uld exculpate him before the
divine justice."

As has been noted, the transfer of his monopoly by the Governor of Bressa
to Genoese merchants, instead of increasing the exportation of negroes to
America, resulted in almost stopping the nefarious trade, hence no
considerable amount of mischief is traceable to the adoption of Las
Casas's suggestion, which was only one of many enumerated in his scheme.
Had the project as he framed it been accepted in its entirety and loyally
carried out, no increased injustice would have been done to the negroes,
for it was the frightful mortality amongst the cruelly driven Indians that
rapidly reduced the numbers of labourers and made gaps which could only be
filled by the importation of others from elsewhere. Under a more humane
system, the Indians might still have laboured, but not in excess of their
powers; their lives would not have been sacrificed or rendered
unendurable, while the colonists would have become rich less rapidly;
there would have been no shortage of workmen and little need for the
importation of Africans at a high price, even though one negro did the
work of four Indians, according to the popular estimate. While many
admirable suggestions of Las Casas were rejected, this blamable one
concerning the permission to import negroes was accepted, and thus by a
singular irony of fate, this good man, whose whole life was a
self-sacrificing apostolate in favour of freedom, actually came to be
aspersed as a promoter of slavery.

The controversy on this passage in the life of Las Casas has been touched
upon here because it furnished at one time material for much discussion,
(34) but the light of historical research has long since dispersed the
artificial clouds which misrepresentation caused to gather about the fame
of the Protector of the Indians, and there now neither is, nor can be, any
doubt concerning the sentiments and intentions of one whose noble figure
is too clearly defined on the horizon of history ever again to be blurred
or obscured.

Another part of the plan for colonisation on the moral basis of benefiting
the Indians as well as the Spaniards, was the foundation of fortified
places at intervals along the coast of the territory to be granted. In
each of these settlements, some thirty men should be stationed with a
provision of various articles, such as the Indians prized, for trading
purposes; also several missionary priests, whose occupation would be
teaching