e Flemish chancellor, Juan Selvagio, he had recourse to
other means to attain the same ends. He asked in 1517 that the
importation of Africans be permitted to the Spaniards settled in the
Indies, in order to diminish the labour and sufferings of the Indians in
the mines and on the plantations, and that a good number of labourers be
enrolled in Spain who would emigrate to the Indies upon the conditions and
with the advantages which he proposed. This new proposition was approved
by the Cardinal of Tortosa, Adrian, by the Grand Chancellor, and the
Flemish ministers. The Chamber of Commerce at Seville was consulted to
learn what number of Africans, Cuba, Santo Domingo, San Juan [Puerto
Rico], and Jamaica would require. It was replied that it would be
sufficient to send four thousand. This answer being almost immediately
made known by some intriguer to the Flemish governor of Bressa, this
courtier obtained the monopoly of the trade from the sovereign and sold it
to some Genoese for twenty-five thousand ducats on condition that during
eight years no other license should be granted by the King. This
arrangement was extremely harmful to the Population of the islands,
especially to the Indians for whose benefit it had been granted; in fact
had the trade been free, all the Spaniards might have engaged in it, but
as the Genoese sold their right at a very high price few Spaniards were
able to pay, and the importation of blacks was almost nil. The King was
counselled to pay back the twenty-five thousand ducats from his treasury
to the governor and recover his rights, which would pay him well and be of
great advantage to his subjects. Unfortunately the King had little money
then and, as he was left in ignorance of much concerning the affairs of
the Indies, nothing of what was most important was done."

There is not a word in this passage which even refers to the
_introduction_ of negro slavery and Herrera in another passage (tom. i.,
dec. i., lib. iv., cap. xii.) states that a royal ordinance given on
September 3, 1500, to Don Nicholas de Ovando, the Governor of Hispaniola,
permitted the importation of negro slaves. This was two years before Las
Casas made his first voyage as a young man of twenty-eight to America, and
in 1503, the same Ovando asked that no more negro slaves be sent to
Hispaniola because they escaped and lived amongst the natives whom they
corrupted. (32) The number of negroes continued, nevertheless, to incre