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of the
Mississippi valley,
Cortereal and Vasquez de
Ayllon, Porcallo and
Soto, with private adventurers.
whose names and whose crimes may be left unrecorded, transported the natives of
North America into slavery in
Europe and the
Spanish West Indies.
The glory of
Columbus himself did not escape the stain; enslaving five hundred native
Americans, he sent them
to
Spain, that they might be publicly sold at
Seville.
1 The generous
Isabella commanded the liberation of
the Indians held in bondage in her
European possessions.
2 Yet her active benevolence extended neither to the Moors, whose valor had been punished by slavery, nor to the Africans; and even her compassion for the New World was but the transient feeling, which relieves the miserable who are in sight, not the deliberate application of a just principle.
For the commissions for making discoveries, issued a few days
before and after her interference to rescue those whom
Columbus had enslaved, reserved for herself and Ferdinand a fourth par
3 of the slaves which the new kingdoms might contain.
The slavery of Indians was
recognized as lawful.
4
The practice of selling the natives of
North America into foreign bondage continued for nearly two centuries; and even the sternest morality pronounced the sentence of slavery and exile on the captives whom the field of battle had spared.
The excellent
Winthrop enumerates Indians among his bequests.
5 The articles of the early
New England confederacy class persons among the spoils of war. A scanty remnant of the
