ART. VIII.-Chronological History of the West Indies. By Capt. Thomas Southey, Commander, Royal Navy. 3 vols. 1827. THIS HIS is the unpretending work of a seaman, collected, as he tells us, 'out of authors both ancient and modern, with great care and diligence,' and arranged in the manner best suited to so broken a subject-the plan comprehending the whole of the Columbian islands; for, as they belong to different European powers, and as some even of those, which are subject to the same crown, have little or no connexion with each other, there is no other natural or convenient order, wherein their history can be composed, than that which a chronological series offers.' They are chronicles which, it might be thought, neither Spaniard, nor French, nor Englishman, could contemplate without some emotions of shame for his country, and humiliation for his kind: so much violence, so much cruelty, so much injustice are recorded there, with so little to relieve the melancholy register. Were the history of Spain, and France, and Great Britain to perish, as that of the great early monarchies of the world has perished, and only these colonial annals, for these three centuries which have elapsed since the discovery of the islands, to be saved from the wreck, what opinion could posterity form of the three nations, as to the degree of civilization which they had attained, their policy, their religion, and their arts! But, however little there may be to ennoble this portion of history, the subject is not without an interest of its own, and more especially at this time. pur The discovery. of America was an event of which the great importance was immediately apprehended. A new world was opened to imagination and enterprise; the ambitious looked thither to the conquest of kingdoms, and the rapacious to their plunder; science, imperfect as it was, had its votaries then as well as now, who cheerfully encountered any difficulties and dangers in the suit of knowledge; and if, among the ministers of religion, there were some who made their profession a cloak for cupidity and cruelty, there were others who went and laboured faithfully in the Lord's vineyard, with a Christian temper and a Christian heroism which might more than compensate for the errors of their corrupted faith. Thoughtful men who, from their quiet studies, regarded the affairs of the world with a deeper interest than is felt by those that are actively engaged in it, were moved to tears* when they looked to the indefinite prospects that seemed opening upon mankind. Peter Martyr, writing to Pomponius Lætus, says: Præ lætitia prosilüsse te, vixque à lachrymis præ gaudio temperasse, quando literas adspexisti meas, quibus de antipodum VOL. XXXVIII. NO. LXXV. orbe kind. Indefinite they might well appear, for it was a world of wonders that had been found, where veteran soldiers went in search of a fountain which should restore them to youth, and Columbus himself believed that he had approached the terrestrial paradisethat the body of fresh water in which he found himself, when in the Bocas del Dragon, came from the garden of Eden (the river Pison, he would suppose it to be, which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good'); and, although he despaired of ascending so high, was perhaps not without a hope that he might come within sight of the cherubim's flaming sword. A very able and eloquent writer,* whose work we have already recommended to the notice of our readers, has recently argued, that the work of planting the nations was not performed when the earth was full of inhabitants, but, on the contrary, when it was a comparative void; not by nations whose numbers were the greatest, but the fewest and most scattered: in ages of ignorance or in times of strife and oppression; and that, as the population of the different nations has increased, the necessity of these wanderings has diminished.' There is some confusion here, both with regard to Scriptural and later history. It is true that the earth was comparatively a void, when it was divided in the days of Peleg; but that was not an age of ignorance, for primal truths retained the freshness of their impress upon the heart of man, and the righteous lived in the light and sunshine of a visible dispensation. The visible characters of this great book of nature,' says Jackson of Newcastle, 'were of old more legible, the external significations of Divine Power more sensible and apter to imprint their meaning-both purposely fitted to the disposition of the world's non-age.' And, in later times, the author seems not to distinguish between the migratory movements of barbarian hordes, or armed nations, and the colonial settlements of civilized states. Whether Egypt sent out colonies to India, or was itself colonized from thence, is a question which there seems little hope that M. Champollion or Dr. Young will be enabled to decide; but, in either case, the colonizers were not an ignorant race. In a later age, when the history of colonization begins, colonies orbe latenti hactenus, te certiorem feci, mi suavissime Pomponi, insinuasti. Ex tuis ipse literis colligo quod senseris. Sensisti autem, tantique rem fecisti, quanti virum summá doctrina insignitum decuit. Quis namque cibus sublimibus præstari potest ingeniis isto suavior? quod condimentum gratius? à me facio conjecturam. Beari sentio spiritus meos, quando accitos alloquor prudentes aliquos ex his qui ab eâ redeunt provinciá. Implicent animos pecuniarum cumulis augendis miseri avari; libidimbus obscœni; nostras nos mentes, postquam Deo pleni aliquandiu fuerimus, contemplando, hujuscemodi rerum notitia demulceamus.-Epist. clii. Mr. Sadler, in his treatise upon 'Ireland: its Evils and their Remedies.' are are found, as might be expected, to have proceeded from the most flourishing, and enterprising, and intelligent people—the Phoeni cians and the Greeks. So, too, when the appointed time for the discovery of America was come, it was not by Scandinavian or Norman sea-rovers that the way was opened, but by the Spaniards, in the age of their greatest prosperity and highest civilization-the only people in whom heart, and will, and power, could have been found for the work which was to be done, and during the only age in which they were thus qualified, by their virtues, their vices, and their political station. No person, who contemplates history with a religious mind, can fail to remark the striking resemblance between the condition of the more civilized American nations at the time of the discovery, and of the Canaanites when, in like manner, the measure of their iniquities was full. The enormities to which the Spaniards put an end in Mexico, and those other states wherein the Aztec mythology prevailed, were such, that even the victories of Cortes may be regarded, with complacence, as a dispensation of mercy to the people themselves. The superstitions which existed in the hierarchical despotisms of South America were not, at first sight, so revolting to humanity, because they did not exhibit a regular course of human butchery upon so extensive a scale; but there was the same root of evil there, bringing forth fruits of death. Systems as degrading to human nature as those of the great Asiatic kingdoms had been firmly established there, and were