Excerpt from The Indian Policy of SpainWard Islands were raided in the same way, although the fierce Carib cannibals were harder to capture. The coasts of Tierra Firme were harried, and from Cuba to Yucatan the transit was easy. All around the Caribbean the slave-hunter opened the way to the Conquistador. Zuazo tells us that Ferdinand the Catholic authorized this hideous traffic to remedy the lack of labor, which was so scarce that an Indian duly branded as a slave was known to have fetched the enormous price of eighty ducats.1 Indian slavery, in fact, was subsequently rendered unlawful, except for crime, and the slave was designated by branding in the face, though Las Casas told Philip II that the royal branding-iron was promiscuously applied and that all slaves thus marked ought to be adjudged free by the courts.2 During the conquest of Central America and Mexico he says that they were captured in numbers far beyond the capacity of vessels to carry them away, and when brought down to the coast an Indian would be exchanged for a cheese or a hundred for a horse.3.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books.

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