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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Las Casas, by Alice J. Knight
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Las Casas
+       'The Apostle of the Indies'
+
+Author: Alice J. Knight
+
+Release Date: November 24, 2007 [EBook #23613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAS CASAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Last Edit of Project
+Info
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LAS CASAS
+
+"THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIES"
+
+[Illustration: BARTHOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS _Frontispiece_]
+
+
+
+
+LAS CASAS
+
+"_The_ APOSTLE _of the_ INDIES"
+
+BY
+
+ALICE J. KNIGHT
+
+DEACONESS IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF AMERICA
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
+THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+TO
+MY FRIEND AND BISHOP,
+
+THE RIGHT REVEREND
+ROBERT LEWIS PADDOCK, D.D.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+                                           PAGE
+FOREWORD                                     7
+
+CHAPTER
+      I BARTOLOMÉ THE YOUTH                  9
+
+     II A BIT OF HISTORY                    14
+
+    III A NEW WORLD                         18
+
+     IV A NEW LIFE                          28
+
+      V DISAPPOINTMENTS                     36
+
+     VI THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR      42
+
+    VII THE PEARL COAST                     48
+
+   VIII THE CLOISTER                        59
+
+     IX THE LAND OF WAR                     64
+
+      X BISHOP OF CHIAPA                    72
+
+     XI REVOLT IN CHIAPA                    83
+
+    XII AT COURT                            95
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+Early American history is full of interest and romance. Great figures
+move across the scene. Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Alvarado,
+Pizarro,--every schoolboy is familiar with their names and deeds. But
+one man there is that stands out conspicuously among these heroes of
+discovery and conquest, one not bent on fame and glory, not possessed of
+that greed for gold that led to so much ruthless cruelty toward the
+natives of the New World,--a man consumed with one burning desire: to
+spend himself in the service of others, to protect and save the weak and
+helpless. What he himself might suffer in the performance of this work
+mattered not at all.
+
+Strange that to so many even the name of this man is unknown! Yet for
+more than fifty years no one either in all the New World or in Spain was
+more prominently before the eyes of all than was Las Casas, the great
+"Apostle of the Indies." Not only as a missionary, but as an historian,
+a philanthropist, a man of business, a ruler in the Church, he towers
+above even the notable men of that most remarkable time. His noble,
+self-denying, heroic life, spent in untiring service to God and man, is
+an inspiration and an example much needed in this materialistic,
+money-getting, ease-loving age.
+                                                       ALICE J. KNIGHT.
+    HOOD RIVER, OREGON.
+    _June, 1917._
+
+
+
+
+LAS CASAS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BARTOLOMÉ THE YOUTH
+
+
+Whenever we hear of a famous man,--whether he be artist, author,
+statesman, soldier, scientist, great traveler, or missionary,--we like
+to know what sort of a boy he was. We are curious about his home, his
+school, his parents, his friends, and all the various influences that
+helped to make him the man he was. Such knowledge gives us a better
+understanding of his after life, and a fuller sympathy with his aims and
+achievements.
+
+Although I have headed this chapter "Bartolomé the Youth," we know
+comparatively little of Las Casas until he was about twenty-eight years
+old. In later life we find him impetuous, loving, tireless in energy,
+with a fiery temper that blazed out in quick wrath against all injustice
+and cruelty toward the weak and helpless, possessing a brilliant mind
+and great talents, never giving up striving against the wrong, and never
+knowing when he was beaten. These qualities he must have possessed in
+some measure as a boy, but, unfortunately, no historian has opened up
+for us those early pages.
+
+Bartolomé was born in the city of Seville, Spain, in the year 1474. We
+are not told the day of the month. Of his mother we know nothing, but
+his father was Pedro de Casaus. He was of French descent, but the family
+had lived in Spain for over two hundred years, and because of valuable
+aid given to one of the Spanish kings in the wars against the Moors,
+they had been ennobled, and after a time the name lost its French
+spelling and took the Spanish form, Las Casas.
+
+Bartolomé certainly lived in very interesting times. When he was between
+eighteen and nineteen years of age Columbus came to Seville on his
+return from his first voyage, which resulted in the discovery of the
+West India Islands. He brought with him many strange and wonderful
+things,--birds of brilliant color, such as had never been seen before,
+gold and pearls, and, most wonderful of all, six Indians. We can imagine
+the crowds of people who must have followed that little procession as it
+passed through the streets of the city, pushing and crowding one another
+to get a sight of the great Admiral and the men who had sailed with him
+over unknown waters, and especially of the painted red men, who were, I
+am sure, quite as curious on their part, and probably badly frightened
+besides.
+
+It is difficult for us to understand now how much courage it took in
+those times to put to sea in frail little caravels, which were all the
+adventurer had, and go sailing over the waste of waters, not knowing
+what was ahead of him, or if he would ever find land on the other side.
+The rude maps of that day still showed a great Sea of Darkness. Dragons
+and all sorts of frightful sea-monsters were pictured in the unexplored
+parts of the ocean, and the popular idea was that if the daring mariner
+should sail too far over the slope of the round globe, he might be drawn
+by force of gravitation into a fiery gulf and never come back to his
+friends again. So the men that thus ventured were heroes in the eyes of
+the people. Never had such a voyage been heard of as the great Admiral
+had made, and all, from the King and Queen to the little street boys,
+were eager to hear about it.
+
+Although he does not mention it, it is probable that Las Casas often saw
+Columbus in his father's house. Pedro de Casas, Bartolomé's father, and
+his uncle, Francisco de Penalosa, both went out with the Admiral on his
+second voyage. Columbus had then been made Viceroy of the Indies, and
+Bartolomé's father was on his staff, while his uncle commanded the
+soldiers. One of the Indians that Columbus brought home from the first
+expedition he gave to Pedro de Casas, but the good Queen would not allow
+these Indians to be kept as slaves, and insisted that they should be
+sent back at once. All six had been baptized at Barcelona, with the King
+and Queen,--Ferdinand and Isabella,--as godfather and godmother; and
+when, soon after this, one of them died, people said he was the first
+Indian to go to Heaven.
+
+Bartolomé's uncle remained in the Indies for three years, and returning,
+shortly afterward died in battle with the Moors. His father did not come
+home until 1500.
+
+While his father and uncle were away, Bartolomé was studying at the
+famous university of Salamanca, where he took his degree as doctor of
+laws just previous to his father's return.
+
+Very naturally, now that his education was finished, the young man's
+thoughts turned to the Indies. He seems to have gone out, as did the
+other colonists, with the idea of making money. Wealth and power
+appeared very desirable things to possess. How little he dreamed of the
+future that was before him! He knew not that the time was coming when he
+should give up all that he had,--money, time, strength, and
+talents,--for the sake of the great, deathless principles of liberty,
+justice, and mercy. All unknowing, he was to enter a fight that would
+last his life long and cost him all that he held dear while struggling
+to protect the gentle, helpless natives of the New World from the
+cruelty and oppression of the Spaniards, until he should come to be
+called Las Casas "The Protector of the Indians." He had marked out one
+path for himself; God was to point out to him quite a different one. It
+is good to know that he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A BIT OF HISTORY
+
+
+When Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage, he left on the
+island of Hispaniola, now called Haiti, a little colony of about forty
+men.
+
+On his second voyage he sailed first to this same place, arriving in
+November, late at night. A salute was fired to let the settlers know
+that their friends had returned, but no answer came, and it was feared
+that something was wrong. Sure enough, when the voyagers went ashore in
+the morning they found eleven dead bodies and no living men. The fort
+had been destroyed and the tools and provisions were gone.
+
+This was a sad welcome; all the sadder because it need not have happened
+but for the evil doings of the colonists. After the departure of
+Columbus they had soon quarreled among themselves and had treated the
+inoffensive natives so cruelly that, unable to endure it, they had risen
+against the Spaniards and killed them all.
+
+Columbus at once went to work to build another little town, not far from
+the first, and called it Isabella. A church was erected, a number of
+houses built, and the whole surrounded by a strong wall. This being
+done, he placed his brother Diego in charge, and started off with three
+ships to make further explorations.
+
+On this voyage he coasted along the southern shore of Cuba, discovered
+Jamaica and a number of smaller islands, and sailed all around
+Hispaniola. But he was worn out with excitement and fatigue. Discovering
+new countries is hard work, and it is still harder to try to govern
+unruly and evil men. He became very ill, and was brought back to
+Isabella quite unconscious. When at length he came to himself he found
+his brother Bartholomew beside him. This was a great comfort, for the
+brothers were very fond of each other, and Columbus needed all the help
+he could get. He made Bartholomew governor of Hispaniola, but no
+governor could do very much with such a company of lawless adventurers
+as were these Spaniards. Like a great many people of to-day, they wanted
+to get rich quickly and without working. They spent their time in
+fighting, roaming about the country, abusing the Indians, and killing
+them and one another. At length the natives, exasperated beyond
+endurance, rose against them as before, and many Spaniards lost their
+lives.
+
+In the end, however, of course it was the Indians that suffered the
+most. They could not stand against the white men. Their bows and arrows
+would not pierce the soldiers' armor, and they ran in terror from the
+sight of a horse, an animal that they had never seen before. Twenty
+great bloodhounds were let loose upon them also, which tore them in
+pieces; and at length, in despair, they submitted to their enslavers.
+
+They were used as slaves by the white men, being forced to cultivate the
+land for their conquerors and to work in the gold mines. The poor
+creatures, whose lives had been so simple as to require no hard labor,
+died by the thousands, and many were whipped to death or killed
+outright, so that in a little while that beautiful island became a place
+of great suffering, and the Spaniards were feared and hated by those
+gentle natives, who at their coming had been ready to welcome them as
+friends.
+
+Many of the colonists grew dissatisfied because they were not getting
+rich as fast as they wished, and some returned to Spain with complaints
+of Columbus. Finally Francisco Bobadilla was sent out to look into
+matters. He treated the great Admiral very unjustly and cruelly, sending
+him back to Spain in chains; but in this action he far exceeded his
+instructions. Ferdinand and Isabella, grieved for the indignity that had
+been put upon the man who had given them a new country, caused him to be
+released at once, and recalled Bobadilla.
+
+Nicholas de Ovando was now appointed to rule Hispaniola, and it was
+with him that Las Casas went out, as we shall see in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A NEW WORLD
+
+
+When Las Casas arrived in Hispaniola with Ovando, the new governor, they
+were greeted by the news that a huge nugget of gold had been found,
+weighing thirty-five pounds. It was shaped like a flat dish, and to
+celebrate the discovery of such a treasure, a banquet was given and a
+roast pig served up on this novel platter. The nugget was sent to Spain,
+as a present to King Ferdinand, on the same ship as the infamous
+Bobadilla, the deposed governor, but the ship was wrecked in a terrible
+storm soon after leaving port, and both the nugget and the governor went
+down into the depths of the ocean.
+
+Las Casas and his companion also heard that there had been another
+uprising of the Indians and that many had been captured and made slaves.
+
+Queen Isabella had instructed Ovando that the Indians must be free, only
+paying tribute, as all Spanish subjects did, and that they should be
+recompensed for the work they did in the mines. The good Queen little
+knew how far her officers were from treating them as she had commanded.
+
+Las Casas does not seem to have felt any particular pity for the Indians
+in the beginning. Like the rest of the adventurers, he had come to seek
+his fortune in the New World, where there seemed such wonderful chances
+to grow rich. He obtained from the governor an estate of his own, took
+Indians as slaves, and sent some of them to work in the mines, though he
+did not abuse nor overwork them, as others did. For eight years he not
+only held Indians as slaves, but he was with Ovando during a second war
+against the natives in one of the provinces of Hispaniola, and saw
+terrible deeds of cruelty, yet never appears to have made a single
+protest. This seems very strange when we think of what he said and did
+against slavery a few years later, and how his whole after life was
+spent in the service of these oppressed people. His eyes, however, were
+not yet opened, and he looked at things after the fashion of his time.
+
+Ovando was a good governor, Las Casas says, "but not for Indians." He
+was a little, fair-haired man, gentle in manner, and most polite, but he
+made everybody understand that he intended to be obeyed. When any
+gentleman became troublesome, Ovando would invite him to dine with him,
+talk so pleasantly and flatteringly to his guest that he would think the
+governor must mean to do something very grand for him, and then,
+suddenly pointing down the harbor, would ask in which of the ships lying
+at anchor the gentleman would like to take passage for Spain. The poor
+man, confused and alarmed, yet afraid to protest, would very likely say
+that he had no money to pay his fare. Whereupon the very polite little
+governor would at once tell him not to let that trouble him, as he,
+Ovando, would provide the funds. And off the gentleman would have to go
+from the dinner table to the ship.
+
+But although Ovando ruled the white men well, he was neither just nor
+kind to the Indians. He gave them out in lots of fifty, or a hundred, or
+five hundred, to those who wanted them, and the poor creatures were
+worked to death and abused without mercy. When, in desperation, they
+would rise against their tyrants, they were punished savagely, being
+burned alive, torn to pieces by bloodhounds, and drowned in the ocean or
+the rivers, even helpless little children often being treated in this
+way.
+
+In 1510 four Dominican friars came over to Hispaniola and settled in San
+Domingo. The Sunday after their arrival one of them preached a sermon on
+the glories of heaven,--a discourse that Las Casas heard, and one that
+made a great impression on him. In the afternoon the Prior asked to have
+the Indians sent to the church to be taught; so they came,--men, women,
+and children; and this custom the Dominicans continued every Sunday
+afterward.
+
+Some time in this same year Las Casas was ordained priest. We should
+like to know how he came to take this step, but he tells us nothing
+about it. He threw himself into his new duties with the same energy that
+he had used in his business, and began at once to teach the Indians, as
+the Dominicans were doing. Whatever he did, all his life long, he did
+with all his might, and very soon he became famous all over the island
+for his learning and goodness.
+
+The little settlement of four Dominicans had increased by the end of the
+next year to twelve; nor had they been there many months before they
+began to have their eyes opened to the wrongs the Indians were suffering
+at the hands of the white men.
+
+A Spaniard who had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy and had been
+hiding for two or three years, repenting of his crime and tired of
+living in concealment and fear, came to the Dominicans by night and
+begged them to take him in and let him stay with them as a lay brother.
+When they were convinced that the man was truly repentant they received
+him. He told them of the dreadful cruelties of which he and others had
+been guilty toward the natives, and the good fathers soon felt that
+they must look into the matter. This they did, and were not long in
+coming to the conclusion that it was a great evil to make slaves of the
+Indians and that they must do something to put a stop to it. So they
+fasted and prayed, and conferred together, and finally decided that one
+of their number, Father Antonio Montesino, should preach a sermon on the
+subject.
+
+The week before the sermon was to be preached all the Dominicans went
+throughout the town and invited every one, from the governor down to the
+humblest citizen, to come to the church on the following Sunday, which
+was the First Sunday in Advent, to hear the sermon, which, they said,
+would be upon a new subject, interesting to all of them.
+
+Of course every one was curious to hear what would be said, and when
+Sunday came the church was crowded. There was the governor, Diego
+Columbus, in his pew, with his wife,--a grand-niece of King
+Ferdinand,--and there were the officers of the colony, all the prominent
+citizens, in fact, everybody in the town. Father Montesino preached from
+the text: I am "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."
+
+He told the congregation that they were living in mortal sin because of
+their cruelty and their tyranny over the innocent natives. He told them
+plainly that by their oppression, their cruel tortures, and the forced
+labor in the mines to which they subjected these helpless people, they
+were killing the whole race, and he declared that they had no chance of
+salvation while they continued in such sin.
+
+You may be sure that Father Montesino's hearers were both frightened and
+angry at this bold sermon. All honor to the brave man who dared to
+preach it and to the little company of his brethren who stood with him!
+It was the first voice raised in the new world against slavery.
+
+That afternoon the citizens had a meeting at the governor's house and
+appointed a committee to visit and rebuke the preacher. However, this
+accomplished nothing, as neither Father Montesino, the Prior of the
+little community, nor any of the brotherhood was at all moved by their
+threats, and all they obtained from the Dominicans was an agreement that
+Father Montesino should preach again the next Sunday and endeavor to
+please his congregation _as far as his conscience would permit_.
+
+The committee told everybody that the Father was going to retract, and
+again the next Sunday the church was crowded to hear Montesino eat his
+own words. But, instead of the humble apology that was expected, his
+auditors received a more terrible rebuke than before, Montesino
+threatening them with eternal torments if they continued to illtreat the
+Indians, or engage in the slave trade.
+
+Angry as the Spaniards were, they could do nothing, for the good
+fathers minded their blustering and threats not at all. Las Casas was
+partly in sympathy with the Dominicans, but he thought they went too
+far. He believed the Indians should be treated kindly, but saw no harm
+in slavery; for all that, however, he did not forget the sermon.
+
+The next year Diego Columbus decided to conquer the island of Cuba, and
+he appointed Diego Valasquez, one of the most respected colonists in San
+Domingo, commander of the expedition. Valasquez was a warm friend of Las
+Casas', and after a time sent for him to act as his chaplain.
+
+This war against the helpless and innocent natives was as cruel as all
+the others. They were chased and torn to pieces by bloodhounds; they
+were burned alive; their hands and feet were cut off, and those that
+were not killed were made slaves. Forced to work beyond their strength
+in the gold mines, half starved and beaten, their lives were full of
+misery, without a gleam of hope, and in despair numbers of
+them,--sometimes whole villages at a time,--committed suicide. One story
+is told that makes us smile, although it is so sad.
+
+A whole village of Indians resolved to hang themselves and so escape
+their sufferings. In some way their master learned of their intention
+and came upon them just as they stood ready to carry it out.
+
+"Go get me a rope, too," he said to them; "for I must hang myself with
+you." He told them they were so useful to him that he must go where they
+were going, so that they might still labor for him. They, believing that
+they could not free themselves from him even in the future life, sadly
+gave up their plan, and went to work again.
+
+Las Casas did all he could to protect the Indians, and soon became known
+as their friend, and won their entire trust. They called him "Behique,"
+which was the name they gave their magicians, and regarded him with awe.
+As the natives had no written language, the way in which the Spaniards
+conveyed information to one another by means of mysterious marks on
+paper seemed a kind of magic to them. When the expedition was
+approaching a town, Las Casas would send a messenger in advance,
+carrying a paper scrawled all over and hidden in a hollow reed. The
+messenger would show the paper to the Indians and tell them that the
+Christians were coming and the father wanted them to furnish so many
+huts for them to sleep in, so much food for them to eat, and so on,
+adding: "If you do not, Behique will be much displeased." So great was
+their confidence in him that they would at once obey his commands, which
+they believed the messenger had read from the paper, and in this way Las
+Casas was able to save them from the dreadful massacres that had so
+often wiped out whole villages.
+
+But one day a terrible thing occurred. Valasquez had gone away to be
+married and had appointed a Spaniard, named Pamfilo de Narvaez,
+commander in his absence. The soldiers,--about three hundred in
+number,--drew near a village called Caonao, and stopped to eat in the
+dry bed of a river, where there were a great many stones on which they
+sharpened their swords. When, at length, they entered the town some two
+thousand natives were gathered together, all sitting peacefully on the
+ground to look at the wonderful strangers and especially to see the
+horses, at which they were never tired of gazing. About five hundred
+others were busy in one of the huts, preparing food for the Spaniards,
+as Las Casas had told them to do. Suddenly one of the soldiers drew his
+sword,--why, nobody ever knew,--and began slashing right and left at the
+defenseless Indians. Instantly the others followed his example, and
+before half of the Indians had realized what was happening, the place
+was piled with dead bodies. Las Casas, who was not present at the
+moment, hearing what was going on, in a white heat of rage rushed out
+into the square to stop the slaughter; but before he succeeded in doing
+this many hundred helpless men, women, and children had been butchered.
+
+Not long after this dreadful event Valasquez returned to Cuba, and, the
+whole island being now subdued, he proceeded to found a number of towns
+and to divide the land and the Indians among the Spaniards. Las Casas
+and a dear friend of his, Pedro de Renteria, who had lived near him in
+Hispaniola, received together a whole village of Indians, and with them
+the land they had owned,--some of this land being the very best on the
+island.
+
+Renteria was a quiet, thoughtful, unworldly man, humble and plain in his
+ways, though of considerable learning. Las Casas seems to have been very
+fond of him, though he tells us but little about him.
+
+The two friends soon had a large house built, in which they lived
+happily for a year, using the enslaved Indians to cultivate the
+plantation and work the mines; for as yet neither of them had a thought
+that it was wrong to hold slaves, and believed that they were doing
+their duty to these natives by being kind to them and carefully
+instructing them in the truths of Christianity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A NEW LIFE
+
+
+Las Casas was the only priest on the island of Cuba, and at Pentecost
+(Whitsunday) he arranged to go and preach and say mass in the new town
+of Sancti Spiritus. In looking for a text, he came across some verses in
+the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, which made him stop and think
+whether after all he was right in making the Indians work for him as
+slaves. These are the verses:
+
+
+     He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is
+     ridiculous, and the gifts of unjust men are not accepted.
+
+     The Most High is not pleased with the offerings of the wicked,
+     neither is He pacified for sin by the multitude of sacrifices.
+
+     Whoso bringeth an offering of the goods of the poor doeth as one
+     that killeth the son before the father's eyes.
+
+     The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth them
+     thereof is a man of blood.
+
+     He that taketh away his neighbor's living slaveth him, and he that
+     defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder.
+
+
+As Las Casas read these verses he seemed to hear the voice of God
+speaking to his heart. He remembered Montesino's sermon, he thought of
+all the cruelties and injustices from which the gentle, helpless Indians
+suffered. At last his eyes were opened, and he saw plainly that it was
+neither right to take the lands and the property of the natives nor to
+hold them as slaves.
+
+For Bartolomé Las Casas to see the right was always to do it. He
+resolved at once to give up his own Indians and to preach against
+enslaving them. He knew very well that if he did this they might, and
+probably would, fall into the hands of those who would not treat them so
+kindly, but he realized that he could not preach to others against
+slavery while he continued to possess slaves himself. Therefore he went
+at once to the governor and told him what he had resolved to do. The
+governor was very much astonished, and begged Las Casas to consider well
+what he was doing and at least to take fifteen days to think it over.
+But Las Casas refused to take even one day, saying that his mind was
+made up.
+
+Four Dominicans, who had been sent from Hispaniola to found a community,
+arrived in Cuba about this time. They and Las Casas preached constantly
+and earnestly on the sin of holding the natives in slavery; but although
+the Spaniards were frightened, they were not turned from their evil
+ways, and Las Casas resolved to go to Spain and see if he could not so
+present the matter to the King that the whole system of dividing up the
+Indians and their lands among the white men, to be their property,
+might be done away with.
+
+He wrote to his friend and partner Renteria, telling him that he was
+about to go to Spain on a very important mission, which he was sure
+would give him great joy when he heard what it was, and he asked him to
+hasten home, as otherwise he might not see him, it being necessary to
+leave at once.
+
+Renteria was in Jamaica, where he had gone to buy seed, stock and so on
+for their farm. While there he had stayed in a Franciscan convent during
+the season of Lent, and had given much time to prayer and meditation.
+For a long time he had been troubled about holding the Indians as
+slaves, but he had thought that if he and his partner were to give up
+the savages, they would only be worse off. Now, however, as he thought
+and prayed, a plan occurred to him: He would go to Spain and get
+permission to found schools, where the Indian children might be gathered
+in and taught, and thus some of them might be saved; for he saw clearly
+that if things kept on as they were, it would not be long before all the
+Indians on the islands would be destroyed.
+
+As soon as Renteria received Las Casas' letter he hurried home,
+wondering why his friend also wanted to go to Spain, and eager to tell
+him what he had in mind.
+
+Renteria was a very popular man, so when he landed, not only Las Casas
+was there to meet him but the governor and many other friends;
+therefore, it was night before the two partners had a chance to talk
+quietly together. Then each listened in astonishment to the plan of the
+other. Finally they decided that as the plan of Las Casas was the more
+important, and as he was a priest and of a noble family and could
+therefore more easily get a hearing at court, he should be the one to
+go. They sold everything that Renteria had brought from Jamaica,--even
+the farm itself being disposed of,--in order to raise money for the
+journey.
+
+Now, while the two friends had been occupied with these thoughts and
+plans, the Dominicans had been coming to the conclusion that they could
+do no good in Cuba, since they could not help the Indians and the
+Spaniards would not listen to them, and they decided to send one of
+their number with Las Casas to San Domingo,--from which port he was to
+sail for Spain,--for the purpose of asking for instructions from their
+superior, Pedro de Cordova. A young deacon went also, and all three soon
+started on their journey. The Dominican, however, was taken ill and died
+before the party reached San Domingo.
+
+Pedro de Cordova sympathized heartily with Las Casas, though warning him
+that he would meet with many difficulties; but the man who is afraid to
+undertake a thing because of the difficulties in the way is not much of
+a man, and Las Casas was only the more determined to keep on. The
+Dominicans were very poor and had never been able to finish their humble
+monastery building, so they sent Father Montesino, who had preached the
+famous sermon against slavery the year after their coming to Hispaniola,
+with Las Casas to Spain, that he might try to raise the money needed;
+and in 1515 they sailed.
+
+As soon as they arrived in Seville, Montesino introduced Las Casas to
+the good bishop of Seville, who did all he could to help him, giving him
+a letter to the King and to others of the court that might in all
+probability be interested.
+
+It would be too long a story to tell,--the chronicle of all that Las
+Casas went through in his struggles to right the wrongs of the Indians.
+
+Queen Isabella was now dead, and while he was in Spain King Ferdinand
+died also. Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand, was the heir to the throne,
+and during his minority the great Cardinal Ximenes acted as regent,
+while Charles' tutor Adrian was associated with the cardinal in the
+government. The man who had most to do with the affairs of the Indians
+was the Bishop of Burgos, Fonseca. As he himself had hundreds of slaves
+working for him in the gold mines of the islands, he was naturally not
+at all in favor of freeing them, and there were many like him who were
+striving as hard to prevent the liberation of the Indians as Las Casas
+was striving to bring it about.
+
+Among other attempts that were made to throw obstacles in the way of Las
+Casas was one that was rather amusing. Cardinal Ximenes, as they sat in
+council, ordered the old laws for the Indies to be read. The clerk who
+read them, coming to one that he knew his masters were not obeying,
+thought to shield them and hinder Las Casas by changing the wording;
+but, unfortunately for him, Las Casas knew the laws by heart, and he
+cried out:
+
+"The law says no such thing!"
+
+The clerk, being ordered to read it again, read it as before, when again
+Las Casas broke in:
+
+"The law says no such thing!"
+
+A third time the clerk was made to read it; a third time he persisted in
+his own way of wording, and a third time Las Casas interrupted by
+saying:
+
+"That law says no such thing!"
+
+The Cardinal, provoked by so many interruptions, rebuked him, when he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Your lordship may order my head to be cut off if what the clerk reads
+is what the law says."
+
+And snatching the book from the clerk, he proved that he was right. We
+cannot help thinking that if the clerk had known "the clerico," as he
+usually calls himself, a little better, he would not have dared to try
+such a trick.
+
+In spite of all obstacles, however, with the help of the Cardinal, new
+laws were finally passed for the Indies. By these laws the Spaniards
+were forbidden to divide the Indians among themselves and force them to
+work without reward.
+
+But the passing of the laws was only a part of the business. It was as
+true then as now that good laws are of little use unless there be wise
+and good men to enforce them; and the question now arose as to who
+should go out and put a stop to the evil system that had caused so much
+misery to these innocent and helpless people, and see that the new laws
+were obeyed. In those days the Church had great power over both rulers
+and people, and so it was not so strange as it would be in these days
+that the choice should have fallen on three monks of the order of St.
+Jerome. It was anything but a wise choice, however, for although these
+monks were good men, they were unused to any life but that of the
+convent, had had no experience in statesmanship and were, besides,
+rather timid of spirit. Before they sailed, the enemies of Las Casas
+filled their minds with distrust of him, and made them think that things
+in the islands were not as he had represented, so that they did not seem
+likely to do much good in their new office.
+
+However, the little company set sail at last, the three monks in one
+ship, Las Casas,--who had been given the official title of "Protector of
+the Indians," with charge and authority to look after all that concerned
+them,--in another, and Zuaco, a lawyer, appointed to help and advise
+them, followed a little later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DISAPPOINTMENTS
+
+
+"The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley." So it was in this
+case.
+
+When the Jeronimite fathers arrived in Hispaniola they failed to do what
+was expected of them. They did _something_, it is true; for they took
+from those officers of the court, who were not living in the Indies, all
+their Indian slaves and tried to give them to others who would treat
+them kindly; but they did not set them free, neither did they bring the
+judges to trial for their evil deeds.
+
+The clerico was of course very indignant with them, and we may be sure
+that he never gave them any peace, so that they must have learned to
+dread the very sight of him. He preached constantly, in the pulpit and
+on the streets, wherever he went, that the Indians must be free; and
+when Zuaco came, the two brought charges against the judges, causing
+them to be tried; but we do not know whether or not they were punished.
+Probably not.
+
+We must not be too hard upon the monks, however. It was no easy task
+they had been asked to perform. What Las Casas wanted them to do, and
+what the law required also, was to take away all the Indians from the
+Spaniards and set them free. This meant to ruin the owners, since all
+they had came through the forced labor of the natives. The monks were
+not men of the determined character necessary for such an act, nor were
+they endowed with the courage to face the storm it would have brought
+about their ears. Few men are like the clerico, who was afraid of
+nobody.
+
+Just after Las Casas reached the Indies a man named Juan Bono, a
+shipmaster, arrived there with a shipload of Indians, whom he had
+kidnaped in the island of Trinidad. He himself told the clerico how it
+was done.
+
+He had gone to the island with sixty men and told the Indians that they
+had come to live with them. The Indians received them kindly, brought
+them food, and, as Bono said himself, treated them like brothers. Bono
+told them that the white men would like a large house to live in, and
+the Indians at once went to work to build it for them. When it was
+nearly done, Bono invited all the natives to come and see it.
+
+Some four hundred of them came, all unarmed and quite unsuspecting and
+happy. When all were gathered in the house, the Spaniards surrounded it,
+and Bono told the Indians that they must give themselves up or they
+would be killed. Some of them tried to run away, some to resist, and in
+a few minutes the swords of the Spaniards had filled the place with the
+dead and dying. One hundred and eighty of them were put in chains and
+taken to the ship. About a hundred shut themselves up in another house
+and tried to defend themselves there, but the Spaniards set fire to it
+and the natives were all burned alive.
+
+This was the return Bono and his men made to the innocent, gentle
+Indians, who had been so kind to them. No wonder the heart of the
+clerico was on fire with indignation when he heard the story. He went at
+once to the three fathers and told them the dreadful tale. They
+listened, but did nothing,--as usual. Not one of the one hundred and
+eighty kidnaped Indians was set free, and neither Bono nor any of the
+judges who had sent him was punished.
+
+One day a priest came to the Protector of the Indians to tell him how
+the native laborers in the mines near San Domingo were abused. He said
+he had seen them lying in the fields, sick from overwork, covered with
+flies, and nobody cared enough to give them food or drink; but their
+owners allowed them to lie there and die in this way. Las Casas took him
+by the hand and led him to the fathers, to whom he repeated this story;
+but they only tried to excuse the cruelty of the mine owners.
+
+The heart of the clerico burned within him as he saw so much suffering
+and misery about him and could not get the three commissioners to put a
+stop to it. Something, he felt, must be done. The fathers had now been
+in the islands six months and things were no better than they had been
+before their coming; so he resolved to go again to Spain and seek a
+remedy for this state of things. When the fathers heard what he intended
+to do they were much alarmed, but as they could not stop him, they sent
+one of their number to Spain also, to speak on their behalf.
+
+For some time there had been on the island of Hispaniola a number of
+Franciscans,--or "Gray Friars," as they were sometimes called because of
+the color of their robes, just as the Dominicans were called "Black
+Friars," because they wore black and white. Both orders were sworn to
+poverty, and both did splendid missionary work in their day. The
+Franciscans had not always been in sympathy with Las Casas, but seem now
+to have been as anxious as he to have something done to set matters
+right. Some of them were well known to the Grand Chancellor, and they
+gave the clerico letters to that official, who was at once interested;
+and as Las Casas came to see more of him, the two became great friends.
+The Chancellor spoke to the King about the matter, and the King
+commanded that he and Las Casas should consult together and find a
+remedy for the evils of the Indies.
+
+The plan that they proposed was this:
+
+That colonists should be sent out at the expense of the King and be
+cared for until they should be able to manage for themselves, when they
+should begin to pay tribute to the crown. In order to supply laborers,
+Las Casas suggested that each Spaniard should have permission to import
+twelve negro slaves. This he did because the Indians died by hundreds
+from the hard labor in the mines, while he had observed that the negroes
+endured it much better. Afterward Las Casas confessed with sorrow that
+he had done wrong in this, as it was no more right to hold the negroes
+in slavery than to so treat the Indians.
+
+The Bishop of Burgos, who was, you will remember, always bent on
+opposing the clerico in everything he undertook, laughed at this plan.
+He said he had been trying for years to get men to go out to the Indies
+and could not find twenty that were willing to venture. However, Las
+Casas was not stopped by this, and set to work at once to see what he
+could do. A man named Berrio was appointed to go with him and assist
+him; but this Berrio turned out to be anything but a help, refusing to
+obey the clerico's orders, and finally leaving him, without permission.
+
+Berrio got together about two hundred vagabonds, not at all the right
+sort of people for colonists, and sent them to Seville, to be shipped
+to the Indies. Las Casas was not informed of the matter, and as no one
+had any instructions with regard to these colonists, they were sent out
+with no supplies for their necessities. When Las Casas heard of it, he
+insisted upon having provisions sent after them; but it was too late to
+benefit many of them, for numbers had died of the hardships suffered,
+and those who lived and stayed in the Indies proved a very bad addition
+to the white population.
+
+Meanwhile, the Grand Chancellor had died, and Bishop Fonseca was again
+at the head of Indian affairs, much to the clerico's grief. Fonseca
+refused to do anything at all for the colonists, and as Las Casas would
+not allow them to go under such conditions of neglect, the plan fell
+through. But no sooner was he defeated in one scheme than he immediately
+began to devise another. There was no such thing as discouraging Las
+Casas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR
+
+
+There had been for some time both Franciscan monks and Dominican fathers
+on the mainland of South America, working among the natives. Pedro de
+Cordova, the head of the Dominicans in the Indies, wrote to Las Casas at
+about this time, asking him to get the King to grant a certain territory
+on the mainland, where no white men except the Dominicans and
+Franciscans should be allowed to go; or, if he could not get it on the
+mainland, to try to secure some small nearby islands, saying that if the
+King would not do this it would be necessary to recall all the brethren
+of the Dominican order, as it was of no use for them to preach to the
+Indians when they saw all about them the Christians behaving as they
+did. Now when the clerico had spoken to Fonseca about this, the reply
+had been that there was no money in it for the King, so that Las Casas
+saw that if he was to get the grant, he must find a way to make it
+profitable to the King and his ministers.
