"The cleric Las Casas first gave this opinion that license should be granted to bring negro slaves to these countries [the Indies] without realising with what injustice the Portuguese captured and enslaved them, and afterwards, not for everything in the world would he have offered it, for he always held that they were made slaves by injustice and tyranny, the same reasoning applying to them as to the Indians."

Fuller and more mature consideration of the entire question of slavery in all its aspects, of the right of one man or of nations to hold property in the flesh and blood of their fellow-men, conducted Las Casas directly to the necessary and generous conviction that the whole system must be everywhere condemned; for again in Chapter 128 he says of this advice which the cleric gave,

"that he very shortly after repented, judging himself guilty of inadvertence; and as he saw—which will be later perceived—that the captivity of the negroes was quite as unjust as that of the Indians, the remedy he had counselled, that negroes should be brought so that the Indians might be freed, was no better, even though he believed they had been rightfully procured; although he was not positive that his ignorance in this matter and his good intention would exculpate him before the divine justice."

As has been noted, the transfer of his monopoly by the Governor of Bressa to Genoese merchants, instead of increasing the exportation of negroes to America, resulted in almost stopping the nefarious trade, hence no considerable amount of mischief is traceable to the adoption of Las Casas's suggestion, which was only one of many enumerated in his scheme. Had the project as he framed it been accepted in its entirety and loyally carried out, no increased injustice would have been done to the negroes, for it was the frightful mortality amongst the cruelly driven Indians that rapidly reduced the numbers of labourers and made gaps which could only be filled by the importation of others from elsewhere. Under a more humane system, the Indians might still have laboured, but not in excess of their powers; their lives would not have been sacrificed or rendered unendurable, while the colonists would have become rich less rapidly; there would have been no shortage of workmen and little need for the importation of Africans at a high price, even though one negro did the work of four Indians, according to the popular estimate. While many admirable suggestions of Las Casas were rejected, this blamable one concerning the permission to import negroes was accepted, and thus by a singular irony of fate, this good man, whose whole life was a self-sacrificing apostolate in favour of freedom, actually came to be aspersed as a promoter of slavery.

The controversy on this passage in the life of Las Casas has been touched upon here because it furnished at one time material for much discussion, (34) but the light of historical research has long since dispersed the artificial clouds which misrepresentation caused to gather about the fame of the Protector of the Indians, and there now neither is, nor can be, any doubt concerning the sentiments and intentions of one whose noble figure is too clearly defined on the horizon of history ever again to be blurred or obscured.

Another part of the plan for colonisation on the moral basis of benefiting the Indians as well as the Spaniards, was the foundation of fortified places at intervals along the coast of the territory to be granted. In each of these settlements, some thirty men should be stationed with a provision of various articles, such as the Indians prized, for trading purposes; also several missionary priests, whose occupation would be teaching and converting the Indians. It was maintained that by kind treatment the Indians could be attracted to the Spaniards and thus, little by little, become civilised, profitable, and voluntary subjects of the King.

Unfortunately for the prosperous development of these benevolent projects, the mischievous Bishop of Burgos and his brother, who, since the latter part of Cardinal Ximenez's regency, had been excluded from active participation in Indian affairs, began once more to exercise an influence, partly, perhaps because long experience had equipped them with a practical knowledge of details which the Grand Chancellor found useful, and partly, so Las Casas hints, because they had succeeded, by spending important sums of money, in recovering their former offices. At first the Bishop's opposition was mild enough, and he contented himself with pointing out that he had never been able to induce emigrants to go to the Indies and that Las Casas's scheme was unworkable. Las Casas, however, affirmed that he could easily find three thousand workmen as soon as he was authorised to assure them of the King's conditions, and that the Bishop had not succeeded in finding men because he had treated the islands as a penal colony, whereas now, on the contrary, the severest punishment, after the death penalty, with which a colonist in the Indies could be threatened, was that of being shipped back to Spain.

The King had left Valladolid(35) on his way to take formal possession of the kingdom of Aragon and these negotiations were being carried on at Aranda de Duero, where a halt had been made. Las Casas fell ill and the court moved on without him, but it is indicative of the favour he had already acquired with the King that frequently the monarch exclaimed: "Oh, I wonder how Micer Bartolome is getting on!" Micer was the title the Flemings gave to ecclesiastics, and Charles V., who was the reverse of demonstrative, commonly used this familiar appellation in speaking of Las Casas. Before the court reached Zaragoza, the invalid was on his legs again and had rejoined the others, being received with great joy by the Grand Chancellor, (36) who was almost as enthusiastic as Las Casas himself in pushing forward the Indian reforms. Delay, however, was again caused at Zaragoza, where the King and court were established, by the illness of the ever-contrary Bishop of Burgos; while waiting there to resume business, a letter was sent to Las Casas from Seville by his friend Fray Reginaldo, containing a full account of the ruthless cruelties of one of the captains of Pedro Arias, named Espinosa, which cost the lives of forty thousand Indians. This ghastly chronicle, which was supplied by a Franciscan, Fray Francisco Roman, who wrote as an eye-witness of the atrocities, was immediately laid before the Chancellor by Las Casas; the former was much impressed by the report and directed Las Casas to go to the Bishop on his behalf and read him the letter.

The Bishop took the news coolly enough and merely observed that he had long since advised the recall of Pedro Arias.(37)

With the recovery of the Bishop, everything seemed ready for the resumption of business, when fate dealt Las Casas one of the hardest blows he had had to sustain. The Grand Chancellor, who owned to feeling indisposed on a Friday, became worse on Saturday, so that he had to keep his room; his illness persisted on Sunday with signs of fever and, as Las Casas tersely puts it, "they buried him on Wednesday."

With the death of the Fleming died all hope of any immediate action in behalf of the Indians; in the absence of any other as familiar with the business of the Indian department as himself, the Bishop of Burgos found himself once more omnipotent, or as Las Casas puts it, "he seemed to rise to the heavens while the cleric [himself] sank to the depths." The Chancellor's successor, named by the King pro tempore, was the Dean of Bisancio, a heavy, phlegmatic man who slept peacefully all through the sessions of the Council and only had sufficient perception to commend Las Casas for the zeal with which he pestered him day and night, remarking on one occasion with a dull smile: Commendamus in Domino, domine Bartholomeo, vestram diligentiam. Two such ill-assorted characters as this bovine dean and the fiery Las Casas only succeeded in tormenting one another to no purpose, though, as the latter observes, in this case "it did not kill the Dean for all that."

The India Council, over which the Bishop of Burgos presided, was composed at that time of Hernando de la Vega, Grand Commander of Castile, Don Garcia de Padilla, the licentiate Zapata, Pedro Martyr de Angleria, and Francisco de los Cobos who was then just rising into prominence. Las Casas was excluded, and though he was as busy as ever in laying petitions and memorials before the Council, he had no friends or protectors inside and consequently obtained nothing, save what they were obliged for very shame's sake to concede him. Discouragement was too alien to his sanguine temperament, else he might, with some show of reason, have abandoned all hope of struggling successfully against such odds. The first decisive measure of the Bishop was to recall the Jeronymite fathers from their mission in the Indies, of which he had from the outset been the determined opponent. It has often been justly observed that the vicissitudes of politics make strange bed-fellows, and it was certainly a singular regrouping of the persons in this historical situation, to find the Jeronymites now reduced to seeking out Las Casas to whom to pour out their woes against the mutual enemy, the Bishop of Burgos.



CHAPTER VIII. - MONSIEUR DE LAXAO. COLONISATION PROJECTS. RECRUITING EMIGRANTS.

While matters were at the low ebb described in the preceding chapter, the appearance of a new and unexpected character on the scene brought Las Casas some welcome assistance. Although his chief support had been his good friend, the deceased Chancellor, the other Flemings in the royal household were, on that account first of all, interested in him and the cause he so ardently pleaded. Amongst these unpopular foreigners was Monsieur de la Mure, who, being attracted to Las Casas by what he heard of him, expressed a desire to several of his friends to make the clerigo's acquaintance. This wish was soon gratified, and the young courtier's interest in all that concerned the Indians and the proposed measures for the reform of the colonies was quickly satisfied by Las Casas, who furnished him with a full history of the business he had in hand. The least impressionable of men could not listen to such an advocate unmoved, and M. de la Mure, profoundly affected by what he heard, offered to help his new friend by every means he could command. He was an ally worth having, for, being a nephew of Monsieur de Laxao, sommeiller du corps to the King, he was able to introduce Las Casas to his powerful uncle, who stood in closer relation to the monarch than any other officer of the court, for he slept in the royal bedchamber.

Monsieur de Laxao was as quickly won over to the good cause as his nephew had been, so Las Casas, finding himself once more with powerful supporters, renewed his efforts to press his business to a conclusion. Some wholesome activity was displayed in dispatching various officials to take the residencia, of the several governors of the islands, Rodrigo de Figueroa being sent to Hispaniola, Doctor de la Gama to Puerto Rico and Cuba, and Lope de Sosa to Darien, where he was also to succeed the actual Governor, Pedro Arias de Avila. The Council, acting upon reports which described the natives of Trinidad as cannibals, ordered that war should be made upon them, but Las Casas denied this charge, and contrived that Figueroa should be authorised to first investigate and report on this matter before hostilities began; Figueroa's report was entirely favourable to the natives, amongst whom he found no cannibalism.

