OVANDO'S
RULE.
37
tress of the Indians, her husband, King Ferdinand, pro posed to liberate them all from a state of servitude and threatened destruction, and for this purpose he sent to Ovando new orders, tending to better the condition of the Indians. As the new plan would destroy entirely the system of the repartimientos upon which the colonists now founded their hopes of future riches, it became the object of the most terrible opposition, and the Indians remained subject to their yoke in spite of the royal order, for they were utterly powerless to help themselves. Intimidated and humiliated by the atrocious treatment that they had re ceived, the inhabitants of the whole island submitted without further resistance; and the bloody Ovando, ignor ing the royal mandate, and henceforth held by no check, divided the Indians among his friends and creatures. It is, however, due to him to say, that he governed the Spaniards with a wisdom and justice very dissimilar to the barbarity that he exercised over the vanquished natives. He established equitable laws, and executed them with impartiality, and accustomed the colonists to respect them; he founded several towns in different parts, and drew to them inhabitants by conceding various privileges. He sought also to bring the attention of the Spaniards to some branch of industry more useful than the mere work ing of mines, in many cases unprofitable; and the sugar cane having been brought to the island in 1506 from the Canaries, the richness of the soil and the fertility of the climate appeared so favourable to this culture, that it was soon made an object of speculation. Though the apparatus for its manufacture was of the rudest kind, large plantations were formed, mills estab lished, and in a few years the manufacture o f sugar was the principal occupation of the colonists, and the most abundant source of their riches. Though the wise measures that Ovaudo took were prin-