Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/88

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��indeed the only accuser of Las Casas, nineteen years be* fore the epoch of his pretended project.

Herrera (from whom other aiitliors have negligently ta- ken the fact for granted, on his bare word) does not quote a single atithority in support of his assertion, that Las Ca- sas recommended the importation of negroes into Hispa- niola. The charge itself was first published thirty-five years after the death of Las Casas. All writers antece- dent to Herrera, and contemporary with him, are silent on the subject, although several of these were the avow- ed enemies of Las Casas. Ilerrera's veracity on other points is much disputed, and he displays violent preju- dices against the man whom he accuses. It may be add- ed, that he was greatly indebted to him for information as an historian of the Indies.

In the numerous writings of Las Casas himself, still extant, there is not one word in favour of slaverj- of any kind, but they abound with reasoning and invective against it in every shape ; and, among his eloquent ap- peals and comprehensive plans on behalf of the oppress- ed Indians, there is not a solitary hint in recommenda- tion of the African Slave Trade. He only twice men- tions the negroes through all his multifarious writings : in one instance he merely names them as living in the islands, (in a manuscript in the National Library at Pa- ris ;) and in the same work he proposes no other remedy for the miseries of the aboriginal inhabitants, than the

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