reputation in after-ages, added another provision, namely, that each
Spanish resident in the island should have license to import a dozen
negro slaves.
The origin of this suggestion was, as he informs us, that the colonists
had told him that, if license were given them to import a dozen negro
slaves each, they, the colonists, would then set free the Indians. And
so, recollecting that statement of the colonists, he added this
provision. Las Casas, writing his history in his old age, thus frankly
owns his error: "This advice, that license should be given to bring
negro slaves to these lands, the _clerigo_ Casas first gave, not
considering the injustice with which the Portuguese take them and make
them slaves; which advice, after he had apprehended the nature of the
thing, he would not have given for all he had in the world. For he
always held that they had been made slaves unjustly and tyrannically;
for the same reason holds good of them as of the Indians." The above
confession is delicately and truthfully worded--"not considering"; he
does not say, not being aware of; but though it was a matter known to
him, his moral sense was not watchful, as it were, about it. We must be
careful not to press the admissions of a generous mind too far, or to
exaggerate the importance of the suggestion of Las Casas.
It would be quite erroneous to look upon this suggestion as being the
introduction of negro slavery. From the earliest times of the discovery
of America, negroes had been sent there. But what is of more
significance, and what it is strange that Las Casas was not aware of, or
did not mention, the Hieronymite Fathers[31] had also come to the
conclusion that negroes must be introduced into the West Indies.
Writing in January, 1518, when the fathers could not have known what was
passing in Spain in relation to this subject, they recommended licenses
to be given to the inhabitants of Espanola, or to other persons, to
bring negroes there. From the tenor of their letter it appears that they
had before recommended the same thing. Zuazo, the judge of residencia,
and the legal colleague of Las Casas, wrote to the 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 Santo Domingo in July, 1500,
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
virtues and capabilities he thought highly, were fading away by reason
of being subjected to labor which their natures were incompetent to
endure, and which they were most unjustly condemned to, might prefer the
misery of the smaller number of another race treated with equal
injustice, but more capable of enduring it. I do not say that Las Casas
considered all these things; but, at any rate, in estimating his
conduct, we must recollect that we look at the matter centuries after it
occurred, and see all the extent of the evil arising from circumstances
which no man could then be expected to foresee, and which were
inconsistent with the rest of the clerigo's plans for the preservation
of the Indians.
I suspect that the wisest among us would very likely have erred with
him; and I am not sure that, taking all his plans together, and taking
for granted, as he did then, that his influence at court was to last,
his suggestion about the negroes was an impolitic one.
One more piece of advice Las Casas gave at this time, which, if it had
been adopted, would have been most serviceable. He proposed that forts
for mercantile purposes, containing about thirty persons, should be
erected at intervals along the coast of the _terra firma_, to traffic
with merchandise of Spain for gold, silver, and precious stones; and in
each of these ports ecclesiastics were to be placed, to undertake the
superintendence of spiritual matters. In this scheme may be seen an
anticipation of subsequent plans for commercial intercourse with Africa.
And, indeed, one is constantly reminded by the proceedings in those
times of what has occurred much later and under the auspices of other
nations.
Of all these suggestions, some of them certainly excellent, the only
questionable one was at once adopted. Such is the irony of life. If we
may imagine superior beings looking on at the affairs of men, and
bearing some unperceived part of the great contest in the world, this
was a thing to have gladdened all the hosts of hell.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] Spanish monks, followers of St. Jerome (Hieronymus).
FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE
MAGELLAN REACHES THE LADRONES AND PHILIPPINES
A.D. 1519
JOAN BAUTISTA ANTONIO PIGAFETTA[32]
Ferdinand Magellan, whose name in Portuguese was Fernao de
Magalhaes, was born in Portugal about 1480. After serving
with the Portuguese in the East Indies, 1505-1512, and in
Morocco, 1514, where during an action he was lamed for life,
he became disaffected toward his country, and in 1517
renounced his allegiance and turned to Spain in hope of
better reward for his services. In conjunction with a
fellow-countryman, Ruy Faleiro, a geographer and astronomer,
he offered to find for Spain the Moluccas, in the Malay
Archipelago, and to prove that they were within the Spanish
and not the Portuguese lines of demarcation. The acceptance
of this proposal by the Emperor, Charles V, who was also
King of Spain, gave Magellan the opportunity, which he so
well improved, to immortalize his name in the annals of
maritime discovery.