+
+The Good Book says that "the love of money is the root of all evil,"
+and certainly Las Casas was inclined to believe this as he thought of
+what wickedness it had led the Spaniards into in the New World. No
+wonder the Indians thought that gold was the white man's god. The
+clerico tells us of a certain Indian chief, who had fled before the
+Spaniards from Hispaniola to Cuba, and who, hearing that the Christians
+were coming there also, called his people together and told them that
+the reason why the Spaniards treated them so cruelly was because they
+had a god whom they greatly loved and adored, and it was to make them
+also love and serve him that they killed and enslaved them. He had a
+basket of jewels and gold near him. Holding it up, he said that _this_
+was the god of the Christians and called upon his people to dance before
+this god and worship him, and perhaps he would not allow the Spaniards
+to harm them.
+
+Poor old chief! Driven from one hiding place to another, he was taken at
+last; and because he had tried to escape his oppressors and defend his
+people, he was condemned to be burned alive. When he was tied to the
+stake a Franciscan priest came up to him and told him that, although
+there was but little time, yet if he would believe the Christian faith
+and be baptized he would be saved. He then told him as much as he could
+of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, and, having finished,
+asked him if he would believe and go to Heaven, where he would be happy
+evermore, saying that if he did not he would go to Hell. The chief
+thought for a moment and then asked if the Christians went to Heaven.
+The priest replied that those that were good did. The chief at once
+answered that in that case he did not wish to go to Heaven, where he
+would have these cruel people again; he would go to Hell.
+
+Las Casas had learned by this time that the desire for wealth must be
+considered in any plan that he might make if he wanted it to succeed,
+and he believed he knew of a way by which he could satisfy the King and
+at the same time carry out his design of converting the Indians by
+kindness. He thought he could find fifty men who would make the
+conversion and civilization of the Indians their first object. These
+fifty were to wear white dresses, with red crosses, so that the Indians
+would know them from other Spaniards. They were to teach the natives and
+protect them from all who would harm them. Each one was to contribute a
+certain sum of money, which was to be used to pay the expenses of the
+enterprise. For themselves, they were to have a fixed amount of the
+revenue and certain privileges, and they were to be called the Knights
+of the Golden Spur. The King was to have, after the first three years, a
+tribute, which would be increased year by year for ten years, and the
+Knights were to found three settlements in five years, were to build a
+fort in each, and were to explore the country for the King. He asked
+also that those Indians that had been taken away from this part of the
+country should be sent back to their homes.
+
+The Grand Chancellor thought very well of this plan, and told the
+clerico to lay it before the Council of the Indies. Of course their
+bishop, Fonseca, was against it. The plan was not absolutely prohibited,
+however, but they delayed doing anything about it, until the clerico was
+nearly driven wild with anxiety and disappointment.
+
+It was the custom in those days to have certain of the clergy appointed
+preachers to the King. There were eight such preachers at the court of
+Spain. Las Casas thought perhaps these priests might do something to
+help, so he went to them and interested them in the scheme. They tried
+to do what they could, and even went one day before the Council of the
+Indies,--much to the astonishment of its members,--and having been given
+permission to speak, made a strong plea for the freedom of the Indies.
+But though they were listened to with courtesy, nothing came of it.
+
+For months Las Casas fought for this plan of his, which he felt would
+save at least some of the native people. They had been killed off by
+thousands on all the islands, and would soon perish on the
+mainland,--indeed, wherever the Spaniards went,--unless they could be
+made free. His enemies fought against his plan and against him, accusing
+him of everything, even of desiring to get the grant of territory for
+his own profit. Even his friends sometimes misunderstood him. One of
+them, a young lawyer, when he heard of rents to be paid to the King and
+of honors to be given to the Knights of the Golden Spur, said that this
+"scandalized" him, for it showed a desire for temporal things, which he
+had never suspected in the clerico. Las Casas, having heard of this,
+went to him one day and said:
+
+"Seńor, if you were to see our Lord Jesus Christ ill-treated and
+afflicted, would you not implore with all your might that those who had
+Him in their power would give Him to you, that you might serve and
+worship Him?"
+
+"Yes," replied his friend.
+
+"Then, if they would not give Him to you, but would sell Him, would you
+redeem Him?"
+
+"Without a doubt."
+
+"Well, then, Seńor, that is what I have done," replied Las Casas; "for I
+have left in the Indies Jesus Christ, our Lord, suffering stripes and
+afflictions and crucifixion, not once but thousands of times, at the
+hands of the Spaniards, who destroy and desolate these Indian nations."
+
+He then went on to tell his friend that, seeing that his opponents would
+_sell_ him the Gospel, he had offered these inducements, buying the
+right to teach the Indians to serve and love the Lord Jesus Christ.
+
+Las Casas had now spent altogether four or five years at the court of
+Spain, trying to get something done for his Indians. He had spent also
+every cent of money he possessed, and endured every kind of opposition
+and abuse; but at last the papers were signed. The grant was now
+assured, though not so much land had been given as had been asked. A
+company of laborers was ready to go out with the clerico, and money had
+been loaned him for the expenses of the undertaking. Many little
+articles, also, were presented to him, to be used as gifts to the
+natives; and away he sailed to start the new work and to find in the
+Indies, he hoped, the fifty Knights of the Golden Spur. We shall see how
+he succeeded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE PEARL COAST
+
+
+If you look on the map of South America, you will see up in the
+northeast corner the island of Trinidad, and close by, indenting the
+coast of the mainland, the Gulf of Para. Stretching west from about this
+point was what was called the Pearl Coast, and it was in this region
+that was situated the land that had been granted to Las Casas for his
+company of the Knights of the Golden Spur. Now while he was in Spain
+events had taken place in this territory that made the founding of a
+colony very difficult indeed.
+
+Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans had been trying to do missionary
+work among the natives, as we know, and both orders had monasteries
+there. For a time all went well, until a Spaniard named Ojeda, engaged
+in the pearl fishery, had come over from the island of Cubagua, seeking
+slaves.
+
+This pearl fishing was carried on by use of the Indians in a most
+heartless manner. The poor creatures were kept swimming about under
+water from early morning until sunset. When they came up with their
+nets, in which they put the oysters,--from the shells of which the
+pearls were taken,--if they stopped to rest, a man in a boat, who kept
+rowing about all day for this purpose, drove them in again with blows,
+sometimes seizing them by the hair and throwing them in. They were half
+starved, their only food being the oysters or fish and a very little
+bread. At night they were put in the stocks to prevent them from running
+away. The consequence of such treatment was that they did not live long,
+and it was necessary to supply the places of those that died with
+others. For this reason slave raids were very frequent.
+
+This Ojeda, then, came over to the mainland to get more slaves, and
+carried off a large number of the Indians. Of course this made the
+natives very angry and they resolved to kill him and the white men with
+him.
+
+Because Ojeda had stopped at the Dominican convent the natives supposed
+that the monks were his friends. And when the slave hunter came ashore
+again a few days afterward the infuriated Indians killed him and his
+men, and a week later they attacked the convent and killed the monks
+also.
+
+When the news of this revolt of the natives was heard at San Domingo,
+the officers of the colony resolved to send an expedition to avenge the
+murder of the Dominicans, and a captain, named Ocampo, was placed in
+command of it. This force started at once, and had reached Porto Rico
+when Las Casas and his laborers landed. Perhaps you can imagine how the
+clerico felt when he knew that Ocampo and his soldiers were going to the
+very country that had been granted to him for his settlement and were to
+punish the Indians there, where he had hoped to set up a sort of city of
+refuge for them. He hurried to show Ocampo his papers ordering that no
+one should go to that part of the country except Las Casas and the
+monks, and that the natives were to be in his care and not enslaved.
+
+But although the papers had the royal signature, Ocampo declared that he
+had had his orders from the officers of the colony at San Domingo, and
+that he must carry them out; that they would protect him if he was doing
+anything illegal. In vain did Las Casas storm and plead. It was all of
+no use. It seemed to him that there was nothing to be done but to go to
+San Domingo at once and get the officers to recall Ocampo. So he
+distributed his laborers by twos and threes among the citizens of Porto
+Rico, and hurried away.
+
+Nobody in San Domingo was glad to see the clerico except his friends the
+Dominicans. All others were angry with him for what he had been doing at
+the Spanish court to obtain the freedom of the Indians. They knew,
+however, that Las Casas was in great favor with the King and his
+ministers, and so they were afraid to oppose him openly or to defy the
+royal authority; but they did everything they could to delay matters.
+They said they would consider; and they considered so long that it soon
+became useless to talk about recalling Ocampo, for it was too late to
+reach him. They discovered, also, another way to prevent Las Casas from
+going on. They found a ship master, engaged in the slave trade, who was
+only too glad to help them by declaring the clerico's vessel
+unseaworthy; and he was not allowed to use it. So there he was, helpless
+and at his wits' end to know what to do.
+
+Meanwhile, Ocampo had reached the Pearl Coast, decoyed a number of the
+natives on board, and made slaves of them, hanging their chief at the
+yardarm. He also captured a great many others. Finally, by means of an
+Indian woman,--who had been taken from Cubagua to Hispaniola and could
+speak Spanish, and whom he freed for the purpose,--he made peace with
+the remaining Indians, and began to build a town.
+
+The slaves Ocampo had captured were brought to San Domingo and sold
+under the clerico's very eyes; nor could he do anything to prevent it,
+although, as he tells us himself, he "went raging."
+
+He became so angry now, however, that the authorities thought they had
+better do something to make peace with him. He declared he would go to
+Spain and tell the King how little attention they paid to the royal
+commands, and would have them all punished. They knew he was very likely
+to do just what he said and so at last they went to him with a plan
+which they hoped would pacify him. They wanted to go with him as
+partners. That is, they wished to form a company to go and settle the
+land, all of them contributing toward the expenses and all sharing in
+the profits. This was a long way from being the sort of colony Las Casas
+had meant to found; for these men did not care at all for the good of
+the Indians; all any of them wanted was to make money; but he had not
+found any men to become Knights of the Golden Spur, and unless he went
+in this way it looked as if he could not go at all, so he consented.
+
+They fitted out two ships for him, and at last he sailed, stopping at
+Porto Rico to take on his laborers. But here he had another
+disappointment: not one of them could be found. They had grown tired of
+waiting, had heard such stories of the riches to be gained by mining or
+engaging in the slave trade that they had every one gone off either
+pirating or chasing Indians or something else equally bad; and Las Casas
+had to go on without them.
+
+When at length Las Casas reached the land where he had hoped to do such
+great things for the natives, the Franciscans came joyfully to meet
+him, chanting _Te Deums_. Now, they felt, they had a friend and
+protector. They took him into their little convent,--which was only of
+wood, thatched with straw,--and into their little garden, where they had
+orange trees, vines, and melons, and there they talked together of what
+they should do.
+
+Las Casas built a large storehouse for his goods, and sent word to all
+the Indians in that part of the country that he had been sent out by the
+new King of Spain, and that he was their friend and would protect them.
+They should not be ill-treated any more. He sent presents to them to
+show that he wished to be friends with them.
+
+Ocampo and his men had had such a hard time that they were not willing
+to stay there, and all sailed away, leaving Las Casas with only a few
+servants and one or two helpers. It was not much like the way he had
+expected to begin his famous settlement. If it had not been for the
+Franciscans, he would have been lonely indeed.
+
+All might yet have gone well if it had not been for the Spaniards on the
+island of Cubagua. They had no good water on that island, and this made
+an excuse for coming to the mainland very often. They brought liquor
+with them, which made the Indians drunk and unmanageable, and they
+taught them many evil ways. This was a great perplexity to Las Casas
+and the good monks. All the good they tried to do, all their teachings
+of the Christian religion, were made of little use by the evil example
+of these wicked men. Las Casas thought that perhaps if he had a fort at
+the mouth of the river, he could mount the guns he had brought with him
+and keep the unruly people in order. So he hired a mason to build one;
+but the people on Cubagua found out what was going on and bribed the man
+to stop work and come away, leaving the fort unfinished.
+
+Things grew worse and worse, and all felt that something must be done.
+The head of the Franciscans kept urging Las Casas to go to San Domingo
+and get the officers there to help them. The clerico knew it was of no
+use at all to appeal to those men, who had already hindered him so
+greatly in his plans for the good of the Indians; therefore, for a long
+time he refused to go. Finally, however, not wishing to be obstinate, he
+agreed to do so, against his better judgment.
+
+He appointed one of his men, Francisco de Soto, to take charge in his
+absence, instructing him particularly not to let both of their boats
+leave the settlement at the same time, as, if trouble arose with the
+Indians, these boats might be their only means of escape. This man,
+either because of stupidity or rebellion, did the very thing he had been
+told not to. As soon as the clerico's back was turned he sent one boat
+off one way and the other another; and sorry enough he must have been
+for it before long, for trouble came almost at once.
+
+The pearl fishers of Cubagua had not ceased to molest the Indians, and
+it was hardly two weeks after Las Casas had sailed before the
+Franciscans detected signs of danger. The woman who had been used by
+Ocampo to make peace with the natives was still there, and the fathers
+asked her whether they were right in thinking that the Indians were
+planning to attack them. The woman, by name Maria, said "No" with her
+lips, because other Indians were near, but "Yes" with her eyes. The
+monks and the clerico's servants were very much alarmed, and a ship
+touching on that coast for some reason, they begged the captain to take
+them on board; but he refused, and they were left to their fate.
+
+In the settlement great anxiety and terror reigned. The white men tried
+to find out what day had been set for the attack, and at last heard that
+it was to take place the next day. They began to fortify the monastery
+and the storehouse, and set up twelve or fourteen guns that they had;
+but discovered that their powder was damp. We wonder how they could have
+been so careless as to allow it to be in this state, when they had known
+for some time that trouble was likely to occur. Now, however, they took
+it out to dry it in the sun, as soon as it rose. They were too late,
+however; for the Indians came upon them with a rush, and they fled for
+the monastery building. A few of the clerico's servants were killed, but
+the rest of them and the fathers reached the shelter of the monastery.
+The Indians, however, set it on fire.
+
+There was a door into the garden, at the rear, and a tall fence of cane
+hid it from the view of the Indians. The refugees ran out of this door
+into the garden and through another door out to the creek that ran
+nearby, where the monks had a boat of their own, which would hold fifty
+persons. All got in except one lay brother, who at the first alarm had
+fled and was hidden in a thicket of cane. He now appeared, high up on
+the bank, and the boatmen tried hard to reach him; but the current was
+too strong; all their exertions failed to bring the boat near enough to
+him. Seeing that all would be lost if they did not cease their attempt
+to save him, the brother signed to them not to make further effort; and
+they were obliged to leave him to his fate. Poor fellow! He was killed
+almost at once.
+
+The Indians were not long in seeing that their victims were escaping,
+and hurried after them in a much lighter boat, so that they gained on
+the fugitives with every stroke. The Spaniards were obliged to drive
+their boat to land and hide in a thicket of cactus. Only those in fear
+of death could have forced their way into such a thicket. The Indians,
+with their naked bodies, could not push through the thorns, and the
+fleeing men therefore escaped and made their way to their countrymen's
+ships, thus getting in safety to San Domingo. De Soto, however, died
+before their arrival. He had been shot with a poisoned arrow while
+running to the monastery for shelter.
+
+All this happened within two months after Las Casas' departure. He,
+meanwhile, through the ignorance of the sailors, had been carried a long
+way past San Domingo, and for all this time had been beating about with
+contrary winds, finally landing on another part of the island, whence he
+was obliged to proceed on foot.
+
+He was traveling with a party of persons also bound for San Domingo, and
+one day at noon, as they drew near the city, while they were all resting
+in the shade of the trees, some people came up with them and told them
+that the news had reached the city that the Indians of the Pearl Coast
+had killed the clerico, Bartholomé Las Casas, and all his household.
+Those who were traveling with Las Casas denied this, saying that he was
+with them; and while they were disputing he awoke and heard what they
+said.
+
+Although he thought it might not be as bad as it was represented, he
+knew that something terrible must have happened to his little colony,
+and went on at once in great anxiety to find how much of the news was
+true. A short distance out some of his friends met him. Having heard
+that he was on the road, they had come to try and comfort him and to
+offer him money to start another colony. But at last the brave spirit
+gave way. He could not rally at once from such a grief, and he went,
+broken-hearted, to his friends the Dominicans, to hide his sorrows
+within the walls of their monastery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE CLOISTER
+
+
+Day after day Bartholomé Las Casas sat in the garden of the Dominican
+monastery at San Domingo, sad and dejected. As he thought of his years
+of struggle and realized with bitter grief that he had nothing to show
+for it all, doubts assailed him, and he accused himself of having rashly
+undertaken work to which he had not been called. He might, indeed, have
+gone to Spain again and received help to carry out his plans; but he had
+not the courage. His heart was like water within him.
+
+Nor was he encouraged to go on by his friends the monks. They greatly
+desired to have him among their number, and urged him strongly to give
+up the fight and enter the brotherhood,--which at last he did. The
+Dominicans rejoiced greatly as did his enemies in the colonies, for they
+thought they were surely now rid of the man who had caused them so much
+trouble. And so they were,--for a time.
+
+Seven or eight years went by, and Bartholomé Las Casas was seldom heard
+of outside the convent walls. He was not even allowed to preach for five
+years, but during this time of seclusion he was recovering his strength
+of body and soul for the work of the future; and though he was silent,
+he did not forget, for a part of the time he was at work on his "History
+of the Indies," in which he related the cruelties that had been
+inflicted upon the natives.
+
+At length an event occurred that brought the Protector of the Indians
+again before the public. The Franciscan monks had educated in their
+convent a young Indian chief, Enrique by name. This young man had
+married a beautiful Indian girl and he and the Indians under him had
+been assigned to a certain Spaniard, as was the custom. This Spanish
+master took from Enrique first a fine horse and then his young wife.
+When the Indian complained of this ill-usage he was severely whipped. He
+then appealed to the authorities, only to receive threats of worse
+treatment. Seeing that no help was to be got from any one, he gathered
+his Indians together in the mountains, and managed to collect a quantity
+of lances and swords and to drill his people in the use of them, so that
+they held their ground against the troops sent to subdue them.
+
+One of his old teachers from the Franciscan convent went to him to try
+and persuade him to lay down his arms; but without success. At length a
+new bishop of San Domingo was sent out, who was also president of the
+_Audiencia_, the governing body of the Indies. He had received
+instructions to subdue this rebellious chief, and after trying in vain
+to accomplish it, bethought himself of Las Casas, for whom he sent.
+
+Las Casas at once agreed to go and see what he could do, and set off
+alone into the mountains. When he had been gone several months, the
+president and council began to feel alarm for his safety; but one day
+who should appear in the streets of San Domingo but Las Casas himself,
+leading the rebellious chief by the hand. Great was the wonder and
+delight of all. He had promised Enrique that if he would submit to
+Spanish rule and pay tribute, as did all Spanish subjects, neither he
+nor his Indians should be punished, nor should they ever again be made
+slaves. This promise was faithfully kept, and Enrique was ever after a
+loyal subject.
+
+During the eight years that Las Casas had spent in the convent, many
+important events had taken place in the New World. Cortez had conquered
+Mexico, Alvarado had conquered Guatemala, Pedrarias had overrun and laid
+waste Nicaragua, and Pizarro had commenced his conquest of Peru.
+
+About 1528 Las Casas went once more to Spain, to obtain a decree from
+the King which should prevent the Indians of Peru from being enslaved.
+While there he preached several times at court, with the old fiery zeal
+and eloquence. He obtained the royal order and returned with it to
+Hispaniola. A new prior was about to be sent to the monastery of San
+Domingo, in Mexico, and with him went Las Casas, intending to go on to
+Peru, with some brothers of the order, not only to make known the royal
+commands with regard to the Indians but to found convents in that
+country. However, this turned out to be impracticable, and after a short
+stay the party returned to Nicaragua.
+
+King Charles had desired the Bishop of Nicaragua to establish
+monasteries in his diocese. The arrival of Las Casas and his two
+companions presenting the opportunity of carrying out the King's wish,
+the bishop begged them to stay with him, and they consented, and began
+at once to learn the language of the country.
+
+But Las Casas got into difficulties with the governor by stirring up a
+formidable opposition to him and preventing him from undertaking an
+expedition into the interior, which he desired to make. The clerico had
+good reason for this course, for the most outrageous cruelties had been
+practiced against the Indians in that province, and he tells us that it
+had been known to happen that when a body of four thousand Indians had
+gone with such an expedition to carry burdens, but six returned alive,
+and that often when an Indian was sick or overcome with weariness and
+want of food, and could not go on, in order to get the chain free (for
+they went chained together), his head was cut off and his body thrown
+aside, without the necessity of stopping the train.
+
+About this time the Bishop of Nicaragua died, and the Bishop of
+Guatemala urged Las Casas to come into his diocese, as he had only one
+priest to help him. The feud with the governor having become more
+violent than ever, it seemed wise to accept this invitation. Therefore,
+abandoning the convent he had established, Las Casas with all his
+brethren went into Guatemala, making their home for a time at Santiago,
+in a convent that had stood vacant for six years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE LAND OF WAR
+
+
+The first thing these four missionaries,--Las Casas, Luis Cancer, Pedro
+de Angula, and Rodrigo de Larada,--had to do was to learn the language
+of the country, which was called the Quichi. It was no easy task, for
+none of them were young,--Las Casas, their prior, being now sixty-one
+years of age. The Bishop of Guatemala, a great scholar, was their
+teacher, and day after day this little company of monks might have been
+seen, sitting with the Bishop, like boys at school, learning
+conjugations and declensions.
+
+Las Casas was also busy writing a book,--which, however, was never
+published,--in which he tried to show that the only way to convert men
+was to convince the mind by reasoning and win the heart by gentleness.
+The authorities of the province laughed at him and challenged him to try
+it, by declaring that if he succeeded in subduing any tribe by these
+methods, they would at once set free their slaves. Las Casas boldly took
+up the challenge and selected for the trial a part of the country
+called "The Land of War."[1]
+
+Alvarado had carried on a terrible war in Guatemala. Thousands of
+Indians had been killed, tortured, and made slaves. The people of the
+district where Las Casas intended to try his experiment were a hardy,
+warlike race, and their country was a land of steep mountains, deep
+ravines, and many furious mountain torrents. They had fought desperately
+for their liberty. Three times the Spaniards had attempted to conquer
+them, and each time had been driven back. They were a terror to the
+white men, and not a Spaniard dared to go near them. It was rightly
+named The Land of War. Yet it was these turbulent, unconquerable people
+whom Las Casas now declared he would Christianize and make subject to
+Spanish rule. He would take no soldiers with him and would accept no aid
+of any kind. All that he asked was that when his work should be
+accomplished, they might be left free, only paying tribute, as all
+subjects did, to the crown. To this the governor of Guatemala agreed.
+
+By this time the fathers could both write and speak the Quichi language
+well, and they went to work to compose in verse an account of the
+creation, the fall of man, the birth, life, and miracles of our Lord,
+and His death upon the cross. These verses they set to music, for the
+Indians were fond of songs.
+
+There were certain Christian Indians that traded with the people in the
+Land of War, going to them at regular intervals. The fathers chose some
+of these traders and taught them the songs. They learned very quickly,
+and also played an accompaniment on their musical instruments. When they
+were ready they started, with an assortment of all kinds of articles
+such as the Indians particularly liked,--knives, scissors, little
+looking-glasses, and so on.
+
+As they had been instructed, the four peddlers went first to a great
+native prince. His people all came flocking to buy, and when the
+business of the day was over, they took pains to win his favor by making
+him a present.
+
+After supper they took out their musical instruments and began to play
+and chant the verses they had learned. Hundreds of dusky warriors,
+attracted by the sweet strains, sat about in the moonlight and listened.
+
+Next night many more natives came, and when the song was ended, the
+chief asked to have it explained. This was just the opportunity the
+traders had been waiting for. They told the chief that they sang only
+what they had heard, and that only the _padres_ could explain the
+verses.
+
+"Who are the _padres_?" asked the chief. In answer to this question,
+they told him they were men who dressed always in white and black, wore
+their hair like a garland about the head, did not eat meat, never
+married, did not seek for gold, and sang the praises of God day and
+night.
+
+The chief was much struck by this description, especially by the fact
+that the _padres_ did not seek gold, his experience with Spaniards being
+that they loved gold above everything else in the world, and that all
+the miseries the Indians had suffered at their hands had been caused by
+their insane desire to possess it.
+
+At last, though it was a difficult matter to persuade these Indians to
+allow any Spaniard to enter their country, they decided to send the
+young brother of the chief out with the traders, and if he should find
+these _padres_ all that had been represented, he was to invite them to
+come and tell them of their religion.
+
+Great was the joy in the little convent when they saw the prince coming
+with the Indian traders. They did their best to make him welcome, and
+after a few days, when he was ready to return, Father Luis Cancer was
+sent with him.
+
+What was the good father's astonishment to find crowds of people coming
+to meet him, arches erected for him to pass under, and the roads swept
+before his feet!
+
+The Indians built a church for him at once,--made of the trunks of
+trees, roofed with palmetto leaves,--and all came, wondering and
+admiring, to see what he would do.
+
+Faithfully he taught them, until the chief accepted Christianity, with
+his own hands overthrew their idols, and was baptized and given the name
+of Don Juan. His people soon followed his example.
+
+Father Luis also visited other parts of the country, and when he
+returned, after several months, to his companions there was great
+rejoicing over the results of his labors.
+
+Las Casas himself now went into The Land of War, taking with him Father
+Pedro de Angula. Just as they reached Don Juan's town the young prince,
+his brother, came home from the neighboring district of Coban, bringing
+with him his bride, a princess of that tribe. With him were a number of
+the Coban princes. There were great festivities for many days, but in
+the midst of the rejoicing the Coban princes, angry that the
+bridegroom's family and tribe had become Christians, secretly stirred up
+some of the people to burn the church, managing carefully to conceal
+their own share in the matter. Don Juan at once rebuilt the edifice,
+however, and no other unpleasant incident occurred during the whole stay
+of the Spaniards in the country.
+
+While in The Land of War Las Casas went further north, and whenever he
+returned was always welcomed. As the people became Christian, he
+realized that in order to teach them, it would be necessary to get them
+together in towns, where many could be reached by one man. After much
+difficulty, this was accomplished and several such towns were built, Don
+Juan's town being called Rabinal.
+
+After a time Las Casas sent for Luis Cancer, who when he came brought
+with him a contract, signed by the governor, securing the practical
+independence of the Indians of The Land of War.
+
+Word now reached Las Casas that both the Bishop of Guatemala and
+Alvarado had come to Santiago, and he resolved to go down and meet them.
+He wished Don Juan to accompany him, and this the chief was quite
+willing to do, but wanted to take something like an army with him, and
+was with difficulty persuaded to have only such a retinue as would serve
+to show his rank and importance.
+
+Father Ladrada, the only monk left at the convent, on being notified
+that all these visitors were coming, built more huts, put up tents, and
+laid in a store of provisions for their entertainment. Immediately upon
+their arrival, the Bishop came to the monastery and had a long
+conversation with the prince. So much struck was he with the Indian's
+knowledge of the Christian faith, and with his dignity and intelligence,
+that he asked Alvarado to come and see him also. Although this great
+captain held the life of an Indian of no more worth than that of a dog,
+yet he was so pleased with the prince, that wanting to make him a
+present, but having nothing with him for that purpose, he took off his
+own red velvet cap and placed it upon Don Juan's head.
+
+They took their distinguished visitor about the town, having first asked
+the merchants to make their shops as attractive as possible and, if the
+prince expressed a fancy for any article, to let him have it and send
+the bill to the Bishop. Don Juan, however, preserved his Indian
+stolidity, viewing the displays with perfect gravity, and neither
+showing surprise nor expressing admiration. Only once did he remark upon
+anything that he saw. He asked about a picture of the Virgin Mary, which
+was displayed in one of the shops, and when it was offered to him
+accepted it, afterwards placing it in his chapel at Rabinal.
+
+Las Casas and Father Ladrada went back with Don Juan, intending to go
+further north into the district of Coban for the purpose of establishing
+there a permanent mission among the natives.
+
+In 1538 the Bishop of Guatemala sent for all the Dominicans, to consult
+with him about securing more workers. At this council it was decided to
+send Las Casas to Spain to plead for more Dominicans and Franciscans to
+come out. He took with him Father Ladrada and Father Luis Cancer, whose
+Indian converts were greatly grieved to part with them; but the clerico
+comforted them with the promise of a speedy return.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] "Tierra de Guerra," The Land of War, was located in the present state
+of Vera Paz, in northern Guatemala.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BISHOP OF CHIAPA
+
+
+Charles V was in Germany when the little company arrived in Madrid, but
+Las Casas found many old friends, and at once set about his business
+with his usual zeal and energy. When he was not preaching, interviewing
+officials, traveling, or busy in some way about matters concerning his
+beloved Indians, he was writing a book, "The Destruction of the Indies,"
+which, however, was not published until twelve years afterward.
+
+The clerico's old opponent, Bishop Fonseca, was dead, and there was now
+a much better spirit in the council, so that it proved easier than ever
+before for him to secure the legislation he desired. The Pope had also
+recently issued a Bull forbidding all good Catholic subjects to make
+slaves of the Indians, and this was a great help to Las Casas. Some new
+laws were passed for their benefit, among them one that forbade any lay
+Spaniards to enter The Land of War for five years. This royal order was
+solemnly proclaimed, at Las Casas' request, from the steps of the
+cathedral of Seville.
+
+And now, his business being finished and the Franciscan and Dominican
+monks he had procured for Guatemala being ready to sail, Las Casas
+prepared to start back to the New World; but at the last moment he was
+detained by the president of the Council of the Indies, who needed the
+clerico's advice. The Dominicans were kept back with him, as he was
+their vicar-general, but the Franciscans went, and with them Father Luis
+Cancer, taking with him a copy of the new laws. These laws were a great
+triumph for Las Casas, and their acceptance was due to his wonderful
+personal influence.
+
+The clerico was now seventy years old. He had crossed the ocean twelve
+times. Four times he had gone to Germany to see the Emperor, and we must
+remember that traveling then was a much more difficult and unpleasant
+experience than anything we can conceive of now. In his case poverty
+made it still more of a hardship. But none of these things mattered to
+this earnest "apostle" if only he could lighten the hard lot of those
+for whom he labored and suffered.
+
+One Sunday evening, while he was in Barcelona, the Emperor's secretary
+called on him to tell him that it was the royal wish to make him Bishop
+of Cuzco, the largest and richest of all the dioceses in the New World.
+But Las Casas would accept no reward for his work, and for fear he
+should be urged, he left Barcelona. Not long after, however, the
+diocese of Chiapa[2] was established, and the bishop appointed to it
+having died on his way out, this bishopric was offered to Las Casas. In
+contrast with the bishopric of Cuzco, it was the _poorest_ in the New
+World,--so poor indeed that the Emperor had to help out the salary of
+the bishop with a royal grant. Such a field, however, appealed far more
+to the Protector of the Indians than the former one, and he accepted the
+offer and was consecrated in Seville on the 8th of March, 1544, and at
+once prepared to leave, taking with him forty-four Dominicans. The
+voyage proved to be a very trying and dangerous one, but at length the
+holy men arrived at San Domingo. The Dominicans came to meet the Bishop
+and his companions and escorted them to the monastery, and the _Te Deum_
+was sung in the church, in thanksgiving for their escape from so many
+perils.
+
+Hardly any in San Domingo, except the Dominicans, were glad to see the
+protector of the Indians. The new laws were regarded as the ruin of the
+colonies. Indignation meetings were held, and it was determined to
+boycott the monks. This was a very serious calamity to the Dominicans,
+for as they, like the Franciscans, belonged to what were known as the
+mendicant orders, and depended for their daily bread upon what they
+could beg, they were reduced to extremity.
+
+Prayer was offered in the church night and day, and very soon the
+Franciscans began secretly to send the Dominicans food from what they
+themselves received, and an old negro woman offered to make a round
+every day of the houses where there were people that did not share the
+evil spirit of the rest of the town, and so their necessity was
+relieved.
+
+In spite of this condition of things, Las Casas went before the
+_Audiencia_, and in the name of the King, summoned them to set free the
+Indians. But Spanish subjects had a right to protest against any new
+laws if they so desired, and when this was done, the laws were not
+enforced until the protest had been either accepted or rejected.
+
+Meanwhile, Las Casas himself wrote to the Emperor, and both he and
+others of the Dominicans preached constantly against slavery and the
+wrongs done the Indians. Naturally, these sermons increased the hatred
+against them. In the midst of these troubles, however, the friars were
+astonished and delighted to receive a visit one day from a rich widow,
+said to be the richest person in the colony, who came to tell them that
+their sermons had convinced her that it was a sin to hold the Indians in
+bondage, and she had resolved to free hers (she had more than two
+hundred); and because she now felt that her money had been made wrongly,
+she was about to make over her plantation to the order. This caused a
+great sensation in the town. Then, too, seeing the Dominicans holding to
+their convictions, directly against their own interests, after a time
+made many people rather ashamed of themselves, and little by little the
+hostility died away, so that when the time came for Las Casas and his
+monks to leave, some of the Spaniards even expressed regret.
+
+They sailed early in December, and this voyage also proved a trying one.
+It was very stormy, and their pilot turned out to be so ignorant that
+the Bishop himself had to take the wheel; for this truly wonderful man
+could sail a ship, work a plantation, write books, plead a case in
+court, perform the duties of a bishop, and at the same time fight
+unceasingly for the oppressed.
+
+The returning Dominicans had a terrible trip, and it was January before
+they landed at the port of Lazaro, in his own diocese. The Spaniards and
+the Christian Indians came out at once to the ship to greet the Bishop.
+It must have been a queer crowd: Proud, stately Spaniards, in velvets
+and laces; blanketed Indians, silent and stolid; naked heathens, eager
+to see the man whom they knew as their protector! But Las Casas was glad
+to see them all, and leaving the ship, they all went up together to the
+church, where after the service the Spaniards came to kiss the episcopal
+ring, and after them the Indians.
+
+At first the Bishop was received with politeness and apparent kindness,
+but in spite of this all the Spaniards were resolved to resist the new
+laws and not to acknowledge Las Casas as their Bishop nor pay him their
+tithes. This was very awkward, for Las Casas found himself thus unable
+to pay the captain of the ship in which he and the monks had come, but
+the friars sold a part of the goods they had brought with them, the
+parish priest loaned the Bishop some money, and he gave his note for the
+rest. So that difficulty was settled.
+
+Their troubles had only begun, however. It was not a great distance to
+Ciudad Real, where they wished to go, but it was impossible to carry
+their provisions and the equipment for the church by land, so they
+loaded their baggage on an old, flat-bottomed boat, to go by sea; and
+twelve of the fathers, with a number of others, went in it. Two days
+later the Bishop and the rest were ready to sail on a faster boat; but
+just as they were about to embark, word came that the other boat had
+been wrecked and nine of the fathers and twenty-seven laymen drowned.
+Those who had been saved were staying in an Indian village near the
+shore, and everything they possessed had been lost.
+
+The remaining monks were so alarmed that at first they refused to go by
+sea, but Las Casas finally persuaded them that, as the skies were clear
+and their boat a strong, new one, they were in no danger, and the party
+set out. It was a very sad and downcast little body of men, however. All
+one night and day they sat, without eating or speaking. When they
+reached the place where the other boat had been wrecked, the captain
+pointed out the spot, and the Bishop recited the prayers for the dead.
+Then he ordered food to be prepared, called them all to come to the
+table, and set the example by himself eating and talking cheerfully all
+the time, until his companions' courage was restored.
+
+A gale coming up, the party took refuge behind an island, where they lay
+for a long time before they could go on; and then, because some of them
+were still afraid, they divided into two bodies,--the Bishop, his
+faithful friend and constant companion, Father Ladrada, and two other
+monks, remaining on the boat, and the rest proceeding by land.
