Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/131

 *tlement in Africa into the Spanish colonies in America. In 1511 Ferdinand, the fifth king of Spain, permitted them to be carried in great numbers.

Ferdinand, however, soon saw the error of this, and ordered the trade to be stopped. At the death of the King, a proposal was made by Bartholomew de las Cassas, the bishop of Chiapa, to Cardinal Ximenes, who held the reins of the government of Spain till Charles V. came to the throne, for the establishment of a regular system of commerce in the persons of the native Africans. The cardinal, however, with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice which will always do honor to his memory, refused the proposal; not only judging it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to be very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country over for the benefit of another.

Charles soon came to the throne, the cardinal died, and in 1517 the King granted a patent to one of his Flemish favorites, containing an exclusive right of importing four thousand Africans into the islands St. Domingo, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica. In 1562 the English, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, commenced the importation of African slaves, which were taken to Hispaniola by Sir John Hawkins. The trade then became general. The French persuaded Louis XIII., then King of France, that it would be aiding the cause of Christianity to import the Africans into the colonies, where they could be converted to the Christian religion; and the French embarked in the trade.

The Dutch were too sharp-eyed to permit such an opportunity to fill their coffers to pass by, so they fol