I asked why, if the King was so benevolent, he did
not alter the customs. Burton looked at me with consternation. 'Alter
the customs!' he said. 'Would you have the Archbishop of Canterbury
alter the Liturgy?' Las Casas and those who thought as he did are not to
be charged with infamous inhumanity if they proposed to buy these poor
creatures from their captors, save them from Mumbo Jumbo, and carry them
to countries where they would be valuable property, and be at least as
well cared for as the mules and horses.
The experiment was tried and seemed to succeed. The negroes who were
rescued from the customs and were carried to the Spanish islands proved
docile and useful. Portuguese and Spanish factories were established on
the coast of Guinea. The black chiefs were glad to make money out of
their wretched victims, and readily sold them. The transport over the
Atlantic became a regular branch of business. Strict laws were made for
the good treatment of the slaves on the plantations. The trade was
carried on under license from the Government, and an import duty of
thirty ducats per head was charged on every negro that was landed. I
call it an experiment. The full consequences could not be foreseen; and
I cannot see that as an experiment it merits the censures which in its
later developments it eventually came to deserve.
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