As the Dominicans in Hispaniola were ignorant of the progress of events at court and the loss sustained by Las Casas through the death of the Chancellor, they still conceived him to enjoy great influence. The Prior, Pedro de Cordoba, wrote him a detailed description of some recent atrocities perpetrated by the Spaniards in Trinidad where they had gone to fish for pearls; manifesting also dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Jeronymites. He therefore begged Las Casas to obtain from the King a grant for the Franciscan and Dominican monks of one hundred leagues of coast on the mainland about Cumana, from which laymen should be excluded; should one hundred leagues be thought excessive, then he begged for ten, and failing this he would accept the small islands known as the Alonso group, which lay some fifteen leagues from the coast. His intention was to establish a place of refuge, or sanctuary, to which the persecuted Indians might repair, sure of finding kind treatment, and, through instruction, be converted to Christianity. The Prior declared that unless some one of these concessions was made, he would have to recall all the monks of his Order from those countries, where it was idle for them to attempt to teach Christian doctrines, as long as the Indians saw those who called themselves Christians acting in open violation of them. The contents of this letter vexed and alarmed Las Casas not a little, for he feared that if the Prior were driven to make good his threat of recalling his monks, the Indians would be abandoned, without defence, to the cruelties of the Spaniards and would soon be exterminated. His one hope of support in his own plans lay in the Dominicans, without whose aid his efforts were foredoomed to failure. He spoke to the Bishop and the members of the Council, reading them the letter and addressing earnest appeals to them to stop the iniquities which were devastating the entire coast. He urged, with all the arguments of which he was master, that the one hundred leagues asked for should be conceded. The Bishop of Burgos was unmoved, both by the Prior's harrowing description of the outrages committed on the Indians and by the appeal of Las Casas, and he coolly answered that the King would be badly advised to grant a hundred leagues of land to the friars, without some return therefor; a reply which Las Casas observes was unworthy of a successor of the Apostles. Poor as the Bishop was in episcopal qualities, he was even less gifted with those which make a good minister of colonial affairs, and the results of his thirty-five years of control of Indian affairs were as unprofitable to the Spanish Crown as they were disastrous to the Indians.

Las Casas did not hesitate to express his opinion to the Bishop with his customary uncompromising frankness, but with no result, save probably that of confirming his stubborn and hostile attitude.

Perceiving that no argument which did not promise lucrative returns would avail to secure a grant of territory, the clerigo evolved a plan that promised to secure the ends for which he and the Dominicans were striving and, at the same time, would assure a profitable investment for the Crown.

In spite of the Bishop's continued opposition, Las Casas pushed forward his plan for colonising, and though the Chancellor's death was a great loss to him, he nevertheless found in Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht and other Flemings, every possible assistance. He was named royal chaplain in order to give him additional prestige before the public, and letters were sent throughout the kingdom to the principal civil and ecclesiastical authorities, ordering some and inviting others to aid him by every means in their power to collect the desired emigrants. The officials of India House in Seville were instructed to receive and attend to those intending to emigrate under Las Casas, when they arrived in Seville; they were likewise directed to prepare the necessary ships to transport them to America. It was necessary that Las Casas should be accompanied on his recruiting tour through the country by some trustworthy man to help him in enrolling his emigrants, and, as fate would have it, his choice fell most unfortunately upon one Berrio, an Italian, a circumstance which Las Casas afterwards observed was, in itself, sufficient to explain his treachery. Berrio was to act as herald, publishing in the different cities, with sound of trumpet, the object of Las Casas's visit, the high powers he held from the King, and the favourable conditions he offered. To give his assistant more dignity in the eyes of the people Las Casas procured for him the designation of Captain in the royal service, with a salary of four hundred and five maravedis per day.

Berrio sold himself to the Bishop of Burgos before the recruiting expedition even began, and his signed instructions, which he had engaged to obey, were fraudulently altered by the latter so as to free him from all control. Thus provided, he soon detached himself from his rightful superior and went to Andalusia, where he assembled on his own account two hundred men, vagabonds, loafers, and tapsters, of whom few were labourers and none fit for colonists. These unpromising recruits were gathered in Seville, where the officials of India House were at a loss to know what to do with them; they finally sailed, but, as the colonial authorities had received no notice concerning them, they landed, destitute and worthless, in Hispaniola, where their arrival was unwelcome. Many of them died and the others scattered in various parts. It fell to Las Casas to interest himself in their behalf and to relieve their miseries, but the meal and wine he obtained for them arrived in Hispaniola too late, as the intended beneficiaries were either dead or widely dispersed.

It appears, according to Las Casas's own account, that emigrants were attracted to his scheme, not so much by the liberal conditions, or because their circumstances were not prosperous, but by their desire to escape onerous feudal conditions still prevailing in Spain. It was chiefly, therefore, from amongst the dwellers on great estates that his emigrants were recruited, for many such said they desired to leave their children free in a free country under the King's protection. The great nobles were ill-pleased at this desertion of their feudatories, and Las Casas soon found himself at loggerheads with the Constable of Castile, whose villagers at Berlanga were inscribing themselves in great numbers; the Constable ordered him to quit his estates. On an estate called Rello, belonging to the Count of Coruna, out of thirty householders twenty-nine put down their names as emigrants. As may be supposed the number of the clerigo's enemies in high quarters was increased by this state of things, though his success in recruiting emigrants enabled him to triumph over the Bishop, who had foretold that he would never get together the necessary people. He was able to say on his return to Zaragoza that not only three thousand but ten thousand people would willingly go if the Bishop would provide the means.

Cardinal Adrian listened sympathetically to the report of what had been done and addressed to Las Casas the observation in Latin, Vere vos tribuitis aliud regnum regi.

The King and his Court left the kingdom of Aragon at this time to visit the principality of Cataluna, making his formal entry into Barcelona on the fifteenth of February, 1519. The Jeronymite fathers had arranged for the sale of the royal haciendas in Hispaniola, and Las Casas, ever on the alert to secure advantages for his colonists, presented a petition asking that they should be maintained for one year at the royal expense. The vexation of the Bishop of Burgos augmented visibly at this fresh claim for assistance, and he roundly declared such a concession would cost the Crown more than an armada of twenty thousand men, which provoked the pertinent retort from Las Casas: "Does it appear to your lordship that after you have killed off the Indians, I should now lead Christians to death? Well, I shall not." As the Bishop, according to Las Casas, was no fool, he hoped that he understood this plain answer.

Without the assistance which he was convinced was indispensable to the success of his undertaking, Las Casas refused to move, though every effort was made to start him off; an attempt was even made to secure another leader for the undertaking, but the news of this design was not slow in reaching him, and he promptly published far and wide, in the district where his recruits were waiting his orders to start, that they should on no account accept the leadership of another, who would only conduct them to failure and starvation in the colonies.

Events of great importance were occurring at this time which absorbed the attention of the King and his counsellors to the exclusion of American affairs. By the death of his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, the succession was open, though both Francis I. of France and Henry VIII. of England aspired to the imperial dignity. The royal interest therefore centred in Germany and the coming election, and Las Casas and his Indian schemes were put to one side.



CHAPTER IX. - KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR. THE COURT PREACHERS. FURTHER CONTROVERSIES

As has been heretofore explained, Las Casas perceived that his efforts to obtain support for his project would come to naught, unless it could be made plain to the Council that some material benefit would accrue to the royal revenues; he therefore turned his attention to forming a plan which should comprehend the conversion of the Indians by gentle and peaceful means and likewise yield a profit to the Crown. He conceived the idea of forming a species of order of knighthood, whose members were to be known as Knights of the Golden Spur. They were to number fifty selected men, each of whom should furnish two hundred ducats, which he deemed would amount to a sufficient sum for the expenses of founding the colony. The knights were to wear a dress of white cloth, marked on the breast with a red cross, similar to the cross of Calatrava, but with some additional ornamentation. The purpose of this costume was to distinguish them in the eyes of the Indians from all other Spaniards.

A grant of one thousand leagues of coast, beginning one hundred leagues above Paria, and with no limits in the hinterland, was asked for the colony, in return for which concession a payment of fifteen thousand ducats was promised to the Crown during the first three years, which sum should afterwards become an annual income until the seventh year; from the seventh to the tenth year, the income would be thirty thousand ducats, and beginning with the eleventh year, it would reach the sum of sixty thousand. The foundation of three fortified towns, with at least fifty Spaniards in each, was promised within the first five years. The religious propaganda was to be carried on by twelve Franciscan and Dominican friars, whom Las Casas was to be allowed to choose: for this purpose the King was asked to solicit the necessary faculties from the Holy See. Such, in brief, was the plan which Las Casas conceived for spreading civilisation on the American coast and winning the Indians to Christianity. His own jurisdiction within the conceded territory was to be absolute, and all Spaniards whatsoever were to be forbidden by royal command, and under pain of severe penalties, to cross its borders. The only discoverable road to liberty lay through absolutism, under a benevolent despot.

