ABSTRACT
Devising a workable labor system for the American colonies was the central problem for Spain and Portugal in formulating their settlement policies. Indians who revolted were hunted down, and hundreds were sent to Spain as slaves. The colonists' demand for cheap labor was satisfied by legal conscription of Indians, who worked in shifts or relays. The famous Bartolome; de las Casas now joined the struggle against the encomienda and the doctrines of Palacios Rubios. Faced with revolt in Peru and the threat of revolt elsewhere, the Spanish crown offered the colonists a compromise. Recent studies in the social history of colonial Latin America tend to confirm Las Casas's claims oflarge preconquest Indian populations. Las Casas founded his argument on his eloquent affirmation of the equality of all races, the essential oneness of humankind. Yet the Portuguese colonizer could deal hard blows when necessity required, as shown by the story of Duarte Coelho, who undertook to settle the captaincy of Pernambuco.
