r8 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book 11. 



makes men (o cruel and inhuman, and is, befides, the fource of vani- 

 ty, luxury, and dileafe, of which, as I have faid, it furnifhes the ma- 

 terials, I think, no man, who is learned in the hiftory and philofophy 

 of man, can doubt of tlie truth of what our Scripture tells us. Thai 

 the love of move y is the root of all ev'iL In fhort, avarice is the pecu- 

 liar vice of civilifed nations; and it is that which diftinguifhes them, 

 more than any thing elfe, from thofe nations we call barbarous, and 

 makes them more wicked, as well as more miferable, than any bar- 

 barians upon the face of the earth. 



What completed the deftrudion of this poor people, was a very 

 Imprudent thing done by Ferdinand the Spanifh King ; which was 

 dividing the Indians of certain diftricts among the Lords of his Court. 

 It was in thefe departments, as they were called, that all the cruel- 

 ties above mentioned were pradtifed* : It was then, as Las Cafas 

 tells us, that they had fhut up in the mines about 80,000 of thofe 

 poor people f . 



It was in vain that Las Cafas and other Ecclefiaftics oppofed them- 

 felves to this ordinance of Ferdinand, infifting that they Ihould 

 make Chriflians of them and not flaves. The anfwer made to this 

 was, that the Indians were no better than brutes, and quite inca- 

 pable of comprehending the dodlrines of Christianity ; and, there- 

 fore, the beft thing that could be made of them was to make then^ 

 ]abx)ur in the mines:):. 



If the avarice of the Spaniards could have been contented with the 

 treafures which the earth yielded them, millions of lives might have 

 been favcd. But they v/ould ranfack the deep alfo for wealth ; and, 



accordingly, 



* Page 166. 



J Las Cafas's Iliftory of the Tyranny of the Spaniards, p. 1 79. 



"t P^'Se 344- 