+
+The town of Chiapa was the Indian town of the diocese; Ciudad Real, the
+Spanish town. It was to the latter that the Bishop went first. The
+people received him cordially and showed him every outward form of
+respect. He found but few priests in the whole diocese, four of them in
+and about Ciudad Real. Of these, one was quite young and had no
+particular charge, one traveled about from one town to another,
+baptizing the Indians for the money it brought him; one was a partner in
+a sugar plantation and spent more time attending to this business than
+to his clerical duties, and another collected from the owners of
+plantations and slaves taxes and tribute paid to the crown. The Bishop
+took all these into his house, to keep them in order, paying them a
+small salary and giving them their meals at his own table.
+
+Las Casas' manner of living as a bishop was no different from that which
+he had practiced as a simple monk. His habit was rusty and patched and
+he ate no meat, though it was provided for his guests: his forks and
+spoons were of wood, and the dishes of plain earthenware. This simple
+mode of life did not suit the priests, and two of them left his diocese.
+
+All day Las Casas attended to the work of the diocese, and late into the
+night he studied and wrote. At all times the Indians had free access to
+him, coming to him with all their sorrows. Every day they would crowd
+about him, their faces swollen with weeping and, kissing the hem of his
+robe, would pour out to him the story of the cruelties from which they
+suffered. The good Bishop suffered with them and often would be heard in
+the night, sighing and groaning in his room.
+
+Las Casas preached constantly against the enslaving of the Indians, and
+rebuked the holders of slaves for their disregard of the new laws. He
+ordered his clergy to refuse absolution and the sacraments to those who
+would not obey, which order aroused the anger of the whole community
+against him. His Dean disobeyed him and sided with the colonists. He was
+petitioned, threatened, and abused. The children were taught couplets
+against him, which they sang after him in the street. Some one even
+discharged a gun into the window of his room one night, to frighten him.
+All support was withdrawn from the Dominicans, and the Bishop's salary
+was not paid.
+
+Finally the Bishop arrested the Dean. In those days, when the Roman
+Church was so powerful, bishops had a kind of episcopal marshal, and
+usually there was also an episcopal jail, where ecclesiastical offenders
+were confined. This arrest of the Dean stirred up a great commotion. A
+crowd of people gathered around him, and he made a frantic effort to
+escape, crying out:
+
+"Help me! Gentlemen, help me!"
+
+And he voiced all sorts of promises, if they would assist him. The
+citizens being armed, in a few minutes the Dean was free; whereupon
+sentinels were set at all the doors of the monastery, to prevent the
+monks from going to the assistance of their Bishop, and a shouting mob
+forced its way into his house.
+
+One of the Dominicans and a knight of Salamanca, who chanced to be
+there, met the riotous crowd and managed to quiet the tumult a little;
+but the leaders burst into the Bishop's room, shouting at him, insulting
+him, and even threatening to kill him.
+
+Las Casas spoke not a word, but stood calmly looking at them until the
+storm had spent itself, when quietly, with words of pity and
+forgiveness, he dismissed them.
+
+He now excommunicated the Dean. The monks were greatly alarmed for the
+Bishop's life and begged him to leave and go to some place of safety,
+but he said to them:
+
+"Fathers, where would you have me go! Where shall I be safe as long as I
+act in behalf of these poor creatures? Were the cause mine, I would drop
+it with pleasure, but it is that of my flock, of these miserable
+Indians, oppressed by unjust slavery."
+
+While they were talking, four other Dominicans rushed in to tell the
+Bishop that the man who had threatened to kill him,--the one that had
+fired the shot to frighten him,--had been stabbed. At once Las Casas
+rose, and sending for a surgeon and taking some of the brothers with
+him, went to minister to the injured man. For hours they worked over
+him, the Bishop ministering to him as to a brother; and so touched was
+the man that he begged Las Casas' forgiveness with all his heart, and
+was from that day one of the clerico's warmest friends.
+
+The Bishop's salary was now refused him, all alms withdrawn from the
+Dominicans, and when Indians were sent out into the province to beg for
+them, the Spaniards seized whatever was brought in, and gave the bearers
+a sound beating into the bargain, so that it was impossible to obtain
+food in this way.
+
+It now became absolutely impossible for the monks to live any longer in
+Ciudad Real, and it was decided to go to the Indian town of Chiapa and
+build a convent there; but before leaving the Bishop preached a sermon
+in which the people were told plainly that it was because of the
+hardness of their hearts and their sin in persisting to keep the Indians
+as slaves, after the Dominicans had shown them the evil of it, that the
+friars were going away.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] Chiapa, the diocese of Las Casas, is now the Mexican State of
+Chiapas, the southernmost State of Mexico, bordering on the present
+Republic of Guatemala.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+REVOLT IN CHIAPA
+
+
+The Bishop and the monks now departed from the Spanish town and took up
+their residence in Chiapa. Some distance outside the town they found a
+number of Indians waiting for them, gayly dressed, decorated with golden
+chains and bracelets, and carrying crosses made of feathers and flowers.
+As soon as Las Casas was conducted to the house made ready for him, the
+Indians began to come in from all the country round, begging to be
+taught the Christian religion. Joy filled the heart of the good Bishop.
+Such a scene made up for all the torments and insults he had suffered at
+the hands of his own countrymen.
+
+Happy as he was, however, at this readiness on the natives' part to
+accept the gospel message, the tales of suffering they poured into his
+ears wrung his heart. All over the province women were stolen, property
+taken away, and the helpless Indians bought and sold like
+cattle,--overworked, beaten and starved, until they died and so, at
+last, found peace.
+
+The Bishop could not get the new laws enforced. No attention was paid
+either to his entreaties or his threats, so at length,--in June,
+1545,--he determined to go to Gracias á Dios, and present the matter to
+the council governing the country, demanding that they compel obedience
+to the royal mandate.
+
+He took the road through Guatemala, in order to visit again "The Land of
+War," now a land of peace. It was a wonderful encouragement to him to
+find the Indians living peaceful, orderly, Christian lives, unmolested
+and happy. Great numbers of them came to greet him with tears of joy,
+and if he had needed any proof of the wisdom of his method of
+Christianizing the Indians, he found it in the transformation that had
+taken place all through the district.
+
+To all who came, Las Casas spoke in their own language, giving to them
+the royal command, signed by the Emperor, that they should never be
+anything but a free people.
+
+The Bishop of Guatemala went with Las Casas to visit The Land of War,
+and had intended to go with him to Gracias á Dios, where they were both
+to assist in the consecration of a new bishop of Nicaragua. Learning,
+however, that the Protector of the Indians was going principally to
+insist upon the enforcement of the new laws, and that a letter had been
+written to Prince Philip, heir to the throne, informing him that he, the
+Bishop of Guatemala, had many slaves and did not uphold these laws
+either in practice or in teaching, he turned back and returned to his
+own diocese, and from a warm friend he became one of the Bishop's
+enemies.
+
+The journey to Gracias á Dios was a difficult and dangerous one at that
+season of the year. All such journeys were of course made on foot, and
+the streams that had to be crossed were swollen and turbulent from the
+violent rains, which had also in some cases destroyed the roads; but we
+never hear that Las Casas in all his life ever once gave up or delayed a
+trip either because of ill health or dangers in the way. Now, at
+seventy-one, he had all the endurance and energy of youth.
+
+Immediately upon his arrival he went before the council, but met with
+nothing but insults. One day as he came in, an officer cried out:
+
+"Put out that fool!"
+
+On another occasion, having been commanded to withdraw, Las Casas
+refused to do so, and the president ordered him to be removed by force.
+The Bishop solemnly summoned the judges, in the name of God, to relieve
+the Indians from oppression and remove the stumbling blocks their
+tyranny was putting in the way of Christianizing them. At this the chief
+justice lost his temper and shouted:
+
+"You are a bad man, a cheat, a bad bishop, a shameful fellow, and
+deserve to be punished!"
+
+Such language used by a Spanish official toward a bishop in those days,
+when the Roman Catholic Church had so great an influence upon the
+nation, startled even those most hostile to Las Casas. The chief justice
+found himself regarded by the whole community as practically
+excommunicated because of this rash speech, and was obliged to make a
+sort of half-hearted apology for having so spoken.
+
+Las Casas was not only a Bishop but, by training and experience at the
+court of Spain, one of the foremost lawyers of his time; and now, seeing
+that he could obtain nothing from the judges by peaceful means, he
+instituted legal proceedings against them. This accomplished some good,
+for an auditor was sent by them to Ciudad Real, to see to the
+enforcement of the new laws, and the inhabitants of that place were
+notified of his coming by letter.
+
+When the notice was received, at once the tocsin was rung, and when all
+the citizens were gathered together, a protest was read, stating that
+the Bishop had taken possession of his see without showing the papal
+bulls or the royal decree authorizing him to do so, and declaring that
+he must cease his innovations and do as other bishops did, if he wanted
+them to pay their tithes and receive him as their bishop.
+
+The inhabitants stationed a body of Indians on the road by which he was
+to come, to give notice of the approach of Las Casas, and determined to
+prevent his entrance into the city by force.
+
+The Bishop had sent on his baggage by Indian couriers, but, receiving
+word of the hostile attitude of the citizens, he recalled them, and
+stopped at the Dominican monastery in the town of Copanabasta, to
+consult with the brethren there.
+
+Meanwhile, a lay brother and a gentleman of the town, who was friendly
+to the Bishop, had gone to his house and removed his books and household
+goods to a place of safety. The people hearing of this, a mob attacked
+them at midnight; but they took refuge in the sacristy of the church,
+where they could not be reached, and at daybreak escaped and got out of
+the town.
+
+News of all this was brought to the Bishop, and the Dominicans advised
+him not to go on, but he said:
+
+"If I do not go to Ciudad Real, I banish myself from my own church, and
+it will be said of me with reason, 'The wicked flee when no man
+pursueth.'"
+
+He added:
+
+"The minds of men change from hour to hour. Is it possible that the
+mercy of God will permit them to commit so horrible a crime as to murder
+me? If I do not endeavor to enter my church, how can I complain to the
+Emperor or the Pope that I have been thrust out of it?"
+
+And he finished by saying:
+
+"My good fathers, trusting in the mercy of God and your fervent prayers,
+I am resolved to proceed on my journey, as no other alternative is left,
+without my neglecting my duty."
+
+Then, gathering up the folds of his habit, he set out, calm in the midst
+of the tears and prayers of those about him.
+
+It was sunset when Las Casas started and late at night when he came upon
+the Indian sentinels. The report had gone out that the Bishop had given
+up the attempt to enter the town, and the Indians were therefore off
+their guard and had fallen asleep. Wakened suddenly by the approach of
+the Bishop, they fell at his feet when he said gently to them:
+
+"Are you ready to destroy your father?"
+
+Distressed at their position, and overjoyed to see him again, the poor
+creatures knelt before him, begging his forgiveness and pouring out with
+tears their love for him.
+
+Las Casas was afraid that the Indians would be punished for failing to
+give notice of his arrival, so, with his own hands he, assisted by one
+of the fathers, bound them, that it might appear that he had surprised
+and captured them.
+
+That night there was an earthquake at Ciudad Real, and the citizens said
+it was because of the Bishop, and that it was only the beginning of the
+destruction he would bring upon the town.
+
+Entering Ciudad Real about daybreak, Las Casas went immediately to the
+church and summoned the council to meet him there. They came, followed
+by all the rest of the citizens, and seated themselves. When the Bishop
+came in to speak to them, no one rose or showed him any of the usual
+marks of respect. The notary at once stood up and read the paper the
+citizens had prepared at the town meeting. The Bishop answered this
+quietly and courteously, saying that he had no intention of interfering
+with their property except to prevent sin against God and their
+neighbor. His gentleness was beginning to make some impression, when one
+of the council, neither rising nor removing his cap, commenced a violent
+speech, declaring that the Bishop was but a private individual, and if
+he wished to speak to them, should have gone to them and not have
+presumed to summon them to come to him.
+
+Las Casas replied with great dignity:
+
+"Look you, sir; when I wish to ask anything from your estates, I will go
+to your house and speak to you, but when I have to speak to you
+concerning God's service and the good of your souls, it is for me to
+send and call you to come wherever I may be, and if you are Christians
+you have to come trooping in haste, lest evil fall upon you."
+
+Nobody dared answer this, and the Bishop, rising, immediately withdrew
+into the sacristy.
+
+There the notary of the council came to him and respectfully presented a
+petition from the townspeople, asking that they have confessors
+appointed. The Bishop assented and named two; but these not being
+acceptable, he chose two others, whose views were not very well known to
+the people, but whom he knew to be in sympathy with himself. The brother
+who was with him, not understanding the character of the men he had last
+appointed and thinking he was yielding to pressure, took hold of his
+vestments and cried:
+
+"Let your lordship rather die than do this!"
+
+At that a tumult broke out in the church, and the people would have
+assaulted the speaker, if at that moment two monks of the Order of Mercy
+had not entered the building and succeeded in getting the Bishop and the
+offending father out in safety,--taking them to their convent.
+
+Las Casas had walked all night, and the fatigue of the journey and the
+excitement of this meeting had left him much exhausted, but he was not
+yet to have rest.
+
+He was seated in his cell, and the monks were giving him some
+refreshment, when a fearful uproar was heard outside, and the convent
+was found to be surrounded by armed men. Some of them forced their way
+into the Bishop's presence. At first there was such a noise that it was
+impossible to hear what it was all about, but at last it appeared that
+it was because the Indian sentinels had been bound and treated as
+prisoners.
+
+Las Casas at once said that he alone was to blame for this, and
+explained that it was done for fear they should be suspected of favoring
+him.
+
+Then a storm of abuse broke out against the Bishop, no feeling of
+respect for his office nor of consideration for his age restraining
+them.
+
+Meanwhile, while this was going on within, a scene of violence was
+taking place in the courtyard. The mob attacked the negro who attended
+the Bishop in all his travels. This negro was of great stature and the
+Bishop in jest called him Juanillo (Little John). He had traveled three
+times across the continent with the Bishop, and always carried him in
+his arms when fording the swollen streams. Juanillo was wounded with a
+pike thrust and stretched on the ground. The monks rushed out to help
+him and two of them,--very strong young men,--succeeded in clearing the
+courtyard.
+
+All this took place before nine o'clock in the morning. By noon there
+was a revulsion of feeling,--the minds of the citizens had entirely
+changed. The members of the council came humbly to the convent, asked
+the Bishop's pardon on their knees, and kissed his hands. They then
+carried him in festive procession to the house of one of the principal
+citizens, and sent him costly presents. Finally, they arranged a grand
+tournament in his honor.
+
+It is doubtful if this sudden change in their treatment of him was
+especially gratifying to the Bishop, as it indicated fickleness and lack
+of depth in the people he had come to rule. Indeed neither he nor the
+monks had been in any way misled by this demonstration as to what was
+likely to happen in the future. While the peace lasted his adherents
+made haste to send plenty of provisions to the Bishop's house, lest he
+be starved out when it was over.
+
+Las Casas was now about to go to Mexico, to attend a meeting of all the
+bishops in the New World, who were to confer concerning all questions
+concerning the Indians. While he was making his preparations, Juan
+Rogel,--the auditor appointed by the council at Gracias á Dios to see to
+the enforcement of the new laws,--arrived. He listened respectfully to
+all the Bishop had to say, and then advised him to hasten his departure.
+
+"For," said he, "one of the reasons that has made these laws hateful in
+the Indies, is the fact that you have had a hand in them."
+
+And Rogel went on to explain that he would be able to act with much more
+freedom in his absence.
+
+Las Casas recognized the truth of this, and made all haste to get away.
+He left his diocese just a year after he had entered it.
+
+Although the news had not yet reached him, the Emperor had been obliged
+practically to revoke the new laws, because of the tumults and
+rebellions they had caused in his American possessions. We can imagine
+the Bishop's grief and dismay when he heard of this.
+
+On arriving at the city of Mexico, where the episcopal council was to be
+held, there was such a tumult that one would have thought a hostile army
+was about to take possession of the place instead of one poor missionary
+bishop and four humble monks approaching the walls on foot. The
+authorities were obliged to write and ask Las Casas to delay his
+entrance a little, until they could quiet popular excitement.
+
+The Bishop at length came into the city about ten o'clock one morning,
+and went at once to the Dominican monastery.
+
+The synod or council that Las Casas had come to attend was composed of
+five or six bishops and the chief theologians and learned men of the
+colony. Las Casas soon became its leading spirit. Some very bold
+declarations were made in favor of the Indians, but the question of
+slavery was very unwillingly touched upon. However, the Viceroy, who was
+president of the meeting, finally appointed a special council to meet
+and discuss this matter. The result of the deliberations of both bodies
+on the subject was that all Indian slaves, except a few renegade
+rebels, had been enslaved unjustly, and that all personal service
+imposed upon those that were not slaves was unlawful.
+
+Of course these conclusions could not be forced upon the country; but
+copies of them were distributed all over the province, in the hope that
+they might have an effect upon the minds of men.
+
+Las Casas had now fully decided that he could do more for the Indians in
+Spain than in his diocese, especially as he could be kept constantly
+informed by the Dominicans as to what was going on. He therefore
+appointed a Vicar-General to take his place, and sailed from Vera Cruz
+in 1547, leaving the shores of America for the last time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AT COURT
+
+
+Father Luis Cancer and Father Ladrada were both with Las Casas in Spain.
+One of the first things Las Casas did, with the approval of the Prince,
+was to organize a missionary expedition to Florida, with Father Luis
+Cancer at the head of it. There this faithful friend and devoted
+missionary soon after met his death at the hands of the Indians.
+
+While in Chiapa the Bishop had written a little book of instructions to
+his clergy. Formal objection to its teachings was laid before the
+Council of the Indies, and its author was summoned to come before that
+body and explain himself. This he did to their entire satisfaction,
+though not to that of his enemies, who engaged the most famous
+theologian and lawyer in Spain, Juan Ginés Sepulveda, to dispute the
+position of Las Casas and answer his arguments. Sepulveda had written a
+treatise upholding the conquest of the New World by war. The Council of
+the Indies would not allow this book to be published, but Las Casas had
+asked them to allow it to be submitted to the universities of Salamanca
+and Alcalá for their opinion. This opinion proved to be against it.
+
+Las Casas now undertook to answer Sepulveda's arguments and defend the
+freedom of his Indians. The war of words waxed fast and furious, and the
+controversy attracted so much attention that the Emperor ordered the
+India Council to assemble at Valladolid, to decide whether a war of
+conquest might justly be carried on against the Indians. The Emperor
+himself presided, and Las Casas and Sepulveda argued the question before
+them all. It appears to have been a drawn battle; but at length the
+Council decided in favor of Sepulveda. The Emperor and the officials of
+the government, however, must have been of another opinion, for
+Sepulveda's book was suppressed. At the time of this controversy Las
+Casas was seventy-six years old.
+
+Soon after this Las Casas resigned his bishopric and the Emperor granted
+him a pension. He made his home in the Dominican college of St. Gregory,
+at Valladolid, where his old friend Father Ladrada was with him.
+
+And now, after having labored for the Indians for so many years,
+crossing and recrossing the ocean, traveling over hundreds of miles of
+wild country on foot, like St. Paul, "in perils of waters, in perils of
+robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in
+perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,"
+he might be seen, day after day and night after night, sitting at his
+desk, writing letters, memorials, and pamphlets in defense of his
+beloved Indians. He kept up a constant correspondence with all parts of
+the New World, and when he heard of any new outrage on the part of the
+Spaniards against the natives, he at once brought it to the attention of
+Prince Philip, now regent of the kingdom.
+
+At the end of the year 1551 a number of Dominicans and Franciscans
+having been induced through his appeals to go out to the Indies, Las
+Casas went to Seville to see them off. For some reason they were delayed
+there for ten months, and during that time he was kept busy editing a
+number of his works, keeping two printing-presses going all the time.
+
+Las Casas must have had a wonderful constitution. His hard life in a
+tropical country had neither weakened his body nor impaired his mind.
+All his time from the day of his return to Spain to the time of his
+death was spent in defense of the Indians; and through his untiring
+efforts their condition was much improved in Mexico and elsewhere.
+
+Laws had already been passed which allowed the _encomiendas_, as the
+grants of land and Indians in Spanish America were called, to be held in
+a family only during two lifetimes. They then reverted to the crown.
+Thus the Indians were being gradually emancipated. There were also
+officers appointed to protect the interests of the crown in the
+reversion, so that it was no longer possible to repeat the horrors of
+Hispaniola.
+
+When Las Casas heard that the proposal had been made to allow the
+holders of _encomiendas_ to get possession of them in perpetuity, he
+went at once to the King and succeeded in preventing it. As Fiske says:
+
+
+     "It is worth remembering that pretty much the only praiseworthy
+     thing Philip ever did was done under Las Casas' influence."
+
+
+The activity of Las Casas was marvelous. His longest work was his
+"History of the Indies." At the age of ninety he wrote a "Memorial on
+Peru," said to be one of his best, and two years later, in 1566, he went
+to Madrid to speak in person for the Indians of Guatemala. He had heard
+through the Dominicans that that province had been deprived of its
+governing body, so that the Indians had no chance of justice, having to
+go to Mexico if they wished to make any appeal. He was successful in
+this mission, and the _Audiencia_ was restored to Guatemala.
+
+This was the last work of Las Casas. In July of that year, while still
+in Madrid, he was taken ill and died after a short illness, at the age
+of ninety-two.
+
+As he lay dying, his brethren, the Dominicans, kneeling about the bed
+and reciting the prayers for the dying, he begged them to persevere in
+their defense of the Indians, and asked them to join him in prayer that
+he might be forgiven any remissness on his part in the fulfillment of
+his mission. He was beginning to tell them how he came to enter upon
+this work when his spirit departed.
+
+Thousands of people attended the funeral of Las Casas. He was buried in
+Madrid, in the convent chapel of "Our Lady of Atocha."
+
+
+In early American history there is no one who stands on a level with
+this remarkable man. Many bitter enemies he had, it is true; such a
+man,--fearless, outspoken, able, never to be silenced when he was
+convinced of the righteousness of his cause,--was bound to have. Never
+during the many years of his long life, did the Indians lack a friend to
+plead in their behalf. Amid the cupidity, cruelty, and injustice of the
+Spaniards in the New World his character shines like a star in the
+darkness of night. We can't do better in closing than to quote the words
+in which Fiske speaks of him:
+
+
+     "In contemplating such a life as that of Las Casas, all words of
+     eulogy seem weak and frivolous. The historian can only bow in
+     reverent awe before a figure which is, in some respects, the most
+     beautiful and sublime in the annals of Christianity since the
+     Apostolic age. When now and then in the course of the centuries
+     God's providence brings such a life into the world, the memory of
+     it must be cherished by mankind as one of its most precious and
+     sacred possessions. For the thoughts, the words, the deeds, of such
+     a man there is no death. The sphere of their influence goes on
+     widening forever. They bud, they blossom, they bear fruit, from age
+     to age."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Las Casas, by Alice J. Knight
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Las Casas, by Alice J. Knight.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Las Casas, by Alice J. Knight
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Las Casas
+       'The Apostle of the Indies'
+
+Author: Alice J. Knight
+
+Release Date: November 24, 2007 [EBook #23613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAS CASAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Last Edit of Project
+Info
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>LAS CASAS</h1>
+
+<h2>"THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIES"</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/illus003.jpg" width='452' height='700' alt="Bartholome De Las Casas, Frontispiece" /></div>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Bartholom&eacute; De Las Casas</span></h3>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Frontispiece</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>LAS CASAS</h1>
+
+<h2>"<i>The</i> APOSTLE <i>of the</i> INDIES"</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>ALICE J. KNIGHT</h2>
+
+<p class="center">DEACONESS IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF AMERICA</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/illus0004.jpg" width='60' height='73' alt="logo" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY<br />440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1917, by<br />The Neale Publishing Company</span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">TO<br />MY FRIEND AND BISHOP,<br /><br />
+<span class="smcap">The Right Reverend<br />Robert Lewis Paddock, D.D.</span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#FOREWORD"><span class="smcap">Foreword</span></a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">CHAPTER</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Bartolom&eacute; the Youth</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Bit of History</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A New World</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A New Life</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Disappointments</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Knights of the Golden Spur</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Pearl Coast</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Cloister</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Land of War</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Bishop of Chiapa</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Revolt in Chiapa</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">At Court</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2>
+
+<p>Early American history is full of interest and romance. Great figures
+move across the scene. Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Alvarado,
+Pizarro,&mdash;every schoolboy is familiar with their names and deeds. But
+one man there is that stands out conspicuously among these heroes of
+discovery and conquest, one not bent on fame and glory, not possessed of
+that greed for gold that led to so much ruthless cruelty toward the
+natives of the New World,&mdash;a man consumed with one burning desire: to
+spend himself in the service of others, to protect and save the weak and
+helpless. What he himself might suffer in the performance of this work
+mattered not at all.</p>
+
+<p>Strange that to so many even the name of this man is unknown! Yet for
+more than fifty years no one either in all the New World or in Spain was
+more prominently before the eyes of all than was Las Casas, the great
+"Apostle of the Indies." Not only as a missionary, but as an historian,
+a philanthropist, a man of business, a ruler in the Church, he towers
+above even the notable men of that most remarkable time. His noble,
+self-denying, heroic life, spent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> in untiring service to God and man, is
+an inspiration and an example much needed in this materialistic,
+money-getting, ease-loving age.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Alice J. Knight.</span></p>
+
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Hood River, Oregon.</span><br /><i>June, 1917.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>LAS CASAS</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>BARTOLOM&Eacute; THE YOUTH</h3>
+
+<p>Whenever we hear of a famous man,&mdash;whether he be artist, author,
+statesman, soldier, scientist, great traveler, or missionary,&mdash;we like
+to know what sort of a boy he was. We are curious about his home, his
+school, his parents, his friends, and all the various influences that
+helped to make him the man he was. Such knowledge gives us a better
+understanding of his after life, and a fuller sympathy with his aims and
+achievements.</p>
+
+<p>Although I have headed this chapter "Bartolom&eacute; the Youth," we know
+comparatively little of Las Casas until he was about twenty-eight years
+old. In later life we find him impetuous, loving, tireless in energy,
+with a fiery temper that blazed out in quick wrath against all injustice
+and cruelty toward the weak and helpless, possessing a brilliant mind
+and great talents, never giving up striving against the wrong, and never
+knowing when he was beaten.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> These qualities he must have possessed in
+some measure as a boy, but, unfortunately, no historian has opened up
+for us those early pages.</p>
+
+<p>Bartolom&eacute; was born in the city of Seville, Spain, in the year 1474. We
+are not told the day of the month. Of his mother we know nothing, but
+his father was Pedro de Casaus. He was of French descent, but the family
+had lived in Spain for over two hundred years, and because of valuable
+aid given to one of the Spanish kings in the wars against the Moors,
+they had been ennobled, and after a time the name lost its French
+spelling and took the Spanish form, Las Casas.</p>
+
+<p>Bartolom&eacute; certainly lived in very interesting times. When he was between
+eighteen and nineteen years of age Columbus came to Seville on his
+return from his first voyage, which resulted in the discovery of the
+West India Islands. He brought with him many strange and wonderful
+things,&mdash;birds of brilliant color, such as had never been seen before,
+gold and pearls, and, most wonderful of all, six Indians. We can imagine
+the crowds of people who must have followed that little procession as it
+passed through the streets of the city, pushing and crowding one another
+to get a sight of the great Admiral and the men who had sailed with him
+over unknown waters, and especially of the painted red men, who were, I
+am sure,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> quite as curious on their part, and probably badly frightened
+besides.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult for us to understand now how much courage it took in
+those times to put to sea in frail little caravels, which were all the
+adventurer had, and go sailing over the waste of waters, not knowing
+what was ahead of him, or if he would ever find land on the other side.
+The rude maps of that day still showed a great Sea of Darkness. Dragons
+and all sorts of frightful sea-monsters were pictured in the unexplored
+parts of the ocean, and the popular idea was that if the daring mariner
+should sail too far over the slope of the round globe, he might be drawn
+by force of gravitation into a fiery gulf and never come back to his
+friends again. So the men that thus ventured were heroes in the eyes of
+the people. Never had such a voyage been heard of as the great Admiral
+had made, and all, from the King and Queen to the little street boys,
+were eager to hear about it.</p>
+
+<p>Although he does not mention it, it is probable that Las Casas often saw
+Columbus in his father's house. Pedro de Casas, Bartolom&eacute;'s father, and
+his uncle, Francisco de Penalosa, both went out with the Admiral on his
+second voyage. Columbus had then been made Viceroy of the Indies, and
+Bartolom&eacute;'s father was on his staff, while his uncle commanded the
+soldiers. One of the Indians that Columbus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> brought home from the first
+expedition he gave to Pedro de Casas, but the good Queen would not allow
+these Indians to be kept as slaves, and insisted that they should be
+sent back at once. All six had been baptized at Barcelona, with the King
+and Queen,&mdash;Ferdinand and Isabella,&mdash;as godfather and godmother; and
+when, soon after this, one of them died, people said he was the first
+Indian to go to Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Bartolom&eacute;'s uncle remained in the Indies for three years, and returning,
+shortly afterward died in battle with the Moors. His father did not come
+home until 1500.</p>
+
+<p>While his father and uncle were away, Bartolom&eacute; was studying at the
+famous university of Salamanca, where he took his degree as doctor of
+laws just previous to his father's return.</p>
+
+<p>Very naturally, now that his education was finished, the young man's
+thoughts turned to the Indies. He seems to have gone out, as did the
+other colonists, with the idea of making money. Wealth and power
+appeared very desirable things to possess. How little he dreamed of the
+future that was before him! He knew not that the time was coming when he
+should give up all that he had,&mdash;money, time, strength, and
+talents,&mdash;for the sake of the great, deathless principles of liberty,
+justice, and mercy. All unknowing, he was to enter a fight that would
+last his life long and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> cost him all that he held dear while struggling
+to protect the gentle, helpless natives of the New World from the
+cruelty and oppression of the Spaniards, until he should come to be
+called Las Casas "The Protector of the Indians." He had marked out one
+path for himself; God was to point out to him quite a different one. It
+is good to know that he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>A BIT OF HISTORY</h3>
+
+<p>When Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage, he left on the
+island of Hispaniola, now called Haiti, a little colony of about forty
+men.</p>
+
+<p>On his second voyage he sailed first to this same place, arriving in
+November, late at night. A salute was fired to let the settlers know
+that their friends had returned, but no answer came, and it was feared
+that something was wrong. Sure enough, when the voyagers went ashore in
+the morning they found eleven dead bodies and no living men. The fort
+had been destroyed and the tools and provisions were gone.</p>
+
+<p>This was a sad welcome; all the sadder because it need not have happened
+but for the evil doings of the colonists. After the departure of
+Columbus they had soon quarreled among themselves and had treated the
+inoffensive natives so cruelly that, unable to endure it, they had risen
+against the Spaniards and killed them all.</p>
+
+<p>Columbus at once went to work to build another little town, not far from
+the first, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> called it Isabella. A church was erected, a number of
+houses built, and the whole surrounded by a strong wall. This being
+done, he placed his brother Diego in charge, and started off with three
+ships to make further explorations.</p>
+
+<p>On this voyage he coasted along the southern shore of Cuba, discovered
+Jamaica and a number of smaller islands, and sailed all around
+Hispaniola. But he was worn out with excitement and fatigue. Discovering
+new countries is hard work, and it is still harder to try to govern
+unruly and evil men. He became very ill, and was brought back to
+Isabella quite unconscious. When at length he came to himself he found
+his brother Bartholomew beside him. This was a great comfort, for the
+brothers were very fond of each other, and Columbus needed all the help
+he could get. He made Bartholomew governor of Hispaniola, but no
+governor could do very much with such a company of lawless adventurers
+as were these Spaniards. Like a great many people of to-day, they wanted
+to get rich quickly and without working. They spent their time in
+fighting, roaming about the country, abusing the Indians, and killing
+them and one another. At length the natives, exasperated beyond
+endurance, rose against them as before, and many Spaniards lost their
+lives.</p>
+
+<p>In the end, however, of course it was the Indians that suffered the
+most. They could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> not stand against the white men. Their bows and arrows
+would not pierce the soldiers' armor, and they ran in terror from the
+sight of a horse, an animal that they had never seen before. Twenty
+great bloodhounds were let loose upon them also, which tore them in
+pieces; and at length, in despair, they submitted to their enslavers.</p>
+
+<p>They were used as slaves by the white men, being forced to cultivate the
+land for their conquerors and to work in the gold mines. The poor
+creatures, whose lives had been so simple as to require no hard labor,
+died by the thousands, and many were whipped to death or killed
+outright, so that in a little while that beautiful island became a place
+of great suffering, and the Spaniards were feared and hated by those
+gentle natives, who at their coming had been ready to welcome them as
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the colonists grew dissatisfied because they were not getting
+rich as fast as they wished, and some returned to Spain with complaints
+of Columbus. Finally Francisco Bobadilla was sent out to look into
+matters. He treated the great Admiral very unjustly and cruelly, sending
+him back to Spain in chains; but in this action he far exceeded his
+instructions. Ferdinand and Isabella, grieved for the indignity that had
+been put upon the man who had given them a new country, caused him to be
+released at once, and recalled Bobadilla.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nicholas de Ovando was now appointed to rule Hispaniola, and it was
+with him that Las Casas went out, as we shall see in the next chapter.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>A NEW WORLD</h3>
+
+<p>When Las Casas arrived in Hispaniola with Ovando, the new governor, they
+were greeted by the news that a huge nugget of gold had been found,
+weighing thirty-five pounds. It was shaped like a flat dish, and to
+celebrate the discovery of such a treasure, a banquet was given and a
+roast pig served up on this novel platter. The nugget was sent to Spain,
+as a present to King Ferdinand, on the same ship as the infamous
+Bobadilla, the deposed governor, but the ship was wrecked in a terrible
+storm soon after leaving port, and both the nugget and the governor went
+down into the depths of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas and his companion also heard that there had been another
+uprising of the Indians and that many had been captured and made slaves.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Isabella had instructed Ovando that the Indians must be free, only
+paying tribute, as all Spanish subjects did, and that they should be
+recompensed for the work they did in the mines. The good Queen little
+knew how far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> her officers were from treating them as she had commanded.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas does not seem to have felt any particular pity for the Indians
+in the beginning. Like the rest of the adventurers, he had come to seek
+his fortune in the New World, where there seemed such wonderful chances
+to grow rich. He obtained from the governor an estate of his own, took
+Indians as slaves, and sent some of them to work in the mines, though he
+did not abuse nor overwork them, as others did. For eight years he not
+only held Indians as slaves, but he was with Ovando during a second war
+against the natives in one of the provinces of Hispaniola, and saw
+terrible deeds of cruelty, yet never appears to have made a single
+protest. This seems very strange when we think of what he said and did
+against slavery a few years later, and how his whole after life was
+spent in the service of these oppressed people. His eyes, however, were
+not yet opened, and he looked at things after the fashion of his time.</p>
+
+<p>Ovando was a good governor, Las Casas says, "but not for Indians." He
+was a little, fair-haired man, gentle in manner, and most polite, but he
+made everybody understand that he intended to be obeyed. When any
+gentleman became troublesome, Ovando would invite him to dine with him,
+talk so pleasantly and flatteringly to his guest that he would think the
+governor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> must mean to do something very grand for him, and then,
+suddenly pointing down the harbor, would ask in which of the ships lying
+at anchor the gentleman would like to take passage for Spain. The poor
+man, confused and alarmed, yet afraid to protest, would very likely say
+that he had no money to pay his fare. Whereupon the very polite little
+governor would at once tell him not to let that trouble him, as he,
+Ovando, would provide the funds. And off the gentleman would have to go
+from the dinner table to the ship.</p>
+
+<p>But although Ovando ruled the white men well, he was neither just nor
+kind to the Indians. He gave them out in lots of fifty, or a hundred, or
+five hundred, to those who wanted them, and the poor creatures were
+worked to death and abused without mercy. When, in desperation, they
+would rise against their tyrants, they were punished savagely, being
+burned alive, torn to pieces by bloodhounds, and drowned in the ocean or
+the rivers, even helpless little children often being treated in this
+way.</p>
+
+<p>In 1510 four Dominican friars came over to Hispaniola and settled in San
+Domingo. The Sunday after their arrival one of them preached a sermon on
+the glories of heaven,&mdash;a discourse that Las Casas heard, and one that
+made a great impression on him. In the afternoon the Prior asked to have
+the Indians sent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> to the church to be taught; so they came,&mdash;men, women,
+and children; and this custom the Dominicans continued every Sunday
+afterward.</p>
+
+<p>Some time in this same year Las Casas was ordained priest. We should
+like to know how he came to take this step, but he tells us nothing
+about it. He threw himself into his new duties with the same energy that
+he had used in his business, and began at once to teach the Indians, as
+the Dominicans were doing. Whatever he did, all his life long, he did
+with all his might, and very soon he became famous all over the island
+for his learning and goodness.</p>
+
+<p>The little settlement of four Dominicans had increased by the end of the
+next year to twelve; nor had they been there many months before they
+began to have their eyes opened to the wrongs the Indians were suffering
+at the hands of the white men.</p>
+
+<p>A Spaniard who had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy and had been
+hiding for two or three years, repenting of his crime and tired of
+living in concealment and fear, came to the Dominicans by night and
+begged them to take him in and let him stay with them as a lay brother.
