SOUTH AMERICA. 



167 



the principle, homo sum^ et humani a me nil alienumr 

 puto. The colonists, although disposed to yield obe- 

 dience to temporal or ecclesiastical sovereignty, in or- 

 dinary cases, it was found that the authority of both 

 the king and the pope, when called in to the aid of the 

 Jesuits, was of no avail where private interests were 

 so deeply affected; their maxim was, touch my pro- 

 perty, touch my life. 



The reducing the Indians to slavery was finally ar- 

 rested, not by convincing the colonists of the inhuma- 

 nity of the practice, but by furnishing substitutes, 

 "whom they preferred. The slave trade is therefore 

 still carried on extensively; the annual importation is 

 estimated at thirty thousand, chiefly males. The price 

 varies from two to three hundred dollars; their natu- 

 ral increase is discouraged, from the calculation that 

 it is much cheaper to imp rt full grown slaves, than to 

 bring up the young ones. Every inducement is thus 

 taken away by the abominable trafQc, to alleviate 

 their condition, or to render it comfortable. Where 

 the sordid passions have sway, they are almost always 

 accompanied with erroneous reasonings, even as to 

 the policy best calculated for the attainment of their 

 object. Experience has proved to us in the United 

 States, that since the abolition of the slave trade, and 

 the improvement, which has every where taken place 

 in the condition of the slaves, both their numbers 

 and value have increased in a proportion far beyond 

 what had been previously observed; the latter, a pain- 

 ful circumstance to the philanthropists of our country, 

 who see increasing difficulties in the way of their 

 emancipation. If we did not look forward to the hope 

 of being able to free ourselves from them altogether, 



