AND THE MISSIONARIES. 
201 
among the natives ; prisoners were dragged from the inland 
countries to the coast, to be sold to the whites, who loaded 
them with chains in their ships. Yet the Spaniards were 
at that period, and long after, one of the most polished 
nations of Europe. The light which art and literature 
then shed over Italy, was reflected on every nation whose 
language emanated from the same source as that of Dante 
and Petrarch. It might have been expected that a general 
improvement of manners would be the natural consequence 
of this noble awakening of the mind, this sublime soaring of 
the imagination. But in distant regions, wherever the 
thirst of wealth has introduced the abuse of power, the 
nations of Europe, at every period of their history, have 
displayed the same character. The illustrious era of Leo X 
was signalized in the Xew World by acts of cruelty that 
seemed to belong to the most barbarous ages. We are less 
surprised, however, at the horrible picture presented by the 
conquest of America when we think of the acts that are 
still perpetrated on the western coast of Africa, notwith- 
standing the benefits of a more humane legislation. 
The principles adopted by Charles Y. had abolished the 
slave trade on the Xew Continent. But the Conquistadores, 
by the continuation of their incursions, prolonged the system 
of petty warfare which diminished the American population, 
perpetuated national animosities, and during a long period 
crushed the seeds of rising civilization. At length the mis- 
sionaries, under the protection of the secular arm, spoke 
words of peace. It was the privilege of religion to console 
humanity for a part of the evils committed in its name ; to 
plead the cause of the natives before kings, to resist the 
violence of the commendataries, and to assemble wandering 
tribes into small communities called Missions. 
But these institutions, useful at first in stopping the 
effusion of blood, and in laying the first basis of society, 
have become in their result hostile to its progress. The 
effects of this insulated system have been such that the 
Indians have remained in a state little different from that in 
which they existed whilst yet their scattered dwellings were 
not collected round the habitation of a missionary. Their 
number has considerably augmented, hut the sphere of their 
ideas is not enlarged. They have progressively lost that 
