them, that the sovereigns took them and their people under their especial
protection. They were merely to pay tribute like other subjects of the
crown, and it was to be collected with the utmost mildness and gentleness.
Great pains were to be taken in their religious instruction; for which
purpose twelve Franciscan friars were sent out, with a prelate named
Antonio de Espinal, a venerable and pious man. This was the first formal
introduction of the Franciscan order into the New World. [103]

All these precautions with respect to the natives were defeated by one
unwary provision. It was permitted that the Indians might be compelled to
work in the mines, and in other employments; but this was limited to the
royal service. They were to be engaged as hired laborers, and punctually
paid. This provision led to great abuses and oppressions, and was
ultimately as fatal to the natives as could have been the most absolute
slavery.

But, with that inconsistency frequent in human conduct, while the
sovereigns were making regulations for the relief of the Indians, they
encouraged a gross invasion of the rights and welfare of another race of
human beings. Among their various decrees on this occasion, we find the
first trace of negro slavery in the New World. It was permitted to carry
to the colony negro slaves born among Christians; [104] that is to say,
slaves born in Seville and other parts of Spain, the children and
descendants of natives brought from the Atlantic coast of Africa, where
such traffic had for some time been carried on by the Spaniards and
Portuguese. There are signal events in the course of history, which
sometimes bear the appearance of temporal judgments. It is a fact worthy
of observation, that Hispaniola, the place where this flagrant sin against
nature and humanity was first introduced into the New World, has been the
first to exhibit an awful retribution.