+When they were convinced that the man was truly repentant they received
+him. He told them of the dreadful cruelties of which he and others had
+been guilty toward the natives, and the good fathers soon felt that
+they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> must look into the matter. This they did, and were not long in
+coming to the conclusion that it was a great evil to make slaves of the
+Indians and that they must do something to put a stop to it. So they
+fasted and prayed, and conferred together, and finally decided that one
+of their number, Father Antonio Montesino, should preach a sermon on the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>The week before the sermon was to be preached all the Dominicans went
+throughout the town and invited every one, from the governor down to the
+humblest citizen, to come to the church on the following Sunday, which
+was the First Sunday in Advent, to hear the sermon, which, they said,
+would be upon a new subject, interesting to all of them.</p>
+
+<p>Of course every one was curious to hear what would be said, and when
+Sunday came the church was crowded. There was the governor, Diego
+Columbus, in his pew, with his wife,&mdash;a grand-niece of King
+Ferdinand,&mdash;and there were the officers of the colony, all the prominent
+citizens, in fact, everybody in the town. Father Montesino preached from
+the text: I am "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."</p>
+
+<p>He told the congregation that they were living in mortal sin because of
+their cruelty and their tyranny over the innocent natives. He told them
+plainly that by their oppression, their cruel tortures, and the forced
+labor in the mines to which they subjected these helpless people,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> they
+were killing the whole race, and he declared that they had no chance of
+salvation while they continued in such sin.</p>
+
+<p>You may be sure that Father Montesino's hearers were both frightened and
+angry at this bold sermon. All honor to the brave man who dared to
+preach it and to the little company of his brethren who stood with him!
+It was the first voice raised in the new world against slavery.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon the citizens had a meeting at the governor's house and
+appointed a committee to visit and rebuke the preacher. However, this
+accomplished nothing, as neither Father Montesino, the Prior of the
+little community, nor any of the brotherhood was at all moved by their
+threats, and all they obtained from the Dominicans was an agreement that
+Father Montesino should preach again the next Sunday and endeavor to
+please his congregation <i>as far as his conscience would permit</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The committee told everybody that the Father was going to retract, and
+again the next Sunday the church was crowded to hear Montesino eat his
+own words. But, instead of the humble apology that was expected, his
+auditors received a more terrible rebuke than before, Montesino
+threatening them with eternal torments if they continued to illtreat the
+Indians, or engage in the slave trade.</p>
+
+<p>Angry as the Spaniards were, they could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> do nothing, for the good
+fathers minded their blustering and threats not at all. Las Casas was
+partly in sympathy with the Dominicans, but he thought they went too
+far. He believed the Indians should be treated kindly, but saw no harm
+in slavery; for all that, however, he did not forget the sermon.</p>
+
+<p>The next year Diego Columbus decided to conquer the island of Cuba, and
+he appointed Diego Valasquez, one of the most respected colonists in San
+Domingo, commander of the expedition. Valasquez was a warm friend of Las
+Casas', and after a time sent for him to act as his chaplain.</p>
+
+<p>This war against the helpless and innocent natives was as cruel as all
+the others. They were chased and torn to pieces by bloodhounds; they
+were burned alive; their hands and feet were cut off, and those that
+were not killed were made slaves. Forced to work beyond their strength
+in the gold mines, half starved and beaten, their lives were full of
+misery, without a gleam of hope, and in despair numbers of
+them,&mdash;sometimes whole villages at a time,&mdash;committed suicide. One story
+is told that makes us smile, although it is so sad.</p>
+
+<p>A whole village of Indians resolved to hang themselves and so escape
+their sufferings. In some way their master learned of their intention
+and came upon them just as they stood ready to carry it out.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p><p>"Go get me a rope, too," he said to them; "for I must hang myself with
+you." He told them they were so useful to him that he must go where they
+were going, so that they might still labor for him. They, believing that
+they could not free themselves from him even in the future life, sadly
+gave up their plan, and went to work again.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas did all he could to protect the Indians, and soon became known
+as their friend, and won their entire trust. They called him "Behique,"
+which was the name they gave their magicians, and regarded him with awe.
+As the natives had no written language, the way in which the Spaniards
+conveyed information to one another by means of mysterious marks on
+paper seemed a kind of magic to them. When the expedition was
+approaching a town, Las Casas would send a messenger in advance,
+carrying a paper scrawled all over and hidden in a hollow reed. The
+messenger would show the paper to the Indians and tell them that the
+Christians were coming and the father wanted them to furnish so many
+huts for them to sleep in, so much food for them to eat, and so on,
+adding: "If you do not, Behique will be much displeased." So great was
+their confidence in him that they would at once obey his commands, which
+they believed the messenger had read from the paper, and in this way Las
+Casas was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> able to save them from the dreadful massacres that had so
+often wiped out whole villages.</p>
+
+<p>But one day a terrible thing occurred. Valasquez had gone away to be
+married and had appointed a Spaniard, named Pamfilo de Narvaez,
+commander in his absence. The soldiers,&mdash;about three hundred in
+number,&mdash;drew near a village called Caonao, and stopped to eat in the
+dry bed of a river, where there were a great many stones on which they
+sharpened their swords. When, at length, they entered the town some two
+thousand natives were gathered together, all sitting peacefully on the
+ground to look at the wonderful strangers and especially to see the
+horses, at which they were never tired of gazing. About five hundred
+others were busy in one of the huts, preparing food for the Spaniards,
+as Las Casas had told them to do. Suddenly one of the soldiers drew his
+sword,&mdash;why, nobody ever knew,&mdash;and began slashing right and left at the
+defenseless Indians. Instantly the others followed his example, and
+before half of the Indians had realized what was happening, the place
+was piled with dead bodies. Las Casas, who was not present at the
+moment, hearing what was going on, in a white heat of rage rushed out
+into the square to stop the slaughter; but before he succeeded in doing
+this many hundred helpless men, women, and children had been butchered.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after this dreadful event Valasquez<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> returned to Cuba, and, the
+whole island being now subdued, he proceeded to found a number of towns
+and to divide the land and the Indians among the Spaniards. Las Casas
+and a dear friend of his, Pedro de Renteria, who had lived near him in
+Hispaniola, received together a whole village of Indians, and with them
+the land they had owned,&mdash;some of this land being the very best on the
+island.</p>
+
+<p>Renteria was a quiet, thoughtful, unworldly man, humble and plain in his
+ways, though of considerable learning. Las Casas seems to have been very
+fond of him, though he tells us but little about him.</p>
+
+<p>The two friends soon had a large house built, in which they lived
+happily for a year, using the enslaved Indians to cultivate the
+plantation and work the mines; for as yet neither of them had a thought
+that it was wrong to hold slaves, and believed that they were doing
+their duty to these natives by being kind to them and carefully
+instructing them in the truths of Christianity.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>A NEW LIFE</h3>
+
+<p>Las Casas was the only priest on the island of Cuba, and at Pentecost
+(Whitsunday) he arranged to go and preach and say mass in the new town
+of Sancti Spiritus. In looking for a text, he came across some verses in
+the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, which made him stop and think
+whether after all he was right in making the Indians work for him as
+slaves. These are the verses:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is
+ridiculous, and the gifts of unjust men are not accepted.</p>
+
+<p>The Most High is not pleased with the offerings of the wicked,
+neither is He pacified for sin by the multitude of sacrifices.</p>
+
+<p>Whoso bringeth an offering of the goods of the poor doeth as one
+that killeth the son before the father's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth them
+thereof is a man of blood.</p>
+
+<p>He that taketh away his neighbor's living slaveth him, and he that
+defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As Las Casas read these verses he seemed to hear the voice of God
+speaking to his heart. He remembered Montesino's sermon, he thought of
+all the cruelties and injustices from which the gentle, helpless Indians
+suffered. At last his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> eyes were opened, and he saw plainly that it was
+neither right to take the lands and the property of the natives nor to
+hold them as slaves.</p>
+
+<p>For Bartolom&eacute; Las Casas to see the right was always to do it. He
+resolved at once to give up his own Indians and to preach against
+enslaving them. He knew very well that if he did this they might, and
+probably would, fall into the hands of those who would not treat them so
+kindly, but he realized that he could not preach to others against
+slavery while he continued to possess slaves himself. Therefore he went
+at once to the governor and told him what he had resolved to do. The
+governor was very much astonished, and begged Las Casas to consider well
+what he was doing and at least to take fifteen days to think it over.
+But Las Casas refused to take even one day, saying that his mind was
+made up.</p>
+
+<p>Four Dominicans, who had been sent from Hispaniola to found a community,
+arrived in Cuba about this time. They and Las Casas preached constantly
+and earnestly on the sin of holding the natives in slavery; but although
+the Spaniards were frightened, they were not turned from their evil
+ways, and Las Casas resolved to go to Spain and see if he could not so
+present the matter to the King that the whole system of dividing up the
+Indians and their lands among the white men,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> to be their property,
+might be done away with.</p>
+
+<p>He wrote to his friend and partner Renteria, telling him that he was
+about to go to Spain on a very important mission, which he was sure
+would give him great joy when he heard what it was, and he asked him to
+hasten home, as otherwise he might not see him, it being necessary to
+leave at once.</p>
+
+<p>Renteria was in Jamaica, where he had gone to buy seed, stock and so on
+for their farm. While there he had stayed in a Franciscan convent during
+the season of Lent, and had given much time to prayer and meditation.
+For a long time he had been troubled about holding the Indians as
+slaves, but he had thought that if he and his partner were to give up
+the savages, they would only be worse off. Now, however, as he thought
+and prayed, a plan occurred to him: He would go to Spain and get
+permission to found schools, where the Indian children might be gathered
+in and taught, and thus some of them might be saved; for he saw clearly
+that if things kept on as they were, it would not be long before all the
+Indians on the islands would be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Renteria received Las Casas' letter he hurried home,
+wondering why his friend also wanted to go to Spain, and eager to tell
+him what he had in mind.</p>
+
+<p>Renteria was a very popular man, so when he landed, not only Las Casas
+was there to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> meet him but the governor and many other friends;
+therefore, it was night before the two partners had a chance to talk
+quietly together. Then each listened in astonishment to the plan of the
+other. Finally they decided that as the plan of Las Casas was the more
+important, and as he was a priest and of a noble family and could
+therefore more easily get a hearing at court, he should be the one to
+go. They sold everything that Renteria had brought from Jamaica,&mdash;even
+the farm itself being disposed of,&mdash;in order to raise money for the
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>Now, while the two friends had been occupied with these thoughts and
+plans, the Dominicans had been coming to the conclusion that they could
+do no good in Cuba, since they could not help the Indians and the
+Spaniards would not listen to them, and they decided to send one of
+their number with Las Casas to San Domingo,&mdash;from which port he was to
+sail for Spain,&mdash;for the purpose of asking for instructions from their
+superior, Pedro de Cordova. A young deacon went also, and all three soon
+started on their journey. The Dominican, however, was taken ill and died
+before the party reached San Domingo.</p>
+
+<p>Pedro de Cordova sympathized heartily with Las Casas, though warning him
+that he would meet with many difficulties; but the man who is afraid to
+undertake a thing because of the difficulties in the way is not much of
+a man,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> and Las Casas was only the more determined to keep on. The
+Dominicans were very poor and had never been able to finish their humble
+monastery building, so they sent Father Montesino, who had preached the
+famous sermon against slavery the year after their coming to Hispaniola,
+with Las Casas to Spain, that he might try to raise the money needed;
+and in 1515 they sailed.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they arrived in Seville, Montesino introduced Las Casas to
+the good bishop of Seville, who did all he could to help him, giving him
+a letter to the King and to others of the court that might in all
+probability be interested.</p>
+
+<p>It would be too long a story to tell,&mdash;the chronicle of all that Las
+Casas went through in his struggles to right the wrongs of the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Isabella was now dead, and while he was in Spain King Ferdinand
+died also. Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand, was the heir to the throne,
+and during his minority the great Cardinal Ximenes acted as regent,
+while Charles' tutor Adrian was associated with the cardinal in the
+government. The man who had most to do with the affairs of the Indians
+was the Bishop of Burgos, Fonseca. As he himself had hundreds of slaves
+working for him in the gold mines of the islands, he was naturally not
+at all in favor of freeing them, and there were many like him who were
+striving as hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> to prevent the liberation of the Indians as Las Casas
+was striving to bring it about.</p>
+
+<p>Among other attempts that were made to throw obstacles in the way of Las
+Casas was one that was rather amusing. Cardinal Ximenes, as they sat in
+council, ordered the old laws for the Indies to be read. The clerk who
+read them, coming to one that he knew his masters were not obeying,
+thought to shield them and hinder Las Casas by changing the wording;
+but, unfortunately for him, Las Casas knew the laws by heart, and he
+cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"The law says no such thing!"</p>
+
+<p>The clerk, being ordered to read it again, read it as before, when again
+Las Casas broke in:</p>
+
+<p>"The law says no such thing!"</p>
+
+<p>A third time the clerk was made to read it; a third time he persisted in
+his own way of wording, and a third time Las Casas interrupted by
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"That law says no such thing!"</p>
+
+<p>The Cardinal, provoked by so many interruptions, rebuked him, when he
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Your lordship may order my head to be cut off if what the clerk reads
+is what the law says."</p>
+
+<p>And snatching the book from the clerk, he proved that he was right. We
+cannot help thinking that if the clerk had known "the clerico," as he
+usually calls himself, a little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>better, he would not have dared to try
+such a trick.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all obstacles, however, with the help of the Cardinal, new
+laws were finally passed for the Indies. By these laws the Spaniards
+were forbidden to divide the Indians among themselves and force them to
+work without reward.</p>
+
+<p>But the passing of the laws was only a part of the business. It was as
+true then as now that good laws are of little use unless there be wise
+and good men to enforce them; and the question now arose as to who
+should go out and put a stop to the evil system that had caused so much
+misery to these innocent and helpless people, and see that the new laws
+were obeyed. In those days the Church had great power over both rulers
+and people, and so it was not so strange as it would be in these days
+that the choice should have fallen on three monks of the order of St.
+Jerome. It was anything but a wise choice, however, for although these
+monks were good men, they were unused to any life but that of the
+convent, had had no experience in statesmanship and were, besides,
+rather timid of spirit. Before they sailed, the enemies of Las Casas
+filled their minds with distrust of him, and made them think that things
+in the islands were not as he had represented, so that they did not seem
+likely to do much good in their new office.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p>However, the little company set sail at last, the three monks in one
+ship, Las Casas,&mdash;who had been given the official title of "Protector of
+the Indians," with charge and authority to look after all that concerned
+them,&mdash;in another, and Zuaco, a lawyer, appointed to help and advise
+them, followed a little later.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>DISAPPOINTMENTS</h3>
+
+<p>"The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley." So it was in this
+case.</p>
+
+<p>When the Jeronimite fathers arrived in Hispaniola they failed to do what
+was expected of them. They did <i>something</i>, it is true; for they took
+from those officers of the court, who were not living in the Indies, all
+their Indian slaves and tried to give them to others who would treat
+them kindly; but they did not set them free, neither did they bring the
+judges to trial for their evil deeds.</p>
+
+<p>The clerico was of course very indignant with them, and we may be sure
+that he never gave them any peace, so that they must have learned to
+dread the very sight of him. He preached constantly, in the pulpit and
+on the streets, wherever he went, that the Indians must be free; and
+when Zuaco came, the two brought charges against the judges, causing
+them to be tried; but we do not know whether or not they were punished.
+Probably not.</p>
+
+<p>We must not be too hard upon the monks, however. It was no easy task
+they had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> asked to perform. What Las Casas wanted them to do, and
+what the law required also, was to take away all the Indians from the
+Spaniards and set them free. This meant to ruin the owners, since all
+they had came through the forced labor of the natives. The monks were
+not men of the determined character necessary for such an act, nor were
+they endowed with the courage to face the storm it would have brought
+about their ears. Few men are like the clerico, who was afraid of
+nobody.</p>
+
+<p>Just after Las Casas reached the Indies a man named Juan Bono, a
+shipmaster, arrived there with a shipload of Indians, whom he had
+kidnaped in the island of Trinidad. He himself told the clerico how it
+was done.</p>
+
+<p>He had gone to the island with sixty men and told the Indians that they
+had come to live with them. The Indians received them kindly, brought
+them food, and, as Bono said himself, treated them like brothers. Bono
+told them that the white men would like a large house to live in, and
+the Indians at once went to work to build it for them. When it was
+nearly done, Bono invited all the natives to come and see it.</p>
+
+<p>Some four hundred of them came, all unarmed and quite unsuspecting and
+happy. When all were gathered in the house, the Spaniards surrounded it,
+and Bono told the Indians that they must give themselves up or they
+would be killed. Some of them tried to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> run away, some to resist, and in
+a few minutes the swords of the Spaniards had filled the place with the
+dead and dying. One hundred and eighty of them were put in chains and
+taken to the ship. About a hundred shut themselves up in another house
+and tried to defend themselves there, but the Spaniards set fire to it
+and the natives were all burned alive.</p>
+
+<p>This was the return Bono and his men made to the innocent, gentle
+Indians, who had been so kind to them. No wonder the heart of the
+clerico was on fire with indignation when he heard the story. He went at
+once to the three fathers and told them the dreadful tale. They
+listened, but did nothing,&mdash;as usual. Not one of the one hundred and
+eighty kidnaped Indians was set free, and neither Bono nor any of the
+judges who had sent him was punished.</p>
+
+<p>One day a priest came to the Protector of the Indians to tell him how
+the native laborers in the mines near San Domingo were abused. He said
+he had seen them lying in the fields, sick from overwork, covered with
+flies, and nobody cared enough to give them food or drink; but their
+owners allowed them to lie there and die in this way. Las Casas took him
+by the hand and led him to the fathers, to whom he repeated this story;
+but they only tried to excuse the cruelty of the mine owners.</p>
+
+<p>The heart of the clerico burned within him as he saw so much suffering
+and misery about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> him and could not get the three commissioners to put a
+stop to it. Something, he felt, must be done. The fathers had now been
+in the islands six months and things were no better than they had been
+before their coming; so he resolved to go again to Spain and seek a
+remedy for this state of things. When the fathers heard what he intended
+to do they were much alarmed, but as they could not stop him, they sent
+one of their number to Spain also, to speak on their behalf.</p>
+
+<p>For some time there had been on the island of Hispaniola a number of
+Franciscans,&mdash;or "Gray Friars," as they were sometimes called because of
+the color of their robes, just as the Dominicans were called "Black
+Friars," because they wore black and white. Both orders were sworn to
+poverty, and both did splendid missionary work in their day. The
+Franciscans had not always been in sympathy with Las Casas, but seem now
+to have been as anxious as he to have something done to set matters
+right. Some of them were well known to the Grand Chancellor, and they
+gave the clerico letters to that official, who was at once interested;
+and as Las Casas came to see more of him, the two became great friends.
+The Chancellor spoke to the King about the matter, and the King
+commanded that he and Las Casas should consult together and find a
+remedy for the evils of the Indies.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>The plan that they proposed was this:</p>
+
+<p>That colonists should be sent out at the expense of the King and be
+cared for until they should be able to manage for themselves, when they
+should begin to pay tribute to the crown. In order to supply laborers,
+Las Casas suggested that each Spaniard should have permission to import
+twelve negro slaves. This he did because the Indians died by hundreds
+from the hard labor in the mines, while he had observed that the negroes
+endured it much better. Afterward Las Casas confessed with sorrow that
+he had done wrong in this, as it was no more right to hold the negroes
+in slavery than to so treat the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop of Burgos, who was, you will remember, always bent on
+opposing the clerico in everything he undertook, laughed at this plan.
+He said he had been trying for years to get men to go out to the Indies
+and could not find twenty that were willing to venture. However, Las
+Casas was not stopped by this, and set to work at once to see what he
+could do. A man named Berrio was appointed to go with him and assist
+him; but this Berrio turned out to be anything but a help, refusing to
+obey the clerico's orders, and finally leaving him, without permission.</p>
+
+<p>Berrio got together about two hundred vagabonds, not at all the right
+sort of people for colonists, and sent them to Seville, to be shipped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+to the Indies. Las Casas was not informed of the matter, and as no one
+had any instructions with regard to these colonists, they were sent out
+with no supplies for their necessities. When Las Casas heard of it, he
+insisted upon having provisions sent after them; but it was too late to
+benefit many of them, for numbers had died of the hardships suffered,
+and those who lived and stayed in the Indies proved a very bad addition
+to the white population.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the Grand Chancellor had died, and Bishop Fonseca was again
+at the head of Indian affairs, much to the clerico's grief. Fonseca
+refused to do anything at all for the colonists, and as Las Casas would
+not allow them to go under such conditions of neglect, the plan fell
+through. But no sooner was he defeated in one scheme than he immediately
+began to devise another. There was no such thing as discouraging Las
+Casas.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR</h3>
+
+<p>There had been for some time both Franciscan monks and Dominican fathers
+on the mainland of South America, working among the natives. Pedro de
+Cordova, the head of the Dominicans in the Indies, wrote to Las Casas at
+about this time, asking him to get the King to grant a certain territory
+on the mainland, where no white men except the Dominicans and
+Franciscans should be allowed to go; or, if he could not get it on the
+mainland, to try to secure some small nearby islands, saying that if the
+King would not do this it would be necessary to recall all the brethren
+of the Dominican order, as it was of no use for them to preach to the
+Indians when they saw all about them the Christians behaving as they
+did. Now when the clerico had spoken to Fonseca about this, the reply
+had been that there was no money in it for the King, so that Las Casas
+saw that if he was to get the grant, he must find a way to make it
+profitable to the King and his ministers.</p>
+
+<p>The Good Book says that "the love of money<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> is the root of all evil,"
+and certainly Las Casas was inclined to believe this as he thought of
+what wickedness it had led the Spaniards into in the New World. No
+wonder the Indians thought that gold was the white man's god. The
+clerico tells us of a certain Indian chief, who had fled before the
+Spaniards from Hispaniola to Cuba, and who, hearing that the Christians
+were coming there also, called his people together and told them that
+the reason why the Spaniards treated them so cruelly was because they
+had a god whom they greatly loved and adored, and it was to make them
+also love and serve him that they killed and enslaved them. He had a
+basket of jewels and gold near him. Holding it up, he said that <i>this</i>
+was the god of the Christians and called upon his people to dance before
+this god and worship him, and perhaps he would not allow the Spaniards
+to harm them.</p>
+
+<p>Poor old chief! Driven from one hiding place to another, he was taken at
+last; and because he had tried to escape his oppressors and defend his
+people, he was condemned to be burned alive. When he was tied to the
+stake a Franciscan priest came up to him and told him that, although
+there was but little time, yet if he would believe the Christian faith
+and be baptized he would be saved. He then told him as much as he could
+of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, and, having finished,
+asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> him if he would believe and go to Heaven, where he would be happy
+evermore, saying that if he did not he would go to Hell. The chief
+thought for a moment and then asked if the Christians went to Heaven.
+The priest replied that those that were good did. The chief at once
+answered that in that case he did not wish to go to Heaven, where he
+would have these cruel people again; he would go to Hell.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas had learned by this time that the desire for wealth must be
+considered in any plan that he might make if he wanted it to succeed,
+and he believed he knew of a way by which he could satisfy the King and
+at the same time carry out his design of converting the Indians by
+kindness. He thought he could find fifty men who would make the
+conversion and civilization of the Indians their first object. These
+fifty were to wear white dresses, with red crosses, so that the Indians
+would know them from other Spaniards. They were to teach the natives and
+protect them from all who would harm them. Each one was to contribute a
+certain sum of money, which was to be used to pay the expenses of the
+enterprise. For themselves, they were to have a fixed amount of the
+revenue and certain privileges, and they were to be called the Knights
+of the Golden Spur. The King was to have, after the first three years, a
+tribute, which would be increased year by year for ten years, and the
+Knights were to found three <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>settlements in five years, were to build a
+fort in each, and were to explore the country for the King. He asked
+also that those Indians that had been taken away from this part of the
+country should be sent back to their homes.</p>
+
+<p>The Grand Chancellor thought very well of this plan, and told the
+clerico to lay it before the Council of the Indies. Of course their
+bishop, Fonseca, was against it. The plan was not absolutely prohibited,
+however, but they delayed doing anything about it, until the clerico was
+nearly driven wild with anxiety and disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>It was the custom in those days to have certain of the clergy appointed
+preachers to the King. There were eight such preachers at the court of
+Spain. Las Casas thought perhaps these priests might do something to
+help, so he went to them and interested them in the scheme. They tried
+to do what they could, and even went one day before the Council of the
+Indies,&mdash;much to the astonishment of its members,&mdash;and having been given
+permission to speak, made a strong plea for the freedom of the Indies.
+But though they were listened to with courtesy, nothing came of it.</p>
+
+<p>For months Las Casas fought for this plan of his, which he felt would
+save at least some of the native people. They had been killed off by
+thousands on all the islands, and would soon perish on the
+mainland,&mdash;indeed, wherever the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> Spaniards went,&mdash;unless they could be
+made free. His enemies fought against his plan and against him, accusing
+him of everything, even of desiring to get the grant of territory for
+his own profit. Even his friends sometimes misunderstood him. One of
+them, a young lawyer, when he heard of rents to be paid to the King and
+of honors to be given to the Knights of the Golden Spur, said that this
+"scandalized" him, for it showed a desire for temporal things, which he
+had never suspected in the clerico. Las Casas, having heard of this,
+went to him one day and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Se&ntilde;or, if you were to see our Lord Jesus Christ ill-treated and
+afflicted, would you not implore with all your might that those who had
+Him in their power would give Him to you, that you might serve and
+worship Him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, if they would not give Him to you, but would sell Him, would you
+redeem Him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Without a doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, Se&ntilde;or, that is what I have done," replied Las Casas; "for I
+have left in the Indies Jesus Christ, our Lord, suffering stripes and
+afflictions and crucifixion, not once but thousands of times, at the
+hands of the Spaniards, who destroy and desolate these Indian nations."</p>
+
+<p>He then went on to tell his friend that, seeing that his opponents would
+<i>sell</i> him the Gospel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> he had offered these inducements, buying the
+right to teach the Indians to serve and love the Lord Jesus Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas had now spent altogether four or five years at the court of
+Spain, trying to get something done for his Indians. He had spent also
+every cent of money he possessed, and endured every kind of opposition
+and abuse; but at last the papers were signed. The grant was now
+assured, though not so much land had been given as had been asked. A
+company of laborers was ready to go out with the clerico, and money had
+been loaned him for the expenses of the undertaking. Many little
+articles, also, were presented to him, to be used as gifts to the
+natives; and away he sailed to start the new work and to find in the
+Indies, he hoped, the fifty Knights of the Golden Spur. We shall see how
+he succeeded.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PEARL COAST</h3>
+
+<p>If you look on the map of South America, you will see up in the
+northeast corner the island of Trinidad, and close by, indenting the
+coast of the mainland, the Gulf of Para. Stretching west from about this
+point was what was called the Pearl Coast, and it was in this region
+that was situated the land that had been granted to Las Casas for his
+company of the Knights of the Golden Spur. Now while he was in Spain
+events had taken place in this territory that made the founding of a
+colony very difficult indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans had been trying to do missionary
+work among the natives, as we know, and both orders had monasteries
+there. For a time all went well, until a Spaniard named Ojeda, engaged
+in the pearl fishery, had come over from the island of Cubagua, seeking
+slaves.</p>
+
+<p>This pearl fishing was carried on by use of the Indians in a most
+heartless manner. The poor creatures were kept swimming about under
+water from early morning until sunset.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> When they came up with their
+nets, in which they put the oysters,&mdash;from the shells of which the
+pearls were taken,&mdash;if they stopped to rest, a man in a boat, who kept
+rowing about all day for this purpose, drove them in again with blows,
+sometimes seizing them by the hair and throwing them in. They were half
+starved, their only food being the oysters or fish and a very little
+bread. At night they were put in the stocks to prevent them from running
+away. The consequence of such treatment was that they did not live long,
+and it was necessary to supply the places of those that died with
+others. For this reason slave raids were very frequent.</p>
+
+<p>This Ojeda, then, came over to the mainland to get more slaves, and
+carried off a large number of the Indians. Of course this made the
+natives very angry and they resolved to kill him and the white men with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Because Ojeda had stopped at the Dominican convent the natives supposed
+that the monks were his friends. And when the slave hunter came ashore
+again a few days afterward the infuriated Indians killed him and his
+men, and a week later they attacked the convent and killed the monks
+also.</p>
+
+<p>When the news of this revolt of the natives was heard at San Domingo,
+the officers of the colony resolved to send an expedition to avenge the
+murder of the Dominicans, and a captain, named Ocampo, was placed in
+command of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> This force started at once, and had reached Porto Rico
+when Las Casas and his laborers landed. Perhaps you can imagine how the
+clerico felt when he knew that Ocampo and his soldiers were going to the
+very country that had been granted to him for his settlement and were to
+punish the Indians there, where he had hoped to set up a sort of city of
+refuge for them. He hurried to show Ocampo his papers ordering that no
+one should go to that part of the country except Las Casas and the
+monks, and that the natives were to be in his care and not enslaved.</p>
+
+<p>But although the papers had the royal signature, Ocampo declared that he
+had had his orders from the officers of the colony at San Domingo, and
+that he must carry them out; that they would protect him if he was doing
+anything illegal. In vain did Las Casas storm and plead. It was all of
+no use. It seemed to him that there was nothing to be done but to go to
+San Domingo at once and get the officers to recall Ocampo. So he
+distributed his laborers by twos and threes among the citizens of Porto
+Rico, and hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody in San Domingo was glad to see the clerico except his friends the
+Dominicans. All others were angry with him for what he had been doing at
+the Spanish court to obtain the freedom of the Indians. They knew,
+however, that Las Casas was in great favor with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> King and his
+ministers, and so they were afraid to oppose him openly or to defy the
+royal authority; but they did everything they could to delay matters.
+They said they would consider; and they considered so long that it soon
+became useless to talk about recalling Ocampo, for it was too late to
+reach him. They discovered, also, another way to prevent Las Casas from
+going on. They found a ship master, engaged in the slave trade, who was
+only too glad to help them by declaring the clerico's vessel
+unseaworthy; and he was not allowed to use it. So there he was, helpless
+and at his wits' end to know what to do.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Ocampo had reached the Pearl Coast, decoyed a number of the
+natives on board, and made slaves of them, hanging their chief at the
+yardarm. He also captured a great many others. Finally, by means of an
+Indian woman,&mdash;who had been taken from Cubagua to Hispaniola and could
+speak Spanish, and whom he freed for the purpose,&mdash;he made peace with
+the remaining Indians, and began to build a town.</p>
+
+<p>The slaves Ocampo had captured were brought to San Domingo and sold
+under the clerico's very eyes; nor could he do anything to prevent it,
+although, as he tells us himself, he "went raging."</p>
+
+<p>He became so angry now, however, that the authorities thought they had
+better do <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>something to make peace with him. He declared he would go to
+Spain and tell the King how little attention they paid to the royal
+commands, and would have them all punished. They knew he was very likely
+to do just what he said and so at last they went to him with a plan
+which they hoped would pacify him. They wanted to go with him as
+partners. That is, they wished to form a company to go and settle the
+land, all of them contributing toward the expenses and all sharing in
+the profits. This was a long way from being the sort of colony Las Casas
+had meant to found; for these men did not care at all for the good of
+the Indians; all any of them wanted was to make money; but he had not
+found any men to become Knights of the Golden Spur, and unless he went
+in this way it looked as if he could not go at all, so he consented.</p>
+
+<p>They fitted out two ships for him, and at last he sailed, stopping at
+Porto Rico to take on his laborers. But here he had another
+disappointment: not one of them could be found. They had grown tired of
+waiting, had heard such stories of the riches to be gained by mining or
+engaging in the slave trade that they had every one gone off either
+pirating or chasing Indians or something else equally bad; and Las Casas
+had to go on without them.</p>
+
+<p>When at length Las Casas reached the land where he had hoped to do such
+great things for the natives, the Franciscans came joyfully to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> meet
+him, chanting <i>Te Deums</i>. Now, they felt, they had a friend and
+protector. They took him into their little convent,&mdash;which was only of
+wood, thatched with straw,&mdash;and into their little garden, where they had
+orange trees, vines, and melons, and there they talked together of what
+they should do.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas built a large storehouse for his goods, and sent word to all
+the Indians in that part of the country that he had been sent out by the
+new King of Spain, and that he was their friend and would protect them.
+They should not be ill-treated any more. He sent presents to them to
+show that he wished to be friends with them.</p>
+
+<p>Ocampo and his men had had such a hard time that they were not willing
+to stay there, and all sailed away, leaving Las Casas with only a few
+servants and one or two helpers. It was not much like the way he had
+expected to begin his famous settlement. If it had not been for the
+Franciscans, he would have been lonely indeed.</p>
+
+<p>All might yet have gone well if it had not been for the Spaniards on the
+island of Cubagua. They had no good water on that island, and this made
+an excuse for coming to the mainland very often. They brought liquor
+with them, which made the Indians drunk and unmanageable, and they
+taught them many evil ways. This was a great perplexity to Las Casas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+and the good monks. All the good they tried to do, all their teachings
+of the Christian religion, were made of little use by the evil example
+of these wicked men. Las Casas thought that perhaps if he had a fort at
+the mouth of the river, he could mount the guns he had brought with him
+and keep the unruly people in order. So he hired a mason to build one;
+but the people on Cubagua found out what was going on and bribed the man
+to stop work and come away, leaving the fort unfinished.</p>
+
+<p>Things grew worse and worse, and all felt that something must be done.
