314 Order in favour of the Indians. B. XV. were provided by the inhabitants of the town; Ch. 4. and the good father maintained himself in popu behalf of the Indians. larity with them, notwithstanding he did not fear to insist perpetually upon the claims of the Indians to liberty, a subject which was most offensive to his hearers. It was in vain, howPreaches in ever, that Father Domingo preached with fervour against the cruel practices of the Spanish colonists. They held that his doctrines in this matter were no better than private opinions. They fortified themselves with royal cédulas, opinions of learned men, and the customs of the country; and, in fine, threw up such entrenchments to defend their position, that, to use the quaint expression of the old chronicler, "there was no theology which could get into them" (no avia teología que les entrasse). Soon after the commencement of his ministrations, however, the good father was strengthened by a public document which came very opportunely from the prelate of his order at Mexico, or perhaps directly from Spain, and which distinctly proclaimed the freedom of the Indians, and ordered that they should no longer be given in encomienda.* There was, however, one fatal adjunct to this docu Royal order in favour of the Indians. 1529. era muy recogido, y mostróleon encomiendas, it will be seen *On reference to the chapter that this document was the result of the deliberations of a General Council of the Indies and of Finance, which was ordered by the Emperor to address itself to this subject, when he was quitting Spain for Italy, in the year 1529. Betanzos recalled to Mexico. 315 ment,—namely, that it was not final; that, to B. XV. use the phrase of the day, it was by way of instruction, and not by precept (por via de instruccion, y no por precepto)—a prudent practice in cases where the home government is at a great distance from the colony, and where the matters to be attended to are of a judicial character; but a mere throwing of the bridle on the neck of the horse, when the matter in question is one where self-interest and cruelty have to be restrained. An exception, it is said, was made as regarded the power of the Governor, or President, to vary any part of these instructions which touched the liberty of the Indians. That part was to be considered final. The idea, however, being once given in any part of the document that it was not an edict, but a body of variable instructions, tended no doubt by degrees to invalidate the whole force of the royal order. Unfortunately for Guatemala, Father Betanzos had not much time to try what aid these instructions might have given to his sermons, for, in fifteen days after receiving it, a Betanzos messenger came to him from the prelate of his Mexico. Order in Mexico, summoning him immediately to a Council there, the main object of which was to make their convent independent of the Dominican convent in Hispaniola. It has been seen how much Father Betanzos held to the virtue of obedience; and, in this case, he did not hesitate to obey his prelate, though it was at the sacrifice of deferring the foundation of his Order in Guatemala. He had but one monk with him, a young man of little experience, recalled to Ch. 4. B. XV. who could not be left in charge of the convent, even if it had been permitted to break through the rule, then kept most strictly, that no monk should travel without a companion. Nothing remained, therefore, for Father Domingo but to abandon his enterprize for the present. Accordingly he shut up the convent, but left the keys with the curate* of Santiago, that the church might be cleaned from time to time, and thrown open for the sake of those who might feel a desire to go and pray there. As the good father fully intended to send other monks in his place, he begged one of the neighbours to finish making the hedge round the little garden which had already been commenced, while to another neighbour he gave the charge of building, out of a heap of unburnt bricks (adobes) that had been collected, some small cells for the brethren who were hereafter to be sent. Betanzos quits January, 1530. Having given these commissions, he took his Guatemala, departure from Santiago, to the great grief, it is said, of all the inhabitants; and in after days the monkish historians, when recording the life of this remarkable man, were wont to speak of the sweet odour of sanctity which was left by Father Domingo in his brief visit to Guatemala. On his way back he met the Governor, Alvarado, coming with much pomp and with his numerous retinue to Guatemala, affording thus a curious contrast to the * In the Spanish Church the curate is the chief parochial clergy man. Meets Alvarado on the Way. 317 Ch. 4. two barefooted monks. Knowing what manner B. XV. of man Alvarado was, the thought that naturally occurs to us is, whether the departure of Betanzos, or the arrival of Alvarado, was likely to be of most injury to the unfortunate Indians in Central America. CHAPTER V. B. XV. Ch. 5. became a monk, 1522. REAPPEARANCE OF LAS CASAS HIS MISSION TO PERU HIS STAY IN NICARAGUA DISPUTES WITH THE GOVERNOR-COMES TO GUATEMALA, IT is probable that the thoughts of many a humane man at this period were occasionally turned to the cell in the Dominican monastery of Hispaniola, where the great Protector of the Indians was buried, as it were, after the failure of his memorable attempt to found a Christian colony on the coast of Cumaná. Las Casas It was in the year 1522 that Las Casas, sunk in dejection and despair, had been persuaded by Father Domingo de Betanzos, to take the monastic vows. Eight years had elapsed from the time of Las Casas becoming a monk, to the time when Father Betanzos quitted his newly the monas- built monastery at Guatemala, as recorded in the Guatemala, last chapter. In these eight years, during the greater part of which Las Casas had lived a life of extreme seclusion, the bounds of the Indian empire had been immensely enlarged. Cortes had Betanzos quitted tery at 1530. |