NEGROES.
12
CHAPTER XXX. Negroes : their introduction into the New World—Bartholomew Las Casas—His intercessions in favour of the Indians—Cardinal Ximenes Origin of the slave trade—Its adoption by the English government —Character of slavery—Mental degeneracy—Instances of superior faculties among the Negro race—Juan Parega—Phillis Wheatley— Ignatius Sancho—His letter to the Rev. L. Sterne—Slavery in its early days—Punishment of the negroes in 1736. IN
furtherance of my plan, of commencing from the earliest
period the history of this small but important colony, it also devolves upon me to give some account of the first introduction of negroes into this quarter of the globe, particularly as they form so large a bulk of the population of Antigua. The negroes, as perhaps many of my readers may
be
aware, were first introduced generally into the West Indies, as labourers, in 1515, although some few had been sent there a short time before.
Bartholomew Las Casas, an
eminent Spanish divine, was one of those who proposed this measure, and spent both time and money in its completion. Las Casas was born at Seville, in the year 1474 ; and at the age of nineteen, accompanied his father to the West Indies. At this period, Rodrigo Albuquerque, the confidential minister of Ferdinand V. of
Spain, had succeeded Don
Diego, the son of Christopher Columbus, in the government of Hispaniola, which the Spaniards still considered as their principal colony.
Albuquerque was a man of violent pas-
sions, and rapacious in the acquisition of wealth; and under his government the poor Indians led but a miserable life ; and with hard labour and ill-treatment they were almost exterminated.
The cruel and arbitrary proceedings adopted
towards them excited compassion in the minds of all who