While the specific object of the expedition failed on
account of the leader's death, his performance made him
worthy, as some historians think, to be considered "the most
undaunted and in many respects the most extraordinary man
that ever traversed an unknown sea."
A squadron of five ships with two hundred sixty-five men was
fitted out by the Emperor, and the two friends were named as
joint commanders, but Faleiro was afterward detached from
the expedition, leaving full command to Magellan, who sailed
from San Lucar, Spain, September 20, 1519, first touching at
Madeira.
Magellan passed through the straits that bear his name and
so penetrated to the Pacific, that ocean being first so
called by him. He was the first European to reach it from
the Atlantic. Magellan was killed by natives in the
Philippines, April 27, 1521; but his ships continued their
course. One by one they were lost from the expedition,
except the Victoria, on which was Pigafetta, who wrote for
Charles V an account of the voyage. The Victoria returned to
Spain in September, 1522, completing the first
circumnavigation of the earth. Bautista was pilot and
afterward captain of the Trinidad, one of the lost vessels.
In 1898 the Philippines and Guam, one of the Ladrones, were
acquired by the United States as a result of the
Spanish-American War.
JOAN BAUTISTA
Magellan steered to the southwest to make the island of Teneriffe, and
they reached the said island on the day of St. Michael, which was
September 29th. Thence he made his course to fetch the Cape Verd
Islands, and they passed between the islands and the cape without
sighting either the one or the other. Having to make for Brazil, and as
soon as they sighted the other coast of Brazil, he steered to the
southeast along the coast of Cape Frio, which is in 23 deg. south latitude;
and from this cape he steered to the west, a matter of thirty leagues,
to make the Rio Janeiro, which is in the same latitude as Cape Frio, and
they entered the said river on the day of St. Lucy, which was December
13th, in which place they took in wood, and they remained there until
the first octave of Christmas, which was December 26th of the same year.
They sailed from this Rio de Janeiro on December 26th, and navigated
along the coast to make Cape of St. Mary, which is only 35 deg.; as soon as
they sighted it, they made their course west-northwest, thinking they
would find a passage for their voyage, and they found that they had got
into a great river of fresh water, to which they gave the name of River
St. Christopher, and it is in 34 deg., and they remained in it till February
2, 1520.
He sailed from this river of St. Christopher on the 2d of the said month
of February; they navigated along the said coast, and farther on to the
south they discovered a point, which is in the same river more to the
south, to which they gave the name of Point St. Anthony; it is in 36 deg.;
hence they ran to the southwest a matter of twenty-five leagues, and
made another cape, which they named Cape St. Apelonia, which is in 36 deg.;
thence they navigated to the west-southwest to some shoals, which they
named Shoals of the Currents, which are in 39 deg.; and thence they
navigated out to the sea, and lost sight of land for a matter of two or
three days, when they again made for the land, and they came to a bay,
which they entered, and ran within it the whole day, thinking that there
was an outlet for Molucca; and when night came they found that it was
quite closed up, and in the same night they again stood out by the way
which they had come in. This bay is in 34 deg.; they named it the island of
St. Matthew. They navigated from this island of St. Matthew along the
coast until they reached another bay, where they caught many sea-wolves
and birds; to this they gave the name of Bay of Labors; it is in 37 deg.;
here they came near losing the flag-ship in a storm. Thence they
navigated along the said coast, and arrived on the last day of March of
the year 1520 at the port of St. Julian, which is in 49 deg.. Here they
wintered, and found the day a little more or less than seven hours.
In this port three of the ships rose up against the captain-major, their
captains saying that they intended to take him to Castile in arrest, as
he was taking them all to destruction. Here, through the exertions of
the said captain-major, and the assistance and favor of the foreigners
whom he carried with him, the captain-major went to the said three ships
which were already mentioned, and there the captain of one of them was
killed, who was the treasurer of the whole fleet, and named Luis de
Mendoza; he was killed in his own ship by stabs with a dagger by the
chief constable of the fleet, who was sent to do this by Ferdinand
Magellan in a boat with certain men. The said three ships having thus
been recovered, five days later Ferdinand Magellan ordered Gaspar de
Quexixada to be decapitated and quartered; he was captain of one of the
ships and was one of those who had mutinied.
