1038 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



cd all their motions, punished the 

 slightest rcmisiion of labour ■with the 

 most inhuman stripes. 



" I enquired of Don INIanucl if (his 

 was their usual custom. He answer- 

 ed, yes : and when I expressed my 

 surprise and abhorrence, by observ- 

 ing, that even the negroes on the 

 British plantations passed a life far, 

 very far, less wretched; he coolly 

 replied, ' Very true, sir : and so do 

 ray domestic siaTCS, who am but a 

 inerchant. But what is the reason .' 

 The Afr can we arc obliged to pur- 

 chase ; and if through ill-usage he 

 dies, thore is go much money lost. 

 Now the native Indian is the pro- 

 perly of the state ; and no o\ie 

 suU'ers by his loss but his majesty, 

 who has it in his power torejilaceit 

 immediately, without feeliui; the 

 least inconvenience.' Bad policy, 

 thought I ; but, from prudential mo- 

 tives, said no more upon the subject 

 till our return to (lie house, when, 

 by repeated questions, I gained such 

 iuformaiioii from the communicative 

 ]\lannel, of th.e Spaniards' inhuma- 

 nity towards their unfortunate cap- 

 tives as made my blood run coldly 

 through my veins, and my heart re- 

 volt from the idea of owning such 

 tyrannic beings for my fellow-crea- 

 tures. 



" When (he Spaniards first landed 

 on this injured country the innocent 

 jTihabitants received them as gods 

 from a distant region. The;) was 

 the time for them to have established 

 their reign on the immortal basis of 

 justice and of mercy, and to have 

 secured a certain empire over t!ic 

 minds as well as bodies of theirnew 

 subjects. Lenity and kindness, it has 

 ever been allowed, are far nioreefii- 

 cacious in gaining the atl'ections and 

 governing tiic passions of an untutor- 



ed savage than rigour and severity un. 

 justly adopted, injudiciously applied. 



" in strong uncultivated minds 

 there is no medium affection between 

 ardent love and the most deadly hate. 

 Actuated by the former, he will 

 share widi you every thing he 

 possesses ; follow you, serve you, 

 die for you : but once excite the 

 latter, and never, never to the end 

 of (iaie can it be eradicated from his 

 breast, but descends from father to 

 son to the latest generation, and 

 slrcngtheiis instead of decaying. 

 Would it not have been wiser as 

 well as more polKic in the Spaniards 

 to have wrapped in downy folds the 

 galling chaiii of slavery, and learnt 

 to consider tliese unhappy victims 

 not as mere bc::sts of burden, formed 

 but to labour and to perish, but as 

 men, bearing like thcm.selves the 

 stamp and imago of a beneficent 

 ('rca(or ; born with an cfjiial right 

 to all his bounties, and whose ances- 

 tors enjoyed unmolested for ages the 

 ground now wet with the tcar-s of 

 their oppressed and injured ofl- 

 spring ; and from which their inhu- 

 man tyrants derive (he whole of 

 that immense wealth, which has 

 long been their onjy support and 

 pride ? 



" There have, itistruc, bee;n many 

 humane and salutary regulations 

 madeaud edicts issued at the court of 

 Si)ain for the protection and relief of 

 the harassed Indians : but of what 

 service arc they, when so shamefully 

 neglected, or so scandalously abused 

 when put in execution ? The power 

 which alone can remedy the evil is at 

 too great a distance to perceive the 

 extent of it : and here, in the actual 

 scene of action, every one who has 

 the smallest share in the concerns of 

 government is too much occupied by 



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