the good of the island. "He has done much
harm," they wrote. "He has brought some covetous young men with him
and made them inspectors. They imposed heavy fines and gave the
confiscated Indians to their friends and relations. He and they are
rich, while the old residents have scarcely wherewith to maintain
themselves."

But Figueroa had foreseen these accusations, for he concludes his
above-mentioned letter to the emperor, saying: " ... Let your Majesty
give no credence to those who complain. Most of them are very cruel
with the Indians, and care not if they be exterminated, provided they
themselves can amass gold and return to Castilla."

Martin Fernandez Enciso, a bachelor-at-law, addressed to the emperor a
learned dissertation intended to refute the doctrine that the Indians
were born free, maintaining that the right of conquest of the New
World granted by the Pope necessarily included the right to reduce the
inhabitants to slavery.

And thus, in spite of the philanthropic efforts of Las Casas, of the
well-intentioned ordinances of the Catholic kings, and of the more
radical measures sanctioned by Charles V, the Indian's lot was not
bettered till it was too late to save him from extinction.

"The Indians are dying out!" This is the melancholy refrain of all the
official communications from 1530 to 1536. The emperor made a last
effort to save the remnant in 1538, and decreed that all those who
still had Indians in their possession should construct stone or adobe
houses for them under penalty of losing them. In 1543 it was ordained
by an Order in Council that all Indians still alive in Cuba, la
Espanola, and Puerto Rico, were as free as the Spaniards themselves,
and they should be permitted to loiter and be idle, "that they might
increase and multiply."

Bishop Rodrigo Bastidas, who was charged to see to the execution of
this order in Puerto Rico, still found 80 Indians to liberate.
Notwithstanding these terminant orders, so powerless were they to
abolish the abuses resulting from the iniquitous system, that as late
as 1550 the Indians were still treated as slaves. In that year
Governor Vallejo wrote to the emperor: "I found great irregularity in
the treatment of these few Indians, ... they were being secretly sold
as slaves, etc."

Finally, in 1582, Presbyter Ponce de Leon and Bachelor-at-Law Santa
Clara, in a communication to the authorities, stated: "At the time
when this island was taken there were found he