In this port they refitted the ship. Here the captain-major made Alvaro
de Mesquita, a Portuguese, a captain of one of the ships the captain of
which had been killed. There sailed from this port on August 24th four
ships, for the smallest of the ships had been already lost; he had sent
it to reconnoitre, and the weather had been heavy and had cast it
ashore, where all the crew had been recovered along with the
merchandise, artillery, and fittings of the ship. They remained in this
port, in which they wintered, five months and twenty-four days, and they
were 70 deg. less ten minutes to the southward.
They sailed on August 24th of the said year from this port of St.
Julian, and navigated a matter of twenty leagues along the coast, and so
they entered a river which was called Santa Cruz, which is in 50 deg., where
they took in goods and as much as they could obtain. The crew of the
lost ship were already distributed among the other ships, for they had
returned by land to where Ferdinand Magellan was, and they continued
collecting goods which had remained there during August and up to
September 18th, and there they took in water and much fish which they
caught in this river; and in the other, where they wintered, there were
people like savages, and the men are from nine to ten spans in height,
very well made; they have not got houses, they only go about from one
place to another with their flocks, and eat meat nearly raw. They are
all of them archers, and kill many animals with arrows, and with the
skins they make clothes, that is to say, they make the skins very
supple, and fashion them after the shape of the body, as well as they
can, then they cover themselves with them, and fasten them by a belt
round the waist. When they do not wish to be clothed from the waist
upward, they let that half fall which is above the waist, and the
garment remains hanging down from the belt which they have girt around
them.
They wear shoes which cover them four inches above the ankle, full of
straw inside to keep their feet warm. They do not possess any iron, nor
any other ingenuity of weapons, only they make the points of their
arrows with flints, and so also the knives with which they cut, and the
adze and awls with which they cut and stitch their shoes and clothes.
They are very agile people and do no harm, and thus follow their flocks;
wherever night finds them, there they sleep; they carry their wives
along with them, with all the chattels they possess. The women are very
small and carry heavy burdens on their backs. They wear shoes and
clothes just like the men. Of these men they obtained three or four and
brought them in the ships, and they all died except one, who went to
Castile in a ship which went thither.
They sailed from this river of Santa Cruz on October 18th: they
continued navigating along the coast until the 21st day of the same
month, October, when they discovered a cape, to which they gave the name
of Cape of the Virgins, because they sighted it on the day of the eleven
thousand virgins; it is in 52 deg., a little more or less, and from this
cape, a matter of two or three leagues' distance, we found ourselves at
the mouth of a strait. We sailed along the said coast within that
strait, which they had reached the mouth of: they entered in it a little
and anchored. Ferdinand Magellan sent to discover what there was
farther in, and they found three channels; that is to say, two more in a
southerly direction, and one traversing the country in the direction of
Molucca, but at that time this was not yet known, only the three mouths
were seen.
The boats went thither, and brought back word, and they set sail and
anchored at these mouths of the channels, and Ferdinand Magellan sent
two ships to learn what there was within, and these ships went; one
returned to the captain-major, and the other, of which Alvaro de
Mesquita was captain, entered into one of the bays which was to the
south, and did not return any more. Ferdinand Magellan, seeing that it
did not come back, set sail, and the next day he did not choose to make
for the bays, and went to the south and took another which runs
northwest and southeast and a quarter west and east. He left letters in
the place from which he sailed, so that, if the other ship returned, it
might make the course which he left prescribed.
After this they entered into the channel, which at some places had a
width of three leagues, and two, and one, and in some places half a
league, and he went through it as long as it was daylight, and anchored
when it was night: and he sent the boats, and the ships went after the
boats, and they brought news that there was an outlet, for they already
saw the great sea on the other side; on which account Ferdinand Magellan
ordered artillery to be fired for rejoicing; and before they set forth
from this strait they found two islands, the first one larger, and the
other, nearer toward the outlet, is the smaller one; and they went out
between these islands and the coast on the southern side, as it was
deeper than on the other side.
This strait is a hundred leagues in length to the outlet; that outlet
and the entrance are in 52 deg. latitude. They made a stay in this strait
from October 21st to November 26th, which makes thirty-six days of the
said year of 1520, and as soon as they went out from the strait to the
sea they made their course, for the most part, to west-northwest, when
they found that their needles varied to the northwest almost one-half;
and after they had navigated thus for many days they found an island in
a little more or less than 18 deg. or 19 deg., and also another, which was in
from 13 deg. to 14 deg., and this in south latitude; they are uninhabited.
