450
LIFE
AND
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK X V I I .
whose only crime was the defence of his native soil and lawful territory. He ordered him to be publicly hanged like a common culprit.* In this ignominious manner was the cacique Cota banama executed, the last of the five sovereign princes of Hayti. His death was followed by the complete subjugation of his people, and sealed the last struggle of the natives against their oppres sors. The island was almost unpeopled of its original inhabit ants, and meek and mournful submission and mute despair settled upon the scanty remnant that survived. Such was the ruthless system which had been pursued, during the absence of the admiral, by the commander Ovando ; this man of boasted prudence and moderation, who was sent to reform the abuses of the island, and above all, to redress the wrongs of the natives. The system of Columbus may have borne hard upon the Indians, born and brought up in untasked freedom, but it was never cruel nor sanguinary. He inflicted no wanton massacres nor vindictive punishments ; his desire was to cherish and civilize the Indians, and to render them useful subjects ; not to oppress, and persecute, and destroy them. When he beheld the desolation that had swept them from the land during his suspension from authority, he could not restrain the strong expression of his feel ings. In a letter written to the king after his return to Spain, he thus expresses himself on the subject. “ The Indians of His paniola were and are the riches of the island ; for it is they who cultivate and make the bread and the provisions for the Christians ; who dig the gold from the mines, and perform all the offices and labors both of men and beasts. I am informed that, since I left this island, six parts out of seven of the natives are dead ; all through ill treatment and inhumanity ; some by the sword, others * Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 18.