The most obvious flaw in this scheme was the difficulty—amounting indeed to impossibility—of finding the fifty knights. Las Casas, like many enthusiasts and reformers, failed to reckon with the realities of human nature. His colony was to be a Utopia, peopled by lofty-minded Spaniards, who were free from the prevalent thirst for gold, and only preoccupied in cultivating sentiments of the purest altruism: mixed with them were to be gentle-mannered Indians, in whom shone all the qualities of primitive man, unspoiled by contact with the evils of civilisation, and who were thirsting to know the truth and to embrace it. These idyllic barbarians were to furnish the human material on which the knights were to exercise their virtues and all were to be thus united in bonds of loving fraternity and disinterested industry, under the benign government of a dozen monks, who had long since renounced this world and who would give their exclusive attention to leading their flock from a terrestrial into the celestial paradise. A Fra Angelico might have grouped these interesting types into a picture of soul-stirring beauty. Even had the fifty been found, all with the proper dispositions and in harmonious unanimity of purpose, there was little chance that they would remain unaffected by the unbalancing and corrupting influences of a new country, where they would be absolute masters over an inferior race of people. Many excellent men of the highest principles and best intentions went from Spain to America in those times, but few resisted the temptations which beset them.

Las Casas kept his plan a profound secret until he had secured the approbation of the new Chancellor, Gattinara, and that of several of the influential Flemings. It was then laid before the India Council, where it was met with a storm of objection and ridicule. It was promptly shelved, and not all the urging of Las Casas, the discontent of the Flemings, nor even the efforts of the Chancellor himself to induce the Bishop of Burgos to study the matter, sufficed to have it taken into serious consideration. The different features, as they became known, provoked mirth, and much fun was made of the white robes, red crosses, and golden spurs of the knights.

Baffled by the inertia of the Council and the failure of his powerful friends to obtain serious attention for his project, Las Casas had recourse to other influences. The oppression of the Indians and the violation of their rights as free men not only revolted the humanitarian instincts of their Protector, they offended justice and constituted a grave crime against morality, by which the King was inculpated and for which he would have to answer at the bar of divine justice. No utilitarian ends could justify criminal means, and that Indian slavery was profitable to the Crown was in no sense a palliation of its essential wickedness.

The King's confessor, as keeper of the royal conscience, had already in Ferdinand's time been prevailed upon to explain to his Majesty the grave responsibility he incurred in tolerating a state of things so contrary to divine and natural laws. Now Las Casas, in his extremity, turned to the court preachers, who were eight in number, laying before them the entire case as a problem in morals, upon which it was within their duty as the spiritual instructors of the sovereign to pronounce. The part which these ecclesiastics took in the matter was brief but not unimportant nor without results Two of them were secular priests, the brothers Luis and Antonio Corodele, both religious and learned men, doctors of the University of Paris; another was Fray Miguel de Salamanca, also a doctor of Paris; there was Father Lafuente of the University of Alcala, a Franciscan, Fray Alonso de Leon, an Augustinian, Fray Dionisio, and two others whose names Las Casas was not able to recall when writing his history some forty years after these events occurred. This body of learned men represented everything that was most authoritative in theological and canonical opinion of the times and constituted a most formidable ally against the Bishop and Council. Meetings of the eight preachers and Las Casas were held in the convent of Santa Catalina, at which several other men of importance assisted, one of whom was Fray Alonso de Medina, of the Dominicans; while another, a Franciscan friar who had spent much time in the Indies, is described as a brother of the Queen of Scotland. These meetings, which were secret, were held at the same hour of the day as the sittings of the India Council.

Religious dogma was held in that age to be axiomatic and incontrovertible; all science was interpreted through the medium of the one universal science of theology, and the civil law of the times drew its sanction from the principles of canon law, from which indeed it was scarcely separable. Just as it was sought to sustain Galileo's proposition concerning the revolution of the earth by an appeal to theology, and just as theologians were considered competent to pronounce on the soundness of the theories of Columbus, so was it admitted, with far greater reason, to be within their competence to pronounce upon the question of the extension of slavery in the Indies, although that matter was treated as one of secular policy, belonging to the India Council. Kings and governments contended, when they could, for the exercise of their royal powers in temporal matters, independently of the spiritual control, but the line of distinction was a fine one, not easily drawn, and the basis of Spain's claim to the Indies and to the exercise of jurisdiction in America was the Bull of Alexander VI. issued in May, 1493. The express condition on which the Pope granted the Bull was, that the conversion of the Indians should be the primary care of the Spanish government, and this condition was so clear and binding that it amounted to a reservation to the Pope of an oversight of the means to be adopted for that end. As it was within the recognised power of the Pope to grant such rights and jurisdiction, and to attach conditions thereto, it was equally within his power to annul or withdraw them if the Spanish sovereigns failed to fulfil those conditions. Hence the government of the Indies, in all that pertained to the moral well-being and religious instruction of the natives, was, beyond question, within the legitimate exercise of ecclesiastical control. The exposition of the case by Las Casas, supported by the mass of evidence he was able to furnish and the testimony of the Scotch Franciscan and others, convinced the theologians that their duty, both to religion and to the King bound them to intervene and to correct abuses in open violation of the declared intentions of the sovereigns from the time of Isabella that the Indians should be free men, whose conversion to Christianity was their first duty. The theologians bound themselves by a common oath, that no opposition should discourage them, and that each and all of them would not desist from their single and united efforts, until success had crowned them. It was decided that the first step should be to exhort the members of the Council: this failing of result, they would address their remonstrances to the Chancellor, after him to M. de Chievres, who was nearest the person of the King, and in the last resort the monarch himself should be made to understand his responsibility. Should nothing come of their exhortations, they bound themselves to preach openly against the government, instructing the public conscience on the subject and assigning to the King his just share of the wrong-doing.

Action followed swiftly upon the adoption of this resolution, and the India Council, under the presidency of the redoubtable Bishop of Burgos, was stupefied by the apparition of the theologians at one of its sittings. Fray Miguel de Salamanca, after asking for permission of the President, made the following brief but energetic discourse: "Most illustrious gentlemen and most reverend sir: It has been certified to us, the preachers of the King our lord, by persons whom we are forced to believe, and it also appears to be notorious, that men of our Spanish nation in the Indies commit great and unheard-of evils against the natives of those parts; such as robberies and murders, thereby giving the greatest offence to God and bringing infamy on our holy faith, and by which such an infinite number of people have perished that large islands and a great part of the mainland are now depopulated, to the great ignominy even of the Royal Crown of Spain; for the Holy Scripture testifies that in the multitude of the people consists the dignity and honour of the King, and in their diminution is his ignominy and dishonour. We have marvelled at this, knowing the prudence and merits of the illustrious persons who compose the Council for the government of those countries, to whom God appears to have confided such a great world as they are said to constitute, and for which they will have to render a strict account; on the other hand, learning that there can have been no reason why those nations, which lived peaceably in their countries, owing us nothing, should have been destroyed by us, we know not what to say, nor do we find any one to whom to impute such irreparable evils, other than to those who until now have governed them. Since it is incumbent upon us, by virtue of the office we hold at court, to oppose and denounce everything that is an offence and a dishonour to the Divine Majesty and to souls and, to the extent of our powers, to exhort until all such be extirpated, we have decided, before adopting other measures, to come before your lordships and make our purpose known, and to supplicate you to consent to explain to us how it has been possible to permit such a great evil without remedying it; and that since it has not until now been stopped—for it goes on to-day with full license—you should devise means to remedy it. It is manifest that by so doing, your lordships will receive signal recompense, while by refusing, you will, on the contrary, receive terrible torments, for you bear on your shoulders the heaviest and most dangerous burden, if you well consider it, of any men in the world to-day. We likewise beseech your lordships, with all due humility and reverence, not to attribute our coming to temerity, but to accept and judge it by the spirit that has prompted it, which is the wish to act according to God's precepts as we are obliged to do."

The Council—composed of such dignitaries as the Grand Commander of Castile, Don Garcia de Padilla, the distinguished man of letters, Peter Martyr, Francisco de los Cobos, and others—listened aghast to this speech, which was followed by a moment of silence that none of them felt prepared to break. The Bishop, whose wrath had waxed during the discourse, rose with an air of great authority and majesty to reply.

"Great indeed," he said, "has been your presumption and daring to come to correct the Council of the King. Casas must be at the bottom of this; who puts you, the King's preachers, to meddle in government affairs which the King entrusts to his Councils? The King does not maintain you for this, but to preach the Gospel."

The rebuke fell flat, nor were the theologians one whit overawed by the Bishop's high tone, for which they were not unprepared. Father Lafuente, who answered, began with a pun: "There is no Casas here but the Casa [house] of God, in which we officiate and for whose support and defence we are bound and ready to stake our lives. Does it appear presumption to your lordship that eight doctors of theology, who might properly address a whole General Council on matters of faith and government of the universal Church, should come to admonish a Council of the King? We may admonish the King's Councils for what they do wrong, for by our office we belong to the King's Council, and hence, gentlemen, we come here to admonish you and to require you to correct those most misguided and unjust actions, committed in the Indies to the perdition of souls and the offence of God. And if you do not correct these things, gentlemen, we shall preach against you as against those who do not keep the laws of God, nor act for the advantage of the King's service. This, gentlemen, is to fulfil and to preach the Gospel."

