what quantities of live-stock and other things are required for the
maintenance of the colony, a certain number of caravels should be sent
each year with these necessary things, and the cargoes be paid for in
slaves taken from amongst the cannibals. He touches again on the good that
will be done to the cannibals themselves; alludes to the customs duties
that their Highnesses may levy upon them; and concludes by desiring
Antonio de Torres to send, or bring, an answer, "because the preparations
here (for capturing these cannibals) may be carried on with more
confidence, if the scheme seem good to their Highnesses."

THE PROPOSAL REJECTED.

At the same time that we must do Columbus the justice to believe that his
motives were right in his own eyes, it must be admitted that a more
distinct suggestion for the establishment of a slave-trade was never
proposed. To their honour, Ferdinand and Isabella thus replied: "As
regards this matter, it is suspended for the present, until there come
some other way of doing it there, and let the admiral write what he thinks
of this."

This is rather a confused answer, as often happens, when a proposition
from a valued friend or servant is disapproved of, but has to be rejected
kindly. The Catholic sovereigns would have been very glad to have received
some money from the Indies: money was always welcome to King Ferdinand;
the purchase of wine, seeds, and cattle for the colonists had hitherto
proved anything but a profitable outlay; the prospect of conversion was
probably dear to the hearts of both these princes, certainly to one of
them: but still this proposition for the establishment of slavery was
wisely and magnanimously set aside.

FORT ST. THOMAS FOUNDED.

While Antonio de Torres was absent from Hispaniola, laying these
propositions before Los Reyes, Columbus was busy about the affairs of the
colony, which were in a most distracted state. Scant fare and hard work
were having their effect; sickness pervaded the whole armament; and men of
all ranks and stations, hidalgoes, people of the court and ecclesiastics,
were obliged to labour manually under regulations strictly enforced. The
rage and vexation of these men, many of whom had come out with the notion
of finding gold ready for them on the sea shore, may be imagined; and
complaints of the admiral's harsh way of dealing with those under him
(probably no harsher than was absolutely necessary to save them), now took
thei