e of men in whom the daring
of freebooters was strangely blended with a fierce sort of
religiousness. As holders of slaves, these men recognized, and
endeavoured to their best to give effect to, the humane injunctions of
Bishop Las Casas. The Negroes, therefore, male and female, were
promptly presented for admission by baptism into the Catholic Church,
which always had stood open and ready to welcome them. The relations
of god-father and god-mother resulting from these baptismal functions
had a most important bearing on the reciprocal stations of master and
slave. The god-children were, according to ecclesiastical custom,
considered in every sense entitled to all the protection and assistance
which were within the competence of the god-parents, who, in their
turn, received from the former the most absolute submission. It is
easy to see that the planters, as well as those intimately connected
with them, in assuming such obligations with their concomitant
responsibilities, practically entered into bonds which they all
regarded as, if possible, more solemn than the natural ties of secular
parentage. The duty [243] of providing for these dependents usually
took the shape of their being apprenticed to, and trained in the
various arts and vocations that constitute the life of civilization.
In many cases, at the death of their patrons, the bondsmen who were
deemed most worthy were, according to the means of the testator,
provided for in a manner lifting them above the necessity of future
dependence. Manumission, too, either by favour or through purchase,
was allowed the fullest operation. Here then was the active influence
of higher motives than mere greed of gain or the pride of racial power
mellowing the lot and gilding the future prospects of the dwellers in
the tropical house of bondage.

The next, and even more effectual agency in modifying and harmonizing
the relations between owner and bondspeople was the inevitable
attraction of one race to the other by the sentiment of natural
affection. Out of this sprang living ties far more intimate and
binding on the moral sense than even obligations contracted in
deference to the Church. Natural impulses have often diviner sources
than ecclesiastical mandates. Obedience to the former not seldom
brings down the penalties of the Church; but [244] the culprit finds
solace in the consciousness that the offence might in itself be a
protection from the thunders it has provok