other side of the river, and established a colony at Puerto de Plata, on the north side of Española, near Isabela.
Distant eight leagues from Santo Domingo were the mines where the twenty-five hundred thought immediately to enrich themselves. For several days after landing the road was alive with eager gold hunters drawn from all classes of the community; cavalier, hidalgo,[V-3] and laborer, priest and artisan, honest men and villains, whose cupidity had been fired by the display of precious metal lately gathered, and who were now hurrying forward with hard breath and anxious eyes under their bundle of necessities. But there was no happy fortune in store for these new-comers. The story then new has been oft repeated since: expecting to fill their sacks quickly and with ease, and finding that a very little gold was to be obtained only by very great labor, they were soon on their way back to the city, where many of them fell into poverty, half of them dying of fever.
Poor fools! they did not know; their countrymen, those that were left from former attempts, did not tell them, though Roldan's men, Bobadilla's men knew well enough, and in truth the remnant of Ovando's men were not slow to learn, that the wise man, the wise and villainous man from Spain, did not work or die for gold, or for anything else, when there were savages that might be pricked to it by the sword.
GOVERNMENT OF THE NATIVES.
During this earliest period of Spanish domination in America, under successive viceroys and subordinate rulers, by far the most important matter which arose for consideration or action was the treatment of the aborigines. Most momentous to them it was, certainly, and of no small consequence to Spain. Unfortunately, much damage was done before the subject was fairly understood; and afterward, evils continued because bad men were always at hand ready to risk future punishment for present benefits. Spain was so far away, and justice moved so slowly, if it moved at all, that this risk was seldom of the greatest.
The sovereigns of Spain now found themselves called upon to rule two races in the New World, the white and the red. And it was not always easy to determine what should be done, what should be the relative attitude of one toward the other. As to the superiority of the white race there was no question. And among white men, Spaniards were the natural masters; and among Spaniards, Castilians possessed the first rights in the new lands the Genoese had found for them.
All was plain enough so far. It was natural and right that Spaniards should be masters in America. Their claim was twofold; as discoverers, and as propagandists. But in just what category to place the red man was a question almost as puzzling as to tell who he was, and whence he came. Several times the question arose as to whether he had a soul, or a semi-soul, and whether the liquid so freely let by the conquerors was brute blood, or of as high proof as that which ran in Castilian veins. The savages were to be governed, of course; but how, as subjects or as slaves? Columbus was strongly in favor of Indian slavery. He had participated in the Portuguese slave-trade, and had found it profitable. Spaniards enslaved infidels, and why not heathens? Mahometans enslaved Christians, and Christians Mahometans. Likewise Christians enslaved Christians, white as well as black, though it began to be questioned in Spain whether it was quite proper to enslave white Christians.
SLAVERY.
The negro slave-trade was at this time comparatively a new thing. It was one of the proximate results of fifteenth-century maritime discovery. The Portuguese were foremost in it, organizing for the purpose a company at Lagos, and a factory at Arguin, about the middle of the century, Prince Henry receiving his fifth. Europe, however, offered no profitable field for African slave labor, and but for the discovery of America the traffic probably never would have assumed large proportions. Public sentiment was not in those days averse to slavery, particularly to the enslavement of the children of Ham. And yet neither Isabella nor Ferdinand was at all disposed, in regard to their New World possessions, to follow the example of Portugal on the coast of Africa. Though they had scarcely made personal the application that the practice was one of the chief causes of Rome's ruin, yet they seemed instinctively opposed to it in this instance. They did not want these creatures in Spain, they had no use for them. In regard to the ancient custom of enslaving prisoners of war, particularly the detested and chronically hostile Moors, it was different. This New World had been given them for a higher purpose. Its natives were not the enemies of Spain; they were innocent of any offence against Spain. It was better, it was more glorious, there was higher and surer reward in it, to Christianize than to enslave. This the clergy constantly urged; so that in Spain the passion for propagandism was greater than the passion for enslaving.
Columbus must have been aware of this when in 1495 he sent by Torres, with the four ship-loads of Indian slaves, the apology to their Majesties that these were man-eating Caribs, monsters, the legitimate prey of slave-makers wherever found. Peradventure some of them might be made Christians, who when they had learned Castilian could be sent back to serve as missionaries and interpreters to aid in delivering their countrymen from the powers of darkness. This was plausible, and their Majesties seemed content; but when Columbus pressed the matter further, and requested that arrangements should be made for entering extensively into the traffic, they hesitated. Meanwhile the Genoese launched boldly forth in the old way, not only making slaves of cannibals but of prisoners of war; and whenever slaves were needed, a pretence for war was not long wanting. Thereupon, with another shipment, the admiral grows jubilant, and swears by the holy Trinity that he can send to Spain as many slaves as can be sold, four thousand if necessary, and enters upon the details of capture, carriage, sale, and return cargoes of goods, with all the enthusiasm of a sometime profitable experience in the business. Further than this he permits enforced labor where there had been failure to pay tribute, and finally gives to every one who comes an Indian for a slave.