Las
Casas, it is true, sought the refuge of a monastery for a while in order
to recover his health and spirits, which had suffered from the shock.
Once again in possession of these, he returned to the field, and,
undaunted, continued to carry on his work.
This campaign of Las Casas is famous for a curious anomaly. That his
work of mercy should have resulted in the introduction into the
Continent of a greater number of dusky labourers than before appears on
the face of it paradoxical. Yet so it was. For Las Casas, determined
that the mortality among the Indians should cease, advocated the
importation of African slaves into Central and South America. His idea
was that the labours spread over so many more thousands of human bodies
would prove by comparison bearable, and would thus end in fewer
fatalities. It is certain enough that this introduction of the sturdy
negro tended considerably to this end, and that many thousands of lives
were prolonged, if nothing more, by this plan. For all that, it must be
admitted that the venture was a daring one to emanate from the mind of a
preacher who was fighting against the slave trade. But Las Casas, urged
by his own experience, took a broad view, and none even of his
contemporaries were able for one moment to impugn his motives.
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