Such a threat was no despicable one, and the members of the Council were brought by it to a milder disposition than that disclosed by the testy reply of their President to Fray Miguel's opening discourse. Garcia Padilla undertook the apology of the Council, protesting that many excellent Provisions in favour of the Indians had emanated from that body, whose intentions were good; he offered to submit these proofs of an equitable disposition to the theologians, though he observed that their presumption did not merit such courtesy. The tone of the discussion softened considerably and it was decided that the various enactments of the Council already in vigour and those it proposed to put in operation should be presented to the theologians, who would later make known their opinion of them. These comprised the Laws of Burgos published in 1512 and the several amendments of Cardinal Ximenez. After hearing them read, the theologians withdrew, saying they would present their opinion at another sitting.

Fray Miguel was deputed to draw up in writing their conclusions, which he did in the somewhat lengthy form common at that time, the substance of the decision being that repartimientos and encomiendas were condemned absolutely, as the principal and direct cause of the destruction of the Indians; and second, that the only means for correcting the existing abuses and to civilise and convert the Indians was to form towns of at most twelve hundred householders. Las Casas was opposed to the remedy, which he perceived to be not only without efficacy, but positively hurtful to the Indians, who would only deteriorate under such unfamiliar conditions. This divergence of opinion between Las Casas and the preachers introduced disunion where unity was the sole source of strength, and the inability to fix upon a remedy for the evils, which all were agreed cried out for one, destroyed the force of the representations in favour of the Indians. All were agreed that the actual state of things was intolerable, but they could not agree upon the remedy to be adopted. In reality no laws could cope with the situation. A weak, retrograde race of ignorant people was suddenly brought into contact with the strong, active Spaniards, who carried with them a civilisation to which the former were inertly refractory. There was but the one possible outcome, which has repeated itself throughout the world's history—the weaker race had to go under. Neither the Utopia of Las Casas nor the laws proposed by the preachers nor any other conceivable arrangement could have saved them. The laws enacted were already more than sufficient to protect the natives from oppression and undue suffering, had their application been carried out in the spirit in which they were framed. Even the system of encomiendas might have been worked more rationally, and under it the condition of the Indians need not have been a particularly bad one. Paternal laws, paternally administered in the humane and religious spirit preached by the Dominicans and Las Casas, might have furnished a remedy, but the character of the Spanish colonists, the prevalent greed for wealth, taken together with the indolent habits and temperament of the Indians, opposed unsurmountable obstacles.

The zeal of Las Casas closed his eyes to these existing conditions, which foredoomed his efforts to failure and the Indians to destruction. Fortunately it was so, for he was thus enabled to continue his struggle unflaggingly and to keep the Public conscience in Spain awake to the work of justice to be accomplished. In this struggle lay the only hope of protecting the defenceless natives from undue excesses, of opposing some check to the injustice of the colonists, and of discharging the moral duty that Christian Spain had assumed towards her humble subjects in the New World.

Seeing the uselessness of further dealings with the preachers, Las Casas dropped that learned body, of which nothing further was ever heard in connection with Indian affairs.

He next adopted the bold policy of formally accusing the whole Council of unfairness and partiality—a truly amazing act of courage on the part of a simple priest, even though he felt himself supported by the sympathy of the Chancellor and several of the King's Flemish favourites. More astonishing must it have been to the members of that august body, that the sovereign should have ordered the impeachment to be taken into consideration. This decision was procured through the influence of the Chancellor, Gattinara, and bore with it the authorisation for Las Casas to designate such persons as he deemed suitable, to sit in the Council with those he had accused, and to thus ensure his affairs an impartial hearing. At the same time M. de Laxao made known to him that the King desired such persons to be selected from among the members of other royal councils. His choice fell upon Don Juan Manuel, Alonso Tellez, the Marquis de Aguilar del Campo, the licentiate Vargas, and all the Flemings who had seats in Councils. Besides these, the King desired that whenever the affairs of Las Casas were to come under consideration, the voting members of all other Councils, including those of War and of the Inquisition, should be present. In virtue of this command, the Cardinal Adrian, who was at that time Grand Inquisitor of Spain, sometimes assisted. This newly constituted Council met rarely, owing to the pressure of public matters of grave importance to the country, and the Bishop of Burgos, who was mortally vexed by the royal decision in favour of Las Casas's complaint, was fertile in pretexts for creating delays. To counteract such procrastination, the Grand Chancellor adopted the policy of citing the Bishop to Council meetings without specifying the nature of the business to be considered, and when the unsuspecting prelate appeared, expecting to treat matters of state, he frequently had Las Casas and his Indian affairs sprung upon him. The number of the Council being increased by the admission of the new members from five to more than thirty, the Bishop was powerless to oppose effective resistance, as he could only count on the votes of his five original associates. Nor did the clipping of the Bishop's claws stop there, for whenever he appeared at Court, some of the Flemings contrived, to his intense disgust, to bring the subject of the Indies to the King's attention, so that it only remained for him to appear as rarely as possible.

The Council having consented to the projects of Las Casas, in spite of the Bishop's persistent opposition, orders were given for the necessary authorisations for carrying out his proposed plan. At this juncture the Bishop discovered an ally in the person of Gonzalez Fernandez de Oviedo, author of the Historia natural y moral de las Indias, who had passed much time in America and was highly esteemed as an authority in Indian matters. Oviedo was presented to the Chancellor and explained his reasons for condemning the plans of Las Casas but failed to change Gattinara's opinion. Representatives of the colonists in Cuba and Hispaniola spared no effort to defeat their opponent, promising, if the concessions Las Casas was asking were granted to them, to pay triple the income to the Crown which the latter offered. This offer by the procurators of the colonists was not ignored, and, by command of the King, was laid before the Council for consideration. This led to further discussion, for Las Casas was invited to respond to the counter proposals, which he did with even more than his usual eloquence. A special meeting was called, before which Las Casas was plied with questions and objections to his plans; but if his enemies thought to find him lacking in ready response, they were sadly deceived, for the promptness with which he disposed of every objection, the clearness with which he answered every question, and the earnestness with which he vindicated the cause of the Indians and flayed their oppressors, ended by convincing even the most indifferent. The brother of the Bishop, Antonio de Fonseca, challenged Las Casas for unjustly accusing the members of the Council of killing the Indians, whereas thanks to his measures such members had long since been obliged to surrender their encomiendas; to this argument Las Casas retorted: "Sir, their lordships have not killed all the Indians, but they did kill an infinite number while they had them, though the principal and greatest destruction has been committed by individual Spaniards with the assistance of their lordships." It was obviously impossible to discuss in open council with a man who talked thus, and when the Bishop himself, goaded to impatience, exclaimed, "Well instructed indeed is a member of the King's Council who, because he is a member, finds himself in conflict with Casas!" he got his answer from the imperturbable priest—"Better instructed still is Casas, my lord, who, after having come two thousand leagues at great risk and peril to save the King and his Council from going to hell on account of the tyrannies and destructions of peoples and kings which are perpetrated in the Indies, instead of being well received and thanked for his service, is forced into conflict with the Council." This ended the discussion, and the concession already granted to Las Casas, was ratified.

Nothing, however, was ever really ended in Spain in those days and too many passions had been aroused, too many interests compromised, for the enemies of Las Casas ever to acquiesce in his victory. The Bishop of Burgos was the last man to accept such a defeat, and to his original stubborn and interested opposition was now added a desire for vengeance on his plain-spoken and successful opponent. From the material contained in all the numberless petitions from the colonies which he had received at various times, he drew up a memorial to the King, containing thirty reasons why the concession granted to Las Casas should be refused. When these thirty objections were ready the Bishop asked the Chancellor to summon a special meeting of the Council, before which they were read. Las Casas was not present at this meeting, but both Cardinal Adrian and the Chancellor notified him and advised him to reply immediately. The Chancellor's request to the secretary of the Council, Cobos, to furnish him a copy of the memorial meeting with no reply, he sent a formal demand for the memorial to be delivered to him without further delay; no denial was possible, but the Council only delivered him the document on the sworn assurance that it should not leave his hands. Gattinara gave the required promise, but invited Las Casas and M. de Laxao to supper at his house that evening, and, laying the great dossier on the table, said to Las Casas, "Now make your answer to these objections advanced against you."

"How, my lord," answered Las Casas; "they were three months in forging and drawing them up, and after reading them at your convenience, it took your lordship two months to get possession of them, and now I am to answer them in the space of a Credo! Give me five hours and your lordship shall see what I answer."

As his promise prevented the delivery of the memorial to Las Casas, the Chancellor arranged a table for him in his own apartment where he could compose his reply, advising him to make it in the form of answers to questions supposed to be addressed to him by the King. For four nights Las Casas laboured on his composition until eleven o'clock, at which hour he supped with the Chancellor and afterwards returned at midnight to his lodging, not without fears for his personal safety, for his enemies were as numerous as they were powerful and sufficiently unscrupulous to use any means for silencing him.

