have known nothing of their treatment when in bondage, nor could he have
viewed the few uncertain adventurous transportations of them into his
dominions in the western world, in the light of a regular trade. After his
death, however, a proposal was made by Bartholomew de las Casas, the bishop
of Chiapa, to Cardinal Ximenes, who held the reins of the government of
Spain till Charles the Fifth came to the throne, for the establishment of a
regular system of commerce in the persons of the native Africans. The
object of Bartholomew de las Casas was undoubtedly to save the American
Indians, whose cruel treatment and almost extirpation he had witnessed
during his residence among them, and in whose behalf he had undertaken a
voyage to the court of Spain. It is difficult to reconcile this proposal
with the humane and charitable spirit of the bishop of Chiapa. But it is
probable he believed that a code of laws would soon be established in
favour both of Africans and of the natives in the Spanish settlements, and
that he flattered himself that, being about to return and to live in the
country of their slavery, he could look to the execution of it. The
cardinal, however, with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice, which
will always do honour to his memory, refused the proposal, not only judging
it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to be
very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country from a state of
misery by consigning to it those of another. Ximenes therefore may be
considered as one of the first great friends of the Africans after the
partial beginning of the trade.

This answer of the cardinal, as it showed his virtue as an individual, so
it was peculiarly honourable to him as a public man, and ought to operate
as a lesson to other statesmen, how they admit any thing new among
political regulations and establishments, which is connected in the
smallest degree with injustice. For evil, when once sanctioned by
governments, spreads in a tenfold degree, and may, unless seasonably