Autograph manuscript page numbered 580: [n.p., n.d.].

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Autograph manuscript page numbered 580: [n.p., n.d.].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270871115

The page reads: "captives would be ready for delivery. A duty was to be levied on each slave for the benefit of the royal revenue. In this way the colony would be furnished with all kinds of livestock free of expense; the peaceful invaders would be freed from warlike and inhuman neighbors; the royal treasury would be greatly enriched; and a vast number of souls would be snatched from perdition, and carried, as it were, by main force to heaven. Such is the strange sophistry by which upright men may sometimes deceive themselves. Columbus feared the disappointment of the sovereigns in respect to the product of his enterprises, and was anxious to devise some mode of lightening their expenses until he could open some ample source of profit. The conversion of infidels, by fair means or foul, by persuasion or force, was one of the popular tenets of the day; and in recommending the enslaving of the Caribs, Columbus thought that he was obeying the dictates of his conscience, when he was in reality listening to the incitements of his interest. It is but just to add, that the sovereigns did not accord with his [illegible], but ordered that the Caribs should be converted like the rest of the islanders."

1 item (1 p.) ; 21.6 cm.

Pierpont Morgan Library.

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SNAC Resource ID: 7217284

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Irving, Washington, 1783-1859

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69x14j4 (person)

Washington Irving (b. April 3, 1783, New York City-d. November 28, 1859, Sunnyside, Tarrytown, New York), American author, wrote his first popular work, A History of New York, under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. He continued to write stories and essays which made him the outstanding figure in American literature of his time and established his reputation abroad. In 1826 Irving went to Spain to work at the American embassy in Madrid, then at the American legation in London, before returni...