Date:     1510, January 22.  Valladolid, Spain
Theme:  The king of Spain ordered colonial governor of La Española Diego Colón to try to expand to the maximum the number of workers assigned to dig gold, including all the “slaves” that the king had in the island. He also promised to reiterate immediately a prior order to have 50 “slaves” sent to the island for the same purpose
Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles, Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.2,F.98R.-98V.

Date:     1510, January 22.  Valladolid, Spain.      

Theme:  The king of Spain ordered colonial governor of La Española Diego Colón to try to expand to the maximum the                number of workers assigned to dig gold, including all the “slaves” that the king had in the island.  He also promised to              reiterate immediately a prior order to have 50 “slaves” sent to the island for the same purpose 

Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles, Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.2,F.98R.-98V. 

 

[fo. 98r.] 

 

Respuesta / 

al almirante / 

 

Al Almirante dando / 

le graçias por lo que tra- / 

baja en el beneficio / 

de las minas, y que / 

procure que se saque / 

todo el oro que se / 

pudiere / 

 

 

r 

[…] 

 

                         El Rey/ 

don diego colon nuestro Almirante e governador de las / 

yndias vi vna letra que me escrevistes con don/ 

fernando vuestro hermano y oy todo lo que de vuestra parte me / 

hablo y en esta no vos Respondo A cosa alguna / 

de ello salvo a la buena nueva que me escrevistes / 

de nuestras minas de que ove placer y pues que nuestro / 

señor lo da para que yo le pueda mejor servir / 

mucha Razon es que se ponga mucho [sic] diligençia / 

para sacar el mas oro que se pudiere sacar de manera / 

que por  nuestra parte no tengamos que dar quenta A dios / 

de lo que se perdiere que haziendose ansi yo espero / 

en nuestro señor que pues yo no lo quiero para otra / 

cosa syno para servirle con ello especialmente / 

en esta guerra de africa que el dara Cada dia / 

mucho mas por onde yo vos encargo mucho / 

que deys horden con el tesorero miguel de / 

pasamonte A quien escrivo sobre esto como se / 

ponga toda la gente que fuere menester y se / 

pueda sostener en nuestras minas y sy al dicho / 

miguel de pasamonte le paresçiere  que es bien en / 

biar A las dichas minas todos los esclavos / 

que Alla tenemos porque diz que los yndios / 

sienten mucho trabajo en Ronper las peñas / 

donde hallan Aquel oro dad horden como / 

luego vayan y también enbio con este / 

correo A mandar A los ofiçiales de la casa de / 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fo. 98v.] 

r 

Sevilla que luego A la ora pongan mucha / 

diligençia en buscar los çinquenta esclavos / 

que le tengo mandados enbien para  nuestras minas / 

y que los enbien lo mas presto que ser pueda / 

y pues vedes quanto esto cunple A mi serviçio es / 

cusado me parezçe [sic] decir os lo que servireys en / 

Ayudar e farorezçer [sic] con muncho cuidado / 

e diligençia todo lo que toco A este negoçio / 

fecha en Valladolid A xxii días de enero de / 

quinientos e diez años yo el Rey por mandadode Su Alteza / 

lope conchillos/ 

 

[…] 

 

 

 

Date: 1510, January 22.  Valladolid, Spain. 

Theme: The king of Spain ordered colonial governor of La Española Diego Colón to try to expand to the maximum the number of workers assigned to dig gold, including all the “slaves” that the king had in the island. He also promised to reiterate immediately a prior order to have 50 “slaves” sent to the island for the same purpose 

Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles, Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.2,F.98R.-98V.  

 

[fo. 98r.] 
 
Response / 
to the Admiral / 
 
To the Admiral, giving / 
him thanks for his work / 
in exploiting / 
the mines and that / 
he must try to have / 
as much gold extracted / 
as possible / 

 
r 

[…] 
                         The King/ 
Don Diego Colón, our Admiral and Governor of the / 
Indies, I saw a letter that you sent me with Don / 
Fernando, your brother, and I heard everything that on your behalf / 
he mentioned to me, and in this one I do not respond to any / 
of it, except to the good news you wrote to me / 
about our mines, of which I was pleased. And since our / 
Lord gives it so that I may better serve him / 
it is very reasonable that much diligence is applied / 
in extracting as much gold as may be extracted, so that / 
on our part we do not have to report to God, / 
about what may be lost, since doing it this way I hope / 
in the name of our Lord that, since I do not want it for anything / 
else but to serve him with it, especially / 
in this war of Africa, that he will give every day / 
much more.  Therefore I charge you highly / 
to order the treasurer Miguel de / 
Pasamonte, to whom I am writing about this, so that / 
as much people as needed and as / 
may stand steady,  are placed in our mines, and if the said / 
Miguel de Pasamonte thinks that it is good / 
to send to the said mine all the slaves / 
that we have over there, because it is said that the Indians / 
find it very hard to break the rocks / 
where that gold is found, you must order how / 
they go quickly. I am also sending with this / 
courier to mandate the officials of the Casa de / 

[fo. 98v.] 

r 

Sevilla that immediately at the time they must give much / 
priority to searching for the fifty slaves / 
that I have ordered them to send for our mines / 
and to send them in the fastest fashion possible. / 
And since you may see how important this is to my service, / 
it seems to me unnecessary to tell you how much you will serve me / 
in helping and supporting with great care / 
and diligence everything pertaining to this business. 
Made in Valladolid on the twenty second day of January of / 
five hundred and ten years. I the King. By mandate of his highness, 
Lope Conchillos / 
[…] 

 

Date: 1510, January 22.  Valladolid, Spain. 

Theme: The king of Spain ordered colonial governor of La Española Diego Colón to try to expand to the maximum the number of workers assigned to dig gold, including all the “slaves” that the king had in the island. He also promised to reiterate immediately a prior order to have 50 “slaves” sent to the island for the same purpose 

Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles, Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.2,F.98R.-98V. 

 

According to this letter from the King, at some point in 1509, Fernando Colón, brother to La Española’s governor Diego Colón, must have arrived in Spain and informed the monarch about the “good news” of the gold found in the island.  The king interpreted it as a divine sign and as an indication that “much diligence” should be put into “extracting the most gold that could be extracted.”  The monarch considered it especially suitable for investing in the “war of Africa” that he was involved in at the time.  

 

As a result, the king ordered the governor that “all the people that may be necessary and can stand steady must be put into our mines,” including “all the slaves that we have over there,” justifying this concentration on the fact that “it is said that the Indians find it very hard to break the rocks where that gold is found.” 

 

The monarch also mentioned that along with the same message responding to Diego Colón he would send another one to the Casa de la Contratación of Seville reiterating to them an order that, according to him, he had previously sent, directing them to send “fifty slaves that I have ordered them to send for our mines, and that they send them as fast as possible.” 

 

This message from the king additionally confirms the fact that the first enslaved blacks sent to La Española (and therefore to the Americas) may have been sent by the Crown itself to work in the mining of gold for the Crown, under the justification, among other things, of the comparative inefficiency, reportedly noted earlier by some on the island, of the Indian labor force in performing these tasks. 

 

 

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