Guns and Gold; Faith and Food : 155 



in the era of conquest and cruelty was that the native populations 

 disappeared like a fall of snow under March sunshine. Las Casas says, 

 "Whereas there were more than 3,000,000 souls inborn we saw in His- 

 paniola, there are to-day (1542), not more than 200 of the native 

 population left." Oviedo says that when Pedrarias Davila arrived 

 in the general region of Panama in 1514 there were approximately 

 2,000,000 living Indians and in 1519, when he began permanent settle- 

 ment in Panama, the country was almost depopulated. 



These populations under a more humane policy could have sur- 

 vived to provide a healthy labor force to establish firm settlements 

 and permanently productive industries. While the gold and silver 

 lasted the policy of ruthless conquest brought to Spain and Portugal 

 and to Europe generally a sudden prosperity, but the supplies of gold 

 and silver were not inexhaustible and then the dearth of stable settle- 

 ments and healthy populations made itself felt. Misfortunes have a 

 way of reproducing themselves. In the Caribbean and in Brazil and 

 in other parts of the New World the misfortune of exterminating the 

 native population was succeeded by the misfortune of African slavery. 



In time, of course, the Spanish and Portuguese settlements in the 

 New World reached a more stable and healthy state in which the 

 missionaries and teachers had an opportunity to establish churches 

 and missions, schools and other intellectual institutions. In the mean- 

 time, incalculable damage had been done to religious, cultural and 

 economic progress which could never be repaired. 



Before leaving this matter we must observe that the establishment 

 of reasonable and humane relations between European and native 

 society is always most difficult. The difficulties that existed in the six- 

 teenth century were greater than they would be today in many parts 

 of the world. Then the establishment of friendly and humane rela- 

 tions with the Indians, while not impossible, would have been ex- 

 tremely hard. It is worth observing that Las Casas himself in 1521 

 attempted the establishment of a colony at Cumana in Venezuela 

 which was to carry out his theories of peaceful and humane treat- 

 ment of the Indians. Likewise, Luis da Cancer, a Dominican, at- 

 tempted in Florida to establish a peaceful settlement and rule over 

 the Indian nations. This resulted in 1549 in Cancer's being killed 

 and in the subsequent abandonment of his attempt. These and other 

 trials illustrated the difficulties but they are not conclusive because 

 the events that had preceded these attempts at peaceful penetration 

 undoubtedly influenced the outcome. 



To balance the account, two additional observations are in order. 



