XXVI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas

- 135 ­
things as of old". Apparently two other Indians, lmown as Don Francisco
of Bonao and "the doctor" of Santiago, served as experimental
guinea pig~ with scarcely better results. The colonist, Juan Mozquera,
who as c'isi/ador hall frequently observed the development of Ovando's
experiment, informed the Jeronymites that, during the six years (1508­
1514) the Indians were at liberty, they neither tilled the land assigned
LO them, nor raised pigs. Neither "iere they able to feed and clothe
themselves, much less their dependents, by the proouce of their united
labor. Whe Alburquerque made the first general allotment of lnc1ians
in 1514, ac1c1ed Mozquera, these ehieftains v\"ere deprivec1 of their repaif'timie~t-tos.
Thus the first socioJogical experiment in America endec1, ,md the
chiettains later c1ied "in poverty and without honor".
In the tace of this avaJance of fact amI opinion against the lndians,
the J eronymites refused to put at liberty any except one single 1 nclian,
who, "by peaeeful inclinations and evident ability, was ripe forfreeclom".
All others were collected into villages under administrators amI friars.
TUE EXPERBJENTS OF EODRIGO DE FONsECA.
Despite the eareful and illurninating Jeronyrnite interrogatory, complete
con fusion concerning Indian policy reigned in Spain in the years
1517 and 1518. Sorne of this confusion rnay be attributed to the natural
disorder and flux in governmental poliey attend-arrt upon the coming of
the new king to Spain, but a gooc1 part derivecl from the representations
ot Bartolomé de Las Casas, who was. henceforth for haH a century to
wieId an important influence in the Councils of State on al! Indian problems.
Las Casas had voluntarily left Española for Spain in IVIay 1517,
before the J eronyrnites could send him there under arrest, anc1 proceeded
to eampaign feverishly at home for Indian liberty. The death of
the rcgent Ximénez in November 1517 interrupted his passionate protestation,;,
Lut he ,It once lI'url11eJ his :way into the favor oí the r-Iemish
advisw's of lhe young King Charles. The story of how he forced the
Inclian problem into the notice of Charles reveals him as an agile, effeetive
amI unscrupulous negotiator. Bis e;1l'nest, sincere and singleminded
efforts impressed all who had c1ealingo with him anc1 his insistenee
on the ability anc1 virlues of the natives c10ubtless help to explain
why the king ordered Rodrigo de Figueroa lo make a new investigation
of Inc1ian capacity.
In the residenóa taken at the conclusion of Figueroa's régirne, he
describes his efforts in ISIC) to célrry oulhis instructions by ,etting L1p
three villages oi free Jndians regarc1less of the untavourable prec1ictions
of friars and colonists. To l11ake l11atters 'wor,e, the 1nc1ians had inc~eecl