No copy exists of these thirty objections and the answers made to them, and Las Casas says that the originals were burned. From the little that is known of the former, they seem to have been so frivolous and strained that it is amazing the Council listened to them with patience or that the Chancellor deemed them worthy of a reply. The first, for example, stated that, as Las Casas was a priest, the King had no jurisdiction over him to restrain his actions in the territory conceded him; the second asserted that by his turbulence he had provoked grave scandals in Cuba; the third pointed out the danger of his forming an alliance with the Venetians or Genoese and delivering to them the profits of his colony; another accused him of having deceived Cardinal Ximenez, and the thirtieth or last of all oracularly stated that there were some secret things known about him of such a damaging nature that they could only be confided to the King's private ear, and hence were not set down in writing. This ancient method of Court intriguers everywhere, whose mysterious accusations can only be made in secrecy, without the accuser's identity being disclosed, is always new and is ever useful in cases where the condemnation of the accused is determined beforehand.

Fortunately the Chancellor loved the light, and Las Casas was furnished the opportunity of seeing and refuting the accusations against him, which he did with entire success, not only clearing himself of every charge invented to discredit him, but, turning the tables on his detractors, he threw a flood of light on the maladministration of the colonies and the peculations from the royal revenues by the Spanish officials. This crushing answer, which filled more than twelve sheets of paper, was read at a special meeting of the Council, which the Chancellor had summoned without letting its object be known, and reduced his enemies to humiliated silence. The only observation which even the usually ready Bishop found to offer was that the answer had been prepared for Las Casas by the Court preachers. The feebleness of this must have struck all present, and the Chancellor with fine irony asked: "You now hold that Micer Bartholomew is so lacking in argument and discretion that he has to find somebody else to answer for him? From what I have heard of him he is equal to this and to more besides."

Gattinara presented a full report of the proceedings to the King, with the result that the grant and privileges already conceded to Las Casas were fully confirmed. Skirmishing between him and the Bishop went on as usual during the final settlement of the details with the Council and on one occasion Las Casas exclaimed to him, "By my faith, my lord, you have fairly sold me the Gospel and since it is paid for, now deliver it!"



CHAPTER X. - THE BISHOP OF DARIEN. DEBATE WITH LAS CASAS. DISAGREEMENT WITH DIEGO COLUMBUS

The troubles of Las Casas, however, were not yet over, nor did the opposition to his projects relax; on the contrary, the arrival at Barcelona in 1519 of Fray Juan Quevedo, the first Bishop of Darien, brought a new combatant into the field against him. On his way from Darien to Spain, Quevedo had stopped in Cuba, where he had heard the complaints of the enraged colonists, who declared that unless his mad campaign against his fellow-countrymen was stopped Las Casas would ruin the island, impoverish them all, and destroy every source of revenue. It was thought that Diego Velasquez paid Quevedo to controvert the representations of Las Casas and to plead the cause of the colonists at Court. As he was a man of considerable weight and an excellent preacher, Velasquez hoped he might win the King to his way of thinking. Arriving at Court, thus prepared to advocate the interests of Velasquez and the colonists, Quevedo was no mean antagonist. The first meeting between him and Las Casas took place in the royal ante-chamber where, on being told who the newly arrived prelate was, the clerigo approached saying, "My lord, since I am interested in the Indies it is my duty to kiss your hand." The Bishop asked who the strange priest was and, on being told, exclaimed with some arrogance, "Oh, Senor Casas! and what sermon have you got to preach to us?" Had he known Las Casas better he would have adopted other tactics, for the clerigo was not the kind of man to attack. He answered: "Certainly, my lord, since some time I have wished to hear your lordship preach, but I assure your lordship that I have a pair of sermons ready, which if you wish to hear and consider them, may be worth more than all the money you have brought from the Indies."

This exchange of thinly veiled hostilities was cut short by the appearance of the Bishop of Badajoz, who came out from audience with the King, and took Quevedo off with him to dinner. To forestall any unfavourable influence which Quevedo might seek to exercise on the Bishop of Badajoz, who was friendly to Las Casas, the latter made a point of going after dinner to the Bishop's house, where he found an illustrious company comprising, amongst others, the Admiral, Don Diego Columbus, playing chequers. Somebody remarked that wheat was grown in Hispaniola, to which Quevedo replied that it was impossible. Las Casas, who happened to have in his pocket-book some specimen grains which he had gathered in the garden of the monastery of St. Dominic, mildly observed, "It is certain, my lord, for I have seen it of excellent quality in that island, and I may even say, look at it yourself, for I have some with me." The Bishop lost his temper and answered with great asperity: "What do you know? This is like the affairs you manage! What do you know about the matters you handle?"

"Are my affairs evil or unjust, my lord," asked Las Casas. The Bishop even more testily exclaimed, "What do you know, or what knowledge and learning have you that you venture to handle these affairs?" Though mindful not to annoy the Bishop of Badajoz, Las Casas let himself go somewhat, and with something of Quevedo's asperity replied that his knowledge and learning might be even less than the Bishop conceded, but he (the Bishop), instead of defending his flock against the tyranny of the Spaniards, lived on their very flesh and blood, and that if he did not restore to the last penny what he had squeezed out of them, he had no more chance of salvation than had Judas. The host interfered to allay the rising choler of his guests, and Las Casas shortly after withdrew. The incident, however, had its consequences, for the Bishop of Badajoz related the occurrence to the King, who, thinking that a polemical tournament between Las Casas and Quevedo in the royal presence might be something worth hearing, ordered that both should appear before him three days later, to debate the subject. A Franciscan friar, newly arrived from the Indies, where he had witnessed the state of things, happened along just then and sought out Las Casas to express his full sympathy with the latter's efforts on behalf of the natives. The Franciscan began a series of sermons at a church near the palace, to which a number of the Flemings listened, afterwards reporting their impressions to the King. His Majesty therefore commanded that the monk should also be present on the occasion of the discussion between Las Casas and Quevedo. The appearance of the Franciscan, was not to Quevedo's liking, and he somewhat tartly remarked to him that the Court was no place for monks, who had much better be in their cells. As the Bishop himself was of the same Order, the monk aptly retorted that he was of the like opinion and that "all of us monks would be better off in our cells." Quevedo seems to have rarely come out ahead in the verbal skirmishes his choleric temper prompted him to provoke.

The account given by Las Casas of the debate before the King gives us a good picture of the stately ceremonial observed at the Court of Charles V. The King being seated on his throne, the others present were accommodated on benches extending along both sides of the audience chamber; to the right of the King sat M. de Chievres, next to whom was the Admiral Don Diego Columbus; then the Bishop of Darien and finally the licentiate, Aguirre. On the left hand of the throne was seated the Grand Chancellor, next to whom came the Bishop of Badajoz and so on with the others in their order of precedence. Las Casas and the Franciscan stood at the foot of the room, opposite the throne.

After a moment of silence following the seating of the Court, M. de Chievres and the Grand Chancellor rose, advanced together, and mounting the steps of the throne knelt before the King, to whom they spoke in whispers as though receiving some secret instructions. Returning then to their respective places and being again seated, the Chancellor said, "Reverend Bishop, his Majesty commands that if you have anything to say concerning the Indies you shall speak." The Bishop of Darien rose and began with an eloquent exordium in the classical style customary in such discourses at that time and which produced the best impression on his hearers. He declared that he had long desired the honour of appearing in the royal presence, and now that God had satisfied his wish, he recognised that facies Priami digna erat imperio, which was a graceful reference to the Imperial dignity to which the young monarch had recently been elected in Germany. He asked, however, that as the matters he had to present to his Majesty's attention were of a private nature, all those present who were not members of the Council should be ordered to withdraw. The Chancellor signed to him to be seated and again he and M. de Chievres approached the throne with the same ceremonial and after having received the royal commands, sotto voce, they returned to their places and the Chancellor said, "Reverend Bishop, his Majesty commands that if you have anything to say, you shall speak." The Bishop however repeated his demand that all those not of the Council should withdraw, and a third time the Chancellor and M. de Chievres went through the ceremony of receiving the royal commands. Again the Chancellor, when he resumed his place, said, "Reverend Bishop, his Majesty commands that if you have anything to say, you shall speak, for all here present have been called to be of this Council."

The Bishop's efforts to exclude Las Casas and the Franciscan being thus defeated, for it was impossible for him to insist further, he began as follows: "Most potent lord, the Catholic King, your grandfather (may he rest in holy glory) commanded the construction of an armada to go and make settlements on the mainland of the Indies and solicited our very Holy Father to create me Bishop of that first settlement; besides the time occupied in coming and going, I have been there five years, and as a numerous company went and we only had provisions enough for the journey, all the rest of our people died of hunger: the remainder of us who survived, in order to escape the fate of the others, have done nothing during all that time but rob and kill and eat. As I perceived that that country was going to perdition and that its first governor was bad and the second worse, I determined to return and report these things to our King and Lord in whom is all the hope of a remedy. As for the Indians, judging by the accounts of those in that country whence I come, and those of others whom I saw on my way, they are a natura slaves." The remainder of this speech has not been preserved, but the opening of it was singular enough, considering that it was delivered by the advocate of the colonists and one of the bitterest opponents of Las Casas. At its conclusion the ceremony of taking the royal orders was repeated and the Chancellor commanded Micer Bartholomew in the King's name to speak.

