[Footnote 32: Abbad says 30.]




CHAPTER XIII

DEPOPULATION OF THE ISLAND--PREVENTIVE MEASURES--INTRODUCTION OF
NEGRO SLAVES

1515-1534

The natural consequence of natural calamities and invasions was the
rapid disappearance of the natives. "The Indians are few and serve
badly," wrote Sedeño in 1515, about the same time that the crown
officers, to explain the diminution in the gold product, wrote that
many Indians had died of hunger, as a result of the hurricane. " ...
The people in la Mona," they said, "have provided 310 loads of bread,
with which we have bought an estate in San German. It will not do to
bring the Indians of that island away, because they are needed for the
production of bread."

Strenuous efforts to prevent the extinction of the Indians were made
by Father Bartolomé Las Casas, soon after the death of King Ferdinand.
This worthy Dominican friar had come to the court for the sole purpose
of denouncing the system of "encomiendas" and the cruel treatment of
the natives to which it gave rise. He found willing listeners in
Cardinal Cisneros and Dean Adrian, of Lovaino, the regents, who
recompensed his zeal with the title of "Protector of the Indians." The
appointment of a triumvirate of Jerome friars to govern la Española