A  royal  edict  of  1501  permitted  negro  slaves,  born  in
slavery  among  Christians,  to  be  transported. Within  two
years  there  were  such  numbers  of  Africans  in  Hispaniola  that
Ovando,  the  governor  of  the  island,  entreated  that  their  com-
ing might  be  restrained. For  a  short  time  the  Spanish  gov-
ernment forbade  the  introduction  of  negro  slaves  who  had
been  bred  in  Moorish  families,  and  allowed  only  those  who
were  said  to  have  been  instructed  in  the  Christian  faith  to  be
transported  to  the  "West  Indies,  under  the  plea  that  thiey  might
assist  in  converting  infidel  nations. But,  after  the  culture  of
sugar  was  begun,  the  system  of  slavery  easily  overcame  the
scruples  of  men  in  power. King  Ferdinand  himself  sent  frord
Seville  fifty  slaves  to  labor  in  the  mines,  and  promised  to  send
more ;  and,  because  it  was  said  that  one  negro  could  do  the
work  of  four  Indians,  the  direct  transportation  of  slaves  from
Guinea  to  Hispaniola  was,  in  1511,  enjoined  by  a  royal  ordi-
nance, and  deliberately  sanctioned  by  successive  decrees. Was
it  not  natural  that  Charles  V.,  a  youthful  monarch,  at  his  ac-
cession in  1516,  should  have  readily  granted  licenses  to  the
Flemings  to  transport  negroes  to  the  colonies  ?  The  benevo-
lent Las  Casas,  who  felt  for  the  native  inhabitants  of  the
'New  World  all  that  the  purest  missionary  zeal  could  inspire,
and  who  had  seen  them  vanish  away  like  dew  before  the  cruel-
ties of  the  Spaniards  while  the  African  thrived  under  the  tropi-
cal sun,  in  1517  suggested  that  negroes  might  still  further  be
employed  to  perform  the  severe  toils  which  they  alone  could
endure. The  board  of  trade  at  Seville  was  consulted,  to  learn
how  many  slaves  would  be  required ;  four  for  each  Spanish
emigrant  had  been  proposed ;  deliberate  calculation  fixed  the
number  at  four  thousand  a  year. In  1518  the  monopoly,  for
eight  years,  of  annually  importing  four  thousand  slaves  into
the  West  Indies,  was  granted  by  Charles  Y. to  La  Bresa,  one
of  his  favorites,  and  was  sold  to  the  Genoese. The  buyers
of  the  contract  purchased  their  slaves  of  the  Portuguese,  to
whom  a  series  of  papal  bulls  had  indeed  granted  the  ex-
clusive commerce  with  Western  Africa ;  but  the  slave-trade
between  Africa  and  America  was  never  expressly  sanctioned


1518-1621. SLAVERY. ^  125

by  the  see  of  Rome. Leo  X. 