CHAPTER I. THE CONVERSION OF LAS CASAS.-HIS VOYAGE TO SPAIN.-THE DEATH OF KING FERDINAND. CHAPTER II. LAS CASAS SEES THE CARDINAL XIMENES. THE ADMINISTRATION CHAPTER I. THE CONVERSION OF LAS CASAS.-HIS VOYAGE TO SPAIN. -THE DEATH OF KING FERDINAND. THE HE course of this narrative now becomes closely connected with the life of Las Casas-so much so, that his private affairs and solitary thoughts are matters of history, as they had a most important bearing on the welfare of no inconsiderable portion of the New World. Las Casas, as the reader will hereafter see, had many troubles and sorrows to bear; but at this particular period he was blessed with that which is always one of the greatest blessings, but which, I sometimes fancy, like hospitality in a partially civilized country, seems to have flourished more, as being more needed, in rude, hard times. In a word, he had a real friend. This friend's name was Pedro de la Renteria. Their friendship was most intimate, and had subsisted for many years. De Renteria, as often happens in friendship, presented a curious contrast to Las Casas. He was a man who might well have been a monk-a devout, contemplative person, given much to solitude and prayer; and Las Casas mentions a trait in his character which exactly coincides with the rest of it, namely, that he was a most liberal man, but his liberality seemed rather to flow from habit and a carelessness about worldly goods than from a deliberate judgment exercised in matters of benevolence. This good man's oc cupations, however, were entirely secular, and he was employed by Diego Valasquez as alcalde. When the island was considered to be settled, and the governor began to give repartimientos, knowing the friendship that existed between Las Casas and Renteria, he gave them a large pueblo in common, and Indians in repartimiento.* This land of theirs was about a league from Xagua, on the River Arimáo ;† and there they lived, the padre having the greater part of the management of the joint affairs, as being much the more lively and the busier man. Indeed, he confesses that he was as much engaged as others in sending his Indians to the mines and making as large a profit of their labor as possible. At the same time, however, he was kind to them personally, and provided carefully for their sustenance; but, to use his own words, "he took no more heed than the other Spaniards to bethink himself that his Indians were unbelievers, and of the duty that there was on his part to give them instruction, and to bring them to the bosom of the Church of Christ."‡ As there was but one other clerigo in the whole island, and no friar, it was necessary for Las Casas oc * "Dióle (á Pedro de Renteria) Indios de repartimiento juntamente con el Padre, dando á ambos un buen Pueblo y grande con los cuales el Padre comenzó á entender en hacer grangerías y en echar parte de ellos en las minas, teniendo harto mas cuidado de ellas que de dar doctrina á los Indios, habiendo de sér como lo era principalmente aquel su oficio; pero en aquella materia tan ciego estaba por aquel tiempo el buen Padre como los Seglares todos que tenia por hijos."-Las CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. iii., cap. 32. + "Llegámos á un pueblo de Indios, que se dezia Yaguarama, el qual era en aquella sazon del Padre Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, que era Clérigo Presbítero, y despues le conocí Fraile Domínico, y llegó á ser Obispo de Echiapa: y los Indios de aquel pueblo nos dieron de comer."-BERNAL DIAZ, cap. 7. See also Las Casas, lib. iii., cap. 78. LAS CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. iii., cap. 78. casionally to say mass and to preach. It happened that he had to do so on "the Feast of Pentecost," in the year 1514; and studying either the sermons that he preached himself or that he heard the other clerigo preach at this time, he came to thinking with himself on certain passages ("authorities" he calls them) of Scripture. The 34th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22d verses, first arrested, and then enchained his attention: "He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is ridiculous; and the gifts of unjust men are not accepted. “The Most High is not pleased with the offerings of the wicked; neither is he pacified for sin by the multitude of sacrifices. "Whoso bringeth an offering of the goods of the doeth as one that killeth the son before his father's poor eyes. "The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. "He that taketh away his neighbor's living slayeth him; and he that defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder." I think that the clerigo might have dwelt upon one of the remaining verses of the chapter with great profit: "When one prayeth, and another curseth, whose voice will the Lord hear ?" In recounting the steps which led to his conversion, Las Casas takes care to say that what he had formerly heard the Dominicans preach in Hispaniola was, at this critical period of his life, of great service to him. Then he had only slighted their words; but he now particularly remembers a contest he had with a certain Religioso, who refused to give him absolution because he possessed Indians. This is an instance of the great mistake it may be to hold your tongue about the truth, for fear it should provoke contest and harden an adversary in his opinion. The truths which he has heard sink into a man at some time or other, and, even when he retires from a contest apparently fixed in his own conceits, it would often be found that if he had to renew the contest the next day he would not take up quite the same position that he had maintained before. The good seed sown by the Dominicans had now, after having been buried for some years, found a most fruitful soil; and it shot up in the ardent soul of the clerigo like grain in that warm land of the tropics upon which he stood. Las Casas studied the principles of the matter; from the principles he turned to considering the facts about him, and, with his candid mind thus fully aroused, he soon came to the conclusion that the system of repartimientos was iniquitous,* and that he must preach against it. What then must he do with his own Indians? Alas, it was necessary to give them up! Not that he grudged giving them up for any worldly motive, but he felt that no one in Cuba would be as considerate toward them as he, even in the days of his darkness, had been; and that they would be worked to death, as indeed they were. But still, the answer to all the sermons he might preach would be his own repartimiento of Indians. He resolved to give them up. * 66 Pasados pues algunos dias en aquesta consideraçion, y cada dia mas y mas certificándola por lo que leia cuanto al derecho, y via del hecho, aplicándolo uno al otro, determinó en si mismo convencido de la misma verdad, ser injusto y tiránico todo cuanto cerca de los Indios en estas Indias se cometia.”—LAS CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. iii., cap. 78. |