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It is true that in the central provinces of the country, where the Indians were less numerous and less warlike than the Araucanians of the south, a certain number of the natives were distributed into encomiendas, and set to work at enforced tasks, but the number of these, compared with those which existed in the centre and north of the Continent, remained utterly insignificant.
They are inhabited by natives, whose chief industry consists in going to Cagayan, in their tapaques, with swine, fowls, and other food, and ebony spears, for exchange. The islands are not assigned as encomiendas, nor is any tribute collected from them.
Helps to treat at length and with exhaustive thoroughness, is the early relations between the conquerors and the conquered, embracing the method of settlement of the different countries, the whole disastrous system of ripartimientos and encomiendas, which, in its full development, led to the destruction of the native population of Hispaniola, and to the introduction of negroes into this and the other West India islands to supply the demand for laborers.
To the royal crown were allotted those which were chief towns and ports, and the dwellers of the cities and towns; and also other special encomiendas and villages in all the provinces, for the necessities and expenses of the royal estate. All the rest was assigned to the conquerors and settlers who have served and labored for the conquest and pacification, and in the war.
The capitals of provinces, the ports, and the settlements of cities and towns which had been founded, and other special encomiendas, were assigned to the royal crown, for the necessities that arise and the expenses of the royal exchequer. The affairs of government and the conversion of the natives were treated as was necessary.
Some provinces have taken the census of their natives; and according to these the tributes and the assignment of the two reals are collected. In most of the provinces no census has been taken, and the tributes are collected when due by the encomenderos and their collectors, through the chiefs of their encomiendas, by means of the lists and memoranda of former years.
Las Casas had not learned to wield his enthusiastic pen in defence of the negro; but when the islands became well stocked with slaves, later Catholics eagerly reproduced the arguments of the Spanish encomiendas, and vindicated afresh the providential character of Slavery.
In Manila the governor was considering carefully the necessary measures for continuing the war, since the island of Mindanao was so near the other pacified islands, and the island itself contained some provinces that professed peace and were apportioned as encomiendas, and had Spanish magistrates, such as the rivers of Butuan, Dapitan, and Caragan, so that it was desirable to pacify the whole island and subject it to his Majesty.
The first encomenderos, conquerors, and settlers of the islands, and their issue, are honorably supported by the products of their encomiendas, and by certain means of gain and trading interests that they possess, as do the rest of the people.
The means by which this end was effected were, from the modern point of view, entirely dubious, for it was Irala who instituted in Paraguay encomiendas, or slave settlements, into which the natives of the country were congregated in order that their labour might be employed in agriculture and similar occupations.
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