ture in the Indies, hallucinated by the craze for
gold, of which they dreamed as lying, waiting to be picked up, in lands
where pearls strewed the sands of the beach. Rapid exploitation of such
sources of fabulous wealth and a speedy return to Spain, rather than the
enterprises usually suggested to Anglo-Saxons by the term "colonisation,"
had lured them over the mysterious ocean. Little thought was given to the
pastoral and agriculture resources of a rich soil that would have yielded
abundant crops in response to the simplest tillage and made of the islands
a granary sufficient to feed all Spain. Unaccustomed to manual labour,
ignorant of the simplest principles of mining, poorly supplied--when at
all--with the necessary implements, they rushed to the mines with but
scanty provision even of food; fevers seized them, strange diseases
attacked them--most of all, disillusion confronted them; out of Ovando's
2500 men more than one thousand died within a brief period, in the most
wretched manner. Those who had the courage and strength to work, barely
made enough to feed themselves, for it not infrequently happened that
after the royal fifth was deducted and other expenses met, the remainder,
when divided, hardly gave to each colonist more than his daily, scanty
living. The state of degradation into which they sank was pitiable and
there is little cause to wonder that, in their brutalised condition, they
took small account of the physical sufferings of the Indians and no
interest at all in weighing their claims to liberty and just treatment.
The few who did turn their attention to agriculture fared better, both as
to the comforts of their surroundings and the profits they derived from
their occupation; their Indians likewise led far easier lives than their
fellows who worked for the miners. The vicious principles underlying
slavery once established, innumerable abuses are bound to follow, and when
responsibility for an iniquitous system is widely distributed, even the
most humane unconsciously drift into acquiescence in continuous and
monstrous acts of inhumanity, partly from want of strength to combat the
established order of things and partly from the easy ability of each to
shift his share of the blame for what his instincts condemn, onto the
shoulders of others. Reforms left to the collective conscience of such a
community are apt to languish. Such is man's nature that the most
unnatural and abnormal conditions come