The speech which Las Casas then delivered is given, in part, in the third part of his Historia General. (38) In it he declared that he had accepted his vocation not to please the King but to serve God and that he renounced, once for all, any temporal honour or favour his Majesty might ever wish to confer upon him. A remarkably bold sentence followed: "It is positive, speaking with all the respect and reverence due to so great a King and Lord, that I would not move from here to that corner to serve your Majesty, saving my fidelity as a subject, unless I thought and believed I would render service to God by so doing." The chief point in the Bishop's discourse which he controverted, was the assertion that the Indians were by nature slaves. He was supported throughout, and especially on this point, by the Franciscan; and even the Admiral Diego Columbus, who had himself held encomiendas and whose renowned father had indeed initiated the very abuses which were being denounced, bore witness to the truth of his statements and the weight of his arguments. When Las Casas had finished, Quevedo, who expressed his wish to reply, was notified that anything further he had to say must be submitted in writing. This closed the audience and the King withdrew.

In conformity with the King's order that his answer to Las Casas should be presented in writing the Bishop of Darien prepared two statements, one of which set forth all the various abuses and the destruction caused by the Spaniards in that colony, while the other contained suggestions for remedying those evils; one of these remedies was the prohibition of the customary raids amongst the Indian tribes and the other was that the peaceable Indians should be induced to live in villages where they might be taught, and also pay some tribute to the Crown. The Bishop's view of the lamentable state of things in the colony, his condemnation of the violent conduct of the Spaniards, and his opinion that it was urgent to introduce a new system for regulating the relations between the colonists and natives seem not to have differed from those of Las Casas himself, and both the corrective measures he proposed met with the latter's hearty approval. These memorials were first read by the Bishop to the Chancellor and M. Laxao, both of whom were highly satisfied to discover such unexpected conformity with the representations of their friend the clerigo. When asked by them what he thought of Las Casas's projects, the Bishop replied that he found them excellent and most just.

This singular conversion of the Bishop of Darien from a formidable opponent into a supporter, delighted Las Casas, who, when the Chancellor showed him the two memorials, asked for a pen that he too might sign them, saying: "Did I ever tell your lordship more than the Bishop has here admitted? What greater cruelties, murders, and destruction in that country have I ever reported to your lordship than these?"

What influence worked upon Quevedo does not appear; whether he perceived that the King looked with sympathy on the enthusiastic Las Casas and that the latter was high in favour with the important Flemish group at Court and therefore sure to carry his point, and so decided, as a practised courtier, to pass over to the winning side, or whether under his choleric exterior there was a chord that responded to the sufferings of the obscure Indians in their miseries, and a sense of justice that was outraged by the rapacious cruelty of his countrymen, we have no means of knowing. Shortly afterwards he fell dangerously ill of a sickness which carried him off in three days. Las Casas was much impressed by his Christian end and by the fact that before he died he had been moved to testify to the true condition of things in the Indies, than which no other act on his part could have been a better preparation for death.

The affairs of Las Casas were now well advanced and all seemed plain sailing ahead; he conferred with Diego Columbus, Admiral of the Indies, concerning the foundation of the forts he had undertaken to build along the coast at intervals of one hundred leagues from one another. These forts were to serve for defence and also as centres of trade to which the Indians would be attracted to bring their gold, pearls, and other things of value to be exchanged for the Spanish merchandise they prized—hawks'-bells, beads of coloured glass, and like trifles. The Admiral was in agreement with this project, until he consulted his brother Fernando Columbus, who suggested to him that he should ask from the King the administration of justice in the new settlements and their extensions. Las Casas opposed this project, but the Admiral followed his brother's counsel and presented his petition to the Council, where it was disallowed; the Admiral in consequence took no further interest in the plan and thus Las Casas was deprived of his valuable support.



CHAPTER XI. - ROYAL GRANT TO LAS CASAS. THE PEARL COAST. LAS CASAS IN HISPANIOLA. FORMATION OF A COMPANY.

As the date for the King's departure from Spain to assume the imperial dignity drew near the opposition to his leaving grew so strong that the question of stopping him by force, if necessary, was even mooted, and various parts of Spain were in a state of ferment bordering on civil war. Charles left Barcelona and proceeded through Aragon to Burgos and from thence to Coruna, where he had summoned the Cortes of Castile to assemble. This city had been chosen, partly because it was a convenient port of embarkation and partly, also, because the tide of opposition and hatred against the Flemish courtiers had reached such a height that they felt it wiser to keep to a seaport, from whence flight would be easier than from an inland town, in case their position became untenable after the King's departure.

In the midst of such preoccupations, it required all the energy and unflagging perseverance of Las Casas to keep his affairs to the front and save them from being forgotten; as it was, even he had moments of discouragement in which he was tempted to drop the whole matter and retire from the Court. His faithful Flemings, however, did not fail him, and with their aid, he managed to get no less than seven days in the month of May devoted to Indian affairs, before the sovereign sailed from Coruna.

During one of these sittings of the Council, Cardinal Adrian contrived to overcome the opposition which was still active against Las Casas, by a masterly discourse, in which he proved that by all natural and divine laws, the policy so far pursued in the Indies was a mistaken one, and that the Indians must be civilised and converted by humane and peaceful means. The desired grant was finally made and consisted of two hundred and sixty leagues of coast between Paria and Santa Marta, inclusively, and extending inland in a direct line from its two extremities to the South Sea. The text of this grant, which Charles V. signed in Coruna on May 19, 1520, fills several chapters of the third part of the Historia General de las Indias.

All the necessary formalities having been complied with and all obstacles overcome, Las Casas was at last ready to launch his colonial venture. Friends in Seville advanced him loans of money and others presented him with a quantity of article of trade, of small enough value in Spain but of great worth in the eyes of the Indians. The fifty men who were to adopt the white habit of the Knight of the Golden Spur had not been selected, but it was thought well to begin the settlement with labourer and perhaps to choose the candidates for the new knighthood from amongst the Spaniards already settled in the Indies. He sailed with his little company from San Lucar de Barrameda on November 11, 1520, and after an uneventful voyage reached the island of Puerto Rico, called by the Indians Boriquen, and first named San Juan by the Spaniards.

While Las Casas had been sustaining his long struggle in Spain in behalf of the Indians, a series of disastrous events had occurred in America, which created serious obstacles in the way of his scheme for colonisation. In 1518 some Dominican and Franciscan friars had founded two convents on the Pearl Coast, the former at Chiribichi and the latter at Maracapana, some seven leagues distant at the mouth of the Cumana River and just opposite the island of Cubagua. These religious communities had established the most peaceful relations with all the Indians in their neighbourhood and the friars came and went with perfect freedom, being welcomed in all the villages. All went quietly until the arrival of one Alonzo de Ojeda, who came from Cubagua, engaged ostensibly in the pearl trade, but likewise in raiding for slaves. Pearl diving was as perilous and fatal an occupation for the Indians as the work in the mines of Hispaniola and Cuba, and such numbers had perished in Cubagua that it was necessary to replenish the vacancies by bringing others from the neighbouring mainland. When Ojeda landed at Chiribichi he repaired to the convent, where he found but one priest and a lay-brother, all the others being absent, preaching to the Spaniards in Cubagua. As he expressed a wish to see the cacique, Maraguey, the priest, thinking no evil, sent to invite the Indian to come to the monastery; on his arrival, Ojeda began to question him as to whether cannibalism was practised by any tribes in the neighbourhood, his answers being taken down on paper by a notary. The cacique declared that there were no cannibals thereabouts and, being displeased by the questions and alarmed by the formalities of ink and paper, he quickly withdrew. Ojeda next went to the convent at Maracapana, where the cacique, called Gil Gonzalez, came to meet him with every demonstration of friendship. Ojeda declared he had come to trade and wished to buy maize, and on the day following his arrival he left with fifteen of his men to go inland in search of the grain. Fifty Indians transported the loads from the interior to the coast, and while these bearers were resting, the Spaniards suddenly drew their weapons, killing some who tried to escape and forcing all the others on board their caravel. The effect of this act of unprovoked treachery in a peaceful settlement, where the Indians had received the newcomers with every hospitality as guests, may be easily imagined, and as was natural, Gil Gonzalez planned vengeance for the outrage. The scene at the convent whither the cacique of Chiribichi had been summoned by his friend the priest, and the impressive formality of the writing with pen and paper furnished by the priest, unfortunately identified the monks in the minds of the Indians with Ojeda and his exploits. The alarm was passed all along the coast, and the Indians bided the moment for a favourable attack; nor had they long to wait, for Ojeda, accompanied by ten men, came on shore again on Saturday as indifferently as though nothing had happened. Gil Gonzalez affected to receive them in a friendly manner, but no sooner had they reached the village than the Indians fell upon them, killing Ojeda and several others, while the remainder barely succeeded in reaching the caravel. The Indians even went out in canoes to attack the vessel but were repulsed, and the Spaniards, setting sail, put to sea.

