The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-13
SPAIN IN THE WEST INDIES.

SPAIN IN THE WEST INDIES.
 The story of the colonization of the West Indies throws another interest ing sidelight upon the career of Spain. At the time of the discovery of the new world by Columbus these islands were peopled by a docile, affectionate race known as Carlos. They appear to have been more like the Malays of the far east or possibly the Aztecs and Toltecs than like the redskins of eith- CT North or South America. They were of a brownish or reddish brown color, we'll built and of pleasant mien and demeanor. Those that were taken to Europe were spoken of very highly by the people of that period. They made considerable progress and were skilful hunters and fishermen and lived in comparative amity and com- | fort
 The moment the Spaniards settled Cuba and the adjacent islands they threw the entire Carib population into slavery, and the slavery exceeded any l hllOWl III lllC lllSlOIy Ol lI'e NUIlu IL was not like that of the negro in Mo- | hammedan lands or in civilized coun- | tries. It was unique. It was purely Spanish. Every slave was considered a machine by his military or civil own CT and was bound to render so much work or else get out Of the way for a slave who would do better. The slight est idling was visited by the lash or | the branding-iron; resistance, by tor ture and death. They were burned at | the stake: they were shot down like vermin; they were hunted and torn to | pieces by hounds; they were driven or thrown into the sea- and no provision seems ever to have been made for the sick, the injured, the infirm, the young or the aged. Even the most callous i Spanish priest wrote about it as being disgrace to Christianity. Under such treatment the race vanished. How many were killed will never be known. | The smallest estimate is two million, | the largest is six million.
 | When, for example, the Carib slaves | ran short in a district a company of soldiers and 6 small fleet would be sent | to neighboring island and twice as many seized and brought over as were needed, and any who tried either to de- | fend themselves or to escape were put | promptly to the sword. A few Carlos survived and lived like hunted anil mals, but whenever the opportunity came and they could obtain little vengeance they made bloody reprisals upon the Spanish. As the Carlos died < | ;y hno +ha s+ot af negroes from Africa. This depopula- tion of the island was of indirect aid to the British settlers, who began com ing over in 1924. They found many fields of remarkable fertility which were ready for their use. These had been made by the poor Carlos, who were now no more. Barbadoes was the first Soon there were settlements in Antigua, Jamaica, Nevis, Montser- rat, St. Christopher, the Bahamas and Trinidad The islands which. they took from Spain by force of arms were already peopled with a mixed race. The main stock was black, but this had already been modified by amalga- nation with the Spanish on the one side, freebooters of all nations on the
 
 Carlos on the third.
 From that time on until within a re- cent period the influence of Spain seems to have degraded and deteriora- ted humanity in nearly every island. Their cruelty was initiated their im- morality followed as an example, and their use of slave labor adopted by the governments of the various settle ments. From Cuba to Porto Rico also, for many years, an enormous amount of rum was exported to their smaller neighbors, until intemperance became a universal vice. Tn the last century, and the beginning of the present cen tury, either England or France might have had Cuba for the mere asking, but national jealousy and international complications prevented an action which would have saved the world a century of misgovernment and the lives of nearly a million human beings.
 Yet, in this struggle, much good in
 ured to this country. Spain sold to us Florida, because she was afraid that it
 would be taken from her by some Flu ropean power. She had no love for the United States. Even in those days her
 statesmen looked with profound con tempt upon land in which liberty and
 toleration, education and self-govern- ment were the characteristics. They
 would have destroyed this new heretl- cal commonwealth but for the fact that, according to their short-sighted
 statesmanship, American autonomy
 meant the weakening, if not the ruin
 of Great Britain. Similar causes let
 them to transfer the enormous territo-
 ry known as Louisiana to the French
 and the French to sell it to the United
 States when Napoleon Bonaparte was in great need of money. Out of the
 fear and the greed of official Madrid
 came to us these jewels of the Ameri- can crown--Florida, Louisiana, Arkan-
 sas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklaho-