Before this period, negro slaves had been imported into the Spanish possessions in America, and King Charles had only recently granted licenses to certain persons to import Africans into _Hispaniola_. The Jeronimite Fathers likewise looked upon the importation of Africans, who could better bear severe labour, as a remedy for the trials of the Indians, and the measure obtained the concurrence of the judge of _residencia_. The suggestion, when made by Las Casas, was approved of. The number of negroes which it was thought would suffice for the present was four thousand; and accordingly De Dresa, a Fleming, obtained a license from the king for this purpose--a grant which was accompanied by the assurance of a monopoly for eight years. The result of the monopoly was that the price of negroes greatly rose, the suggestion as to Spanish colonists being sent to the Indies not having been acted upon. The Chancellor at this time dying, the influence of Las Casas was once more shaken. Fonseca, the bishop of Burgos, again returned to power, and, as a consequence, the Jeronimite Fathers were recalled. Las Casas was fortunate enough to obtain the interest on behalf of the Indians of a gentleman immediately attached to the king; and his representations were from time to time fortified by the accounts received of some fresh atrocities committed by the Spaniards in America. The Dominican prior, Pedro de Cordova, had much to tell his colleague of the slave-hunting exploits of the Spaniards in _Trinidad_, and he suggested that one hundred leagues on the coast of _Cumana_ should be set apart by the king as a territory in which the Franciscans and the Dominicans might preach the gospel undisturbed by the presence of laymen. Las Casas, failing for the meantime to obtain such a grant, fell back upon his scheme of Spanish emigration, and about two hundred men were actually sent out from Seville, a measure which was not attended by any beneficial result, since the emigrants were left on their arrival to provide for themselves from their own resources. A new Grand Chancellor was now appointed; and in his eyes Las Casas likewise found favour. To Gattinara the Protector of the Indians submitted a new scheme of colonization. The plan was that a sort of religious fraternity should be created, consisting of fifty knights, and that by their aid Las Casas should settle the country for a thousand leagues along the coast from _Paria_, a distance which was subsequently reduced to two hundred and sixty leagues. By the help of the king’s preachers, this idea of Las Casas was actually put in the way of being realized. [Sidenote: 1520.]