The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-06-10
6o)DS|IFD IND PLUMBER.
srAlA.s rxaaG ~ CRsME IN xnE
WEr INDIES.
side Of Encts Prom History 10
show Her Ruie Of Terrier ana

r. Rspfse-A shame TO humanity.
| What the Germans call earth-hnnger 10
not new social farce. although IL has
1 grown very fierce and ssroag In the pat
twenty years II prevailed Ia the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries and vas zrcDrt-
| panied by other tendencies OF almost equal
sirsngta- One was the desire % spread
Christianity with the sword the torch and
fne stake. and another was the desire for
/ gold which in those years 81 ignorance
Vas believed to exist IN vast quantities In
nearly every savage land.
IN nearly all the expeditions which sailed
from European ports in that period ina
caarteT or license from the crown speei-
fed that the land discovered should belong
! 10 the monarch. that the people should be
brought Into the true faith. and that OF
al gold found. a certain percentage should
so TO the kings treasury When Column
bus landed upon the ISLAND San Salvador
or Waiting as yariousiy believed. he
raised the spanish Tag and took possess
sion In the name OF Ferdinand ard Isa-
bella.
Other Giscoverers took similar action. II
vas in this wise that the commercial
powers IF Europe soon came 30 be the
nominal owners of all the new world. In
this struggle Spain undoubtedly was the
nrst. Her eaptdliy and greed were as ter
f.bie $50 years ago - they are az the pres
en-, time Behind her came Portugal, Hoi-
land ard England. As matter of what
to-day wonid be international law Spain
had undoubtedly claim to both North
and South America.
The only power which at first cared to
dispute that claim was Portugal: then. as
now. on terms of neither friendship nor
esteem with that country. The dispute
was referred TO the Pope. who adjudged
ha Fv.n es 1x-tSk l. Il Al
the territory which Is now Brazil. 10 Por-
tngaE. and all the rest to{ Spain. 1t was
not until years afterward that England
settled North America, Holland planted
colonies In both North and South America,
and France established herself In the new
world
This decision confirmed Spain's title to a
territory larger than any which had be-
ionged TO any single nation up to that Pc
Rod. Neither should il be forgotten that
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the
papal court welded an enormous power.
Austria, southern Germany, Italy. Spain,
Portugal, France. half of the Low Coun-
tries. Poland, Ireland and large part Of
the Scottish people were fervent Catholics,
and an adjudication by the Pope upon any
matter Of great public Importance was
more solemn and authoritative than that
of any other tribunal.
saved by the Redskin.
If Spain had taken the trouble 10 plant
colonies along the Atlantic coast the sarne
as In the West Indies and In South Amer
lea. this continent would today be Latin
American and not Anglo-Saxon in char
acter. The reason OF her non-action was
cupdity. She colonixed only those lands
which were rich and fertile. and where she
could obtain the largest financial return at
the smallest outlay. The sterile coast Of
New England. the grim sandy bars and
rEAn Of f..ln
offered no indueement to the Spanish i'm
agination. and. beyond this the fear OF
the redskins. who were then believed TO be
cannibais and greater monsters OF cruelty
than the Spaniarda themselves, deferred
them from even making faint attempt.
Ponce de Leon, and other Spanish SOL
diers priests and adyenturers, who ex-
plored Florida, and who encountered
bands Of probably Creeks or Seminoies,
reported these warlike tribes to be incar-
nate devils. altogether different from the
natives OF the West Indies. Mexico or
South America So, after all Ii may he
that the poor redskin now fast dwindiing
away, was the salvation of the American
continent.
The settlements in the West Indies were
very prosperous. They did not bring In
much gold. but they did bring tobacco.
spices and. In course of time other agri-
cultural products. Their prosperity IN
men.s. until all the Antilles. Greater and
Lesser. were the scenes OF Spanish domin-
ion. From the Bahamas, on the north. to
Trinidad and the mainland. on the SOUTH
It was a noble island empire, I'm which
comparatively few Spaniards ruled with
rod OF iron several millions OF poor
Carihs whom they rapidly and merciessly
worked to death.
OF the inhumanIty of the Spanish rule
of the sixteenth century IL il Difficult. for
Us TO conceive II was 80 frightfui that
TO the Spaniards at home, accustomed to
the Inquisition. 10 the Auto de Fe. and the
torture OF Jew and Morisco, 1t seemed in
toierable and outrageous. Few partIeu-
lars have come down, but when men who
could see innocent girls and little chill
dren burned alive in the market pace
without protest: who could look upon
strong men slowly pinched TO death with
steel pincers, whose every application took
out a rough fragment OF flesh or bone:
who could look. unmoved, upon a human
being torn apart by clumsy machinery:
when such men denounce tho cruelty OF
their fellow countrymen in the West In
dies Il must have been something fiend!sh
In character.
Speared and starved.
It was nothing for an owner to thrust a
sword er - hunting spear through any
slave offending him: IL was nothing 10
burn alive an entire family OF Caribs fer
Aeresys IL was nothing ia throw recall
eitrant slave TO sharks, TO be torn TO pieces
or 70 be- strung UP by his thumbs until he
starved TO death. Other stories are told
by the old writer's which cannot be retoid
for their shocking and denontac indeceney
and horror.
One az the strongest WITNESSES against
The Spanish rule Of taa. period was the
famous monk. Las Casas. Another was
Fratsr Juan Garces. So terrible was the
treatment that In 1877 the Pope Paul III.
issued . letter IN which he denounced the
treatment employed toward the Caribs
aud other Indians. saying II had It's origin
''ln an Internal cupldtty and .aS founded
on ehe most diabollcsI pretext"
Yet nine years after THAT tne official
publication % ire royal Council Of Castle
upon Indian policy. written by Dr De
Soiorzano PeFeyra. asserted that Divine
Providence had reserved America for tire
Spaniards; tnst the Bible Rad promised
this fact for the glory OF the true faith
and the unfolding OF The rA3vFar Of S.afa =.