In short, the whole attitude of the proprietors on the subject came primarily from jealousy for the colonial officials, and not from feelings of humanity or sympathy with the Indians. They opposed any action of the colonial officials which tended to make them independent of the proprietors’ authority. This explains why they removed the deputies, Mathews, Moore and Middleton, and Governor West, also, in 1683, for selling Indians to the West Indies.[613] News, in fact, had reached the proprietors that the dealers in Indians were the “greatest sticklers” against having the parliament elected according to the proprietors’ instructions, so drastic measures were necessary. The fact that the proprietors chose to succeed West, Sir John Yeamans, a man filled with the slave sentiment of Barbadoes,[614] is sufficient evidence that they entertained no hostile feelings against the system of slavery in general. A secondary reason for the opposition of the Carolina proprietors to Indian slavery lay in the fact that the stirring up of the tribes by the colonists in order to obtain captives for slaves resulted in danger and damage to the colony, which necessarily meant financial loss to the proprietors. To carry out the idea of protecting the Indians, the grand council, in accordance with previous instructions from its superiors, sent two agents to visit the plantations in 1680 and bring to Charleston all Indian slaves whom the Westo had sold to the planters. These slaves were set at liberty.[615] In the same year, the proprietors appointed a commission to prevent the trade in Indians and to decide all cases arising in future between Indians and English.[616] The commission proved a failure and was abolished in 1682 on the ground that it was used for the oppression instead of the protection of the natives.[617] The proprietors continued their directions to the governors regarding the sale of Indians. On May 10, 1682, they instructed Governor Joseph Moreton that upon no pretense or reason whatsoever was he to suffer any Indian to be sent away from Carolina, asserting that they had taken into their protection as subjects of England all the Indians within four hundred miles of Charleston. Hence the Indians must not be made slaves in war, or in any way injured by the colonists without proprietary permission.[618] Additional instructions, September 30, 1683, forbade the governor and council to allow the transportation of any Indians without the consent of the parliament, and gave the palatine’s court, to be assembled by the governor and council for the purpose, the privilege of proposing such an act to the parliament. Any officer commissioned by the council or chosen by the palatine’s court who transported Indians without a license was to be at once dismissed.[619]