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The trade in the copper- coloured Indians 

 was accompanied by the same acts of inhuma- 

 nity as that in the African negroes ; and had 

 also the same result, in rendering both the con- 

 querors and the conquered more ferocious. 

 Thence wars became more frequent among the 

 natives; prisoners were dragged from the in- 

 landcountries to the coast, in order to be sold 

 to the whites, who loaded them with chains in 

 their ships. Yet the Spaniards were at this 

 epocha, and long after, one of the most polish- 

 ed nations of Europe. The resplendent light, 

 which arts and literature then shed over Italy, 

 has been reflected on every country, of which 

 the language emanated from the same source 

 as that of Dante and Petrarch. It might have 

 been thought, that a general melioration of 

 manners would be the natural consequence of 

 this noble awakening of the mind, this sublime 

 soaring of the imagination. But in distant cli- 

 mates, wherever the thirst of wealth has intro- 

 duced the abuse of power, the nations of Eu 

 rope, at every period of their history, have dis- 

 played the same character. The illustrious era 

 of Leo X was signalized in the new world by 

 acts of cruelty, that seemed to belong to the 

 most barbarous ages. We are less surprised, 

 however, at the horrible picture with which the 

 conquest of America presents us, when we re- 

 collect what still takes place on the western 



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