+The head of the Franciscans kept urging Las Casas to go to San Domingo
+and get the officers there to help them. The clerico knew it was of no
+use at all to appeal to those men, who had already hindered him so
+greatly in his plans for the good of the Indians; therefore, for a long
+time he refused to go. Finally, however, not wishing to be obstinate, he
+agreed to do so, against his better judgment.</p>
+
+<p>He appointed one of his men, Francisco de Soto, to take charge in his
+absence, instructing him particularly not to let both of their boats
+leave the settlement at the same time, as, if trouble arose with the
+Indians, these boats might be their only means of escape. This man,
+either because of stupidity or rebellion, did the very thing he had been
+told not to. As soon as the clerico's back was turned he sent one boat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+off one way and the other another; and sorry enough he must have been
+for it before long, for trouble came almost at once.</p>
+
+<p>The pearl fishers of Cubagua had not ceased to molest the Indians, and
+it was hardly two weeks after Las Casas had sailed before the
+Franciscans detected signs of danger. The woman who had been used by
+Ocampo to make peace with the natives was still there, and the fathers
+asked her whether they were right in thinking that the Indians were
+planning to attack them. The woman, by name Maria, said "No" with her
+lips, because other Indians were near, but "Yes" with her eyes. The
+monks and the clerico's servants were very much alarmed, and a ship
+touching on that coast for some reason, they begged the captain to take
+them on board; but he refused, and they were left to their fate.</p>
+
+<p>In the settlement great anxiety and terror reigned. The white men tried
+to find out what day had been set for the attack, and at last heard that
+it was to take place the next day. They began to fortify the monastery
+and the storehouse, and set up twelve or fourteen guns that they had;
+but discovered that their powder was damp. We wonder how they could have
+been so careless as to allow it to be in this state, when they had known
+for some time that trouble was likely to occur. Now, however, they took
+it out to dry it in the sun, as soon as it rose. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> were too late,
+however; for the Indians came upon them with a rush, and they fled for
+the monastery building. A few of the clerico's servants were killed, but
+the rest of them and the fathers reached the shelter of the monastery.
+The Indians, however, set it on fire.</p>
+
+<p>There was a door into the garden, at the rear, and a tall fence of cane
+hid it from the view of the Indians. The refugees ran out of this door
+into the garden and through another door out to the creek that ran
+nearby, where the monks had a boat of their own, which would hold fifty
+persons. All got in except one lay brother, who at the first alarm had
+fled and was hidden in a thicket of cane. He now appeared, high up on
+the bank, and the boatmen tried hard to reach him; but the current was
+too strong; all their exertions failed to bring the boat near enough to
+him. Seeing that all would be lost if they did not cease their attempt
+to save him, the brother signed to them not to make further effort; and
+they were obliged to leave him to his fate. Poor fellow! He was killed
+almost at once.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians were not long in seeing that their victims were escaping,
+and hurried after them in a much lighter boat, so that they gained on
+the fugitives with every stroke. The Spaniards were obliged to drive
+their boat to land and hide in a thicket of cactus. Only those in fear
+of death could have forced their way into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> such a thicket. The Indians,
+with their naked bodies, could not push through the thorns, and the
+fleeing men therefore escaped and made their way to their countrymen's
+ships, thus getting in safety to San Domingo. De Soto, however, died
+before their arrival. He had been shot with a poisoned arrow while
+running to the monastery for shelter.</p>
+
+<p>All this happened within two months after Las Casas' departure. He,
+meanwhile, through the ignorance of the sailors, had been carried a long
+way past San Domingo, and for all this time had been beating about with
+contrary winds, finally landing on another part of the island, whence he
+was obliged to proceed on foot.</p>
+
+<p>He was traveling with a party of persons also bound for San Domingo, and
+one day at noon, as they drew near the city, while they were all resting
+in the shade of the trees, some people came up with them and told them
+that the news had reached the city that the Indians of the Pearl Coast
+had killed the clerico, Bartholom&eacute; Las Casas, and all his household.
+Those who were traveling with Las Casas denied this, saying that he was
+with them; and while they were disputing he awoke and heard what they
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Although he thought it might not be as bad as it was represented, he
+knew that something terrible must have happened to his little colony,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+and went on at once in great anxiety to find how much of the news was
+true. A short distance out some of his friends met him. Having heard
+that he was on the road, they had come to try and comfort him and to
+offer him money to start another colony. But at last the brave spirit
+gave way. He could not rally at once from such a grief, and he went,
+broken-hearted, to his friends the Dominicans, to hide his sorrows
+within the walls of their monastery.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CLOISTER</h3>
+
+<p>Day after day Bartholom&eacute; Las Casas sat in the garden of the Dominican
+monastery at San Domingo, sad and dejected. As he thought of his years
+of struggle and realized with bitter grief that he had nothing to show
+for it all, doubts assailed him, and he accused himself of having rashly
+undertaken work to which he had not been called. He might, indeed, have
+gone to Spain again and received help to carry out his plans; but he had
+not the courage. His heart was like water within him.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was he encouraged to go on by his friends the monks. They greatly
+desired to have him among their number, and urged him strongly to give
+up the fight and enter the brotherhood,&mdash;which at last he did. The
+Dominicans rejoiced greatly as did his enemies in the colonies, for they
+thought they were surely now rid of the man who had caused them so much
+trouble. And so they were,&mdash;for a time.</p>
+
+<p>Seven or eight years went by, and Bartholom&eacute; Las Casas was seldom heard
+of outside the convent walls. He was not even allowed to preach for five
+years, but during this time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> of seclusion he was recovering his strength
+of body and soul for the work of the future; and though he was silent,
+he did not forget, for a part of the time he was at work on his "History
+of the Indies," in which he related the cruelties that had been
+inflicted upon the natives.</p>
+
+<p>At length an event occurred that brought the Protector of the Indians
+again before the public. The Franciscan monks had educated in their
+convent a young Indian chief, Enrique by name. This young man had
+married a beautiful Indian girl and he and the Indians under him had
+been assigned to a certain Spaniard, as was the custom. This Spanish
+master took from Enrique first a fine horse and then his young wife.
+When the Indian complained of this ill-usage he was severely whipped. He
+then appealed to the authorities, only to receive threats of worse
+treatment. Seeing that no help was to be got from any one, he gathered
+his Indians together in the mountains, and managed to collect a quantity
+of lances and swords and to drill his people in the use of them, so that
+they held their ground against the troops sent to subdue them.</p>
+
+<p>One of his old teachers from the Franciscan convent went to him to try
+and persuade him to lay down his arms; but without success. At length a
+new bishop of San Domingo was sent out, who was also president of the
+<i>Audiencia</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> the governing body of the Indies. He had received
+instructions to subdue this rebellious chief, and after trying in vain
+to accomplish it, bethought himself of Las Casas, for whom he sent.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas at once agreed to go and see what he could do, and set off
+alone into the mountains. When he had been gone several months, the
+president and council began to feel alarm for his safety; but one day
+who should appear in the streets of San Domingo but Las Casas himself,
+leading the rebellious chief by the hand. Great was the wonder and
+delight of all. He had promised Enrique that if he would submit to
+Spanish rule and pay tribute, as did all Spanish subjects, neither he
+nor his Indians should be punished, nor should they ever again be made
+slaves. This promise was faithfully kept, and Enrique was ever after a
+loyal subject.</p>
+
+<p>During the eight years that Las Casas had spent in the convent, many
+important events had taken place in the New World. Cortez had conquered
+Mexico, Alvarado had conquered Guatemala, Pedrarias had overrun and laid
+waste Nicaragua, and Pizarro had commenced his conquest of Peru.</p>
+
+<p>About 1528 Las Casas went once more to Spain, to obtain a decree from
+the King which should prevent the Indians of Peru from being enslaved.
+While there he preached several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> times at court, with the old fiery zeal
+and eloquence. He obtained the royal order and returned with it to
+Hispaniola. A new prior was about to be sent to the monastery of San
+Domingo, in Mexico, and with him went Las Casas, intending to go on to
+Peru, with some brothers of the order, not only to make known the royal
+commands with regard to the Indians but to found convents in that
+country. However, this turned out to be impracticable, and after a short
+stay the party returned to Nicaragua.</p>
+
+<p>King Charles had desired the Bishop of Nicaragua to establish
+monasteries in his diocese. The arrival of Las Casas and his two
+companions presenting the opportunity of carrying out the King's wish,
+the bishop begged them to stay with him, and they consented, and began
+at once to learn the language of the country.</p>
+
+<p>But Las Casas got into difficulties with the governor by stirring up a
+formidable opposition to him and preventing him from undertaking an
+expedition into the interior, which he desired to make. The clerico had
+good reason for this course, for the most outrageous cruelties had been
+practiced against the Indians in that province, and he tells us that it
+had been known to happen that when a body of four thousand Indians had
+gone with such an expedition to carry burdens, but six returned alive,
+and that often when an Indian was sick or overcome with weariness and
+want of food, and could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> go on, in order to get the chain free (for
+they went chained together), his head was cut off and his body thrown
+aside, without the necessity of stopping the train.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the Bishop of Nicaragua died, and the Bishop of
+Guatemala urged Las Casas to come into his diocese, as he had only one
+priest to help him. The feud with the governor having become more
+violent than ever, it seemed wise to accept this invitation. Therefore,
+abandoning the convent he had established, Las Casas with all his
+brethren went into Guatemala, making their home for a time at Santiago,
+in a convent that had stood vacant for six years.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAND OF WAR</h3>
+
+<p>The first thing these four missionaries,&mdash;Las Casas, Luis Cancer, Pedro
+de Angula, and Rodrigo de Larada,&mdash;had to do was to learn the language
+of the country, which was called the Quichi. It was no easy task, for
+none of them were young,&mdash;Las Casas, their prior, being now sixty-one
+years of age. The Bishop of Guatemala, a great scholar, was their
+teacher, and day after day this little company of monks might have been
+seen, sitting with the Bishop, like boys at school, learning
+conjugations and declensions.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas was also busy writing a book,&mdash;which, however, was never
+published,&mdash;in which he tried to show that the only way to convert men
+was to convince the mind by reasoning and win the heart by gentleness.
+The authorities of the province laughed at him and challenged him to try
+it, by declaring that if he succeeded in subduing any tribe by these
+methods, they would at once set free their slaves. Las Casas boldly took
+up the challenge and selected for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> the trial a part of the country
+called "The Land of War."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Alvarado had carried on a terrible war in Guatemala. Thousands of
+Indians had been killed, tortured, and made slaves. The people of the
+district where Las Casas intended to try his experiment were a hardy,
+warlike race, and their country was a land of steep mountains, deep
+ravines, and many furious mountain torrents. They had fought desperately
+for their liberty. Three times the Spaniards had attempted to conquer
+them, and each time had been driven back. They were a terror to the
+white men, and not a Spaniard dared to go near them. It was rightly
+named The Land of War. Yet it was these turbulent, unconquerable people
+whom Las Casas now declared he would Christianize and make subject to
+Spanish rule. He would take no soldiers with him and would accept no aid
+of any kind. All that he asked was that when his work should be
+accomplished, they might be left free, only paying tribute, as all
+subjects did, to the crown. To this the governor of Guatemala agreed.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the fathers could both write and speak the Quichi language
+well, and they went to work to compose in verse an account of the
+creation, the fall of man, the birth, life, and miracles of our Lord,
+and His death upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> the cross. These verses they set to music, for the
+Indians were fond of songs.</p>
+
+<p>There were certain Christian Indians that traded with the people in the
+Land of War, going to them at regular intervals. The fathers chose some
+of these traders and taught them the songs. They learned very quickly,
+and also played an accompaniment on their musical instruments. When they
+were ready they started, with an assortment of all kinds of articles
+such as the Indians particularly liked,&mdash;knives, scissors, little
+looking-glasses, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>As they had been instructed, the four peddlers went first to a great
+native prince. His people all came flocking to buy, and when the
+business of the day was over, they took pains to win his favor by making
+him a present.</p>
+
+<p>After supper they took out their musical instruments and began to play
+and chant the verses they had learned. Hundreds of dusky warriors,
+attracted by the sweet strains, sat about in the moonlight and listened.</p>
+
+<p>Next night many more natives came, and when the song was ended, the
+chief asked to have it explained. This was just the opportunity the
+traders had been waiting for. They told the chief that they sang only
+what they had heard, and that only the <i>padres</i> could explain the
+verses.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are the <i>padres</i>?" asked the chief. In answer to this question,
+they told him they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> men who dressed always in white and black, wore
+their hair like a garland about the head, did not eat meat, never
+married, did not seek for gold, and sang the praises of God day and
+night.</p>
+
+<p>The chief was much struck by this description, especially by the fact
+that the <i>padres</i> did not seek gold, his experience with Spaniards being
+that they loved gold above everything else in the world, and that all
+the miseries the Indians had suffered at their hands had been caused by
+their insane desire to possess it.</p>
+
+<p>At last, though it was a difficult matter to persuade these Indians to
+allow any Spaniard to enter their country, they decided to send the
+young brother of the chief out with the traders, and if he should find
+these <i>padres</i> all that had been represented, he was to invite them to
+come and tell them of their religion.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the joy in the little convent when they saw the prince coming
+with the Indian traders. They did their best to make him welcome, and
+after a few days, when he was ready to return, Father Luis Cancer was
+sent with him.</p>
+
+<p>What was the good father's astonishment to find crowds of people coming
+to meet him, arches erected for him to pass under, and the roads swept
+before his feet!</p>
+
+<p>The Indians built a church for him at once,&mdash;made of the trunks of
+trees, roofed with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>palmetto leaves,&mdash;and all came, wondering and
+admiring, to see what he would do.</p>
+
+<p>Faithfully he taught them, until the chief accepted Christianity, with
+his own hands overthrew their idols, and was baptized and given the name
+of Don Juan. His people soon followed his example.</p>
+
+<p>Father Luis also visited other parts of the country, and when he
+returned, after several months, to his companions there was great
+rejoicing over the results of his labors.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas himself now went into The Land of War, taking with him Father
+Pedro de Angula. Just as they reached Don Juan's town the young prince,
+his brother, came home from the neighboring district of Coban, bringing
+with him his bride, a princess of that tribe. With him were a number of
+the Coban princes. There were great festivities for many days, but in
+the midst of the rejoicing the Coban princes, angry that the
+bridegroom's family and tribe had become Christians, secretly stirred up
+some of the people to burn the church, managing carefully to conceal
+their own share in the matter. Don Juan at once rebuilt the edifice,
+however, and no other unpleasant incident occurred during the whole stay
+of the Spaniards in the country.</p>
+
+<p>While in The Land of War Las Casas went further north, and whenever he
+returned was always welcomed. As the people became <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>Christian, he
+realized that in order to teach them, it would be necessary to get them
+together in towns, where many could be reached by one man. After much
+difficulty, this was accomplished and several such towns were built, Don
+Juan's town being called Rabinal.</p>
+
+<p>After a time Las Casas sent for Luis Cancer, who when he came brought
+with him a contract, signed by the governor, securing the practical
+independence of the Indians of The Land of War.</p>
+
+<p>Word now reached Las Casas that both the Bishop of Guatemala and
+Alvarado had come to Santiago, and he resolved to go down and meet them.
+He wished Don Juan to accompany him, and this the chief was quite
+willing to do, but wanted to take something like an army with him, and
+was with difficulty persuaded to have only such a retinue as would serve
+to show his rank and importance.</p>
+
+<p>Father Ladrada, the only monk left at the convent, on being notified
+that all these visitors were coming, built more huts, put up tents, and
+laid in a store of provisions for their entertainment. Immediately upon
+their arrival, the Bishop came to the monastery and had a long
+conversation with the prince. So much struck was he with the Indian's
+knowledge of the Christian faith, and with his dignity and intelligence,
+that he asked Alvarado to come and see him also. Although this great
+captain held the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> life of an Indian of no more worth than that of a dog,
+yet he was so pleased with the prince, that wanting to make him a
+present, but having nothing with him for that purpose, he took off his
+own red velvet cap and placed it upon Don Juan's head.</p>
+
+<p>They took their distinguished visitor about the town, having first asked
+the merchants to make their shops as attractive as possible and, if the
+prince expressed a fancy for any article, to let him have it and send
+the bill to the Bishop. Don Juan, however, preserved his Indian
+stolidity, viewing the displays with perfect gravity, and neither
+showing surprise nor expressing admiration. Only once did he remark upon
+anything that he saw. He asked about a picture of the Virgin Mary, which
+was displayed in one of the shops, and when it was offered to him
+accepted it, afterwards placing it in his chapel at Rabinal.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas and Father Ladrada went back with Don Juan, intending to go
+further north into the district of Coban for the purpose of establishing
+there a permanent mission among the natives.</p>
+
+<p>In 1538 the Bishop of Guatemala sent for all the Dominicans, to consult
+with him about securing more workers. At this council it was decided to
+send Las Casas to Spain to plead for more Dominicans and Franciscans to
+come out. He took with him Father Ladrada and Father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Luis Cancer, whose
+Indian converts were greatly grieved to part with them; but the clerico
+comforted them with the promise of a speedy return.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "Tierra de Guerra," The Land of War, was located in the
+present state of Vera Paz, in northern Guatemala.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>BISHOP OF CHIAPA</h3>
+
+<p>Charles V was in Germany when the little company arrived in Madrid, but
+Las Casas found many old friends, and at once set about his business
+with his usual zeal and energy. When he was not preaching, interviewing
+officials, traveling, or busy in some way about matters concerning his
+beloved Indians, he was writing a book, "The Destruction of the Indies,"
+which, however, was not published until twelve years afterward.</p>
+
+<p>The clerico's old opponent, Bishop Fonseca, was dead, and there was now
+a much better spirit in the council, so that it proved easier than ever
+before for him to secure the legislation he desired. The Pope had also
+recently issued a Bull forbidding all good Catholic subjects to make
+slaves of the Indians, and this was a great help to Las Casas. Some new
+laws were passed for their benefit, among them one that forbade any lay
+Spaniards to enter The Land of War for five years. This royal order was
+solemnly proclaimed, at Las Casas' request, from the steps of the
+cathedral of Seville.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>And now, his business being finished and the Franciscan and Dominican
+monks he had procured for Guatemala being ready to sail, Las Casas
+prepared to start back to the New World; but at the last moment he was
+detained by the president of the Council of the Indies, who needed the
+clerico's advice. The Dominicans were kept back with him, as he was
+their vicar-general, but the Franciscans went, and with them Father Luis
+Cancer, taking with him a copy of the new laws. These laws were a great
+triumph for Las Casas, and their acceptance was due to his wonderful
+personal influence.</p>
+
+<p>The clerico was now seventy years old. He had crossed the ocean twelve
+times. Four times he had gone to Germany to see the Emperor, and we must
+remember that traveling then was a much more difficult and unpleasant
+experience than anything we can conceive of now. In his case poverty
+made it still more of a hardship. But none of these things mattered to
+this earnest "apostle" if only he could lighten the hard lot of those
+for whom he labored and suffered.</p>
+
+<p>One Sunday evening, while he was in Barcelona, the Emperor's secretary
+called on him to tell him that it was the royal wish to make him Bishop
+of Cuzco, the largest and richest of all the dioceses in the New World.
+But Las Casas would accept no reward for his work, and for fear he
+should be urged, he left Barcelona. Not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> long after, however, the
+diocese of Chiapa<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> was established, and the bishop appointed to it
+having died on his way out, this bishopric was offered to Las Casas. In
+contrast with the bishopric of Cuzco, it was the <i>poorest</i> in the New
+World,&mdash;so poor indeed that the Emperor had to help out the salary of
+the bishop with a royal grant. Such a field, however, appealed far more
+to the Protector of the Indians than the former one, and he accepted the
+offer and was consecrated in Seville on the 8th of March, 1544, and at
+once prepared to leave, taking with him forty-four Dominicans. The
+voyage proved to be a very trying and dangerous one, but at length the
+holy men arrived at San Domingo. The Dominicans came to meet the Bishop
+and his companions and escorted them to the monastery, and the <i>Te Deum</i>
+was sung in the church, in thanksgiving for their escape from so many
+perils.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly any in San Domingo, except the Dominicans, were glad to see the
+protector of the Indians. The new laws were regarded as the ruin of the
+colonies. Indignation meetings were held, and it was determined to
+boycott the monks. This was a very serious calamity to the Dominicans,
+for as they, like the Franciscans, belonged to what were known as the
+mendicant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> orders, and depended for their daily bread upon what they
+could beg, they were reduced to extremity.</p>
+
+<p>Prayer was offered in the church night and day, and very soon the
+Franciscans began secretly to send the Dominicans food from what they
+themselves received, and an old negro woman offered to make a round
+every day of the houses where there were people that did not share the
+evil spirit of the rest of the town, and so their necessity was
+relieved.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this condition of things, Las Casas went before the
+<i>Audiencia</i>, and in the name of the King, summoned them to set free the
+Indians. But Spanish subjects had a right to protest against any new
+laws if they so desired, and when this was done, the laws were not
+enforced until the protest had been either accepted or rejected.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Las Casas himself wrote to the Emperor, and both he and
+others of the Dominicans preached constantly against slavery and the
+wrongs done the Indians. Naturally, these sermons increased the hatred
+against them. In the midst of these troubles, however, the friars were
+astonished and delighted to receive a visit one day from a rich widow,
+said to be the richest person in the colony, who came to tell them that
+their sermons had convinced her that it was a sin to hold the Indians in
+bondage, and she had resolved to free hers (she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> more than two
+hundred); and because she now felt that her money had been made wrongly,
+she was about to make over her plantation to the order. This caused a
+great sensation in the town. Then, too, seeing the Dominicans holding to
+their convictions, directly against their own interests, after a time
+made many people rather ashamed of themselves, and little by little the
+hostility died away, so that when the time came for Las Casas and his
+monks to leave, some of the Spaniards even expressed regret.</p>
+
+<p>They sailed early in December, and this voyage also proved a trying one.
+It was very stormy, and their pilot turned out to be so ignorant that
+the Bishop himself had to take the wheel; for this truly wonderful man
+could sail a ship, work a plantation, write books, plead a case in
+court, perform the duties of a bishop, and at the same time fight
+unceasingly for the oppressed.</p>
+
+<p>The returning Dominicans had a terrible trip, and it was January before
+they landed at the port of Lazaro, in his own diocese. The Spaniards and
+the Christian Indians came out at once to the ship to greet the Bishop.
+It must have been a queer crowd: Proud, stately Spaniards, in velvets
+and laces; blanketed Indians, silent and stolid; naked heathens, eager
+to see the man whom they knew as their protector! But Las Casas was glad
+to see them all, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> leaving the ship, they all went up together to the
+church, where after the service the Spaniards came to kiss the episcopal
+ring, and after them the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>At first the Bishop was received with politeness and apparent kindness,
+but in spite of this all the Spaniards were resolved to resist the new
+laws and not to acknowledge Las Casas as their Bishop nor pay him their
+tithes. This was very awkward, for Las Casas found himself thus unable
+to pay the captain of the ship in which he and the monks had come, but
+the friars sold a part of the goods they had brought with them, the
+parish priest loaned the Bishop some money, and he gave his note for the
+rest. So that difficulty was settled.</p>
+
+<p>Their troubles had only begun, however. It was not a great distance to
+Ciudad Real, where they wished to go, but it was impossible to carry
+their provisions and the equipment for the church by land, so they
+loaded their baggage on an old, flat-bottomed boat, to go by sea; and
+twelve of the fathers, with a number of others, went in it. Two days
+later the Bishop and the rest were ready to sail on a faster boat; but
+just as they were about to embark, word came that the other boat had
+been wrecked and nine of the fathers and twenty-seven laymen drowned.
+Those who had been saved were staying in an Indian village near the
+shore, and everything they possessed had been lost.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p><p>The remaining monks were so alarmed that at first they refused to go by
+sea, but Las Casas finally persuaded them that, as the skies were clear
+and their boat a strong, new one, they were in no danger, and the party
+set out. It was a very sad and downcast little body of men, however. All
+one night and day they sat, without eating or speaking. When they
+reached the place where the other boat had been wrecked, the captain
+pointed out the spot, and the Bishop recited the prayers for the dead.
+Then he ordered food to be prepared, called them all to come to the
+table, and set the example by himself eating and talking cheerfully all
+the time, until his companions' courage was restored.</p>
+
+<p>A gale coming up, the party took refuge behind an island, where they lay
+for a long time before they could go on; and then, because some of them
+were still afraid, they divided into two bodies,&mdash;the Bishop, his
+faithful friend and constant companion, Father Ladrada, and two other
+monks, remaining on the boat, and the rest proceeding by land.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Chiapa was the Indian town of the diocese; Ciudad Real, the
+Spanish town. It was to the latter that the Bishop went first. The
+people received him cordially and showed him every outward form of
+respect. He found but few priests in the whole diocese, four of them in
+and about Ciudad Real. Of these, one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> was quite young and had no
+particular charge, one traveled about from one town to another,
+baptizing the Indians for the money it brought him; one was a partner in
+a sugar plantation and spent more time attending to this business than
+to his clerical duties, and another collected from the owners of
+plantations and slaves taxes and tribute paid to the crown. The Bishop
+took all these into his house, to keep them in order, paying them a
+small salary and giving them their meals at his own table.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas' manner of living as a bishop was no different from that which
+he had practiced as a simple monk. His habit was rusty and patched and
+he ate no meat, though it was provided for his guests: his forks and
+spoons were of wood, and the dishes of plain earthenware. This simple
+mode of life did not suit the priests, and two of them left his diocese.</p>
+
+<p>All day Las Casas attended to the work of the diocese, and late into the
+night he studied and wrote. At all times the Indians had free access to
+him, coming to him with all their sorrows. Every day they would crowd
+about him, their faces swollen with weeping and, kissing the hem of his
+robe, would pour out to him the story of the cruelties from which they
+suffered. The good Bishop suffered with them and often would be heard in
+the night, sighing and groaning in his room.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas preached constantly against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> enslaving of the Indians, and
+rebuked the holders of slaves for their disregard of the new laws. He
+ordered his clergy to refuse absolution and the sacraments to those who
+would not obey, which order aroused the anger of the whole community
+against him. His Dean disobeyed him and sided with the colonists. He was
+petitioned, threatened, and abused. The children were taught couplets
+against him, which they sang after him in the street. Some one even
+discharged a gun into the window of his room one night, to frighten him.
+All support was withdrawn from the Dominicans, and the Bishop's salary
+was not paid.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the Bishop arrested the Dean. In those days, when the Roman
+Church was so powerful, bishops had a kind of episcopal marshal, and
+usually there was also an episcopal jail, where ecclesiastical offenders
+were confined. This arrest of the Dean stirred up a great commotion. A
+crowd of people gathered around him, and he made a frantic effort to
+escape, crying out:</p>
+
+<p>"Help me! Gentlemen, help me!"</p>
+
+<p>And he voiced all sorts of promises, if they would assist him. The
+citizens being armed, in a few minutes the Dean was free; whereupon
+sentinels were set at all the doors of the monastery, to prevent the
+monks from going to the assistance of their Bishop, and a shouting mob
+forced its way into his house.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>One of the Dominicans and a knight of Salamanca, who chanced to be
+there, met the riotous crowd and managed to quiet the tumult a little;
+but the leaders burst into the Bishop's room, shouting at him, insulting
+him, and even threatening to kill him.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas spoke not a word, but stood calmly looking at them until the
+storm had spent itself, when quietly, with words of pity and
+forgiveness, he dismissed them.</p>
+
+<p>He now excommunicated the Dean. The monks were greatly alarmed for the
+Bishop's life and begged him to leave and go to some place of safety,
+but he said to them:</p>
+
+<p>"Fathers, where would you have me go! Where shall I be safe as long as I
+act in behalf of these poor creatures? Were the cause mine, I would drop
+it with pleasure, but it is that of my flock, of these miserable
+Indians, oppressed by unjust slavery."</p>
+
+<p>While they were talking, four other Dominicans rushed in to tell the
+Bishop that the man who had threatened to kill him,&mdash;the one that had
+fired the shot to frighten him,&mdash;had been stabbed. At once Las Casas
+rose, and sending for a surgeon and taking some of the brothers with
+him, went to minister to the injured man. For hours they worked over
+him, the Bishop ministering to him as to a brother; and so touched was
+the man that he begged Las Casas' forgiveness with all his heart, and
+was from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> that day one of the clerico's warmest friends.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop's salary was now refused him, all alms withdrawn from the
+Dominicans, and when Indians were sent out into the province to beg for
+them, the Spaniards seized whatever was brought in, and gave the bearers
+a sound beating into the bargain, so that it was impossible to obtain
+food in this way.</p>
+
+<p>It now became absolutely impossible for the monks to live any longer in
+Ciudad Real, and it was decided to go to the Indian town of Chiapa and
+build a convent there; but before leaving the Bishop preached a sermon
+in which the people were told plainly that it was because of the
+hardness of their hearts and their sin in persisting to keep the Indians
+as slaves, after the Dominicans had shown them the evil of it, that the
+friars were going away.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Chiapa, the diocese of Las Casas, is now the Mexican State
+of Chiapas, the southernmost State of Mexico, bordering on the present
+Republic of Guatemala.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>REVOLT IN CHIAPA</h3>
+
+<p>The Bishop and the monks now departed from the Spanish town and took up
+their residence in Chiapa. Some distance outside the town they found a
+number of Indians waiting for them, gayly dressed, decorated with golden
+chains and bracelets, and carrying crosses made of feathers and flowers.
+As soon as Las Casas was conducted to the house made ready for him, the
+Indians began to come in from all the country round, begging to be
+taught the Christian religion. Joy filled the heart of the good Bishop.
+Such a scene made up for all the torments and insults he had suffered at
+the hands of his own countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>Happy as he was, however, at this readiness on the natives' part to
+accept the gospel message, the tales of suffering they poured into his
+ears wrung his heart. All over the province women were stolen, property
+taken away, and the helpless Indians bought and sold like
+cattle,&mdash;overworked, beaten and starved, until they died and so, at
+last, found peace.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop could not get the new laws <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>enforced. No attention was paid
+either to his entreaties or his threats, so at length,&mdash;in June,
+1545,&mdash;he determined to go to Gracias &aacute; Dios, and present the matter to
+the council governing the country, demanding that they compel obedience
+to the royal mandate.</p>
+
+<p>He took the road through Guatemala, in order to visit again "The Land of
+War," now a land of peace. It was a wonderful encouragement to him to
+find the Indians living peaceful, orderly, Christian lives, unmolested
+and happy. Great numbers of them came to greet him with tears of joy,
+and if he had needed any proof of the wisdom of his method of
+Christianizing the Indians, he found it in the transformation that had
+taken place all through the district.</p>
+
+<p>To all who came, Las Casas spoke in their own language, giving to them
+the royal command, signed by the Emperor, that they should never be
+anything but a free people.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop of Guatemala went with Las Casas to visit The Land of War,
+and had intended to go with him to Gracias &aacute; Dios, where they were both
+to assist in the consecration of a new bishop of Nicaragua. Learning,
+however, that the Protector of the Indians was going principally to
+insist upon the enforcement of the new laws, and that a letter had been
+written to Prince Philip, heir to the throne, informing him that he, the
+Bishop of Guatemala, had many slaves and did not uphold these laws<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+either in practice or in teaching, he turned back and returned to his
+own diocese, and from a warm friend he became one of the Bishop's
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>The journey to Gracias &aacute; Dios was a difficult and dangerous one at that
+season of the year. All such journeys were of course made on foot, and
+the streams that had to be crossed were swollen and turbulent from the
+violent rains, which had also in some cases destroyed the roads; but we
+never hear that Las Casas in all his life ever once gave up or delayed a
+trip either because of ill health or dangers in the way. Now, at
+seventy-one, he had all the endurance and energy of youth.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately upon his arrival he went before the council, but met with
+nothing but insults. One day as he came in, an officer cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"Put out that fool!"</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion, having been commanded to withdraw, Las Casas
+refused to do so, and the president ordered him to be removed by force.
