The best modern authority estimates that whereas the native population of Espanola (Haiti) was between 200,000 and 300,000 in 1493, by 1548 hardly 5000 Indians were left.

In part the extinction of the natives was due to new diseases and to the vices of civilization, but far more to the heartless exploitation of them by the conquerors.

Bartholomew de las Casas, the first priest to come to this unfortunate island, tells stories of Spanish cruelty that would be incredible were they not so well supported.

With his own eyes he saw 3000 inoffensive Indians slaughtered at a single time; of another batch of 300 he observed that within a few months more than half perished at hard labor.

Again, he saw 6000 Indian children condemned to work in the mines, of whom few or none long survived.