CHAPTER I. THE NEW LAWS-BLASCO NUÑEZ VELA IS SENT AS VICEROY TO PERU, TO ENFORCE THESE LAWS. CHAPTER II. DISMAY OF THE SPANISH COLONISTS IN PERU— VIOLENCE OF THE VICEROY-THE MURDER OF THE FACTOR, ILLAN SUAREZ DE CARVAJAL. CHAPTER III. THE AUDITORS SEIZE UPON THE PERSON OF THE VICEROY, AND EMBARK HIM FOR SPAIN—GONZALO CHAPTER I. THE NEW LAWS-BLASCO NUÑEZ VELA IS SENT AS IN Ch. 1. N early American history Las Casas is, un- B. XVIII. doubtedly, the principal figure. His extraor dinary longevity has something to do with this pre-eminence. Very few men can be named who have taken a large and active part in public affairs for such an extended period as seventy years. Las Casas was an important person, in reference to all that concerned the Indies, during the reigns of Ferdinand the Catholic, of Philip the Handsome, of his son Charles the Fifth, and of Philip the Second.* Upon the mind of Charles the Fifth Las Casas seems to have had peculiar influence. The Emperor had known him from his own boyhood; and such a discerning person as Charles the Fifth could not fail to have appreciated the character of Las Casas. He knew him to be a thoroughly disinterested man. It must have been with a smile that Charles read, in private letters, accusations of a personal nature directed against Las Casas by disappointed colonists, the Emperor well knowing how Las Casas, * Even while Philip the Second was in England, Las Casas was in correspondence with the celebrated Carranza, who accompanied Philip as his Confessor. Ch. I. B.XVIII. in his times of utmost poverty (when Charles, fresh from Flanders, used to call him "Micer Bartolomé"), had refused pecuniary aid, and abjured all thought of personal advancement. returns to Spain. It will be recollected that Las Casas, after Las Casas peaceably conquering and converting the province of Tuzulutlan, had gone to Mexico, and thence to the Court of Spain, where he had been detained by the Council of the Indies, who wished to profit by his knowledge of Indian affairs. It may be imagined with what force he could then speak in favour of his Indians, having, for once, a great feat of practical success to appeal to in the peaceful conquest of Tuzulutlan: he who had never been daunted when the course of affairs had been apparently most decisive against him. The De It was at the end of the year 1538 that Las Casas reached the Court of Spain. The Emperor was absent in Germany, contending against Luther and the German princes who favoured the views of the great Reformer. Las Casas employed his time in writing the work which, of all his works, has become most celebrated: namely, He writes The Destruction of the Indies. It was afterwards translated into several languages, and has been read throughout Europe. It gives a short account of what had taken place in each colony, and is one of the boldest works that ever issued from the press. At that time it was not published, but was only submitted to the Emperor and his Ministers. It is possible that in this, its first form, it was a still more daring production than it appears to be now; for in the printed struction of the Indies. His Writings on the Indies. 155 Ch. I. copies there is not a single name given of the B. XVIII. persons inculpated. These are generally spoken. of as this or that "tyrant." The work was not published in its present form until twelve years afterwards, when it was addressed, with an epistle dedicatory, to Philip, the heir to the throne. The above, however, was not the only, or perhaps the most important work, which Las Casas wrote about this time for the information of the Emperor and the Council of the Indies. He drew up a memorial, which is in itself an elaborate work, consisting of twenty reasons, to prove that the Indians ought not to be given to the Spaniards in encomienda, in fee, in vassalage, or in any other manner. It appears from the title that this work was written by the Emperor's command, for the information of a certain great junta, which was to be held at Valladolid in the year 1542. There is one very striking passage in the Memorial, in which Las Casas states that the Indians were subjected to four masters: namely, first, His Majesty the Emperor; secondly, their own Caciques; thirdly, their Encomendero; and fourthly, his Manager, "who," as Las Casas said, "weighed upon them more than a hundred towers."* In all his pleadings for the injured Indians, Las Casas was greatly aided by the Dominican Monks who had accompanied him from Mexico. "Por manera que tienen qua- | podemos añadir con verdad a tro señores: Á vuestra Magestad, quantos moços y negros tiene el sus Caciques, y al que estan amo, porque todos no saben sino encomendados, y al estanciero dessollarlos, oprimillos, y roba y á que agora le acabo de dezir, que llos."-Veynte Razones, p. 181, pesa mas que cien torres. Y Sevilla, 1552. |