+The Bishop solemnly summoned the judges, in the name of God, to relieve
+the Indians from oppression and remove the stumbling blocks their
+tyranny was putting in the way of Christianizing them. At this the chief
+justice lost his temper and shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"You are a bad man, a cheat, a bad bishop, a shameful fellow, and
+deserve to be punished!"</p>
+
+<p>Such language used by a Spanish official <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>toward a bishop in those days,
+when the Roman Catholic Church had so great an influence upon the
+nation, startled even those most hostile to Las Casas. The chief justice
+found himself regarded by the whole community as practically
+excommunicated because of this rash speech, and was obliged to make a
+sort of half-hearted apology for having so spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas was not only a Bishop but, by training and experience at the
+court of Spain, one of the foremost lawyers of his time; and now, seeing
+that he could obtain nothing from the judges by peaceful means, he
+instituted legal proceedings against them. This accomplished some good,
+for an auditor was sent by them to Ciudad Real, to see to the
+enforcement of the new laws, and the inhabitants of that place were
+notified of his coming by letter.</p>
+
+<p>When the notice was received, at once the tocsin was rung, and when all
+the citizens were gathered together, a protest was read, stating that
+the Bishop had taken possession of his see without showing the papal
+bulls or the royal decree authorizing him to do so, and declaring that
+he must cease his innovations and do as other bishops did, if he wanted
+them to pay their tithes and receive him as their bishop.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants stationed a body of Indians on the road by which he was
+to come, to give notice of the approach of Las Casas, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>determined to
+prevent his entrance into the city by force.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop had sent on his baggage by Indian couriers, but, receiving
+word of the hostile attitude of the citizens, he recalled them, and
+stopped at the Dominican monastery in the town of Copanabasta, to
+consult with the brethren there.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, a lay brother and a gentleman of the town, who was friendly
+to the Bishop, had gone to his house and removed his books and household
+goods to a place of safety. The people hearing of this, a mob attacked
+them at midnight; but they took refuge in the sacristy of the church,
+where they could not be reached, and at daybreak escaped and got out of
+the town.</p>
+
+<p>News of all this was brought to the Bishop, and the Dominicans advised
+him not to go on, but he said:</p>
+
+<p>"If I do not go to Ciudad Real, I banish myself from my own church, and
+it will be said of me with reason, 'The wicked flee when no man
+pursueth.'"</p>
+
+<p>He added:</p>
+
+<p>"The minds of men change from hour to hour. Is it possible that the
+mercy of God will permit them to commit so horrible a crime as to murder
+me? If I do not endeavor to enter my church, how can I complain to the
+Emperor or the Pope that I have been thrust out of it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>And he finished by saying:</p>
+
+<p>"My good fathers, trusting in the mercy of God and your fervent prayers,
+I am resolved to proceed on my journey, as no other alternative is left,
+without my neglecting my duty."</p>
+
+<p>Then, gathering up the folds of his habit, he set out, calm in the midst
+of the tears and prayers of those about him.</p>
+
+<p>It was sunset when Las Casas started and late at night when he came upon
+the Indian sentinels. The report had gone out that the Bishop had given
+up the attempt to enter the town, and the Indians were therefore off
+their guard and had fallen asleep. Wakened suddenly by the approach of
+the Bishop, they fell at his feet when he said gently to them:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready to destroy your father?"</p>
+
+<p>Distressed at their position, and overjoyed to see him again, the poor
+creatures knelt before him, begging his forgiveness and pouring out with
+tears their love for him.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas was afraid that the Indians would be punished for failing to
+give notice of his arrival, so, with his own hands he, assisted by one
+of the fathers, bound them, that it might appear that he had surprised
+and captured them.</p>
+
+<p>That night there was an earthquake at Ciudad Real, and the citizens said
+it was because of the Bishop, and that it was only the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>beginning of the
+destruction he would bring upon the town.</p>
+
+<p>Entering Ciudad Real about daybreak, Las Casas went immediately to the
+church and summoned the council to meet him there. They came, followed
+by all the rest of the citizens, and seated themselves. When the Bishop
+came in to speak to them, no one rose or showed him any of the usual
+marks of respect. The notary at once stood up and read the paper the
+citizens had prepared at the town meeting. The Bishop answered this
+quietly and courteously, saying that he had no intention of interfering
+with their property except to prevent sin against God and their
+neighbor. His gentleness was beginning to make some impression, when one
+of the council, neither rising nor removing his cap, commenced a violent
+speech, declaring that the Bishop was but a private individual, and if
+he wished to speak to them, should have gone to them and not have
+presumed to summon them to come to him.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas replied with great dignity:</p>
+
+<p>"Look you, sir; when I wish to ask anything from your estates, I will go
+to your house and speak to you, but when I have to speak to you
+concerning God's service and the good of your souls, it is for me to
+send and call you to come wherever I may be, and if you are Christians
+you have to come trooping in haste, lest evil fall upon you."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>Nobody dared answer this, and the Bishop, rising, immediately withdrew
+into the sacristy.</p>
+
+<p>There the notary of the council came to him and respectfully presented a
+petition from the townspeople, asking that they have confessors
+appointed. The Bishop assented and named two; but these not being
+acceptable, he chose two others, whose views were not very well known to
+the people, but whom he knew to be in sympathy with himself. The brother
+who was with him, not understanding the character of the men he had last
+appointed and thinking he was yielding to pressure, took hold of his
+vestments and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Let your lordship rather die than do this!"</p>
+
+<p>At that a tumult broke out in the church, and the people would have
+assaulted the speaker, if at that moment two monks of the Order of Mercy
+had not entered the building and succeeded in getting the Bishop and the
+offending father out in safety,&mdash;taking them to their convent.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas had walked all night, and the fatigue of the journey and the
+excitement of this meeting had left him much exhausted, but he was not
+yet to have rest.</p>
+
+<p>He was seated in his cell, and the monks were giving him some
+refreshment, when a fearful uproar was heard outside, and the convent
+was found to be surrounded by armed men. Some of them forced their way
+into the Bishop's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>presence. At first there was such a noise that it was
+impossible to hear what it was all about, but at last it appeared that
+it was because the Indian sentinels had been bound and treated as
+prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas at once said that he alone was to blame for this, and
+explained that it was done for fear they should be suspected of favoring
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Then a storm of abuse broke out against the Bishop, no feeling of
+respect for his office nor of consideration for his age restraining
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, while this was going on within, a scene of violence was
+taking place in the courtyard. The mob attacked the negro who attended
+the Bishop in all his travels. This negro was of great stature and the
+Bishop in jest called him Juanillo (Little John). He had traveled three
+times across the continent with the Bishop, and always carried him in
+his arms when fording the swollen streams. Juanillo was wounded with a
+pike thrust and stretched on the ground. The monks rushed out to help
+him and two of them,&mdash;very strong young men,&mdash;succeeded in clearing the
+courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>All this took place before nine o'clock in the morning. By noon there
+was a revulsion of feeling,&mdash;the minds of the citizens had entirely
+changed. The members of the council came humbly to the convent, asked
+the Bishop's pardon on their knees, and kissed his hands. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> then
+carried him in festive procession to the house of one of the principal
+citizens, and sent him costly presents. Finally, they arranged a grand
+tournament in his honor.</p>
+
+<p>It is doubtful if this sudden change in their treatment of him was
+especially gratifying to the Bishop, as it indicated fickleness and lack
+of depth in the people he had come to rule. Indeed neither he nor the
+monks had been in any way misled by this demonstration as to what was
+likely to happen in the future. While the peace lasted his adherents
+made haste to send plenty of provisions to the Bishop's house, lest he
+be starved out when it was over.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas was now about to go to Mexico, to attend a meeting of all the
+bishops in the New World, who were to confer concerning all questions
+concerning the Indians. While he was making his preparations, Juan
+Rogel,&mdash;the auditor appointed by the council at Gracias &aacute; Dios to see to
+the enforcement of the new laws,&mdash;arrived. He listened respectfully to
+all the Bishop had to say, and then advised him to hasten his departure.</p>
+
+<p>"For," said he, "one of the reasons that has made these laws hateful in
+the Indies, is the fact that you have had a hand in them."</p>
+
+<p>And Rogel went on to explain that he would be able to act with much more
+freedom in his absence.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas recognized the truth of this, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> made all haste to get away.
+He left his diocese just a year after he had entered it.</p>
+
+<p>Although the news had not yet reached him, the Emperor had been obliged
+practically to revoke the new laws, because of the tumults and
+rebellions they had caused in his American possessions. We can imagine
+the Bishop's grief and dismay when he heard of this.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the city of Mexico, where the episcopal council was to be
+held, there was such a tumult that one would have thought a hostile army
+was about to take possession of the place instead of one poor missionary
+bishop and four humble monks approaching the walls on foot. The
+authorities were obliged to write and ask Las Casas to delay his
+entrance a little, until they could quiet popular excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop at length came into the city about ten o'clock one morning,
+and went at once to the Dominican monastery.</p>
+
+<p>The synod or council that Las Casas had come to attend was composed of
+five or six bishops and the chief theologians and learned men of the
+colony. Las Casas soon became its leading spirit. Some very bold
+declarations were made in favor of the Indians, but the question of
+slavery was very unwillingly touched upon. However, the Viceroy, who was
+president of the meeting, finally appointed a special council to meet
+and discuss this matter. The result of the deliberations of both bodies
+on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> the subject was that all Indian slaves, except a few renegade
+rebels, had been enslaved unjustly, and that all personal service
+imposed upon those that were not slaves was unlawful.</p>
+
+<p>Of course these conclusions could not be forced upon the country; but
+copies of them were distributed all over the province, in the hope that
+they might have an effect upon the minds of men.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas had now fully decided that he could do more for the Indians in
+Spain than in his diocese, especially as he could be kept constantly
+informed by the Dominicans as to what was going on. He therefore
+appointed a Vicar-General to take his place, and sailed from Vera Cruz
+in 1547, leaving the shores of America for the last time.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>AT COURT</h3>
+
+<p>Father Luis Cancer and Father Ladrada were both with Las Casas in Spain.
+One of the first things Las Casas did, with the approval of the Prince,
+was to organize a missionary expedition to Florida, with Father Luis
+Cancer at the head of it. There this faithful friend and devoted
+missionary soon after met his death at the hands of the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>While in Chiapa the Bishop had written a little book of instructions to
+his clergy. Formal objection to its teachings was laid before the
+Council of the Indies, and its author was summoned to come before that
+body and explain himself. This he did to their entire satisfaction,
+though not to that of his enemies, who engaged the most famous
+theologian and lawyer in Spain, Juan Gin&eacute;s Sepulveda, to dispute the
+position of Las Casas and answer his arguments. Sepulveda had written a
+treatise upholding the conquest of the New World by war. The Council of
+the Indies would not allow this book to be published, but Las Casas had
+asked them to allow it to be submitted to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>universities of Salamanca
+and Alcal&aacute; for their opinion. This opinion proved to be against it.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas now undertook to answer Sepulveda's arguments and defend the
+freedom of his Indians. The war of words waxed fast and furious, and the
+controversy attracted so much attention that the Emperor ordered the
+India Council to assemble at Valladolid, to decide whether a war of
+conquest might justly be carried on against the Indians. The Emperor
+himself presided, and Las Casas and Sepulveda argued the question before
+them all. It appears to have been a drawn battle; but at length the
+Council decided in favor of Sepulveda. The Emperor and the officials of
+the government, however, must have been of another opinion, for
+Sepulveda's book was suppressed. At the time of this controversy Las
+Casas was seventy-six years old.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this Las Casas resigned his bishopric and the Emperor granted
+him a pension. He made his home in the Dominican college of St. Gregory,
+at Valladolid, where his old friend Father Ladrada was with him.</p>
+
+<p>And now, after having labored for the Indians for so many years,
+crossing and recrossing the ocean, traveling over hundreds of miles of
+wild country on foot, like St. Paul, "in perils of waters, in perils of
+robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in
+perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> perils in the sea,"
+he might be seen, day after day and night after night, sitting at his
+desk, writing letters, memorials, and pamphlets in defense of his
+beloved Indians. He kept up a constant correspondence with all parts of
+the New World, and when he heard of any new outrage on the part of the
+Spaniards against the natives, he at once brought it to the attention of
+Prince Philip, now regent of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the year 1551 a number of Dominicans and Franciscans
+having been induced through his appeals to go out to the Indies, Las
+Casas went to Seville to see them off. For some reason they were delayed
+there for ten months, and during that time he was kept busy editing a
+number of his works, keeping two printing-presses going all the time.</p>
+
+<p>Las Casas must have had a wonderful constitution. His hard life in a
+tropical country had neither weakened his body nor impaired his mind.
+All his time from the day of his return to Spain to the time of his
+death was spent in defense of the Indians; and through his untiring
+efforts their condition was much improved in Mexico and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Laws had already been passed which allowed the <i>encomiendas</i>, as the
+grants of land and Indians in Spanish America were called, to be held in
+a family only during two lifetimes. They then reverted to the crown.
+Thus the Indians were being gradually emancipated. There were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> also
+officers appointed to protect the interests of the crown in the
+reversion, so that it was no longer possible to repeat the horrors of
+Hispaniola.</p>
+
+<p>When Las Casas heard that the proposal had been made to allow the
+holders of <i>encomiendas</i> to get possession of them in perpetuity, he
+went at once to the King and succeeded in preventing it. As Fiske says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It is worth remembering that pretty much the only praiseworthy
+thing Philip ever did was done under Las Casas' influence."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The activity of Las Casas was marvelous. His longest work was his
+"History of the Indies." At the age of ninety he wrote a "Memorial on
+Peru," said to be one of his best, and two years later, in 1566, he went
+to Madrid to speak in person for the Indians of Guatemala. He had heard
+through the Dominicans that that province had been deprived of its
+governing body, so that the Indians had no chance of justice, having to
+go to Mexico if they wished to make any appeal. He was successful in
+this mission, and the <i>Audiencia</i> was restored to Guatemala.</p>
+
+<p>This was the last work of Las Casas. In July of that year, while still
+in Madrid, he was taken ill and died after a short illness, at the age
+of ninety-two.</p>
+
+<p>As he lay dying, his brethren, the Dominicans, kneeling about the bed
+and reciting the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> prayers for the dying, he begged them to persevere in
+their defense of the Indians, and asked them to join him in prayer that
+he might be forgiven any remissness on his part in the fulfillment of
+his mission. He was beginning to tell them how he came to enter upon
+this work when his spirit departed.</p>
+
+<p>Thousands of people attended the funeral of Las Casas. He was buried in
+Madrid, in the convent chapel of "Our Lady of Atocha."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>In early American history there is no one who stands on a level with
+this remarkable man. Many bitter enemies he had, it is true; such a
+man,&mdash;fearless, outspoken, able, never to be silenced when he was
+convinced of the righteousness of his cause,&mdash;was bound to have. Never
+during the many years of his long life, did the Indians lack a friend to
+plead in their behalf. Amid the cupidity, cruelty, and injustice of the
+Spaniards in the New World his character shines like a star in the
+darkness of night. We can't do better in closing than to quote the words
+in which Fiske speaks of him:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In contemplating such a life as that of Las Casas, all words of
+eulogy seem weak and frivolous. The historian can only bow in
+reverent awe before a figure which is, in some respects, the most
+beautiful and sublime in the annals of Christianity since the
+Apostolic age. When now and then in the course of the centuries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+God's providence brings such a life into the world, the memory of
+it must be cherished by mankind as one of its most precious and
+sacred possessions. For the thoughts, the words, the deeds, of such
+a man there is no death. The sphere of their influence goes on
+widening forever. They bud, they blossom, they bear fruit, from age
+to age."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Las Casas, by Alice J. Knight
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Las Casas, by Alice J. Knight
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Las Casas
+       'The Apostle of the Indies'
+
+Author: Alice J. Knight
+
+Release Date: November 24, 2007 [EBook #23613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAS CASAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Last Edit of Project
+Info
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LAS CASAS
+
+"THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIES"
+
+[Illustration: BARTHOLOME DE LAS CASAS _Frontispiece_]
+
+
+
+
+LAS CASAS
+
+"_The_ APOSTLE _of the_ INDIES"
+
+BY
+
+ALICE J. KNIGHT
+
+DEACONESS IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF AMERICA
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
+THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+TO
+MY FRIEND AND BISHOP,
+
+THE RIGHT REVEREND
+ROBERT LEWIS PADDOCK, D.D.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+                                           PAGE
+FOREWORD                                     7
+
+CHAPTER
+      I BARTOLOME THE YOUTH                  9
+
+     II A BIT OF HISTORY                    14
+
+    III A NEW WORLD                         18
+
+     IV A NEW LIFE                          28
+
+      V DISAPPOINTMENTS                     36
+
+     VI THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR      42
+
+    VII THE PEARL COAST                     48
+
+   VIII THE CLOISTER                        59
+
+     IX THE LAND OF WAR                     64
+
+      X BISHOP OF CHIAPA                    72
+
+     XI REVOLT IN CHIAPA                    83
+
+    XII AT COURT                            95
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+Early American history is full of interest and romance. Great figures
+move across the scene. Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Alvarado,
+Pizarro,--every schoolboy is familiar with their names and deeds. But
+one man there is that stands out conspicuously among these heroes of
+discovery and conquest, one not bent on fame and glory, not possessed of
+that greed for gold that led to so much ruthless cruelty toward the
+natives of the New World,--a man consumed with one burning desire: to
+spend himself in the service of others, to protect and save the weak and
+helpless. What he himself might suffer in the performance of this work
+mattered not at all.
+
+Strange that to so many even the name of this man is unknown! Yet for
+more than fifty years no one either in all the New World or in Spain was
+more prominently before the eyes of all than was Las Casas, the great
+"Apostle of the Indies." Not only as a missionary, but as an historian,
+a philanthropist, a man of business, a ruler in the Church, he towers
+above even the notable men of that most remarkable time. His noble,
+self-denying, heroic life, spent in untiring service to God and man, is
+an inspiration and an example much needed in this materialistic,
+money-getting, ease-loving age.
+                                                       ALICE J. KNIGHT.
+    HOOD RIVER, OREGON.
+    _June, 1917._
+
+
+
+
+LAS CASAS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BARTOLOME THE YOUTH
+
+
+Whenever we hear of a famous man,--whether he be artist, author,
+statesman, soldier, scientist, great traveler, or missionary,--we like
+to know what sort of a boy he was. We are curious about his home, his
+school, his parents, his friends, and all the various influences that
+helped to make him the man he was. Such knowledge gives us a better
+understanding of his after life, and a fuller sympathy with his aims and
+achievements.
+
+Although I have headed this chapter "Bartolome the Youth," we know
+comparatively little of Las Casas until he was about twenty-eight years
+old. In later life we find him impetuous, loving, tireless in energy,
+with a fiery temper that blazed out in quick wrath against all injustice
+and cruelty toward the weak and helpless, possessing a brilliant mind
+and great talents, never giving up striving against the wrong, and never
+knowing when he was beaten. These qualities he must have possessed in
+some measure as a boy, but, unfortunately, no historian has opened up
+for us those early pages.
+
+Bartolome was born in the city of Seville, Spain, in the year 1474. We
+are not told the day of the month. Of his mother we know nothing, but
+his father was Pedro de Casaus. He was of French descent, but the family
+had lived in Spain for over two hundred years, and because of valuable
+aid given to one of the Spanish kings in the wars against the Moors,
+they had been ennobled, and after a time the name lost its French
+spelling and took the Spanish form, Las Casas.
+
+Bartolome certainly lived in very interesting times. When he was between
+eighteen and nineteen years of age Columbus came to Seville on his
+return from his first voyage, which resulted in the discovery of the
+West India Islands. He brought with him many strange and wonderful
+things,--birds of brilliant color, such as had never been seen before,
+gold and pearls, and, most wonderful of all, six Indians. We can imagine
+the crowds of people who must have followed that little procession as it
+passed through the streets of the city, pushing and crowding one another
+to get a sight of the great Admiral and the men who had sailed with him
+over unknown waters, and especially of the painted red men, who were, I
+am sure, quite as curious on their part, and probably badly frightened
+besides.
+
+It is difficult for us to understand now how much courage it took in
+those times to put to sea in frail little caravels, which were all the
+adventurer had, and go sailing over the waste of waters, not knowing
+what was ahead of him, or if he would ever find land on the other side.
+The rude maps of that day still showed a great Sea of Darkness. Dragons
+and all sorts of frightful sea-monsters were pictured in the unexplored
+parts of the ocean, and the popular idea was that if the daring mariner
+should sail too far over the slope of the round globe, he might be drawn
+by force of gravitation into a fiery gulf and never come back to his
+friends again. So the men that thus ventured were heroes in the eyes of
+the people. Never had such a voyage been heard of as the great Admiral
+had made, and all, from the King and Queen to the little street boys,
+were eager to hear about it.
+
+Although he does not mention it, it is probable that Las Casas often saw
+Columbus in his father's house. Pedro de Casas, Bartolome's father, and
+his uncle, Francisco de Penalosa, both went out with the Admiral on his
+second voyage. Columbus had then been made Viceroy of the Indies, and
+Bartolome's father was on his staff, while his uncle commanded the
+soldiers. One of the Indians that Columbus brought home from the first
+expedition he gave to Pedro de Casas, but the good Queen would not allow
+these Indians to be kept as slaves, and insisted that they should be
+sent back at once. All six had been baptized at Barcelona, with the King
+and Queen,--Ferdinand and Isabella,--as godfather and godmother; and
+when, soon after this, one of them died, people said he was the first
+Indian to go to Heaven.
+
+Bartolome's uncle remained in the Indies for three years, and returning,
+shortly afterward died in battle with the Moors. His father did not come
+home until 1500.
+
+While his father and uncle were away, Bartolome was studying at the
+famous university of Salamanca, where he took his degree as doctor of
+laws just previous to his father's return.
+
+Very naturally, now that his education was finished, the young man's
+thoughts turned to the Indies. He seems to have gone out, as did the
+other colonists, with the idea of making money. Wealth and power
+appeared very desirable things to possess. How little he dreamed of the
+future that was before him! He knew not that the time was coming when he
+should give up all that he had,--money, time, strength, and
+talents,--for the sake of the great, deathless principles of liberty,
+justice, and mercy. All unknowing, he was to enter a fight that would
+last his life long and cost him all that he held dear while struggling
+to protect the gentle, helpless natives of the New World from the
+cruelty and oppression of the Spaniards, until he should come to be
+called Las Casas "The Protector of the Indians." He had marked out one
+path for himself; God was to point out to him quite a different one. It
+is good to know that he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A BIT OF HISTORY
+
+
+When Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage, he left on the
+island of Hispaniola, now called Haiti, a little colony of about forty
+men.
+
+On his second voyage he sailed first to this same place, arriving in
+November, late at night. A salute was fired to let the settlers know
+that their friends had returned, but no answer came, and it was feared
+that something was wrong. Sure enough, when the voyagers went ashore in
+the morning they found eleven dead bodies and no living men. The fort
+had been destroyed and the tools and provisions were gone.
+
+This was a sad welcome; all the sadder because it need not have happened
+but for the evil doings of the colonists. After the departure of
+Columbus they had soon quarreled among themselves and had treated the
+inoffensive natives so cruelly that, unable to endure it, they had risen
+against the Spaniards and killed them all.
+
+Columbus at once went to work to build another little town, not far from
+the first, and called it Isabella. A church was erected, a number of
+houses built, and the whole surrounded by a strong wall. This being
+done, he placed his brother Diego in charge, and started off with three
+ships to make further explorations.
+
+On this voyage he coasted along the southern shore of Cuba, discovered
+Jamaica and a number of smaller islands, and sailed all around
+Hispaniola. But he was worn out with excitement and fatigue. Discovering
+new countries is hard work, and it is still harder to try to govern
+unruly and evil men. He became very ill, and was brought back to
+Isabella quite unconscious. When at length he came to himself he found
+his brother Bartholomew beside him. This was a great comfort, for the
+brothers were very fond of each other, and Columbus needed all the help
+he could get. He made Bartholomew governor of Hispaniola, but no
+governor could do very much with such a company of lawless adventurers
+as were these Spaniards. Like a great many people of to-day, they wanted
+to get rich quickly and without working. They spent their time in
+fighting, roaming about the country, abusing the Indians, and killing
+them and one another. At length the natives, exasperated beyond
+endurance, rose against them as before, and many Spaniards lost their
+lives.
+
+In the end, however, of course it was the Indians that suffered the
+most. They could not stand against the white men. Their bows and arrows
+would not pierce the soldiers' armor, and they ran in terror from the
+sight of a horse, an animal that they had never seen before. Twenty
+great bloodhounds were let loose upon them also, which tore them in
+pieces; and at length, in despair, they submitted to their enslavers.
+
+They were used as slaves by the white men, being forced to cultivate the
+land for their conquerors and to work in the gold mines. The poor
+creatures, whose lives had been so simple as to require no hard labor,
+died by the thousands, and many were whipped to death or killed
+outright, so that in a little while that beautiful island became a place
+of great suffering, and the Spaniards were feared and hated by those
+gentle natives, who at their coming had been ready to welcome them as
+friends.
+
+Many of the colonists grew dissatisfied because they were not getting
+rich as fast as they wished, and some returned to Spain with complaints
+of Columbus. Finally Francisco Bobadilla was sent out to look into
+matters. He treated the great Admiral very unjustly and cruelly, sending
+him back to Spain in chains; but in this action he far exceeded his
+instructions. Ferdinand and Isabella, grieved for the indignity that had
+been put upon the man who had given them a new country, caused him to be
+released at once, and recalled Bobadilla.
+
+Nicholas de Ovando was now appointed to rule Hispaniola, and it was
+with him that Las Casas went out, as we shall see in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A NEW WORLD
+
+
+When Las Casas arrived in Hispaniola with Ovando, the new governor, they
+were greeted by the news that a huge nugget of gold had been found,
+weighing thirty-five pounds. It was shaped like a flat dish, and to
+celebrate the discovery of such a treasure, a banquet was given and a
+roast pig served up on this novel platter. The nugget was sent to Spain,
+as a present to King Ferdinand, on the same ship as the infamous
+Bobadilla, the deposed governor, but the ship was wrecked in a terrible
+storm soon after leaving port, and both the nugget and the governor went
+down into the depths of the ocean.
+
+Las Casas and his companion also heard that there had been another
+uprising of the Indians and that many had been captured and made slaves.
+
+Queen Isabella had instructed Ovando that the Indians must be free, only
+paying tribute, as all Spanish subjects did, and that they should be
+recompensed for the work they did in the mines. The good Queen little
+knew how far her officers were from treating them as she had commanded.
+
+Las Casas does not seem to have felt any particular pity for the Indians
+in the beginning. Like the rest of the adventurers, he had come to seek
+his fortune in the New World, where there seemed such wonderful chances
+to grow rich. He obtained from the governor an estate of his own, took
+Indians as slaves, and sent some of them to work in the mines, though he
+did not abuse nor overwork them, as others did. For eight years he not
+only held Indians as slaves, but he was with Ovando during a second war
+against the natives in one of the provinces of Hispaniola, and saw
+terrible deeds of cruelty, yet never appears to have made a single
+protest. This seems very strange when we think of what he said and did
+against slavery a few years later, and how his whole after life was
+spent in the service of these oppressed people. His eyes, however, were
+not yet opened, and he looked at things after the fashion of his time.
+
+Ovando was a good governor, Las Casas says, "but not for Indians." He
+was a little, fair-haired man, gentle in manner, and most polite, but he
+made everybody understand that he intended to be obeyed. When any
+gentleman became troublesome, Ovando would invite him to dine with him,
+talk so pleasantly and flatteringly to his guest that he would think the
+governor must mean to do something very grand for him, and then,
+suddenly pointing down the harbor, would ask in which of the ships lying
+at anchor the gentleman would like to take passage for Spain. The poor
+man, confused and alarmed, yet afraid to protest, would very likely say
+that he had no money to pay his fare. Whereupon the very polite little
+governor would at once tell him not to let that trouble him, as he,
+Ovando, would provide the funds. And off the gentleman would have to go
+from the dinner table to the ship.
+
+But although Ovando ruled the white men well, he was neither just nor
+kind to the Indians. He gave them out in lots of fifty, or a hundred, or
+five hundred, to those who wanted them, and the poor creatures were
+worked to death and abused without mercy. When, in desperation, they
+would rise against their tyrants, they were punished savagely, being
+burned alive, torn to pieces by bloodhounds, and drowned in the ocean or
+the rivers, even helpless little children often being treated in this
+way.
+
+In 1510 four Dominican friars came over to Hispaniola and settled in San
+Domingo. The Sunday after their arrival one of them preached a sermon on
+the glories of heaven,--a discourse that Las Casas heard, and one that
+made a great impression on him. In the afternoon the Prior asked to have
+the Indians sent to the church to be taught; so they came,--men, women,
+and children; and this custom the Dominicans continued every Sunday
+afterward.
+
+Some time in this same year Las Casas was ordained priest. We should
+like to know how he came to take this step, but he tells us nothing
+about it. He threw himself into his new duties with the same energy that
+he had used in his business, and began at once to teach the Indians, as
+the Dominicans were doing. Whatever he did, all his life long, he did
+with all his might, and very soon he became famous all over the island
+for his learning and goodness.
+
+The little settlement of four Dominicans had increased by the end of the
+next year to twelve; nor had they been there many months before they
+began to have their eyes opened to the wrongs the Indians were suffering
+at the hands of the white men.
+
+A Spaniard who had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy and had been
+hiding for two or three years, repenting of his crime and tired of
+living in concealment and fear, came to the Dominicans by night and
+begged them to take him in and let him stay with them as a lay brother.
+When they were convinced that the man was truly repentant they received
+him. He told them of the dreadful cruelties of which he and others had
+been guilty toward the natives, and the good fathers soon felt that
+they must look into the matter. This they did, and were not long in
+coming to the conclusion that it was a great evil to make slaves of the
+Indians and that they must do something to put a stop to it. So they
+fasted and prayed, and conferred together, and finally decided that one
+of their number, Father Antonio Montesino, should preach a sermon on the
+subject.
+
+The week before the sermon was to be preached all the Dominicans went
+throughout the town and invited every one, from the governor down to the
+humblest citizen, to come to the church on the following Sunday, which
+was the First Sunday in Advent, to hear the sermon, which, they said,
+would be upon a new subject, interesting to all of them.
+
+Of course every one was curious to hear what would be said, and when
+Sunday came the church was crowded. There was the governor, Diego
+Columbus, in his pew, with his wife,--a grand-niece of King
+Ferdinand,--and there were the officers of the colony, all the prominent
+citizens, in fact, everybody in the town. Father Montesino preached from
+the text: I am "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."
+
+He told the congregation that they were living in mortal sin because of
+their cruelty and their tyranny over the innocent natives. He told them
+plainly that by their oppression, their cruel tortures, and the forced
+labor in the mines to which they subjected these helpless people, they
+were killing the whole race, and he declared that they had no chance of
+salvation while they continued in such sin.
+
+You may be sure that Father Montesino's hearers were both frightened and
+angry at this bold sermon. All honor to the brave man who dared to
+preach it and to the little company of his brethren who stood with him!
+It was the first voice raised in the new world against slavery.
+
+That afternoon the citizens had a meeting at the governor's house and
+appointed a committee to visit and rebuke the preacher. However, this
+accomplished nothing, as neither Father Montesino, the Prior of the
+little community, nor any of the brotherhood was at all moved by their
+threats, and all they obtained from the Dominicans was an agreement that
+Father Montesino should preach again the next Sunday and endeavor to
+please his congregation _as far as his conscience would permit_.
+
+The committee told everybody that the Father was going to retract, and
+again the next Sunday the church was crowded to hear Montesino eat his
+own words. But, instead of the humble apology that was expected, his
+auditors received a more terrible rebuke than before, Montesino
+threatening them with eternal torments if they continued to illtreat the
+Indians, or engage in the slave trade.
+
+Angry as the Spaniards were, they could do nothing, for the good
+fathers minded their blustering and threats not at all. Las Casas was
+partly in sympathy with the Dominicans, but he thought they went too
+far. He believed the Indians should be treated kindly, but saw no harm
+in slavery; for all that, however, he did not forget the sermon.
+
+The next year Diego Columbus decided to conquer the island of Cuba, and
+he appointed Diego Valasquez, one of the most respected colonists in San
+Domingo, commander of the expedition. Valasquez was a warm friend of Las
+Casas', and after a time sent for him to act as his chaplain.
+
+This war against the helpless and innocent natives was as cruel as all
+the others. They were chased and torn to pieces by bloodhounds; they
+were burned alive; their hands and feet were cut off, and those that
+were not killed were made slaves. Forced to work beyond their strength
+in the gold mines, half starved and beaten, their lives were full of
+misery, without a gleam of hope, and in despair numbers of
+them,--sometimes whole villages at a time,--committed suicide. One story
+is told that makes us smile, although it is so sad.
+
+A whole village of Indians resolved to hang themselves and so escape
+their sufferings. In some way their master learned of their intention
+and came upon them just as they stood ready to carry it out.
+
+"Go get me a rope, too," he said to them; "for I must hang myself with
+you." He told them they were so useful to him that he must go where they
+were going, so that they might still labor for him. They, believing that
+they could not free themselves from him even in the future life, sadly
+gave up their plan, and went to work again.
+
+Las Casas did all he could to protect the Indians, and soon became known
+as their friend, and won their entire trust. They called him "Behique,"
+which was the name they gave their magicians, and regarded him with awe.
+As the natives had no written language, the way in which the Spaniards
+conveyed information to one another by means of mysterious marks on
+paper seemed a kind of magic to them. When the expedition was
+approaching a town, Las Casas would send a messenger in advance,
+carrying a paper scrawled all over and hidden in a hollow reed. The
+messenger would show the paper to the Indians and tell them that the
+Christians were coming and the father wanted them to furnish so many
+huts for them to sleep in, so much food for them to eat, and so on,
+adding: "If you do not, Behique will be much displeased." So great was
+their confidence in him that they would at once obey his commands, which
+they believed the messenger had read from the paper, and in this way Las
+Casas was able to save them from the dreadful massacres that had so
+often wiped out whole villages.
+
+But one day a terrible thing occurred. Valasquez had gone away to be
+married and had appointed a Spaniard, named Pamfilo de Narvaez,
+commander in his absence. The soldiers,--about three hundred in
+number,--drew near a village called Caonao, and stopped to eat in the
+dry bed of a river, where there were a great many stones on which they
+sharpened their swords. When, at length, they entered the town some two
+thousand natives were gathered together, all sitting peacefully on the
+ground to look at the wonderful strangers and especially to see the
+horses, at which they were never tired of gazing. About five hundred
+others were busy in one of the huts, preparing food for the Spaniards,
+as Las Casas had told them to do. Suddenly one of the soldiers drew his
+sword,--why, nobody ever knew,--and began slashing right and left at the
+defenseless Indians. Instantly the others followed his example, and
+before half of the Indians had realized what was happening, the place
+was piled with dead bodies. Las Casas, who was not present at the
+moment, hearing what was going on, in a white heat of rage rushed out
+into the square to stop the slaughter; but before he succeeded in doing
+this many hundred helpless men, women, and children had been butchered.
+
+Not long after this dreadful event Valasquez returned to Cuba, and, the
+whole island being now subdued, he proceeded to found a number of towns
+and to divide the land and the Indians among the Spaniards. Las Casas
+and a dear friend of his, Pedro de Renteria, who had lived near him in
+Hispaniola, received together a whole village of Indians, and with them
+the land they had owned,--some of this land being the very best on the
+island.
+
+Renteria was a quiet, thoughtful, unworldly man, humble and plain in his
+ways, though of considerable learning. Las Casas seems to have been very
+fond of him, though he tells us but little about him.
+
+The two friends soon had a large house built, in which they lived
+happily for a year, using the enslaved Indians to cultivate the
+plantation and work the mines; for as yet neither of them had a thought
+that it was wrong to hold slaves, and believed that they were doing
+their duty to these natives by being kind to them and carefully
+instructing them in the truths of Christianity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A NEW LIFE
+
+
+Las Casas was the only priest on the island of Cuba, and at Pentecost
+(Whitsunday) he arranged to go and preach and say mass in the new town
+of Sancti Spiritus. In looking for a text, he came across some verses in
+the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, which made him stop and think
+whether after all he was right in making the Indians work for him as
+slaves. These are the verses:
+
+
+     He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is
+     ridiculous, and the gifts of unjust men are not accepted.
+
+     The Most High is not pleased with the offerings of the wicked,
+     neither is He pacified for sin by the multitude of sacrifices.
+
+     Whoso bringeth an offering of the goods of the poor doeth as one
+     that killeth the son before the father's eyes.
+
+     The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth them
+     thereof is a man of blood.
+
+     He that taketh away his neighbor's living slaveth him, and he that
+     defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder.
+
+
+As Las Casas read these verses he seemed to hear the voice of God
+speaking to his heart. He remembered Montesino's sermon, he thought of
+all the cruelties and injustices from which the gentle, helpless Indians
+suffered. At last his eyes were opened, and he saw plainly that it was
+neither right to take the lands and the property of the natives nor to
+hold them as slaves.
+
+For Bartolome Las Casas to see the right was always to do it. He
+resolved at once to give up his own Indians and to preach against
+enslaving them. He knew very well that if he did this they might, and
+probably would, fall into the hands of those who would not treat them so
+kindly, but he realized that he could not preach to others against
+slavery while he continued to possess slaves himself. Therefore he went
+at once to the governor and told him what he had resolved to do. The
+governor was very much astonished, and begged Las Casas to consider well
+what he was doing and at least to take fifteen days to think it over.
+But Las Casas refused to take even one day, saying that his mind was
+made up.
+
+Four Dominicans, who had been sent from Hispaniola to found a community,
+arrived in Cuba about this time. They and Las Casas preached constantly
+and earnestly on the sin of holding the natives in slavery; but although
+the Spaniards were frightened, they were not turned from their evil
+ways, and Las Casas resolved to go to Spain and see if he could not so
+present the matter to the King that the whole system of dividing up the
+Indians and their lands among the white men, to be their property,
+might be done away with.
+
+He wrote to his friend and partner Renteria, telling him that he was
+about to go to Spain on a very important mission, which he was sure
+would give him great joy when he heard what it was, and he asked him to
+hasten home, as otherwise he might not see him, it being necessary to
+leave at once.
+
+Renteria was in Jamaica, where he had gone to buy seed, stock and so on
+for their farm. While there he had stayed in a Franciscan convent during
+the season of Lent, and had given much time to prayer and meditation.
