The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-06-10
aO)DSAED IND PLUMBER.
SIDE OF Yeoeta Prom History 10
show Her Hafe of Terror ana
Rapine-A shame 60 Humanity.

What the Germans cafs eartb-hnnger 10
1. rot new social farce, although L has
grown very fierce and sfrong In the past
twenty years Ii prevailed IN the fifteenth
and stxts<nth centuries. and WAS accom-
panied By other tendencies of almost equal
strength One was the desire 10 spread
Christianity With the sword. the torch and
the stake, and another was the desire for
gold which in those years Of ignorance
was believed 10 exist sa vast quantities f.
nearly every savage land.
In nearly al the expeditions which sailed
from European ports In that period tho
charter or license from the crown spell
fed that the land discovered should belong
10 the monarch. that the people should be
brought into the true faith. and that OF
ell gold found certain percentage should
go TO the kings treasury. When Column
bias landed upon the island San Salvador
or Waiting. as yariousiy beiseyed. he
raised the Spanish nag and took posses
sion in the name Of Ferdinand and isa-
bella
Other discovefers took similar action. II
was IN this wise that the commercial
rzo~ers OF Europe soon came 10 be the
nominal owners Of ali the new. world. In
this struggle Spain undoubtedly was the
first. Her capiaity and greed were as ter
r.bie 80 years ago as they are at the pres
ert time Behind her came Portugal. Hell
land and England. As a matter of what
today would 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. Tae dispute
was referred 20 the Pope, who adjuagea
the matter with great justice. He awarded
the territory which 10 now Brazil, 70 Por-
tngai. and ali 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-
iongsd to any single nation up to that pc
Rod. Neither should Ii be forgotten that
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the
papal court welded an enormous power
Austria. southern Germany. ItalN Spain
Portugal. France. half of the Low Coun-
tries, Poland Ireland and a 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 Redxkin.
If Spain had taken the trouble to plant
colonies along the Atlantic coast the same
az la the West Indies and in South Amer
lea. this continent would today be Latin
American and not Anglo-Saxon in char
acter. The reason or her non-acton was
cupsdity. She colonixed only those lands
which were rich and fertile and where she
could obtain the largest financial return az
the smallest outlay. The sterile coast OF
New England. the grim sandy bars and
reaches OF Virgnian and the Caroiinas
offered no inducement TO the Spanish i'm
agipation. and. beyond this. the fear OF
the redskins, who were then believed TO be
cannibals and greater monsters OF cruelty
than the Spaniards themselves, deferred
them from even making a faint attempt
Ponce de Leon. and other Spanish scl-
ders. priests ana sdventurers. who ex-
piored Florida, and who encountered
bands OF probably Creeks or Seminoles.
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. Il may be
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
spices and. in course OF time. other agri-
cultural products. Their pros perity in
duced advenfurers TO make other settle
ments. until all the Antilles. Greater and
Lesser. were the scenes of Spanish domin-
ion. From the Bahamas, on the north. 10
Trinidad and the mainland, on the south.
II was a noble island empire. in which
comparatively few Snaniards ruled with
a rod of iron several millions of peer
Carihs whom they rapidly and mercilessly
worked TO death.
or the inhumanity OF the Spanish rule
OF the sixteenth century II is difficult fer
las 10 conceive. 1t was 50 frightful that
tha Sra mi rt3s NJ
the Inquisition. 10 the Auto de Fe. and the
torture of Jew and Morisco. II seemed in
solerable and outrageous. Few particu-
lars have come down, but when men who
could see innocent girls and little chill
dren burned alive in the market place
without a protest; who could look upon
strong men slowly p.nched to death with
steel pincerx whose every application took
out a rough fragment OF flesh or bone:
who could look. unsnoved, upon human
being torn apart by clumsy machinery;
when such men ienounee the cruelty OF
their fellow countrymen in the West In
dies II must have been something fendish
in character
Spearcd and starved
It was nothing for an owner to thrust
sword or hunting spear through any
slave offending him: II was nothing 20
burn alive an entire family OF Caribs for
heresy. IL was nothing TO throw a recall
citranf slave 10 sharks. TO be torn to pieces
or 20 be strung up by his thumbs until he
starved 20 death Other stories are told
hy the old writer's which cannot be rstc,i
FOR their shocking and iemor,ac indecency
and horror.
Cae OF the strongest witnesses against
The Spanish rule Of that period was the
famous monk. Las cssas. Another wss
Frater Juan Cares So terrible was the
treatment that in isy7 the Pope Paul III.
issued letter In which he derounced the
treatment employed toward rhe Ca-fbs
ard other Indians, saving II had It's origin
in an internal cupsdtty and WAS founded
on the most diasa.sca! pretsxt"
Yet nine years after that the official
publication OF the royal Council OF CASTLE
upon Indian policy. written by Dr. DE
SoloTzano Pereyra. asserted '1hat Divine
Providence had reserved America for the