Father Las Casas, the friend of the Indians, is credited with the suggestion that in place of the frail natives negroes be imported for labor in the mines and on the plantations. The earliest importations seem to have taken place in the opening years of the sixteenth century, for as early as 1505 King Ferdinand authorized the shipment of more negroes in lots of 100. Later, licenses were issued for the importation of negro slaves by the thousands and many more were probably smuggled in. The Spanish population also grew rapidly until about 1530 when the colony reached the zenith of its wealth and prosperity. Twelve years later, when the decline had become marked, it was estimated that besides a substantial white population there were 30,000 negro slaves on the island. The superior attractions of other newly discovered countries and the fear of piratical invasions had by 1591 decreased the total population of the colony to 15,000. This number remained almost stationary until about 1663 when it began to dwindle further until the low water mark was reached, about 1737, and the entire population of the Spanish portion of the island was estimated at but 6,000. Timely tariff concessions revived trade and encouraged immigration and new importations of slaves the number of inhabitants increased rapidly and in 1785 was reckoned at 150,000, including 30,000 slaves and a considerable proportion of free colored persons. A decade later saw the beginning of the negro insurrection in the French section of Santo Domingo; the horrors attending this war, the invasion of the Spanish colony by the Haitians, the menace of further invasions, the frequent changes of sovereignty, and adverse economic conditions, produced an exodus in the course of which the great majority of the white population abandoned the island, many with all their slaves and dependents. A few returned, but in 1809 it was calculated that the inhabitants of Spanish Santo Domingo numbered 104,000 and in 1819 but 63,000, of whom the greater number were colored. During Haitian rule, from 1822 to 1844, white emigration again took place and white immigration was discouraged, while settlements of negroes from Haiti and the United States were made in different parts of the country. The increase of the population since that time has been subject to little outside influence; there has been practically no emigration, and immigration has been insignificant, the few new settlers being chiefly negroes from the British colonies, Haitians, Porto Ricans, Syrians and European merchants. In 1863 an ecclesiastical census, based on the returns of the various parish priests, placed the population at 207,700. This number may be described as little more than a compilation of guesses and was probably exaggerated. A similar ecclesiastical census taken in 1888 gave a total of 382,312 inhabitants.