h were placed in
charge of a cacique whose people were obliged to till them for the profit
of the holder. This was the second stage in the development of
repartimientos, viz., the Indians were bound to the land and forced to
cultivate it. Fifteen of the Roldan party, however, decided to return to
Spain, each of whom received from one to three slaves, whom they took back
with them in October, 1499.

The Queen's proclamation issued at Seville, Granada, and elsewhere
ordering all holders of slaves given them by Columbus to return them
forthwith to Hispaniola under pain of death distinguished, however,
between such and the others who had been taken as prisoners of war and
sold into slavery. The distinction is a fine one and points to the
conclusion that even Queen Isabella admitted that some Indians might, for
defined causes, be enslaved, and that her assent was based upon some
pronouncement of the canonists and theologians to whom she had submitted
the question; but there is nothing to show that the slaves given to
Roldan's followers were captured in any different way from the others.
This inconsistency, which so sadly weakens the noble character of the
royal proclamation and detracts from the merits of the Queen as an enemy
of slavery, could hardly have proceeded from her own inclinations but was
rather the outcome of some casuistry that constrained her action without
convincing her judgment. The Queen doubtless saw with pain and
disappointment that, owing to the Admiral's measures and proposals, which
were in surprising contradiction with the lofty and pious principles he
professed, her own Catholic aspirations for the speedy conversion of the
Indians and the pacific extension of Spanish rule were being thwarted. The
noise of the controversies in which the sublime unreason of Columbus had
fortunately prevailed over the scientific opinions of the age, the
interest of the Queen, and all the circumstances of his first voyage had
fastened the attention of the Spanish and Portuguese courts upon his
expedition, excluding any hope that failure might escape notice. For he
had failed in his ultimate purpose. Instead of Cathay, the Grand Khan
ready to welcome Christianity and a short road to the wealth of the East,
he had found a few semi-tropical islands, producing parrots and cocoanuts
chiefly, and inhabited by harmless barbarians living in an idyllic state
of poverty and idleness. The enthusiasm aroused by his first voyage
s