The services rendered by Negroes in America from the discovery of the islands beyond the Pillars of Hercules by Christopher Columbus to the end of the eighteenth century, make a chapter of history transcending in importance anything which has taken place in the old world. The quaint times and scarcity of willing men among the aboriginal Indians to help the Spaniards to despoil their lands in the rapacious quest of gold brought about the early ruin of flourishing communities of aboriginal tribes in the several islands. So alarming was this state of affairs that Father Las Casas, known as the Apostle of the Indians, interceded in their behalf at the Spanish court in order to ameliorate their unfortunate condition. He pleaded for Negroes to take their places as the blacks were a very hardy and robust race; to this plea the great and humanitarian Cardinal Ximenes was opposed; for he could not justify the substitution of one race for another in what was in itself a wrong. The Cardinal having been overruled, the Slave Trade was instituted and the first Negroes were brought to Santo Domingo. They were not the untutored savages we are expected to believe from modern histories. There existed in Sevilla, Spain, as early as 1475, a large number of Negro slaves, who had been brought from the coasts of North Africa and Guinea, and their one-fifth tribute to the coffers of the state formed a very nice sum of money. This practice of importing Negroes, which had been in vogue during the Arab dominion of Spain, continued to increase to such an extent that when in the year of 1474 a royal decree still extant chronicles the appointment of a Negro known as Juan de Valladolid as mayor of the Negro colony situated in the outskirts of the said city. From this colony of Negroes who could speak the Spanish language, and were familiar with their customs, came the first batch of slaves shipped to Santo Domingo. It must also be borne in mind that 45 years before, in 1370, King Henry of Portugal had commenced his explorations, the Catalans and Normans had frequented the coasts of Africa as far as the Tropic of Cancer, and according to Diego Ortiz de Zuniga, it is known that from the times of Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena (1400) there existed Negro slaves in Sevilla. There is no reason to doubt that a large number of their descendants had already been born in Europe prior to 1500, because the royal dispensations in that year state that the immigration of Negro slaves to Santo Domingo was prohibited except in case of those who were born while in possession of Christians. These historical facts induce us to believe that during that period there was in Europe a larger number of Negroes than we generally suppose or care to believe.