ld pay for the manufactured goods of the Old. In addition
to this, it lay within its domain to arrange the rates at which the
produce sent from the colonies was to be sold in the Spanish markets.
From this it will be evident that, commercially speaking, its powers
were feudal.

It was inevitable that frequent evils should have sprung from the
inauguration of a system such as this. It became almost a religion to
every Spanish official and trader to batten upon the unfortunate
colonial, quite regardless of the fact that the pioneer settler was
being strangled during the process. Since the hapless dweller in South
America was not allowed to bargain or haggle, and was forced to take
whatever was graciously sent out to him at a rate condescendingly fixed,
it frequently happened that this latter was five or ten times the
legitimate price.

The disadvantages endured by the humble oversea strugglers, however, did
not end here, for their own produce received the coldest of financial
greetings in Europe, and the prices realized from these frequently left
the agriculturalists in despairing wonder as to whether it was worth
while to continue with their various industries. Added to all these were
further regulations which proved both irksome and costly to the men of
the south. Twice a year the Casa de Contratacion sent out a formidable
fleet from Cadiz, escorted by men-of-war. It was this fleet which
carried the articles of which the colonials were in urgent need. Now,
the main settlements of the Spanish merchants and officials, as
distinguished from the colonial, were in Panama and the north, and it
was largely in order to benefit these privileged beings that the
ridiculous regulations were brought into force which made the fleet of
galleons touch at the Isthmus of Panama alone. By this means it was
insured that these goods should pass through the commercial
head-quarters, and leave a purely artificial profit to the Spaniards
concerned, instead of being sent direct to the various ports with which
the coasts of the Continent were now provided.

[Illustration: BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS.

"The Apostle of the Indies," who took up the cause of the much afflicted
natives of South America.

_From the portrait in the Bibliotheque Nationale._

_A. Rischgitz._]

In these circumstances it was necessary for colonial merchants and
traders from all parts of South America to journey to this far northern
corner in order to carry out their ne