CHAPTER VII.

LAS CASAS ALONE IN THE LAND.-RECEIVED IN THE FRANCISCAN MONASTERY.-FATE OF HIS COLONY.

HE Dominican community, to whom, of course, Las Casas would first have turned, had, as it appears, been entirely swept away. The Franciscans, however, had returned, and they were the sole nucleus of Christianity and of civilization in that immense expanse of country, a seventh part of the whole world. People are often seeking for romance in all kinds of fiction; but how really romantic such a situation as this was! The light from that monastery, the sound of its bell amid the wilderness of idolatry, what signs of hope they were-which angels might have watched with unspeakable joy, and yet with apprehension! It must have been no little comfort to Las Casas at this juncture to find that the Franciscans had already repaired the ruin which had fallen upon them, together with the rest of the Spaniards in that part of the country. These monks must have re-established. themselves under Ocampo's protection; and it does not seem as if their monastery could have suffered any thing like the devastation which had come upon the unfortunate and equally innocent Dominicans.

When the Franciscans heard of the clerigo's arrival, they came out to meet him with great joy, chanting a Te Deum. Their little monastery was on the river side,* a cross-bow shot" from the sea-shore. It was

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*The River Cumaná, now called the Manzanares.

constructed of wood and thatched with straw, and it had a pleasant garden, with orange-trees, vines, and melons in it. Las Casas built a large store-house adjoining the monastery, and there he stowed away his goods. The first thing he did was to convey his message of peace to the Indians, which he accomplished by means of Donna Maria (before mentioned as the wife of the Cacique of Cumaná), who knew something of the Spanish language. Through this woman Las Casas informed the Indians that he had been sent by the new King of Spain, and that henceforth they were to experience nothing but kind treatment and good works from the Christians, as an earnest of which he sent them some of the presents which he had brought from Castile, to gain their friendship.

The founding of a colony is always one of the most interesting things in the world, and it is surprising that rich and powerful men in our own times do not more frequently give themselves to such splendid undertakings. But in this particular case the interest is doubled, from the feeling that the leader is no mere adventurer and has no private ambition, but is trying a great experiment for the good of the world. Moreover, one is always curious to see a man in a position which he has long sought for, where he has in some measure to fulfill the day-dreams of his life. The first proceedings of Las Casas seem to have been judicious; and, altogether, though this settlement at Cumaná was but a little one, a mere fragment of the great undertaking which Las Casas had originally designed, still much might have been hoped from it if there had been no Spaniards near to hinder the good work. Unfortunately, however, there was the island of Cubagua at a short distance from the coast; and as there was no

fresh water there, the Spaniards engaged in pearl-fishing near that island had a motive for coming frequently to the River Cumaná in the main land, which was but seven leagues off.

Las Casas, thinking to have some curb upon these Spaniards, engaged with a master-mason, at the rate of ten ducats a month, to build a fort at the mouth of the river; but the Spaniards of the island, the "apostles of Cubagua," as LAS CASAS sarcastically calls them, soon perceived the drift of the clerigo's building, and the builder was bribed, or persuaded by them to

desist from the work. The visits, therefore, of the Spaniards to the main land were as uncontrolled as ever. The Indians had no love for these visitors, but then they brought wine with them, and this won over even those Indians who had most distaste to the Spaniards. And, just as a child can not handle with any safety the arms of a grown-up man, so there is always danger for a people when, without fit preparation, it comes to use the products of an older state, whether it be strong wine or a well-compacted political constitution. To obtain this all-seducing wine, which, or the like of which has ever proved the subtlest and most destructive weapon against aborigines, clearing them off as fire consumes the dry herbage of the prairie, the Indians brought gold and slaves to the Spaniards, the slaves being youths and simple persons.

Of the light way in which such simple persons were made slaves among the Mexicans, and probably among these Indians too, we have a curious instance in the letter of Rodrigo de Albornoz to the emperor in 1525.* He says that "for very little things, and almost in jest, they become slaves to one another," and, as an instance, he mentions that when he was once officially examining some slaves, he asked one of them the origin of his slavery-whether he was the son of slave parents, for instance; and the Indian replied "No, but that one day, when they were in the midst of their

Dijo que no, sino que un dia que ellos estavan en sus areitos, que es su fiesta, tañia uno un ataval que ellos usan en sus fiestas, como los de España, í que le tomó gana de tañer en él, í que el dueño no se lo quiso dexar tañer si no se lo pagaba, í como él no tenia que le dar, dixo seria su esclavo, í el otro le dejó tañer aquel dia, í de allí adelante quedó por su esclavo í despues le havia vendido tres ó quatro veces."Al EMPERADOR CARLOS 5°. RODRIGO DE ALBORNOZ, en Temistitan á Coleccion de Muñoz, MS., tom. lxxvii.

15 de diciembre de 1525.

areitos, which is their festival, a man was beating an ataval, which they use in their feasts, like those of the Spaniards, and that he wished very much to play upon it, and that the owner would not let him without being paid for it; as he had nothing to give, he said. that he would be his slave, and the other let him play the instrument for that one day, and thenceforward he was the other's slave." And Albornoz tells the monarch that the existence of such light modes of creating slavery is a thing to be considered "for the sake of your majesty's conscience as well as of your majesty's service.”

But to return to the Cubaguans. There is no doubt that their frequent communication with the Indians of Cumaná was likely to be fatal to the plans of the clerigo; and so he felt it to be. Their conduct was a practical denial of his message from the king. He went to Cubagua, and made most forcible appeals (requerimientos terribles) to the alcalde there, but all to no effect. The chief monk of the Franciscans, Padre Joan de Garceto, saw the matter in the same light as Las Casas, and urged him to go to St. Domingo and to appeal to the audiencia, in order to provide some remedy for the evils arising from the visits of the Cubaguans. Two vessels were lading with salt, and the clerigo, he said, could go in one of them, which would be ready to sail in a month. Las Casas did not see the need for his going, but the Franciscan father was very urgent about it. Every day they had mass and prayers for inspiration in this matter, and discoursed upon it after prayers. Father Garceto, with true Flemish perseverance, never swerved from his opinion, or from the same expression of it, winding up the discourse by saying, "It does not appear to me, sir,