262 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



but supported by the high prices paid for the victims stolen from 

 Africa. 



Genoese merchants were the first who began a regular commeice 

 in slaves between Africa and America, receiving a patent for this- 

 pux'pose from Charles V., of Spain, in 1518. The traffic had begun 

 however in 1501, and King Ferdinand had publicly sanctioned it in 

 1511. Captain, afterwards Sir John Hawkins, led the English in the 

 slave trade in 1562. In 1567 he had for partner in such enterprize 

 Sir Francis Drake and secured a cargo of slaves off the Guinea coast. 

 Many charters, incorpoiating adventurers, with monoi)oly of the im- 

 portation of slaves from Africa, were granted by James I., Charles I.,. 

 Charles II., and their successors down to George III. In the single 

 year 1792, twenty Acts of the Imperial Parliament could be enum- 

 erated whereby the trade was sanctioned and encouraged. 



The number of Africans so introduced into Jamaica was soon in 

 excess of the white population, and thus continues to the pi-esent day. 

 Bryan Edwards in his " History of Jamaica," summing up the assets- 

 of this island, put down 250.000 negroes at £50 stg. each, making 

 £12,500,000 in 1791. Let us remark the extraordinary ethnic revo- 

 lution that has taken place in the Antilles since European intei ference- 

 therein began. As examples, take the two islands Hispaniola and 

 Jamaica. At the time of Columbus, Hispaniola, according tO' 

 Robertson, had one million souls. Before the year 1500, the aborigines- 

 had been sw^pt away, and black and white races were taking their 

 places. Now the population of the two States into which this island 

 is divided, namely, Hayti and the Dominican Republic, jointly 

 amounts to about 900,000 souls. 



The Indian race, to the number of half a million, as stated by old 

 historians, likewise disappeared from Jamaica. In 1881, its popula- 

 tion numbered about 581,000 of whom those of pure white blood 

 seem to have been less than 20,000, the remainder being Africans or 

 of mixed African and European Stocks. Thus it has taken nearly 

 four centuries, with the aid of forced African migration, to fill the 

 places of the aboriginal people. 



But to revert to the time when Spanish rule was brought to an end 



