Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/505

477 REVIEW OF THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 477 after, in 1515, Las Casas, moved by the spectacle chapter of human sufifering, returned to Spain, and pleaded —^ — ^~. the cause of the injured native, in tones which made the dying monarch tremble on his throne. It was too late, however, for the king to execute the remedial measures he contemplated. ^^^ The effi- cient interference of Ximenes, who sent a commis- sion for the purpose to Hispaniola, was attended with no permanent results. And the indefatigable " protector of the Indians " was left to sue for re- dress at the court of Charles, and to furnish a splendid, if not a solitary example there, of a bosom penetrated with the true spirit of Christian phi- lanthropy. *^^ I have elsewhere examined the policy pursued by the Catholic sovereigns in the government of their colonies. The supply of precious metals yielded by them eventually, proved far greater than had ever entered into the conception of the most sanguine of the early discoverers. Their prolific soil and genial climate, moreover, afforded an infi- nite variety of vegetable products, which might have furnished an unlimited commerce wdth the the eulogium. But are not the the Israelites towards their idola- very number and repetition of these trous neighbours. But the Span- humane provisions sufficient proof ish Fenelon replied, that " the be- of their inefficacy? haviour of the Jews was no preee- 123 Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dent for Christians ; that the law dec. 2, lib. 2, cap. 3. — Las Casas, of Moses was a law of rigor ; but Memoire, apud CEuvres, ed. de that of Jesus Christ, one of grace, Llorente, tom. i. p. 239. mercy, peace, good-will, and char- 124 In the remarkable discussion ity." (CEuvres, ed. de Llorente^ between the doctor Sepulveda and tom. i. p. 374.) The Spaniard Las Casas, before a commission first persecuted the Jews, and thei named by Charles v., in 1550, the quoted them as an authority foe former vindicated the persecution persecuting all other infidels. of the aborigines by the conduct of