rapidly increasing in extent and power; and all these were connected with schemes of priestcraft more or less inhuman. And throughout the whole continent, in every grade of society, from the rudest tribes on the Orinoco to the highly artificial fabrics of polity under the Zippas, the Zaques, and the Incas, such abominations were practised, not as acts of individual wickedness, but as belonging to the laws or customs of the people and of the state, that even the Quesadas and the Pizar ros appear, when these things are considered, to have been ministers of divine justice, while they themselves were monsters of cruelty, deserving the execration of mankind. This is no extenuation of their guilt. As regards human suffering, the remedy, while it continued, was worse than the disease; the tyranny which they substituted was more cruel than that which they subverted-it inflicted wider misery, and implied a greater degree of guilt in the agents; for they sinned against knowledge. Long ere this, indeed, the good would have immeasurably preponderated, if, in the great struggle between good and evil at the time of the Reformation, Spain had chosen the better part. But from the time when its civil and religious liberties were destroyed, the root of its strength began to decay, and the canker was felt in the remotest ramifications. 30 There There are some historians (M. Guizot may be instanced as the ablest of the class) who carry the influence of general causes too far, considering men as entirely the creatures of the circumstances wherein they are placed, and regarding them rather as the puppets of a fatal necessity, than as accountable beings, to whom it has been free to choose between good and evil. Hopeless, as well as helpless, would be the condition of humanity if this were true; and one consequence of a philosophy as false as it is injurious, would be to render history useless for all purposes of example. But blessings and curses are set before us, and nations, like individuals, are judged according to their ways. In the first age of their colonial history, the Spaniards appear in their worst character, and the Spanish government in its best. Neither good intentions, nor good laws, were wanting on its part: both were frustrated by the rapacity of its agents, and by its own insane pretensions to universal dominion-a scheme in which, for half a century, it was zealously seconded by the most active, most influential, most intriguing, and most mischievous order of men in the Romish church. They served it thus, because it was to the shaven and shorn head, and the triple crown, as much as to Castille and Leon, that Columbus had given a new world. When he said to the Catholic kings that there could not be a richer country, nor a more cowardly people than he had discovered for them, and that they were as much masters of it as they were of Xeres or Toledo, and that the fountain of gold was there, he told them that, whoever had gold might do with it whatever he wished in this world, and open with it the gates of Paradise in the other: -a passage which the modern editor of his papers assures us, is in conformity with many texts of Scripture. This most rich empire of the Indies, God, says Oviedo, had reserved for our fortunate emperor Charles V., that its wealth might be employed in his Catholic designs and armies, and that his holy intentions and aims against infidels and heretics might be carried into effect; and that the flag of Spain might be celebrated for the most victorious, respected for the most glorious, feared for the most powerful, and loved as the most worthy to be loved in the universe. 'Such power and majesty in any Christian prince as is now manifest in him, has never till now been seen under heaven. And, therefore, it is to be expected that, in a short time, we shall see brought under the sceptre of our Cæsar all that is wanting for attaining to the height of universal monarchy. And that there shall be no kingdom, nor sect, nor kind of false belief, which will not be humbled, and brought under obedience to his yoke. And I say not this concerning unbelievers only, El oro es excelentisimo; del oro se hace tesoro; y con el quien lo tiene, hace quanto quiere en el mundo, y llega á que echa las animas al paraiso. Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages, 1. 309. but but of those also who call themselves Christians, for they will not refuse' to acknowledge our Cæsar for their superior, as they ought, and as God has ordained, seeing that he has valiant soldiers and people in abundance, and wealth enough to distribute among them.' Acting upon these pretensions, the Spaniards brought a host of enemies against the colonies, and weakened their hold upon the New World by extending it. In consequence of the latter cause, the decline of their first colony was as rapid as its progress had been. Next to the paramount object of introducing the Romish faith, the government was intent upon establishing in the colonies, without delay, the laws and municipal institutions of the mother country. When a city was to be founded, the first form prescribed was, with all solemnity, to erect a gallows, as the first thing needful; and, in laying out the ground, a site was marked for the prison as well as for the church. Ample provision was made for churches and convents; and monks and friars, in the first age of the conquests, were some of the best colonists who could be sent out, going to take up their permanent abode there, and, therefore, making more provision for future comfort, than those who were looking eagerly to return with their wealth to Europe. It is surprising how soon St. Domingo was stocked with European animals, and with produce designed for the European market. 'In what land,' says Oviedo, has it ever been known or heard of, that in so short a time, and in countries so distant from our Europe, so many cattle, and so many goods of the earth, should be produced, and in such great abundance, as we with our own eyes have seen in these Indies, brought hither over such wide seas? The which this land hath not received as a stepmother, but even more like a true mother than that which sent them forth; for some of them are produced in greater quantities, and of better kind, than in Spain itself, as well animals useful for the service of man, as corn and pulse, and fruits and sugar, and canafistola. The beginning of these things came from Spain in my days; and, in a little time, they have multiplied so greatly, that ships return to Europe laden with sugar, and canafistola, and hides.' This led him to observe, seeing the natural advantages of the country, that a king of Hispaniola might soon have greatly the advantage over a king of Sicily or of England! The first cargoes that the ships carried back to Spain consisted of sugar. In the year 1535, there had been, within three and twenty years, twenty eight sugar mills erected, exceeding any thing that was then known of the kind in any island or kingdom, whether of Christians or unbelievers.' The cane was introduced from the Canaries, whither the Spaniards had carried it, probably from their own country, for it was cultivated in Granada and Valencia. The Canaries contributed not a little to the discovery of the West Indies in the first instance, |