+For a long time he had been troubled about holding the Indians as
+slaves, but he had thought that if he and his partner were to give up
+the savages, they would only be worse off. Now, however, as he thought
+and prayed, a plan occurred to him: He would go to Spain and get
+permission to found schools, where the Indian children might be gathered
+in and taught, and thus some of them might be saved; for he saw clearly
+that if things kept on as they were, it would not be long before all the
+Indians on the islands would be destroyed.
+
+As soon as Renteria received Las Casas' letter he hurried home,
+wondering why his friend also wanted to go to Spain, and eager to tell
+him what he had in mind.
+
+Renteria was a very popular man, so when he landed, not only Las Casas
+was there to meet him but the governor and many other friends;
+therefore, it was night before the two partners had a chance to talk
+quietly together. Then each listened in astonishment to the plan of the
+other. Finally they decided that as the plan of Las Casas was the more
+important, and as he was a priest and of a noble family and could
+therefore more easily get a hearing at court, he should be the one to
+go. They sold everything that Renteria had brought from Jamaica,--even
+the farm itself being disposed of,--in order to raise money for the
+journey.
+
+Now, while the two friends had been occupied with these thoughts and
+plans, the Dominicans had been coming to the conclusion that they could
+do no good in Cuba, since they could not help the Indians and the
+Spaniards would not listen to them, and they decided to send one of
+their number with Las Casas to San Domingo,--from which port he was to
+sail for Spain,--for the purpose of asking for instructions from their
+superior, Pedro de Cordova. A young deacon went also, and all three soon
+started on their journey. The Dominican, however, was taken ill and died
+before the party reached San Domingo.
+
+Pedro de Cordova sympathized heartily with Las Casas, though warning him
+that he would meet with many difficulties; but the man who is afraid to
+undertake a thing because of the difficulties in the way is not much of
+a man, and Las Casas was only the more determined to keep on. The
+Dominicans were very poor and had never been able to finish their humble
+monastery building, so they sent Father Montesino, who had preached the
+famous sermon against slavery the year after their coming to Hispaniola,
+with Las Casas to Spain, that he might try to raise the money needed;
+and in 1515 they sailed.
+
+As soon as they arrived in Seville, Montesino introduced Las Casas to
+the good bishop of Seville, who did all he could to help him, giving him
+a letter to the King and to others of the court that might in all
+probability be interested.
+
+It would be too long a story to tell,--the chronicle of all that Las
+Casas went through in his struggles to right the wrongs of the Indians.
+
+Queen Isabella was now dead, and while he was in Spain King Ferdinand
+died also. Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand, was the heir to the throne,
+and during his minority the great Cardinal Ximenes acted as regent,
+while Charles' tutor Adrian was associated with the cardinal in the
+government. The man who had most to do with the affairs of the Indians
+was the Bishop of Burgos, Fonseca. As he himself had hundreds of slaves
+working for him in the gold mines of the islands, he was naturally not
+at all in favor of freeing them, and there were many like him who were
+striving as hard to prevent the liberation of the Indians as Las Casas
+was striving to bring it about.
+
+Among other attempts that were made to throw obstacles in the way of Las
+Casas was one that was rather amusing. Cardinal Ximenes, as they sat in
+council, ordered the old laws for the Indies to be read. The clerk who
+read them, coming to one that he knew his masters were not obeying,
+thought to shield them and hinder Las Casas by changing the wording;
+but, unfortunately for him, Las Casas knew the laws by heart, and he
+cried out:
+
+"The law says no such thing!"
+
+The clerk, being ordered to read it again, read it as before, when again
+Las Casas broke in:
+
+"The law says no such thing!"
+
+A third time the clerk was made to read it; a third time he persisted in
+his own way of wording, and a third time Las Casas interrupted by
+saying:
+
+"That law says no such thing!"
+
+The Cardinal, provoked by so many interruptions, rebuked him, when he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Your lordship may order my head to be cut off if what the clerk reads
+is what the law says."
+
+And snatching the book from the clerk, he proved that he was right. We
+cannot help thinking that if the clerk had known "the clerico," as he
+usually calls himself, a little better, he would not have dared to try
+such a trick.
+
+In spite of all obstacles, however, with the help of the Cardinal, new
+laws were finally passed for the Indies. By these laws the Spaniards
+were forbidden to divide the Indians among themselves and force them to
+work without reward.
+
+But the passing of the laws was only a part of the business. It was as
+true then as now that good laws are of little use unless there be wise
+and good men to enforce them; and the question now arose as to who
+should go out and put a stop to the evil system that had caused so much
+misery to these innocent and helpless people, and see that the new laws
+were obeyed. In those days the Church had great power over both rulers
+and people, and so it was not so strange as it would be in these days
+that the choice should have fallen on three monks of the order of St.
+Jerome. It was anything but a wise choice, however, for although these
+monks were good men, they were unused to any life but that of the
+convent, had had no experience in statesmanship and were, besides,
+rather timid of spirit. Before they sailed, the enemies of Las Casas
+filled their minds with distrust of him, and made them think that things
+in the islands were not as he had represented, so that they did not seem
+likely to do much good in their new office.
+
+However, the little company set sail at last, the three monks in one
+ship, Las Casas,--who had been given the official title of "Protector of
+the Indians," with charge and authority to look after all that concerned
+them,--in another, and Zuaco, a lawyer, appointed to help and advise
+them, followed a little later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DISAPPOINTMENTS
+
+
+"The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley." So it was in this
+case.
+
+When the Jeronimite fathers arrived in Hispaniola they failed to do what
+was expected of them. They did _something_, it is true; for they took
+from those officers of the court, who were not living in the Indies, all
+their Indian slaves and tried to give them to others who would treat
+them kindly; but they did not set them free, neither did they bring the
+judges to trial for their evil deeds.
+
+The clerico was of course very indignant with them, and we may be sure
+that he never gave them any peace, so that they must have learned to
+dread the very sight of him. He preached constantly, in the pulpit and
+on the streets, wherever he went, that the Indians must be free; and
+when Zuaco came, the two brought charges against the judges, causing
+them to be tried; but we do not know whether or not they were punished.
+Probably not.
+
+We must not be too hard upon the monks, however. It was no easy task
+they had been asked to perform. What Las Casas wanted them to do, and
+what the law required also, was to take away all the Indians from the
+Spaniards and set them free. This meant to ruin the owners, since all
+they had came through the forced labor of the natives. The monks were
+not men of the determined character necessary for such an act, nor were
+they endowed with the courage to face the storm it would have brought
+about their ears. Few men are like the clerico, who was afraid of
+nobody.
+
+Just after Las Casas reached the Indies a man named Juan Bono, a
+shipmaster, arrived there with a shipload of Indians, whom he had
+kidnaped in the island of Trinidad. He himself told the clerico how it
+was done.
+
+He had gone to the island with sixty men and told the Indians that they
+had come to live with them. The Indians received them kindly, brought
+them food, and, as Bono said himself, treated them like brothers. Bono
+told them that the white men would like a large house to live in, and
+the Indians at once went to work to build it for them. When it was
+nearly done, Bono invited all the natives to come and see it.
+
+Some four hundred of them came, all unarmed and quite unsuspecting and
+happy. When all were gathered in the house, the Spaniards surrounded it,
+and Bono told the Indians that they must give themselves up or they
+would be killed. Some of them tried to run away, some to resist, and in
+a few minutes the swords of the Spaniards had filled the place with the
+dead and dying. One hundred and eighty of them were put in chains and
+taken to the ship. About a hundred shut themselves up in another house
+and tried to defend themselves there, but the Spaniards set fire to it
+and the natives were all burned alive.
+
+This was the return Bono and his men made to the innocent, gentle
+Indians, who had been so kind to them. No wonder the heart of the
+clerico was on fire with indignation when he heard the story. He went at
+once to the three fathers and told them the dreadful tale. They
+listened, but did nothing,--as usual. Not one of the one hundred and
+eighty kidnaped Indians was set free, and neither Bono nor any of the
+judges who had sent him was punished.
+
+One day a priest came to the Protector of the Indians to tell him how
+the native laborers in the mines near San Domingo were abused. He said
+he had seen them lying in the fields, sick from overwork, covered with
+flies, and nobody cared enough to give them food or drink; but their
+owners allowed them to lie there and die in this way. Las Casas took him
+by the hand and led him to the fathers, to whom he repeated this story;
+but they only tried to excuse the cruelty of the mine owners.
+
+The heart of the clerico burned within him as he saw so much suffering
+and misery about him and could not get the three commissioners to put a
+stop to it. Something, he felt, must be done. The fathers had now been
+in the islands six months and things were no better than they had been
+before their coming; so he resolved to go again to Spain and seek a
+remedy for this state of things. When the fathers heard what he intended
+to do they were much alarmed, but as they could not stop him, they sent
+one of their number to Spain also, to speak on their behalf.
+
+For some time there had been on the island of Hispaniola a number of
+Franciscans,--or "Gray Friars," as they were sometimes called because of
+the color of their robes, just as the Dominicans were called "Black
+Friars," because they wore black and white. Both orders were sworn to
+poverty, and both did splendid missionary work in their day. The
+Franciscans had not always been in sympathy with Las Casas, but seem now
+to have been as anxious as he to have something done to set matters
+right. Some of them were well known to the Grand Chancellor, and they
+gave the clerico letters to that official, who was at once interested;
+and as Las Casas came to see more of him, the two became great friends.
+The Chancellor spoke to the King about the matter, and the King
+commanded that he and Las Casas should consult together and find a
+remedy for the evils of the Indies.
+
+The plan that they proposed was this:
+
+That colonists should be sent out at the expense of the King and be
+cared for until they should be able to manage for themselves, when they
+should begin to pay tribute to the crown. In order to supply laborers,
+Las Casas suggested that each Spaniard should have permission to import
+twelve negro slaves. This he did because the Indians died by hundreds
+from the hard labor in the mines, while he had observed that the negroes
+endured it much better. Afterward Las Casas confessed with sorrow that
+he had done wrong in this, as it was no more right to hold the negroes
+in slavery than to so treat the Indians.
+
+The Bishop of Burgos, who was, you will remember, always bent on
+opposing the clerico in everything he undertook, laughed at this plan.
+He said he had been trying for years to get men to go out to the Indies
+and could not find twenty that were willing to venture. However, Las
+Casas was not stopped by this, and set to work at once to see what he
+could do. A man named Berrio was appointed to go with him and assist
+him; but this Berrio turned out to be anything but a help, refusing to
+obey the clerico's orders, and finally leaving him, without permission.
+
+Berrio got together about two hundred vagabonds, not at all the right
+sort of people for colonists, and sent them to Seville, to be shipped
+to the Indies. Las Casas was not informed of the matter, and as no one
+had any instructions with regard to these colonists, they were sent out
+with no supplies for their necessities. When Las Casas heard of it, he
+insisted upon having provisions sent after them; but it was too late to
+benefit many of them, for numbers had died of the hardships suffered,
+and those who lived and stayed in the Indies proved a very bad addition
+to the white population.
+
+Meanwhile, the Grand Chancellor had died, and Bishop Fonseca was again
+at the head of Indian affairs, much to the clerico's grief. Fonseca
+refused to do anything at all for the colonists, and as Las Casas would
+not allow them to go under such conditions of neglect, the plan fell
+through. But no sooner was he defeated in one scheme than he immediately
+began to devise another. There was no such thing as discouraging Las
+Casas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR
+
+
+There had been for some time both Franciscan monks and Dominican fathers
+on the mainland of South America, working among the natives. Pedro de
+Cordova, the head of the Dominicans in the Indies, wrote to Las Casas at
+about this time, asking him to get the King to grant a certain territory
+on the mainland, where no white men except the Dominicans and
+Franciscans should be allowed to go; or, if he could not get it on the
+mainland, to try to secure some small nearby islands, saying that if the
+King would not do this it would be necessary to recall all the brethren
+of the Dominican order, as it was of no use for them to preach to the
+Indians when they saw all about them the Christians behaving as they
+did. Now when the clerico had spoken to Fonseca about this, the reply
+had been that there was no money in it for the King, so that Las Casas
+saw that if he was to get the grant, he must find a way to make it
+profitable to the King and his ministers.
+
+The Good Book says that "the love of money is the root of all evil,"
+and certainly Las Casas was inclined to believe this as he thought of
+what wickedness it had led the Spaniards into in the New World. No
+wonder the Indians thought that gold was the white man's god. The
+clerico tells us of a certain Indian chief, who had fled before the
+Spaniards from Hispaniola to Cuba, and who, hearing that the Christians
+were coming there also, called his people together and told them that
+the reason why the Spaniards treated them so cruelly was because they
+had a god whom they greatly loved and adored, and it was to make them
+also love and serve him that they killed and enslaved them. He had a
+basket of jewels and gold near him. Holding it up, he said that _this_
+was the god of the Christians and called upon his people to dance before
+this god and worship him, and perhaps he would not allow the Spaniards
+to harm them.
+
+Poor old chief! Driven from one hiding place to another, he was taken at
+last; and because he had tried to escape his oppressors and defend his
+people, he was condemned to be burned alive. When he was tied to the
+stake a Franciscan priest came up to him and told him that, although
+there was but little time, yet if he would believe the Christian faith
+and be baptized he would be saved. He then told him as much as he could
+of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, and, having finished,
+asked him if he would believe and go to Heaven, where he would be happy
+evermore, saying that if he did not he would go to Hell. The chief
+thought for a moment and then asked if the Christians went to Heaven.
+The priest replied that those that were good did. The chief at once
+answered that in that case he did not wish to go to Heaven, where he
+would have these cruel people again; he would go to Hell.
+
+Las Casas had learned by this time that the desire for wealth must be
+considered in any plan that he might make if he wanted it to succeed,
+and he believed he knew of a way by which he could satisfy the King and
+at the same time carry out his design of converting the Indians by
+kindness. He thought he could find fifty men who would make the
+conversion and civilization of the Indians their first object. These
+fifty were to wear white dresses, with red crosses, so that the Indians
+would know them from other Spaniards. They were to teach the natives and
+protect them from all who would harm them. Each one was to contribute a
+certain sum of money, which was to be used to pay the expenses of the
+enterprise. For themselves, they were to have a fixed amount of the
+revenue and certain privileges, and they were to be called the Knights
+of the Golden Spur. The King was to have, after the first three years, a
+tribute, which would be increased year by year for ten years, and the
+Knights were to found three settlements in five years, were to build a
+fort in each, and were to explore the country for the King. He asked
+also that those Indians that had been taken away from this part of the
+country should be sent back to their homes.
+
+The Grand Chancellor thought very well of this plan, and told the
+clerico to lay it before the Council of the Indies. Of course their
+bishop, Fonseca, was against it. The plan was not absolutely prohibited,
+however, but they delayed doing anything about it, until the clerico was
+nearly driven wild with anxiety and disappointment.
+
+It was the custom in those days to have certain of the clergy appointed
+preachers to the King. There were eight such preachers at the court of
+Spain. Las Casas thought perhaps these priests might do something to
+help, so he went to them and interested them in the scheme. They tried
+to do what they could, and even went one day before the Council of the
+Indies,--much to the astonishment of its members,--and having been given
+permission to speak, made a strong plea for the freedom of the Indies.
+But though they were listened to with courtesy, nothing came of it.
+
+For months Las Casas fought for this plan of his, which he felt would
+save at least some of the native people. They had been killed off by
+thousands on all the islands, and would soon perish on the
+mainland,--indeed, wherever the Spaniards went,--unless they could be
+made free. His enemies fought against his plan and against him, accusing
+him of everything, even of desiring to get the grant of territory for
+his own profit. Even his friends sometimes misunderstood him. One of
+them, a young lawyer, when he heard of rents to be paid to the King and
+of honors to be given to the Knights of the Golden Spur, said that this
+"scandalized" him, for it showed a desire for temporal things, which he
+had never suspected in the clerico. Las Casas, having heard of this,
+went to him one day and said:
+
+"Senor, if you were to see our Lord Jesus Christ ill-treated and
+afflicted, would you not implore with all your might that those who had
+Him in their power would give Him to you, that you might serve and
+worship Him?"
+
+"Yes," replied his friend.
+
+"Then, if they would not give Him to you, but would sell Him, would you
+redeem Him?"
+
+"Without a doubt."
+
+"Well, then, Senor, that is what I have done," replied Las Casas; "for I
+have left in the Indies Jesus Christ, our Lord, suffering stripes and
+afflictions and crucifixion, not once but thousands of times, at the
+hands of the Spaniards, who destroy and desolate these Indian nations."
+
+He then went on to tell his friend that, seeing that his opponents would
+_sell_ him the Gospel, he had offered these inducements, buying the
+right to teach the Indians to serve and love the Lord Jesus Christ.
+
+Las Casas had now spent altogether four or five years at the court of
+Spain, trying to get something done for his Indians. He had spent also
+every cent of money he possessed, and endured every kind of opposition
+and abuse; but at last the papers were signed. The grant was now
+assured, though not so much land had been given as had been asked. A
+company of laborers was ready to go out with the clerico, and money had
+been loaned him for the expenses of the undertaking. Many little
+articles, also, were presented to him, to be used as gifts to the
+natives; and away he sailed to start the new work and to find in the
+Indies, he hoped, the fifty Knights of the Golden Spur. We shall see how
+he succeeded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE PEARL COAST
+
+
+If you look on the map of South America, you will see up in the
+northeast corner the island of Trinidad, and close by, indenting the
+coast of the mainland, the Gulf of Para. Stretching west from about this
+point was what was called the Pearl Coast, and it was in this region
+that was situated the land that had been granted to Las Casas for his
+company of the Knights of the Golden Spur. Now while he was in Spain
+events had taken place in this territory that made the founding of a
+colony very difficult indeed.
+
+Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans had been trying to do missionary
+work among the natives, as we know, and both orders had monasteries
+there. For a time all went well, until a Spaniard named Ojeda, engaged
+in the pearl fishery, had come over from the island of Cubagua, seeking
+slaves.
+
+This pearl fishing was carried on by use of the Indians in a most
+heartless manner. The poor creatures were kept swimming about under
+water from early morning until sunset. When they came up with their
+nets, in which they put the oysters,--from the shells of which the
+pearls were taken,--if they stopped to rest, a man in a boat, who kept
+rowing about all day for this purpose, drove them in again with blows,
+sometimes seizing them by the hair and throwing them in. They were half
+starved, their only food being the oysters or fish and a very little
+bread. At night they were put in the stocks to prevent them from running
+away. The consequence of such treatment was that they did not live long,
+and it was necessary to supply the places of those that died with
+others. For this reason slave raids were very frequent.
+
+This Ojeda, then, came over to the mainland to get more slaves, and
+carried off a large number of the Indians. Of course this made the
+natives very angry and they resolved to kill him and the white men with
+him.
+
+Because Ojeda had stopped at the Dominican convent the natives supposed
+that the monks were his friends. And when the slave hunter came ashore
+again a few days afterward the infuriated Indians killed him and his
+men, and a week later they attacked the convent and killed the monks
+also.
+
+When the news of this revolt of the natives was heard at San Domingo,
+the officers of the colony resolved to send an expedition to avenge the
+murder of the Dominicans, and a captain, named Ocampo, was placed in
+command of it. This force started at once, and had reached Porto Rico
+when Las Casas and his laborers landed. Perhaps you can imagine how the
+clerico felt when he knew that Ocampo and his soldiers were going to the
+very country that had been granted to him for his settlement and were to
+punish the Indians there, where he had hoped to set up a sort of city of
+refuge for them. He hurried to show Ocampo his papers ordering that no
+one should go to that part of the country except Las Casas and the
+monks, and that the natives were to be in his care and not enslaved.
+
+But although the papers had the royal signature, Ocampo declared that he
+had had his orders from the officers of the colony at San Domingo, and
+that he must carry them out; that they would protect him if he was doing
+anything illegal. In vain did Las Casas storm and plead. It was all of
+no use. It seemed to him that there was nothing to be done but to go to
+San Domingo at once and get the officers to recall Ocampo. So he
+distributed his laborers by twos and threes among the citizens of Porto
+Rico, and hurried away.
+
+Nobody in San Domingo was glad to see the clerico except his friends the
+Dominicans. All others were angry with him for what he had been doing at
+the Spanish court to obtain the freedom of the Indians. They knew,
+however, that Las Casas was in great favor with the King and his
+ministers, and so they were afraid to oppose him openly or to defy the
+royal authority; but they did everything they could to delay matters.
+They said they would consider; and they considered so long that it soon
+became useless to talk about recalling Ocampo, for it was too late to
+reach him. They discovered, also, another way to prevent Las Casas from
+going on. They found a ship master, engaged in the slave trade, who was
+only too glad to help them by declaring the clerico's vessel
+unseaworthy; and he was not allowed to use it. So there he was, helpless
+and at his wits' end to know what to do.
+
+Meanwhile, Ocampo had reached the Pearl Coast, decoyed a number of the
+natives on board, and made slaves of them, hanging their chief at the
+yardarm. He also captured a great many others. Finally, by means of an
+Indian woman,--who had been taken from Cubagua to Hispaniola and could
+speak Spanish, and whom he freed for the purpose,--he made peace with
+the remaining Indians, and began to build a town.
+
+The slaves Ocampo had captured were brought to San Domingo and sold
+under the clerico's very eyes; nor could he do anything to prevent it,
+although, as he tells us himself, he "went raging."
+
+He became so angry now, however, that the authorities thought they had
+better do something to make peace with him. He declared he would go to
+Spain and tell the King how little attention they paid to the royal
+commands, and would have them all punished. They knew he was very likely
+to do just what he said and so at last they went to him with a plan
+which they hoped would pacify him. They wanted to go with him as
+partners. That is, they wished to form a company to go and settle the
+land, all of them contributing toward the expenses and all sharing in
+the profits. This was a long way from being the sort of colony Las Casas
+had meant to found; for these men did not care at all for the good of
+the Indians; all any of them wanted was to make money; but he had not
+found any men to become Knights of the Golden Spur, and unless he went
+in this way it looked as if he could not go at all, so he consented.
+
+They fitted out two ships for him, and at last he sailed, stopping at
+Porto Rico to take on his laborers. But here he had another
+disappointment: not one of them could be found. They had grown tired of
+waiting, had heard such stories of the riches to be gained by mining or
+engaging in the slave trade that they had every one gone off either
+pirating or chasing Indians or something else equally bad; and Las Casas
+had to go on without them.
+
+When at length Las Casas reached the land where he had hoped to do such
+great things for the natives, the Franciscans came joyfully to meet
+him, chanting _Te Deums_. Now, they felt, they had a friend and
+protector. They took him into their little convent,--which was only of
+wood, thatched with straw,--and into their little garden, where they had
+orange trees, vines, and melons, and there they talked together of what
+they should do.
+
+Las Casas built a large storehouse for his goods, and sent word to all
+the Indians in that part of the country that he had been sent out by the
+new King of Spain, and that he was their friend and would protect them.
+They should not be ill-treated any more. He sent presents to them to
+show that he wished to be friends with them.
+
+Ocampo and his men had had such a hard time that they were not willing
+to stay there, and all sailed away, leaving Las Casas with only a few
+servants and one or two helpers. It was not much like the way he had
+expected to begin his famous settlement. If it had not been for the
+Franciscans, he would have been lonely indeed.
+
+All might yet have gone well if it had not been for the Spaniards on the
+island of Cubagua. They had no good water on that island, and this made
+an excuse for coming to the mainland very often. They brought liquor
+with them, which made the Indians drunk and unmanageable, and they
+taught them many evil ways. This was a great perplexity to Las Casas
+and the good monks. All the good they tried to do, all their teachings
+of the Christian religion, were made of little use by the evil example
+of these wicked men. Las Casas thought that perhaps if he had a fort at
+the mouth of the river, he could mount the guns he had brought with him
+and keep the unruly people in order. So he hired a mason to build one;
+but the people on Cubagua found out what was going on and bribed the man
+to stop work and come away, leaving the fort unfinished.
+
+Things grew worse and worse, and all felt that something must be done.
+The head of the Franciscans kept urging Las Casas to go to San Domingo
+and get the officers there to help them. The clerico knew it was of no
+use at all to appeal to those men, who had already hindered him so
+greatly in his plans for the good of the Indians; therefore, for a long
+time he refused to go. Finally, however, not wishing to be obstinate, he
+agreed to do so, against his better judgment.
+
+He appointed one of his men, Francisco de Soto, to take charge in his
+absence, instructing him particularly not to let both of their boats
+leave the settlement at the same time, as, if trouble arose with the
+Indians, these boats might be their only means of escape. This man,
+either because of stupidity or rebellion, did the very thing he had been
+told not to. As soon as the clerico's back was turned he sent one boat
+off one way and the other another; and sorry enough he must have been
+for it before long, for trouble came almost at once.
+
+The pearl fishers of Cubagua had not ceased to molest the Indians, and
+it was hardly two weeks after Las Casas had sailed before the
+Franciscans detected signs of danger. The woman who had been used by
+Ocampo to make peace with the natives was still there, and the fathers
+asked her whether they were right in thinking that the Indians were
+planning to attack them. The woman, by name Maria, said "No" with her
+lips, because other Indians were near, but "Yes" with her eyes. The
+monks and the clerico's servants were very much alarmed, and a ship
+touching on that coast for some reason, they begged the captain to take
+them on board; but he refused, and they were left to their fate.
+
+In the settlement great anxiety and terror reigned. The white men tried
+to find out what day had been set for the attack, and at last heard that
+it was to take place the next day. They began to fortify the monastery
+and the storehouse, and set up twelve or fourteen guns that they had;
+but discovered that their powder was damp. We wonder how they could have
+been so careless as to allow it to be in this state, when they had known
+for some time that trouble was likely to occur. Now, however, they took
+it out to dry it in the sun, as soon as it rose. They were too late,
+however; for the Indians came upon them with a rush, and they fled for
+the monastery building. A few of the clerico's servants were killed, but
+the rest of them and the fathers reached the shelter of the monastery.
+The Indians, however, set it on fire.
+
+There was a door into the garden, at the rear, and a tall fence of cane
+hid it from the view of the Indians. The refugees ran out of this door
+into the garden and through another door out to the creek that ran
+nearby, where the monks had a boat of their own, which would hold fifty
+persons. All got in except one lay brother, who at the first alarm had
+fled and was hidden in a thicket of cane. He now appeared, high up on
+the bank, and the boatmen tried hard to reach him; but the current was
+too strong; all their exertions failed to bring the boat near enough to
+him. Seeing that all would be lost if they did not cease their attempt
+to save him, the brother signed to them not to make further effort; and
+they were obliged to leave him to his fate. Poor fellow! He was killed
+almost at once.
+
+The Indians were not long in seeing that their victims were escaping,
+and hurried after them in a much lighter boat, so that they gained on
+the fugitives with every stroke. The Spaniards were obliged to drive
+their boat to land and hide in a thicket of cactus. Only those in fear
+of death could have forced their way into such a thicket. The Indians,
+with their naked bodies, could not push through the thorns, and the
+fleeing men therefore escaped and made their way to their countrymen's
+ships, thus getting in safety to San Domingo. De Soto, however, died
+before their arrival. He had been shot with a poisoned arrow while
+running to the monastery for shelter.
+
+All this happened within two months after Las Casas' departure. He,
+meanwhile, through the ignorance of the sailors, had been carried a long
+way past San Domingo, and for all this time had been beating about with
+contrary winds, finally landing on another part of the island, whence he
+was obliged to proceed on foot.
+
+He was traveling with a party of persons also bound for San Domingo, and
+one day at noon, as they drew near the city, while they were all resting
+in the shade of the trees, some people came up with them and told them
+that the news had reached the city that the Indians of the Pearl Coast
+had killed the clerico, Bartholome Las Casas, and all his household.
+Those who were traveling with Las Casas denied this, saying that he was
+with them; and while they were disputing he awoke and heard what they
+said.
+
+Although he thought it might not be as bad as it was represented, he
+knew that something terrible must have happened to his little colony,
+and went on at once in great anxiety to find how much of the news was
+true. A short distance out some of his friends met him. Having heard
+that he was on the road, they had come to try and comfort him and to
+offer him money to start another colony. But at last the brave spirit
+gave way. He could not rally at once from such a grief, and he went,
+broken-hearted, to his friends the Dominicans, to hide his sorrows
+within the walls of their monastery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE CLOISTER
+
+
+Day after day Bartholome Las Casas sat in the garden of the Dominican
+monastery at San Domingo, sad and dejected. As he thought of his years
+of struggle and realized with bitter grief that he had nothing to show
+for it all, doubts assailed him, and he accused himself of having rashly
+undertaken work to which he had not been called. He might, indeed, have
+gone to Spain again and received help to carry out his plans; but he had
+not the courage. His heart was like water within him.
+
+Nor was he encouraged to go on by his friends the monks. They greatly
+desired to have him among their number, and urged him strongly to give
+up the fight and enter the brotherhood,--which at last he did. The
+Dominicans rejoiced greatly as did his enemies in the colonies, for they
+thought they were surely now rid of the man who had caused them so much
+trouble. And so they were,--for a time.
+
+Seven or eight years went by, and Bartholome Las Casas was seldom heard
+of outside the convent walls. He was not even allowed to preach for five
+years, but during this time of seclusion he was recovering his strength
+of body and soul for the work of the future; and though he was silent,
+he did not forget, for a part of the time he was at work on his "History
+of the Indies," in which he related the cruelties that had been
+inflicted upon the natives.
+
+At length an event occurred that brought the Protector of the Indians
+again before the public. The Franciscan monks had educated in their
+convent a young Indian chief, Enrique by name. This young man had
+married a beautiful Indian girl and he and the Indians under him had
+been assigned to a certain Spaniard, as was the custom. This Spanish
+master took from Enrique first a fine horse and then his young wife.
+When the Indian complained of this ill-usage he was severely whipped. He
+then appealed to the authorities, only to receive threats of worse
+treatment. Seeing that no help was to be got from any one, he gathered
+his Indians together in the mountains, and managed to collect a quantity
+of lances and swords and to drill his people in the use of them, so that
+they held their ground against the troops sent to subdue them.
+
+One of his old teachers from the Franciscan convent went to him to try
+and persuade him to lay down his arms; but without success. At length a
+new bishop of San Domingo was sent out, who was also president of the
+_Audiencia_, the governing body of the Indies. He had received
+instructions to subdue this rebellious chief, and after trying in vain
+to accomplish it, bethought himself of Las Casas, for whom he sent.
+
+Las Casas at once agreed to go and see what he could do, and set off
+alone into the mountains. When he had been gone several months, the
+president and council began to feel alarm for his safety; but one day
+who should appear in the streets of San Domingo but Las Casas himself,
+leading the rebellious chief by the hand. Great was the wonder and
+delight of all. He had promised Enrique that if he would submit to
+Spanish rule and pay tribute, as did all Spanish subjects, neither he
+nor his Indians should be punished, nor should they ever again be made
+slaves. This promise was faithfully kept, and Enrique was ever after a
+loyal subject.
+
+During the eight years that Las Casas had spent in the convent, many
+important events had taken place in the New World. Cortez had conquered
+Mexico, Alvarado had conquered Guatemala, Pedrarias had overrun and laid
+waste Nicaragua, and Pizarro had commenced his conquest of Peru.
+
+About 1528 Las Casas went once more to Spain, to obtain a decree from
+the King which should prevent the Indians of Peru from being enslaved.
+While there he preached several times at court, with the old fiery zeal
+and eloquence. He obtained the royal order and returned with it to
+Hispaniola. A new prior was about to be sent to the monastery of San
+Domingo, in Mexico, and with him went Las Casas, intending to go on to
+Peru, with some brothers of the order, not only to make known the royal
+commands with regard to the Indians but to found convents in that
+country. However, this turned out to be impracticable, and after a short
+stay the party returned to Nicaragua.
+
+King Charles had desired the Bishop of Nicaragua to establish
+monasteries in his diocese. The arrival of Las Casas and his two
+companions presenting the opportunity of carrying out the King's wish,
+the bishop begged them to stay with him, and they consented, and began
+at once to learn the language of the country.
+
+But Las Casas got into difficulties with the governor by stirring up a
+formidable opposition to him and preventing him from undertaking an
+expedition into the interior, which he desired to make. The clerico had
+good reason for this course, for the most outrageous cruelties had been
+practiced against the Indians in that province, and he tells us that it
+had been known to happen that when a body of four thousand Indians had
+gone with such an expedition to carry burdens, but six returned alive,
+and that often when an Indian was sick or overcome with weariness and
+want of food, and could not go on, in order to get the chain free (for
+they went chained together), his head was cut off and his body thrown
+aside, without the necessity of stopping the train.
+
+About this time the Bishop of Nicaragua died, and the Bishop of
+Guatemala urged Las Casas to come into his diocese, as he had only one
+priest to help him. The feud with the governor having become more
+violent than ever, it seemed wise to accept this invitation. Therefore,
+abandoning the convent he had established, Las Casas with all his
+brethren went into Guatemala, making their home for a time at Santiago,
+in a convent that had stood vacant for six years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE LAND OF WAR
+
+
+The first thing these four missionaries,--Las Casas, Luis Cancer, Pedro
+de Angula, and Rodrigo de Larada,--had to do was to learn the language
+of the country, which was called the Quichi. It was no easy task, for
+none of them were young,--Las Casas, their prior, being now sixty-one
+years of age. The Bishop of Guatemala, a great scholar, was their
+teacher, and day after day this little company of monks might have been
+seen, sitting with the Bishop, like boys at school, learning
+conjugations and declensions.
+
+Las Casas was also busy writing a book,--which, however, was never
+published,--in which he tried to show that the only way to convert men
+was to convince the mind by reasoning and win the heart by gentleness.
+The authorities of the province laughed at him and challenged him to try
+it, by declaring that if he succeeded in subduing any tribe by these
+methods, they would at once set free their slaves. Las Casas boldly took
+up the challenge and selected for the trial a part of the country
+called "The Land of War."[1]
+
+Alvarado had carried on a terrible war in Guatemala. Thousands of
+Indians had been killed, tortured, and made slaves. The people of the
+district where Las Casas intended to try his experiment were a hardy,
+warlike race, and their country was a land of steep mountains, deep
+ravines, and many furious mountain torrents. They had fought desperately
+for their liberty. Three times the Spaniards had attempted to conquer
+them, and each time had been driven back. They were a terror to the
+white men, and not a Spaniard dared to go near them. It was rightly
+named The Land of War. Yet it was these turbulent, unconquerable people
+whom Las Casas now declared he would Christianize and make subject to
+Spanish rule. He would take no soldiers with him and would accept no aid
+of any kind. All that he asked was that when his work should be
+accomplished, they might be left free, only paying tribute, as all
+subjects did, to the crown. To this the governor of Guatemala agreed.
+
+By this time the fathers could both write and speak the Quichi language
+well, and they went to work to compose in verse an account of the
+creation, the fall of man, the birth, life, and miracles of our Lord,
+and His death upon the cross. These verses they set to music, for the
+Indians were fond of songs.
+
+There were certain Christian Indians that traded with the people in the
+Land of War, going to them at regular intervals. The fathers chose some
+of these traders and taught them the songs. They learned very quickly,
+and also played an accompaniment on their musical instruments. When they
+were ready they started, with an assortment of all kinds of articles
+such as the Indians particularly liked,--knives, scissors, little
+looking-glasses, and so on.