They ran on until they reached the line, when Ferdinand Magellan said
that now they were in the neighborhood of Molucca, and that he would go
in a northerly direction as far as 10 deg. or 12 deg., and they reached to as
far as 13 deg. north, and in this latitude they navigated to the west and a
quarter southwest a matter of a hundred leagues, where on March 6, 1521,
they fetched two islands inhabited by many people of little truth; and
they did not take precautions against them until they saw that they were
taking away the skiff of the flag-ship, and they cut the rope with which
it was made fast, and took it ashore without their being able to prevent
it. They gave this island the name of Thieves' Island (_dos Ladroes_).
Ferdinand Magellan, seeing that the skiff was lost, set sail, it being
already night, tacking about until the next day; as soon as it was
morning they anchored at the place where they had seen the skiff carried
to, and he ordered two boats to be got ready with a matter of fifty or
sixty men, and he went ashore in person and burned the whole village,
and they killed seven or eight persons, between men and women, and
recovered the skiff, and returned to the ships; and while they were
there they saw forty or fifty _paraos_ come from the same land, and
which brought much refreshments.
Ferdinand Magellan would not make any further stay, and at once set
sail, and ordered the course to be steered west and a quarter southwest,
and so they made land, which is in barely 11 deg.. This land is an island,
but he would not touch at this one, and they went to touch at another
farther on which appeared first. Ferdinand Magellan sent a boat ashore
to observe the nature of the island; when the boat reached land, they
saw, from the ships, paraos come out from behind the point; then they
called back their boat. The people of the paraos, seeing that the boat
was returning to the ships, turned back the paraos, and the boat reached
the ships, which at once set sail for another island very near to this
island, which is 10 deg., and they gave it the name of the Island of Good
Signs, because they observed some gold in it.
While they were thus anchored at this island there came to them two
paraos, and brought them fowls and cocoanuts, and told them they had
already seen there other men like them, from which they presumed that
these might be Lequios or Mogores, a nation of people who have this
name, or Chiis; and thence they set sail, and navigated farther on among
many islands, to which they gave the name of Valley without Peril, and
also St. Lazarus; and they ran on to another island twenty leagues from
that from which they sailed, which is in 10 deg., and came to anchor at
another island, which is named Macangor, which is in 9 deg.; and in this
island they were very well received, and they placed a cross in it. This
King conducted them thence a matter of thirty leagues to another island,
named Cabo, which is in 10 deg., and in this island Ferdinand Magellan did
what he pleased with the consent of the country, and in one day eight
hundred people became Christian, on which account Ferdinand Magellan
desired that the other kings, neighbors to this one, should become
subject to this one, who had become Christian; and these did not choose
to yield to such obedience. Ferdinand Magellan, seeing that, got ready
one night with his boats, and burned the villages of those who would not
yield the said obedience; and a matter of ten or twelve days after this
was done he sent to a village about half a league from that which he had
burned, which is named Matam, and which is also an island, and ordered
them to send him at once three goats, three pigs, three loads of rice,
and three loads of millet for provisions for the ship. They replied
that, of each article which he sent to ask them three of, they would
send him by twos, and if he was satisfied with this they would at once
comply; if not, it might be as he pleased, but that they would not give
it. Because they did not choose to grant what he demanded of them,
Ferdinand Magellan ordered three boats to be equipped with a matter of
fifty or sixty men, and went against the said place, which was on April
28th in the morning; there they found many people, who might well be as
many as three thousand or four thousand men, who fought with such will
that the said Ferdinand Magellan was killed there, with six of his men,
in the year 1521.
When Ferdinand Magellan was dead the Christians got back to the ships,
where they thought fit to make two captains and governors whom they
should obey; and, having done this, they took counsel (and decided)
that the captains should go ashore where the people had turned
Christians, to ask for pilots to take them to Borneo, and this was on
May 1st of the said year. When the two captains went, being agreed upon
what had been said, the same people of the country who had become
Christians armed themselves against them, and killed the two captains
and twenty-six gentlemen; and the other people who remained got back to
the boats and returned to the ships, and, finding themselves again
without captains, they agreed, inasmuch as the principal persons were
killed, that one Joan Lopez, who was the chief treasurer, should be
captain-major of the fleet, and the chief constable of the fleet should
be captain of one of the ships. He was named Gonzalo Vas Despinosa.