The defenceless friars remained, however, and at Chiribichi the priest, while vesting to say mass, and the lay-brother were both killed by the people of the cacique Maraguey and the convent was burned. So great was the fury of the Indians that they even killed a horse with which the monks worked in their garden.

The news of this massacre reaching Hispaniola from the Spaniards at Cubagua, the royal Audiencia at once despatched a small force under Gonzalo de Ocampo to punish the Indians, and the disheartening news of these turbulent events was the greeting that met Las Casas on his arrival at Puerto Rico. Knowing that Ocampo's armada would touch there on its way to the Pearl Coast, he determined to await its arrival, where in fact Ocampo appeared within a few days. Las Casas had been a neighbour of his in other days and, though he knew that his treatment of the Indians did not differ from that of the other colonists, he held him in some esteem. He showed Ocampo his cedulas with the royal signature, which prohibited any Spaniards from landing, against his will, in the territory granted to him, and he formally required him to desist from his errand of vengeance. Ocampo answered that, while he did not refuse obedience to the royal commands, he was in this instance acting under the orders of the royal Audiencia and was obliged to carry out the instructions he had received; the responsibility lay with the Audiencia, which would protect him from any consequences following the execution of its mandate.

Seeing that Ocampo was not to be stopped, Las Casas resolved to go himself to Hispaniola, show his powers to the Audiencia, and exact the recall of the fleet. Meanwhile he placed his colonists amongst the various planters of Puerto Rico, who were glad enough to welcome labourers, who were scarce in the island. This decision of Las Casas was a most mistaken one and was the outcome of an error of judgment which did not require the light of after events to make plain. More was certainly to be hoped from his presence on the spot, and from the influence he might exercise over Ocampo, than from anything he could obtain from the Audiencia, whose members were his bitterest enemies. It was, moreover, impossible for any counter-orders he might be able to wrest from the reluctant Audiencia, to reach the Pearl Coast in time to stop the action of Ocampo, and Las Casas does not even appear to have sought to detain the latter in Puerto Rico, pending the arrival of further instructions.

After dividing his colonists, who thus became scattered, and lost touch with him and with one another, Las Casas bought a vessel for five hundred dollars—an enormous sum at the time—in which he sailed for Hispaniola. His arrival in Santo Domingo was most unwelcome and revived all the ancient odium of the colonists against him, for he was without doubt the best-hated man in America.

He presented his papers to the Governor, and a meeting of some ten officials, who composed what was termed the Consulta and dealt with local questions, was convoked to consider his demands. The first of these was, that the provisions of the royal grant to him should be formally published, according to custom, with sound of trumpet so that all the colonists might clearly understand the prohibition for any one to enter the territory conceded to him, without his permission, and that all Spaniards were commanded to treat the Indians humanely, and to keep faith with them in treaties and contracts under severe penalties at the King's pleasure. Second he demanded that the Consulta should order all Spaniards to quit the territory of his concession, and should recall Ocampo forthwith, as the murder of the friars there had been provoked by the barbarous conduct of Ojeda.

As his previous experience might have taught him, the Consulta listened with gravity to his demands and permitted the proclamation of his cedulas, but when it came to taking any action to restrain Ocampo, reasons for delay were found and the matter dragged on without anything being accomplished.

It being to the interests of those colonists who were expecting a rich cargo of slaves to be brought back by Ocampo, from his punitive expedition, to hinder the departure of Las Casas and, if possible, to wreck his plans for colonising, divers means were invented to accomplish this object. A rumour was started that his five-hundred-dollar vessel was in a bad condition and unseaworthy; the authorities decided that this point must be investigated, so several persons were named to examine the boat and report on her condition. They did so, and promptly reported that the vessel was not merely unseaworthy, but was in such a state that no repairs would make her so, and that the only course was to dismantle her. Thus Las Casas beheld his five hundred dollars vanish and himself a fixture in Hispaniola.

Meanwhile Ocampo had reached the Pearl Coast and, feigning to come directly from Spain with merchandise and to be entirely ignorant of the murder of Ojeda and the friars, he succeeded in luring the cacique Gil Gonzalez close to his ship, when a naked sailor dived overboard, grappled with the cacique in his canoe and finally stabbed and killed him. A landing was then made and the country raided with the usual accompaniment of murders, torturings, and capturing of the natives, many of whom were carried on board the vessels and sent back to Hispaniola, to be sold as slaves. Ocampo, with others of his followers who remained behind, founded a town, half a league up the Cumana River, which he named New Toledo.

The arrival of the slave cargo at Hispaniola where Las Casas was still engaged in altercations with the authorities, threw him into a terrible rage. He protested vehemently before the Audiencia against the deliberate and open violation of the royal commands, whose contents had been publicly proclaimed, and he threatened to return forthwith to Spain and lay the case before the King, from whom he would obtain the punishment of the authors of the outrage and their condemnation to pay all the expenses of Ocampo's armada, which had been illegally charged to the Royal treasury.

Nobody doubted that he was capable of executing his threat, and, since it was known that he enjoyed the protection of the all-powerful Flemings and was something of a favourite with the young King himself, the members of the Consulta and some of the principal men in the colony decided, after many discussions, that it would be well to appease the clerigo's wrath and come to some arrangement with him for their mutual benefit. It was then proposed to form a company, in which there should be twenty-four shareholders, each of whom should contribute an identical sum and derive an equal profit from the undertaking on the Pearl Coast. Six of the shares should be assigned to the Crown, six to Las Casas and his fifty knights of the Golden Spur, three to Admiral Diego Columbus, one to each of the four auditors of the Audiencia, and the remaining five to the treasurer Pasamonte and the other officials of the Audiencia.

This scheme was submitted to Las Casas, who must by that time have been well-nigh in despair, and, although it very materially changed his original plan, it offered the only possible means for carrying out his intentions, so he agreed to the formation of the company. The agreement upon which the company was based gave to Las Casas Ocampo's armada with several brigantines and barques and all their contents, and he was to choose amongst the three hundred followers of Ocampo one hundred and twenty, who should constitute the armed force of the new colony, under the latter's command. This arrangement, so it was pretended, would leave Las Casas free to dedicate all his efforts to the conversion of the Indians. The last article of the agreement was almost comical. It provided that when Las Casas himself should denounce any Indians as cannibals, the Spaniards should be bound to declare war against them and make slaves of them.

He afterwards wrote concerning the articles of agreement as follows:

"Great was the blindness or ignorance—if indeed it was not malice—of those gentlemen to believe that the clerigo would ever fulfil those horrible and absurd conditions, knowing him to be a good Christian, not covetous, and ready to die to liberate and help in saving those people from the condition in which they were held."

With his armada well equipped, and a plentiful supply of provisions and merchandise for trading purposes on board, Las Casas finally sailed from Hispaniola in July, 1521, directing his course first to the island of Mona, where a quantity of cassava bread was to be taken on board, and from thence to Puerto Rico, where he expected to collect his original colonists. On his arrival there, not one however, was found to join the expedition, as they had long since dispersed throughout the island or had joined marauding expeditions to capture Indians. This defection must have caused Las Casas great disappointment, for he had assembled these men with great care in Spain, choosing only such as he thought from their good character to be adapted for his ideal colony. The change which their new and strange surroundings had operated in these peaceful, simple folk was not unnatural; loosed from all the anchors that held them to habits of industry and probity, they found themselves caught in new currents; cupidity was awakened by the gold-fever that infected all the colonists, the pious projects with which they left Spain under the guidance of their apostolic leader were easily abandoned when the influence of his enthusiasm was withdrawn, and they took to the freebooting ways and easy morals of the colonists with whom they were thrown. Las Casas had neglected to realise that they were not angels.

On arriving at that part of the Pearl Coast called Cumana, it was found that Ocampo's colony of New Toledo was already in the throes of discontent from hunger and disease; his men had begun by pressing the Indians into service, with the result that all the native abandoned the country, leaving the Spaniards to starve. When it became known that those who chose might return to Hispaniola, every man of them declared he would go, so Las Casas was left with a few of his friends and some who were in his pay. Ocampo showed sincere regret and much sadness at abandoning his old friend, for whom, in spite of their differences, he had a sincere admiration, in such a plight. He took leave of him with many demonstrations of affection, and joining his men sailed away to Hispaniola.

Las Casas was now in his long-desired territory, but the material for starting his colony was sadly reduced.



