Note 84 — PART I

With jealousy of foreigners exceeding even the bounds of credibility, she invariably refused them admittance,84 whether for scientific or commercial purposes;85 or when from accident or influence this was obtained, the people following, and often exceeding the lessons of their rulers, by civil and religious persecutions, and contempt, contrived to render their existence almost a burden. It would appear to have become an axiom amongst them, remarkable only for its illiberality, that “a dollar gained by foreigners was one taken from the pocket of a Spaniard;”86 and that in all cases where the interests of the merchants of the mother country and those of the colonies were opposed, the latter were to be sacrificed.87 Her own subjects were, from the same miserable narrow policy, embarrassed with restrictions and conditions—permissions from the Consejo de las Yndias, &c. &c. that it became by no means a trifling affair to be able to embark for the Phillippines, unless at the risk of being sent home from there by the local authorities.