Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/83

Rh and luxuriant groves and fields teemed with all that was requisite for their subsistence. Under the mastery and the goading of the Spaniard they bent their backs to digging in the mines, to tillage in the fields to supply a wasteful indulgence, and to the carrying of heavy burdens. As retainers of their oppressors they were also trained to warfare, and bound to do a hateful service in raids against their own former friendly fellows.

Mr. Parkman rightly says that the spirit of Spanish enterprise in America is expressed in the following address of Dr. Pedro de Santander, to the King, in 1557, of the expedition of De Soto: —

The writer, however, leaves open the opportunity for securing many slaves. In pleadings like this, no previous measure or limitation of effort or time is indicated for attempts at conversion, and we are left to infer that the supposed futility of them warranted anticipating them by death, and so making the doom of the heathen sure.

In accordance with that rule of equity and reason which enjoins, that, when we judge or rehearse the actions and methods of men of other generations and circumstances