persons, to bring negroes there. From the tenor of their letter it
appears that they had before recommended the same thing. Zuazo, the
judge of residencia, and the legal colleague of Las Casas, wrote to
the same effect. He, however, suggested that the negroes should be
placed in settlements and married. Fray. Bernardino de Manzanedo, the
Hieronymite father, sent over to counteract Las Casas, gave the same
advice as his brethren about the introduction of negroes. He added a
proviso, which does not appear in their letter--perhaps it did exist
in one of the earlier ones--that there should be as many women as men
sent over, or more.

The suggestion of Las Casas was approved of by the Chancellor; and,
indeed, it is probable there was hardly a man of that time who would
have seen further than the excellent clerigo did. Las Casas was asked
what number of negroes would suffice? He replied that he did not know;
upon which a letter was sent to the officers of the India House at
Seville to ascertain the fit number in their opinion. They said that
four thousand at present would suffice, being one thousand for each of
the islands, Española, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica. Somebody now
suggested to the Governor, De Bresa, a Fleming of much influence and a
member of the council, that he should ask for this license to be given
to him. De Bresa accordingly asked the King for it, who granted his
request; and the Fleming sold this license to certain Genoese
merchants for twenty-five thousand ducats, having obtained from the
King a pledge that for eight years he should give no other license of
this kind.

The consequence of this monopoly enjoyed by the Genoese merchants was
that negroes were sold at a great price, of which there are frequent
complaints. Both Las Casas and Pasamonte--rarely found in