+
+As they had been instructed, the four peddlers went first to a great
+native prince. His people all came flocking to buy, and when the
+business of the day was over, they took pains to win his favor by making
+him a present.
+
+After supper they took out their musical instruments and began to play
+and chant the verses they had learned. Hundreds of dusky warriors,
+attracted by the sweet strains, sat about in the moonlight and listened.
+
+Next night many more natives came, and when the song was ended, the
+chief asked to have it explained. This was just the opportunity the
+traders had been waiting for. They told the chief that they sang only
+what they had heard, and that only the _padres_ could explain the
+verses.
+
+"Who are the _padres_?" asked the chief. In answer to this question,
+they told him they were men who dressed always in white and black, wore
+their hair like a garland about the head, did not eat meat, never
+married, did not seek for gold, and sang the praises of God day and
+night.
+
+The chief was much struck by this description, especially by the fact
+that the _padres_ did not seek gold, his experience with Spaniards being
+that they loved gold above everything else in the world, and that all
+the miseries the Indians had suffered at their hands had been caused by
+their insane desire to possess it.
+
+At last, though it was a difficult matter to persuade these Indians to
+allow any Spaniard to enter their country, they decided to send the
+young brother of the chief out with the traders, and if he should find
+these _padres_ all that had been represented, he was to invite them to
+come and tell them of their religion.
+
+Great was the joy in the little convent when they saw the prince coming
+with the Indian traders. They did their best to make him welcome, and
+after a few days, when he was ready to return, Father Luis Cancer was
+sent with him.
+
+What was the good father's astonishment to find crowds of people coming
+to meet him, arches erected for him to pass under, and the roads swept
+before his feet!
+
+The Indians built a church for him at once,--made of the trunks of
+trees, roofed with palmetto leaves,--and all came, wondering and
+admiring, to see what he would do.
+
+Faithfully he taught them, until the chief accepted Christianity, with
+his own hands overthrew their idols, and was baptized and given the name
+of Don Juan. His people soon followed his example.
+
+Father Luis also visited other parts of the country, and when he
+returned, after several months, to his companions there was great
+rejoicing over the results of his labors.
+
+Las Casas himself now went into The Land of War, taking with him Father
+Pedro de Angula. Just as they reached Don Juan's town the young prince,
+his brother, came home from the neighboring district of Coban, bringing
+with him his bride, a princess of that tribe. With him were a number of
+the Coban princes. There were great festivities for many days, but in
+the midst of the rejoicing the Coban princes, angry that the
+bridegroom's family and tribe had become Christians, secretly stirred up
+some of the people to burn the church, managing carefully to conceal
+their own share in the matter. Don Juan at once rebuilt the edifice,
+however, and no other unpleasant incident occurred during the whole stay
+of the Spaniards in the country.
+
+While in The Land of War Las Casas went further north, and whenever he
+returned was always welcomed. As the people became Christian, he
+realized that in order to teach them, it would be necessary to get them
+together in towns, where many could be reached by one man. After much
+difficulty, this was accomplished and several such towns were built, Don
+Juan's town being called Rabinal.
+
+After a time Las Casas sent for Luis Cancer, who when he came brought
+with him a contract, signed by the governor, securing the practical
+independence of the Indians of The Land of War.
+
+Word now reached Las Casas that both the Bishop of Guatemala and
+Alvarado had come to Santiago, and he resolved to go down and meet them.
+He wished Don Juan to accompany him, and this the chief was quite
+willing to do, but wanted to take something like an army with him, and
+was with difficulty persuaded to have only such a retinue as would serve
+to show his rank and importance.
+
+Father Ladrada, the only monk left at the convent, on being notified
+that all these visitors were coming, built more huts, put up tents, and
+laid in a store of provisions for their entertainment. Immediately upon
+their arrival, the Bishop came to the monastery and had a long
+conversation with the prince. So much struck was he with the Indian's
+knowledge of the Christian faith, and with his dignity and intelligence,
+that he asked Alvarado to come and see him also. Although this great
+captain held the life of an Indian of no more worth than that of a dog,
+yet he was so pleased with the prince, that wanting to make him a
+present, but having nothing with him for that purpose, he took off his
+own red velvet cap and placed it upon Don Juan's head.
+
+They took their distinguished visitor about the town, having first asked
+the merchants to make their shops as attractive as possible and, if the
+prince expressed a fancy for any article, to let him have it and send
+the bill to the Bishop. Don Juan, however, preserved his Indian
+stolidity, viewing the displays with perfect gravity, and neither
+showing surprise nor expressing admiration. Only once did he remark upon
+anything that he saw. He asked about a picture of the Virgin Mary, which
+was displayed in one of the shops, and when it was offered to him
+accepted it, afterwards placing it in his chapel at Rabinal.
+
+Las Casas and Father Ladrada went back with Don Juan, intending to go
+further north into the district of Coban for the purpose of establishing
+there a permanent mission among the natives.
+
+In 1538 the Bishop of Guatemala sent for all the Dominicans, to consult
+with him about securing more workers. At this council it was decided to
+send Las Casas to Spain to plead for more Dominicans and Franciscans to
+come out. He took with him Father Ladrada and Father Luis Cancer, whose
+Indian converts were greatly grieved to part with them; but the clerico
+comforted them with the promise of a speedy return.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] "Tierra de Guerra," The Land of War, was located in the present state
+of Vera Paz, in northern Guatemala.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BISHOP OF CHIAPA
+
+
+Charles V was in Germany when the little company arrived in Madrid, but
+Las Casas found many old friends, and at once set about his business
+with his usual zeal and energy. When he was not preaching, interviewing
+officials, traveling, or busy in some way about matters concerning his
+beloved Indians, he was writing a book, "The Destruction of the Indies,"
+which, however, was not published until twelve years afterward.
+
+The clerico's old opponent, Bishop Fonseca, was dead, and there was now
+a much better spirit in the council, so that it proved easier than ever
+before for him to secure the legislation he desired. The Pope had also
+recently issued a Bull forbidding all good Catholic subjects to make
+slaves of the Indians, and this was a great help to Las Casas. Some new
+laws were passed for their benefit, among them one that forbade any lay
+Spaniards to enter The Land of War for five years. This royal order was
+solemnly proclaimed, at Las Casas' request, from the steps of the
+cathedral of Seville.
+
+And now, his business being finished and the Franciscan and Dominican
+monks he had procured for Guatemala being ready to sail, Las Casas
+prepared to start back to the New World; but at the last moment he was
+detained by the president of the Council of the Indies, who needed the
+clerico's advice. The Dominicans were kept back with him, as he was
+their vicar-general, but the Franciscans went, and with them Father Luis
+Cancer, taking with him a copy of the new laws. These laws were a great
+triumph for Las Casas, and their acceptance was due to his wonderful
+personal influence.
+
+The clerico was now seventy years old. He had crossed the ocean twelve
+times. Four times he had gone to Germany to see the Emperor, and we must
+remember that traveling then was a much more difficult and unpleasant
+experience than anything we can conceive of now. In his case poverty
+made it still more of a hardship. But none of these things mattered to
+this earnest "apostle" if only he could lighten the hard lot of those
+for whom he labored and suffered.
+
+One Sunday evening, while he was in Barcelona, the Emperor's secretary
+called on him to tell him that it was the royal wish to make him Bishop
+of Cuzco, the largest and richest of all the dioceses in the New World.
+But Las Casas would accept no reward for his work, and for fear he
+should be urged, he left Barcelona. Not long after, however, the
+diocese of Chiapa[2] was established, and the bishop appointed to it
+having died on his way out, this bishopric was offered to Las Casas. In
+contrast with the bishopric of Cuzco, it was the _poorest_ in the New
+World,--so poor indeed that the Emperor had to help out the salary of
+the bishop with a royal grant. Such a field, however, appealed far more
+to the Protector of the Indians than the former one, and he accepted the
+offer and was consecrated in Seville on the 8th of March, 1544, and at
+once prepared to leave, taking with him forty-four Dominicans. The
+voyage proved to be a very trying and dangerous one, but at length the
+holy men arrived at San Domingo. The Dominicans came to meet the Bishop
+and his companions and escorted them to the monastery, and the _Te Deum_
+was sung in the church, in thanksgiving for their escape from so many
+perils.
+
+Hardly any in San Domingo, except the Dominicans, were glad to see the
+protector of the Indians. The new laws were regarded as the ruin of the
+colonies. Indignation meetings were held, and it was determined to
+boycott the monks. This was a very serious calamity to the Dominicans,
+for as they, like the Franciscans, belonged to what were known as the
+mendicant orders, and depended for their daily bread upon what they
+could beg, they were reduced to extremity.
+
+Prayer was offered in the church night and day, and very soon the
+Franciscans began secretly to send the Dominicans food from what they
+themselves received, and an old negro woman offered to make a round
+every day of the houses where there were people that did not share the
+evil spirit of the rest of the town, and so their necessity was
+relieved.
+
+In spite of this condition of things, Las Casas went before the
+_Audiencia_, and in the name of the King, summoned them to set free the
+Indians. But Spanish subjects had a right to protest against any new
+laws if they so desired, and when this was done, the laws were not
+enforced until the protest had been either accepted or rejected.
+
+Meanwhile, Las Casas himself wrote to the Emperor, and both he and
+others of the Dominicans preached constantly against slavery and the
+wrongs done the Indians. Naturally, these sermons increased the hatred
+against them. In the midst of these troubles, however, the friars were
+astonished and delighted to receive a visit one day from a rich widow,
+said to be the richest person in the colony, who came to tell them that
+their sermons had convinced her that it was a sin to hold the Indians in
+bondage, and she had resolved to free hers (she had more than two
+hundred); and because she now felt that her money had been made wrongly,
+she was about to make over her plantation to the order. This caused a
+great sensation in the town. Then, too, seeing the Dominicans holding to
+their convictions, directly against their own interests, after a time
+made many people rather ashamed of themselves, and little by little the
+hostility died away, so that when the time came for Las Casas and his
+monks to leave, some of the Spaniards even expressed regret.
+
+They sailed early in December, and this voyage also proved a trying one.
+It was very stormy, and their pilot turned out to be so ignorant that
+the Bishop himself had to take the wheel; for this truly wonderful man
+could sail a ship, work a plantation, write books, plead a case in
+court, perform the duties of a bishop, and at the same time fight
+unceasingly for the oppressed.
+
+The returning Dominicans had a terrible trip, and it was January before
+they landed at the port of Lazaro, in his own diocese. The Spaniards and
+the Christian Indians came out at once to the ship to greet the Bishop.
+It must have been a queer crowd: Proud, stately Spaniards, in velvets
+and laces; blanketed Indians, silent and stolid; naked heathens, eager
+to see the man whom they knew as their protector! But Las Casas was glad
+to see them all, and leaving the ship, they all went up together to the
+church, where after the service the Spaniards came to kiss the episcopal
+ring, and after them the Indians.
+
+At first the Bishop was received with politeness and apparent kindness,
+but in spite of this all the Spaniards were resolved to resist the new
+laws and not to acknowledge Las Casas as their Bishop nor pay him their
+tithes. This was very awkward, for Las Casas found himself thus unable
+to pay the captain of the ship in which he and the monks had come, but
+the friars sold a part of the goods they had brought with them, the
+parish priest loaned the Bishop some money, and he gave his note for the
+rest. So that difficulty was settled.
+
+Their troubles had only begun, however. It was not a great distance to
+Ciudad Real, where they wished to go, but it was impossible to carry
+their provisions and the equipment for the church by land, so they
+loaded their baggage on an old, flat-bottomed boat, to go by sea; and
+twelve of the fathers, with a number of others, went in it. Two days
+later the Bishop and the rest were ready to sail on a faster boat; but
+just as they were about to embark, word came that the other boat had
+been wrecked and nine of the fathers and twenty-seven laymen drowned.
+Those who had been saved were staying in an Indian village near the
+shore, and everything they possessed had been lost.
+
+The remaining monks were so alarmed that at first they refused to go by
+sea, but Las Casas finally persuaded them that, as the skies were clear
+and their boat a strong, new one, they were in no danger, and the party
+set out. It was a very sad and downcast little body of men, however. All
+one night and day they sat, without eating or speaking. When they
+reached the place where the other boat had been wrecked, the captain
+pointed out the spot, and the Bishop recited the prayers for the dead.
+Then he ordered food to be prepared, called them all to come to the
+table, and set the example by himself eating and talking cheerfully all
+the time, until his companions' courage was restored.
+
+A gale coming up, the party took refuge behind an island, where they lay
+for a long time before they could go on; and then, because some of them
+were still afraid, they divided into two bodies,--the Bishop, his
+faithful friend and constant companion, Father Ladrada, and two other
+monks, remaining on the boat, and the rest proceeding by land.
+
+The town of Chiapa was the Indian town of the diocese; Ciudad Real, the
+Spanish town. It was to the latter that the Bishop went first. The
+people received him cordially and showed him every outward form of
+respect. He found but few priests in the whole diocese, four of them in
+and about Ciudad Real. Of these, one was quite young and had no
+particular charge, one traveled about from one town to another,
+baptizing the Indians for the money it brought him; one was a partner in
+a sugar plantation and spent more time attending to this business than
+to his clerical duties, and another collected from the owners of
+plantations and slaves taxes and tribute paid to the crown. The Bishop
+took all these into his house, to keep them in order, paying them a
+small salary and giving them their meals at his own table.
+
+Las Casas' manner of living as a bishop was no different from that which
+he had practiced as a simple monk. His habit was rusty and patched and
+he ate no meat, though it was provided for his guests: his forks and
+spoons were of wood, and the dishes of plain earthenware. This simple
+mode of life did not suit the priests, and two of them left his diocese.
+
+All day Las Casas attended to the work of the diocese, and late into the
+night he studied and wrote. At all times the Indians had free access to
+him, coming to him with all their sorrows. Every day they would crowd
+about him, their faces swollen with weeping and, kissing the hem of his
+robe, would pour out to him the story of the cruelties from which they
+suffered. The good Bishop suffered with them and often would be heard in
+the night, sighing and groaning in his room.
+
+Las Casas preached constantly against the enslaving of the Indians, and
+rebuked the holders of slaves for their disregard of the new laws. He
+ordered his clergy to refuse absolution and the sacraments to those who
+would not obey, which order aroused the anger of the whole community
+against him. His Dean disobeyed him and sided with the colonists. He was
+petitioned, threatened, and abused. The children were taught couplets
+against him, which they sang after him in the street. Some one even
+discharged a gun into the window of his room one night, to frighten him.
+All support was withdrawn from the Dominicans, and the Bishop's salary
+was not paid.
+
+Finally the Bishop arrested the Dean. In those days, when the Roman
+Church was so powerful, bishops had a kind of episcopal marshal, and
+usually there was also an episcopal jail, where ecclesiastical offenders
+were confined. This arrest of the Dean stirred up a great commotion. A
+crowd of people gathered around him, and he made a frantic effort to
+escape, crying out:
+
+"Help me! Gentlemen, help me!"
+
+And he voiced all sorts of promises, if they would assist him. The
+citizens being armed, in a few minutes the Dean was free; whereupon
+sentinels were set at all the doors of the monastery, to prevent the
+monks from going to the assistance of their Bishop, and a shouting mob
+forced its way into his house.
+
+One of the Dominicans and a knight of Salamanca, who chanced to be
+there, met the riotous crowd and managed to quiet the tumult a little;
+but the leaders burst into the Bishop's room, shouting at him, insulting
+him, and even threatening to kill him.
+
+Las Casas spoke not a word, but stood calmly looking at them until the
+storm had spent itself, when quietly, with words of pity and
+forgiveness, he dismissed them.
+
+He now excommunicated the Dean. The monks were greatly alarmed for the
+Bishop's life and begged him to leave and go to some place of safety,
+but he said to them:
+
+"Fathers, where would you have me go! Where shall I be safe as long as I
+act in behalf of these poor creatures? Were the cause mine, I would drop
+it with pleasure, but it is that of my flock, of these miserable
+Indians, oppressed by unjust slavery."
+
+While they were talking, four other Dominicans rushed in to tell the
+Bishop that the man who had threatened to kill him,--the one that had
+fired the shot to frighten him,--had been stabbed. At once Las Casas
+rose, and sending for a surgeon and taking some of the brothers with
+him, went to minister to the injured man. For hours they worked over
+him, the Bishop ministering to him as to a brother; and so touched was
+the man that he begged Las Casas' forgiveness with all his heart, and
+was from that day one of the clerico's warmest friends.
+
+The Bishop's salary was now refused him, all alms withdrawn from the
+Dominicans, and when Indians were sent out into the province to beg for
+them, the Spaniards seized whatever was brought in, and gave the bearers
+a sound beating into the bargain, so that it was impossible to obtain
+food in this way.
+
+It now became absolutely impossible for the monks to live any longer in
+Ciudad Real, and it was decided to go to the Indian town of Chiapa and
+build a convent there; but before leaving the Bishop preached a sermon
+in which the people were told plainly that it was because of the
+hardness of their hearts and their sin in persisting to keep the Indians
+as slaves, after the Dominicans had shown them the evil of it, that the
+friars were going away.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] Chiapa, the diocese of Las Casas, is now the Mexican State of
+Chiapas, the southernmost State of Mexico, bordering on the present
+Republic of Guatemala.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+REVOLT IN CHIAPA
+
+
+The Bishop and the monks now departed from the Spanish town and took up
+their residence in Chiapa. Some distance outside the town they found a
+number of Indians waiting for them, gayly dressed, decorated with golden
+chains and bracelets, and carrying crosses made of feathers and flowers.
+As soon as Las Casas was conducted to the house made ready for him, the
+Indians began to come in from all the country round, begging to be
+taught the Christian religion. Joy filled the heart of the good Bishop.
+Such a scene made up for all the torments and insults he had suffered at
+the hands of his own countrymen.
+
+Happy as he was, however, at this readiness on the natives' part to
+accept the gospel message, the tales of suffering they poured into his
+ears wrung his heart. All over the province women were stolen, property
+taken away, and the helpless Indians bought and sold like
+cattle,--overworked, beaten and starved, until they died and so, at
+last, found peace.
+
+The Bishop could not get the new laws enforced. No attention was paid
+either to his entreaties or his threats, so at length,--in June,
+1545,--he determined to go to Gracias a Dios, and present the matter to
+the council governing the country, demanding that they compel obedience
+to the royal mandate.
+
+He took the road through Guatemala, in order to visit again "The Land of
+War," now a land of peace. It was a wonderful encouragement to him to
+find the Indians living peaceful, orderly, Christian lives, unmolested
+and happy. Great numbers of them came to greet him with tears of joy,
+and if he had needed any proof of the wisdom of his method of
+Christianizing the Indians, he found it in the transformation that had
+taken place all through the district.
+
+To all who came, Las Casas spoke in their own language, giving to them
+the royal command, signed by the Emperor, that they should never be
+anything but a free people.
+
+The Bishop of Guatemala went with Las Casas to visit The Land of War,
+and had intended to go with him to Gracias a Dios, where they were both
+to assist in the consecration of a new bishop of Nicaragua. Learning,
+however, that the Protector of the Indians was going principally to
+insist upon the enforcement of the new laws, and that a letter had been
+written to Prince Philip, heir to the throne, informing him that he, the
+Bishop of Guatemala, had many slaves and did not uphold these laws
+either in practice or in teaching, he turned back and returned to his
+own diocese, and from a warm friend he became one of the Bishop's
+enemies.
+
+The journey to Gracias a Dios was a difficult and dangerous one at that
+season of the year. All such journeys were of course made on foot, and
+the streams that had to be crossed were swollen and turbulent from the
+violent rains, which had also in some cases destroyed the roads; but we
+never hear that Las Casas in all his life ever once gave up or delayed a
+trip either because of ill health or dangers in the way. Now, at
+seventy-one, he had all the endurance and energy of youth.
+
+Immediately upon his arrival he went before the council, but met with
+nothing but insults. One day as he came in, an officer cried out:
+
+"Put out that fool!"
+
+On another occasion, having been commanded to withdraw, Las Casas
+refused to do so, and the president ordered him to be removed by force.
+The Bishop solemnly summoned the judges, in the name of God, to relieve
+the Indians from oppression and remove the stumbling blocks their
+tyranny was putting in the way of Christianizing them. At this the chief
+justice lost his temper and shouted:
+
+"You are a bad man, a cheat, a bad bishop, a shameful fellow, and
+deserve to be punished!"
+
+Such language used by a Spanish official toward a bishop in those days,
+when the Roman Catholic Church had so great an influence upon the
+nation, startled even those most hostile to Las Casas. The chief justice
+found himself regarded by the whole community as practically
+excommunicated because of this rash speech, and was obliged to make a
+sort of half-hearted apology for having so spoken.
+
+Las Casas was not only a Bishop but, by training and experience at the
+court of Spain, one of the foremost lawyers of his time; and now, seeing
+that he could obtain nothing from the judges by peaceful means, he
+instituted legal proceedings against them. This accomplished some good,
+for an auditor was sent by them to Ciudad Real, to see to the
+enforcement of the new laws, and the inhabitants of that place were
+notified of his coming by letter.
+
+When the notice was received, at once the tocsin was rung, and when all
+the citizens were gathered together, a protest was read, stating that
+the Bishop had taken possession of his see without showing the papal
+bulls or the royal decree authorizing him to do so, and declaring that
+he must cease his innovations and do as other bishops did, if he wanted
+them to pay their tithes and receive him as their bishop.
+
+The inhabitants stationed a body of Indians on the road by which he was
+to come, to give notice of the approach of Las Casas, and determined to
+prevent his entrance into the city by force.
+
+The Bishop had sent on his baggage by Indian couriers, but, receiving
+word of the hostile attitude of the citizens, he recalled them, and
+stopped at the Dominican monastery in the town of Copanabasta, to
+consult with the brethren there.
+
+Meanwhile, a lay brother and a gentleman of the town, who was friendly
+to the Bishop, had gone to his house and removed his books and household
+goods to a place of safety. The people hearing of this, a mob attacked
+them at midnight; but they took refuge in the sacristy of the church,
+where they could not be reached, and at daybreak escaped and got out of
+the town.
+
+News of all this was brought to the Bishop, and the Dominicans advised
+him not to go on, but he said:
+
+"If I do not go to Ciudad Real, I banish myself from my own church, and
+it will be said of me with reason, 'The wicked flee when no man
+pursueth.'"
+
+He added:
+
+"The minds of men change from hour to hour. Is it possible that the
+mercy of God will permit them to commit so horrible a crime as to murder
+me? If I do not endeavor to enter my church, how can I complain to the
+Emperor or the Pope that I have been thrust out of it?"
+
+And he finished by saying:
+
+"My good fathers, trusting in the mercy of God and your fervent prayers,
+I am resolved to proceed on my journey, as no other alternative is left,
+without my neglecting my duty."
+
+Then, gathering up the folds of his habit, he set out, calm in the midst
+of the tears and prayers of those about him.
+
+It was sunset when Las Casas started and late at night when he came upon
+the Indian sentinels. The report had gone out that the Bishop had given
+up the attempt to enter the town, and the Indians were therefore off
+their guard and had fallen asleep. Wakened suddenly by the approach of
+the Bishop, they fell at his feet when he said gently to them:
+
+"Are you ready to destroy your father?"
+
+Distressed at their position, and overjoyed to see him again, the poor
+creatures knelt before him, begging his forgiveness and pouring out with
+tears their love for him.
+
+Las Casas was afraid that the Indians would be punished for failing to
+give notice of his arrival, so, with his own hands he, assisted by one
+of the fathers, bound them, that it might appear that he had surprised
+and captured them.
+
+That night there was an earthquake at Ciudad Real, and the citizens said
+it was because of the Bishop, and that it was only the beginning of the
+destruction he would bring upon the town.
+
+Entering Ciudad Real about daybreak, Las Casas went immediately to the
+church and summoned the council to meet him there. They came, followed
+by all the rest of the citizens, and seated themselves. When the Bishop
+came in to speak to them, no one rose or showed him any of the usual
+marks of respect. The notary at once stood up and read the paper the
+citizens had prepared at the town meeting. The Bishop answered this
+quietly and courteously, saying that he had no intention of interfering
+with their property except to prevent sin against God and their
+neighbor. His gentleness was beginning to make some impression, when one
+of the council, neither rising nor removing his cap, commenced a violent
+speech, declaring that the Bishop was but a private individual, and if
+he wished to speak to them, should have gone to them and not have
+presumed to summon them to come to him.
+
+Las Casas replied with great dignity:
+
+"Look you, sir; when I wish to ask anything from your estates, I will go
+to your house and speak to you, but when I have to speak to you
+concerning God's service and the good of your souls, it is for me to
+send and call you to come wherever I may be, and if you are Christians
+you have to come trooping in haste, lest evil fall upon you."
+
+Nobody dared answer this, and the Bishop, rising, immediately withdrew
+into the sacristy.
+
+There the notary of the council came to him and respectfully presented a
+petition from the townspeople, asking that they have confessors
+appointed. The Bishop assented and named two; but these not being
+acceptable, he chose two others, whose views were not very well known to
+the people, but whom he knew to be in sympathy with himself. The brother
+who was with him, not understanding the character of the men he had last
+appointed and thinking he was yielding to pressure, took hold of his
+vestments and cried:
+
+"Let your lordship rather die than do this!"
+
+At that a tumult broke out in the church, and the people would have
+assaulted the speaker, if at that moment two monks of the Order of Mercy
+had not entered the building and succeeded in getting the Bishop and the
+offending father out in safety,--taking them to their convent.
+
+Las Casas had walked all night, and the fatigue of the journey and the
+excitement of this meeting had left him much exhausted, but he was not
+yet to have rest.
+
+He was seated in his cell, and the monks were giving him some
+refreshment, when a fearful uproar was heard outside, and the convent
+was found to be surrounded by armed men. Some of them forced their way
+into the Bishop's presence. At first there was such a noise that it was
+impossible to hear what it was all about, but at last it appeared that
+it was because the Indian sentinels had been bound and treated as
+prisoners.
+
+Las Casas at once said that he alone was to blame for this, and
+explained that it was done for fear they should be suspected of favoring
+him.
+
+Then a storm of abuse broke out against the Bishop, no feeling of
+respect for his office nor of consideration for his age restraining
+them.
+
+Meanwhile, while this was going on within, a scene of violence was
+taking place in the courtyard. The mob attacked the negro who attended
+the Bishop in all his travels. This negro was of great stature and the
+Bishop in jest called him Juanillo (Little John). He had traveled three
+times across the continent with the Bishop, and always carried him in
+his arms when fording the swollen streams. Juanillo was wounded with a
+pike thrust and stretched on the ground. The monks rushed out to help
+him and two of them,--very strong young men,--succeeded in clearing the
+courtyard.
+
+All this took place before nine o'clock in the morning. By noon there
+was a revulsion of feeling,--the minds of the citizens had entirely
+changed. The members of the council came humbly to the convent, asked
+the Bishop's pardon on their knees, and kissed his hands. They then
+carried him in festive procession to the house of one of the principal
+citizens, and sent him costly presents. Finally, they arranged a grand
+tournament in his honor.
+
+It is doubtful if this sudden change in their treatment of him was
+especially gratifying to the Bishop, as it indicated fickleness and lack
+of depth in the people he had come to rule. Indeed neither he nor the
+monks had been in any way misled by this demonstration as to what was
+likely to happen in the future. While the peace lasted his adherents
+made haste to send plenty of provisions to the Bishop's house, lest he
+be starved out when it was over.
+
+Las Casas was now about to go to Mexico, to attend a meeting of all the
+bishops in the New World, who were to confer concerning all questions
+concerning the Indians. While he was making his preparations, Juan
+Rogel,--the auditor appointed by the council at Gracias a Dios to see to
+the enforcement of the new laws,--arrived. He listened respectfully to
+all the Bishop had to say, and then advised him to hasten his departure.
+
+"For," said he, "one of the reasons that has made these laws hateful in
+the Indies, is the fact that you have had a hand in them."
+
+And Rogel went on to explain that he would be able to act with much more
+freedom in his absence.
+
+Las Casas recognized the truth of this, and made all haste to get away.
+He left his diocese just a year after he had entered it.
+
+Although the news had not yet reached him, the Emperor had been obliged
+practically to revoke the new laws, because of the tumults and
+rebellions they had caused in his American possessions. We can imagine
+the Bishop's grief and dismay when he heard of this.
+
+On arriving at the city of Mexico, where the episcopal council was to be
+held, there was such a tumult that one would have thought a hostile army
+was about to take possession of the place instead of one poor missionary
+bishop and four humble monks approaching the walls on foot. The
+authorities were obliged to write and ask Las Casas to delay his
+entrance a little, until they could quiet popular excitement.
+
+The Bishop at length came into the city about ten o'clock one morning,
+and went at once to the Dominican monastery.
+
+The synod or council that Las Casas had come to attend was composed of
+five or six bishops and the chief theologians and learned men of the
+colony. Las Casas soon became its leading spirit. Some very bold
+declarations were made in favor of the Indians, but the question of
+slavery was very unwillingly touched upon. However, the Viceroy, who was
+president of the meeting, finally appointed a special council to meet
+and discuss this matter. The result of the deliberations of both bodies
+on the subject was that all Indian slaves, except a few renegade
+rebels, had been enslaved unjustly, and that all personal service
+imposed upon those that were not slaves was unlawful.
+
+Of course these conclusions could not be forced upon the country; but
+copies of them were distributed all over the province, in the hope that
+they might have an effect upon the minds of men.
+
+Las Casas had now fully decided that he could do more for the Indians in
+Spain than in his diocese, especially as he could be kept constantly
+informed by the Dominicans as to what was going on. He therefore
+appointed a Vicar-General to take his place, and sailed from Vera Cruz
+in 1547, leaving the shores of America for the last time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AT COURT
+
+
+Father Luis Cancer and Father Ladrada were both with Las Casas in Spain.
+One of the first things Las Casas did, with the approval of the Prince,
+was to organize a missionary expedition to Florida, with Father Luis
+Cancer at the head of it. There this faithful friend and devoted
+missionary soon after met his death at the hands of the Indians.
+
+While in Chiapa the Bishop had written a little book of instructions to
+his clergy. Formal objection to its teachings was laid before the
+Council of the Indies, and its author was summoned to come before that
+body and explain himself. This he did to their entire satisfaction,
+though not to that of his enemies, who engaged the most famous
+theologian and lawyer in Spain, Juan Gines Sepulveda, to dispute the
+position of Las Casas and answer his arguments. Sepulveda had written a
+treatise upholding the conquest of the New World by war. The Council of
+the Indies would not allow this book to be published, but Las Casas had
+asked them to allow it to be submitted to the universities of Salamanca
+and Alcala for their opinion. This opinion proved to be against it.
+
+Las Casas now undertook to answer Sepulveda's arguments and defend the
+freedom of his Indians. The war of words waxed fast and furious, and the
+controversy attracted so much attention that the Emperor ordered the
+India Council to assemble at Valladolid, to decide whether a war of
+conquest might justly be carried on against the Indians. The Emperor
+himself presided, and Las Casas and Sepulveda argued the question before
+them all. It appears to have been a drawn battle; but at length the
+Council decided in favor of Sepulveda. The Emperor and the officials of
+the government, however, must have been of another opinion, for
+Sepulveda's book was suppressed. At the time of this controversy Las
+Casas was seventy-six years old.
+
+Soon after this Las Casas resigned his bishopric and the Emperor granted
+him a pension. He made his home in the Dominican college of St. Gregory,
+at Valladolid, where his old friend Father Ladrada was with him.
+
+And now, after having labored for the Indians for so many years,
+crossing and recrossing the ocean, traveling over hundreds of miles of
+wild country on foot, like St. Paul, "in perils of waters, in perils of
+robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in
+perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,"
+he might be seen, day after day and night after night, sitting at his
+desk, writing letters, memorials, and pamphlets in defense of his
+beloved Indians. He kept up a constant correspondence with all parts of
+the New World, and when he heard of any new outrage on the part of the
+Spaniards against the natives, he at once brought it to the attention of
+Prince Philip, now regent of the kingdom.
+
+At the end of the year 1551 a number of Dominicans and Franciscans
+having been induced through his appeals to go out to the Indies, Las
+Casas went to Seville to see them off. For some reason they were delayed
+there for ten months, and during that time he was kept busy editing a
+number of his works, keeping two printing-presses going all the time.
+
+Las Casas must have had a wonderful constitution. His hard life in a
+tropical country had neither weakened his body nor impaired his mind.
+All his time from the day of his return to Spain to the time of his
+death was spent in defense of the Indians; and through his untiring
+efforts their condition was much improved in Mexico and elsewhere.
+
+Laws had already been passed which allowed the _encomiendas_, as the
+grants of land and Indians in Spanish America were called, to be held in
+a family only during two lifetimes. They then reverted to the crown.
+Thus the Indians were being gradually emancipated. There were also
+officers appointed to protect the interests of the crown in the
+reversion, so that it was no longer possible to repeat the horrors of
+Hispaniola.
+
+When Las Casas heard that the proposal had been made to allow the
+holders of _encomiendas_ to get possession of them in perpetuity, he
+went at once to the King and succeeded in preventing it. As Fiske says:
+
+
+     "It is worth remembering that pretty much the only praiseworthy
+     thing Philip ever did was done under Las Casas' influence."
+
+
+The activity of Las Casas was marvelous. His longest work was his
+"History of the Indies." At the age of ninety he wrote a "Memorial on
+Peru," said to be one of his best, and two years later, in 1566, he went
+to Madrid to speak in person for the Indians of Guatemala. He had heard
+through the Dominicans that that province had been deprived of its
+governing body, so that the Indians had no chance of justice, having to
+go to Mexico if they wished to make any appeal. He was successful in
+this mission, and the _Audiencia_ was restored to Guatemala.
+
+This was the last work of Las Casas. In July of that year, while still
+in Madrid, he was taken ill and died after a short illness, at the age
+of ninety-two.
+
+As he lay dying, his brethren, the Dominicans, kneeling about the bed
+and reciting the prayers for the dying, he begged them to persevere in
+their defense of the Indians, and asked them to join him in prayer that
+he might be forgiven any remissness on his part in the fulfillment of
+his mission. He was beginning to tell them how he came to enter upon
+this work when his spirit departed.
+
+Thousands of people attended the funeral of Las Casas. He was buried in
+Madrid, in the convent chapel of "Our Lady of Atocha."
+
+
+In early American history there is no one who stands on a level with
+this remarkable man. Many bitter enemies he had, it is true; such a
+man,--fearless, outspoken, able, never to be silenced when he was
+convinced of the righteousness of his cause,--was bound to have. Never
+during the many years of his long life, did the Indians lack a friend to
+plead in their behalf. Amid the cupidity, cruelty, and injustice of the
+Spaniards in the New World his character shines like a star in the
+darkness of night. We can't do better in closing than to quote the words
+in which Fiske speaks of him:
+
+
+     "In contemplating such a life as that of Las Casas, all words of
+     eulogy seem weak and frivolous. The historian can only bow in
+     reverent awe before a figure which is, in some respects, the most
+     beautiful and sublime in the annals of Christianity since the
+     Apostolic age. When now and then in the course of the centuries
+     God's providence brings such a life into the world, the memory of
+     it must be cherished by mankind as one of its most precious and
+     sacred possessions. For the thoughts, the words, the deeds, of such
+     a man there is no death. The sphere of their influence goes on
+     widening forever. They bud, they blossom, they bear fruit, from age
+     to age."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Las Casas, by Alice J. Knight
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