same effect.  He, however, suggested that the negroes should be placed in settlements and married.  Fray.  Bernardino de Manzanedo, the Hieronymite father, sent over to counteract Las Casas, gave the same advice as his brethren about the introduction of negroes.  He added a proviso, which does not appear in their letter—­perhaps it did exist in one of the earlier ones—­that there should be as many women as men sent over, or more.

The suggestion of Las Casas was approved of by the Chancellor; and, indeed, it is probable there was hardly a man of that time who would have seen further than the excellent clerigo did.  Las Casas was asked what number of negroes would suffice?  He replied that he did not know; upon which a letter was sent to the officers of the India House at Seville to ascertain the fit number in their opinion.  They said that four thousand at present would suffice, being one thousand for each of the islands, Espanola, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica.  Somebody now suggested to the Governor, De Bresa, a Fleming of much influence and a member of the council, that he should ask for this license to be given to him.  De Bresa accordingly asked the King for it, who granted his request; and the Fleming sold this license to certain Genoese merchants for twenty-five thousand ducats, having obtained from the King a pledge that for eight years he should give no other license of this kind.

The consequence of this monopoly enjoyed by the Genoese merchants was that negroes were sold at a great price, of which there are frequent complaints.  Both Las Casas and Pasamonte—­rarely found in accord—­suggested to the King that it would be better to pay the twenty-five thousand ducats and resume the license, or to abridge its term.  Figueroa, writing to the Emperor from Sonto Domingo, says:  “Negroes are very much in request; none have come for about a year.  It would have been better to have given De Bresa the customs duties—­i.e., the duties that had been usually paid on the importation of slaves—­than to have placed a prohibition.”  I have scarcely a doubt that the immediate effect of the measure adopted in consequence of the clerigo’s suggestion was greatly to check that importation of negro slaves which otherwise, had the license been general, would have been very abundant.

Before quitting this part of the subject, something must be said for Las Casas which he does not allege for himself.  This suggestion of his about the negroes was not an isolated one.  Had all his suggestions been carried out, and the Indians thereby been preserved, as I firmly believe they might have been, these negroes might have remained a very insignificant number in the general population.  By the destruction of Indians a void in the laborious part of the community was being constantly created, which had to be filled up by the labor of negroes.  The negroes could bear the labor in the mines much better than the Indians; and any man who perceived that a race, of whose Christian