Both the Spaniards and the Indians, as we have seen, were averse to labor. To both it was degrading; to the latter, killing. And yet it was necessary that mines should be worked, lands cultivated, and cattle raised. Else of what avail was the New World? The colonists clamored, and the crown was at a loss what to do. In her dilemma there is no wonder the queen appeared to equivocate; but when in December, 1503, she permitted Ovando to use force in bringing the natives to a sense of their duty, though they must be paid fair wages and made to work "as free persons, for so they are," she committed a fatal error. The least latitude was sure to be abused. Under royal permission of 1501 a few negro slaves from time to time were taken to the Indies. Las Casas urged the extension of this traffic in order to save the Indians. Ovando complained that the negroes fled and hid themselves among the natives, over whom they exercised an unwholesome influence; nevertheless in September, 1505, we find the king sending over more African slaves to work in the mines, this time about one hundred. From 1517, when importations from the Portuguese establishments on the Guinea coast were authorized by Charles V., the traffic increased, and under the English, particularly, assumed enormous proportions. This unhappy confusion of races led to a negro insurrection at Española in 1522. We come now to some of the results of the temporizing policy of Spain—always a bad one when the subject is beyond the reach of the ruling arm—in regard to the Indians. For out of a desire to avoid the odium of Indian slavery, and yet secure the benefits thereof, grew a system of servitude embodying all the worst features of absolute bondage, with none of its mitigations. [Sidenote: REPARTIMIENTOS AND ENCOMIENDAS.] It will be remembered that during his second voyage Columbus made war on the natives of Española, and after sending some as slaves to Spain, imposed a tribute on the rest; on some a bell-measure of gold, and on others an _arroba_[V-6] of cotton, every three months. So severe was this tax that many could not meet it, and in 1496 service was accepted in place of tribute. This was the beginning in the New World of the _repartimiento_,[V-7] or as it shortly afterward became the _encomienda_, system, under which the natives of a conquered country were divided among the conquerors, recommended to their care, and made tributary to them. [Sidenote: ADMINISTRATION OF THE INDIES.]