1921 EARLY HISTORY OF JAMAICA (1511-1536) 71 relied upon King Ferdinand's desire, expressed, for instance, in a ' cedula ' of May 1509, to know if there was gold in Cuba. Velazquez' nominal purpose on entering the island was to prospect, to inform the natives that they owed allegiance to the Crown of Spain, and to convert them. Colon could not authorize more : he himself had no authority to make further explorations and settlements. 1 Nevertheless, the intention of Velazquez and his followers was to possess themselves of Cuba and of its natives, and this they proceeded to do. Doubtless Colon extended to Esquivel no greater authority than to Velazquez ; but Esquivel was able to effect the conquest and settlement of Jamaica, which was said, 2 later, to have cost little hardship and the lives of but four Christians. The king had not been consulted as to the expedition into Jamaica, and knew nothing of Esquivel or of his merits. At midsummer in 1511, communications from the admiral, 3 from Esquivel himself, 4 and especially from the treasurer-general, Miguel de Pasamonte, 5 brought him the first news that Esquivel was in Jamaica, that gold had not been found there, and that many of the aborigines had been converted. There could be no more convincing illustration than the first six documents printed below of the conflict which existed in Ferdinand's mind between fanaticism and greed, a conflict which was faithfully reflected in his policy in the Indies, where, theoretically, the Spaniards' first care was to save the souls of the natives by converting them to Catholicism, but, in practice, their greatest exertion was to find gold, in the gathering of which, and in growing food to sustain gangs of men so employed, the aborigines were worked to death under that special form of slavery known as the ' repartimiento ' (allotment). With respect to Jamaica, these documents 6 show Ferdinand desirous to convert the natives, and to treat them kindly, until, at the end of 1512, it became certain that there was no gold to be had in the island. Then, since alienating the natives was not in contradiction to his principal purpose of getting gold, he became willing not only that they should be compelled to grow food for Spanish expeditions to the mainland (where gold was being found, and it was at first hoped to keep the friendship of the natives by refraining from plundering and enslaving them), but also he was willing that the natives, of Jamaica should be carried away into bondage in Hispaniola, provided only that an appear- ance of justification were maintained. 7 The fact that gold was not found in the island worked to hasten the agricultural develop- ment of Jamaica, which must have been stimulated by the 1 See no. x, below. 2 No. xv, below. 3 No. ii, below. 4 Nos. iii, iv, below. 5 No. v, below. 6 Nos. i-vi, below. 7 No. viii, below.