CHAPTER XII. - THE IDEAL COLONY. FATE OF THE COLONISTS. FAILURE OF THE ENTERPRISE

Some time before the events just recounted, Franciscan friars from Picardy had been sent to the Pearl Coast by the Prior Pedro de Cordoba, under the leadership of Fray Juan Garceto, and this little community heard the news of Las Casas's coming with profound joy. Upon his arrival, they came to meet him singing Te Deum Laudamus and Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. The convent was modest enough, being rudely constructed of wood and thatch, and the life of the friars in the midst of the vast wilderness about them was one of the most apostolic simplicity. The house stood about a musket-shot back from the Cumana River in a beautiful garden which, in such a climate, was not a difficult achievement. Las Casas built a large storehouse on one side of the garden for his trading merchandise and, through the friars and an Indian woman called Maria, who had learned Spanish, he published among the Indians that he had been sent by the new King of the Christians in Spain, and that henceforth there would be no more fighting, but all were to live together in peace and friendship. In order to attract them, he made them presents from his stores; but it was not unnatural that the diffidence of the Indians should yield but slowly to these blandishments after the deceptions of which they had been the victims, and besides, Las Casas could not trust his own dependents, but had to keep a sharp eye continually on them, to prevent them scandalising and offending the natives. Under such discouraging circumstances, progress was inevitably slow.

Not only were the Spaniards under his own control in little harmony with the spirit of his intentions and as refractory as they dared be to his orders, but the pearl fishers on the island of Cubagua, who were a typical lot of godless ruffians, frequently came to the mainland, with the valid excuse that the absence of sweet water on their island obliged them to fetch their supply from the Cumana River. These expeditions for water were usually accompanied by some disturbances with the Indians, some of whom were frequently captured and carried off to work in the pearl fisheries.

To put a stop to these incursions into his territory, Las Casas contracted with a mason, for eight dollars in gold per month, to build him a fort at the mouth of the river; but the people at Cubagua, hearing of this project which would interrupt and control their movements, contrived to so influence the mason that he threw up his contract and abandoned the work, thus leaving the country defenceless. The Cubaguans seduced and ruined the Indians, chiefly by offering them liquors and spirits, which have always proved the white man's most attractive and destructive products to the savage and have ever gone in the vanguard of civilisation. The Indians gave everything they possessed for alcohol even selling their fellows as slaves, in exchange for wines; these they drank to inordinate excess, and in the fury of their debauch quarrels broke out amongst them which ended in murders and a state of the most riotous disorder, against which Las Casas and the monks struggled in vain. The strongest representations and protests were made to the alcalde of Cubagua, whither Las Casas went in person, but, far from producing the desired result, his efforts to protect his own territory only served to excite increased resentment on the part of his lawless neighbours, and neither his own life nor that of the Franciscans was any longer safe from the threatened reprisals of their hostile countrymen. The situation was one of the greatest gravity and even peril; instead of showing promise of improvement, it grew daily worse; for, though the men at Cubagua were somewhat restrained from venturing upon open acts of hostility directed against him since they had seen what powers the royal cedulas gave him, their ingenuity in devising vexations, inventing contrarieties, and creating obstacles which effectually nullified all his efforts, was extraordinarily fertile. Fray Juan Garceto was of the opinion that Las Casas should return to Hispaniola to complain to the Audiencia and demand that some effective restraint be exercised upon the Spaniards at Cubagua or, failing of success there, that he should even go to the King himself to obtain redress and the punishment of the offenders. This advice did not accord with Las Casas's own view, for he had reason to know how difficult it was to obtain anything from the Audiencia and how easy it was to evade even the most explicit provisions of royal cedulas, when it suited the interest of those concerned to do so. His absence at such a critical moment would also remove the one effective restraint on the lawlessness of the Cubaguans and doubtless result in the total destruction of his stores, which were valued at fifty thousand castellanos. Two vessels were lying off the coast, loading salt for Hispaniola, and during the days previous to their sailing both Las Casas and Fray Juan gave themselves up to earnest prayer and each offered his daily mass to obtain some divine guidance as to the right course to pursue, since they were in absolute disagreement. Las Casas prepared a full statement of the situation, and a petition asking the Audiencia to furnish the necessary remedy without delay, which he intended to despatch by one of the ship's captains in case he did not go himself when the sailing day came. The last day finally arrived, and Fray Juan, after saying his mass, sought Las Casas and said, "It is your duty, sir, to go and on no account to stop here." "God knows," replied Las Casas, "how much this goes against my judgment and my wishes but, since it seems right to your Reverence, I am willing to do it; if it is an error, I would rather err by the judgment of another than be right by my own, for I hope in God." The wisdom of submitting his judgment as an act of religious humility in a matter concerning his own spiritual welfare would have been laudable, but Las Casas was far more qualified to judge on a question of policy affecting the welfare of his enterprise than was Fray Juan Garceto, and the responsibility for repeating the blunder he had made in Puerto Rico of abandoning his colony while he went off to protest to the Audiencia, must rest where it belongs—on his own shoulders—and not where he sought to put it—on those of the humble Franciscan. If somebody had to go—and it seems that the necessity was urgent—then Fray Juan had better have taken the letters and gone himself before the Audiencia, leaving Las Casas to withstand his enemies and keep his colony together as best he could, until the Audiencia despatched some authority to effectively restrain the Cubaguans. His resolution taken, in accordance with the friar's inspiration, Las Casas appointed Francisco de Soto, a native of Olmedo, as captain during his absence and gave him full instructions for his guidance. It was especially impressed upon the captain that on no account should he permit the two vessels which the colony possessed to leave the harbour; he was to be on the alert and in case of open hostilities he was to load the merchandise on board if possible, but if not, then to save all his people and take refuge at Cubagua. Much preoccupied as to the fate of those he left behind and uncertain as to the wisdom of his course, Las Casas set out for Hispaniola, leaving all he possessed in the convent, save one box of his clothing and another containing some books.

It is illustrative of the capricious and light-hearted spirit of disobedience to all authority, save what force imposed, which characterised Spanish officials in America, that the first thing De Soto did, before the ship bearing Las Casas was barely out of sight, was to send away his two vessels, one in one direction and the other in the opposite, to fish for pearls and, if possible, to capture Indians. The natives were in a state of unrest owing to the continual vexations of the people of Cubagua and also of Las Casas's men who, as soon as he was gone, became almost as bad as the others. The beautiful speeches in which peace and justice and friendship were promised for the future, under the powerful protection of the new King of Spain, had resulted in nothing, and the last illusion of the Indians vanished with the disappearance of the ship that bore their protector towards Hispaniola. A general massacre of the colony was concerted to take place about fifteen days after Las Casas left. The Franciscans got wind of it three days before the date fixed and though the Indian woman Maria, when asked, denied the plot in words, she conveyed to the friars by gestures that she had lied because the presence of other Indians intimidated her from telling the truth. A Spanish trading ship arrived in these days, but in spite of the colonists' prayers to be taken on board the captain refused, so the hapless men were left to their fate. At the last moment an effort was made to organise some defence and twelve or fourteen pieces of artillery were mounted around the storehouse, but when they came to examine the powder, it was found—oh, Spanish improvidence!—to be so damp that it was useless. At sunrise they thought to dry it, but they were too late, for with fierce war-whoops, the Indians were upon them; three of their number were killed and the store-house, in which the others had barricaded themselves, was set on fire. Fortunately there was a small door that gave access to the garden, through which they escaped from the burning building. De Soto, who had been out to reconnoitre the town was wounded with a poisoned arrow, but managed to reach the garden where the others were. The friars had constructed a canal through their garden leading to the river and on this they had a large Indian canoe capable of holding fifty persons. This canoe was now their sole hope of safety and everybody managed to get into it, save one unfortunate lay-brother who had taken refuge among some reeds along the bank and was only discovered after the canoe had pushed off. Seeing his companions borne swiftly away on the saving current, he rose from his hiding-place with despairing gestures of appeal, but though every effort was made to reach him it was in vain, and he, poor man, seeing that his situation was hopeless, signalled to them with pathetic heroism to leave him and save themselves while they could. He was killed a few moments later when the Indians, not knowing of the egress into the garden and believing that all the Spaniards were inside the burning building, came round to the other side of the Storehouse. When they caught sight of the fugitives in the canoe, they quickly launched a swift pirogue and set out in pursuit of the canoe. The Spaniards had already doubled the point called Hraga and were a league down the river, but they were exhausted with hard rowing and the light pirogue of their pursuers gained so rapidly upon them that their only hope was to take refuge in the thick underbrush along the shore, where the Indians, being naked, could not penetrate on account of the thorns. The canoe and the pirogue touched land almost at the same time and not far from one another. Fray Juan afterwards recounted to Las Casas how he was overtaken by an Indian and, seeing the club raised to strike him, he threw himself on his knees, closed his eyes, and prepared for death; the blow did not fall, and on opening his eyes he found himself alone, with no Indian in sight. Finding it impossible to reach the Spaniards in their refuge in the thorny thicket, the Indians withdrew and the Christians, covered with blood from their many wounds, managed, though in a truly pitiable plight, to reach some boats which were loading salt not far off. It was then noticed for the first time that their captain, Francisco de Soto, was missing and, as some one remembered having seen him concealed under a great rock in the thicket, a boat was sent to look for him. After three days' search he was found, dying of thirst, and on being brought on board and given water, he finished himself by drinking to excess. Thus the author of all the mischief paid the penalty of his imprudence and disobedience with his life.