REMARKABLE INDIAN SCHEME.

A remarkable proposal was made upon this occasion to the admiral by
Guarionex, cacique of the Vega Real, namely, that he would institute a
huge farm for the growth of corn and the manufacture of bread, stretching
from Isabella to St. Domingo (i. e. from sea to sea) which would suffice
to maintain all Castile with bread. The cacique would do this on condition
that his vassals were not to pay tribute in gold, as they did not know how
to collect that. But this proposal was not accepted, because Columbus
wished to have tribute in such things as he could send over to Spain.

This tribute is considered to have been a most unreasonable one in point
of amount, and Columbus was obliged to modify his demands upon these poor
Indians, and in some instances to change the nature of them. It appears
that, in 1496, service instead of tribute was demanded of certain Indian
villages; and as the villagers were ordered to make (and work) the farms
in the Spanish settlements, this may be considered as the beginning of the
system of repartimientos, or encomiendas, as they were afterwards called.

VIEWS OF COLUMBUS ON SLAVERY.

We must not, however, suppose that Indian slavery would not have taken
place by means of Columbus, even if these uprisings and defeats of the
Indians in the course of the year 1495 had never occurred. Very early
indeed we see what the admiral's views were with regard to the Indians. In
the diary which he kept of his first voyage, on the 14th of October, three
days after discovering the New World, he describes a position which he
thinks would be a very good one for a fort; and he goes on to say, "I do
not think that it (the fort) will be necessary, for this people is very
simple in the use of arms (as your highnesses will see from seven of them
that I have taken in order to bring them to you, to learn our language and
afterwards to take them back); so that when your highnesses command, you
can have them all taken to Castille or kept in the island as captives."

Columbus was not an avaricious, nor a cruel man; and certainly he was a
very pious one; but early in life he had made voyages along the coast of
Africa, and he was accustomed to a slave trade. Moreover, he was anxious
to reduce the expenses of these Indian possessions to the Catholic
sovereigns, to prove himself in the right as to all he had said respecting
the advantages that would flow to Spain from the Indies, and to confu