We find that early in the administration of the Adelantado he sent to Spain three hundred slaves from Hispaniola. As these were represented as having been taken while they were killing Christians, this disposition of them seems not to have met with any insurmountable disfavour. Indeed, the sovereigns had given orders that all those who should be found guilty should be sent to Spain. The way was thus opened for an iniquitous traffic by a royal order that simply provided for an inevitable flexibility of interpretation under an imperfect administration of justice. There was no reason to anticipate that there would in the future be any insurmountable obstacle to a profitable exercise of the trade in slaves. Human nature, as it revealed itself in the fifteenth century, might well be trusted to find the means. The order, already alluded to, authorizing judges to transport criminals to the Indies, had already begun to exert its baleful influence; and a still more pernicious result came from the further edict giving an indulgence to such criminals as should go out at their own expense and serve under the Admiral. The provisions of this edict, which must have been recommended by Columbus himself, could hardly have been more ingeniously framed for the purpose of bringing the greatest harm to the colony. They not only made all labour disreputable, but they drew into the colonies the worst classes of criminals. Those to whom an indulgence was most desirable, were the very men who had committed the most flagrant crimes; and these were the persons that most eagerly accepted the opportunity. Three years later, when Columbus was under accusation, he excused the acts complained of by referring to the badness of the men who were allowed to go out under this edict; but he did not call attention to the fact that the edict was one which he himself had recommended. Of these he said, with unwonted emphasis: “I swear that numbers of men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water from God or man.” The colony as made up in 1493 was not of a nature to bear with impunity such an influx of rascality. Another royal order that contributed not a little to the future turbulence of the islands was the one which provided for what are known as the _repartimientos_. This edict was also issued in 1497, and it authorized the Admiral to give in the most formal way any of the lands discovered to any Spaniard, with all rights “to hold, to sell, to traffic with, and to alienate and to do with it and in it all that he likes or may think good.” Here, then, was introduced an ingenious instrument of interminable discord. The ill effects of these several edicts were not mitigated by the methods of government pursued by the Adelantado; but, on the contrary, Don Bartholomew was so unwise as to contribute in many ways to the prevailing dissatisfaction and turbulence.