Alvarado resolves to join Pizarro. 329 B. XV. Ch. 5. Governor of Nicaragua, abandoned the convent* there, and, accompanied by his brethren, proceeded to Guatemala and took up his abode in Las Casas the convent which Domingo de Betanzos had Guatemala, built, and which had remained vacant for six and occuyears. It will be necessary now, to give a short review of the principal events which had occurred in Guatemala between the departure of Domingo de Betanzos and the arrival of Las Casas and his brethren to occupy the deserted monastery. comes to pies the convent. 1536. Alvarado, one of the most restless even of those restless men-the conquerors of the New World-had been devoting his energies to fitting out a fleet for the purpose of further discoveries. This fleet was built at a port called Iztapa, situated about seventeen leagues from the present city of Guatemala. When Alvarado was at the Court of Spain, he had held out hopes of making further discoveries. But the great news of Pizarro's golden success reaching the greedy ears of the rapacious Governor of Guatemala, he resolved to proceed southwards, and to join Pizarro Alvarado in his enterprize. He was the more readily resolves to induced to do this, as he knew that Pizarro was in Peru. but poorly equipped. It was in vain that the King's Officers at Guatemala protested stoutly against Alvarado's expedition to Peru. They Officers prosaid that he would leave his own colony bare, test against and that it would, therefore, be in great The King's the enter peril, prize. *This desertion of the convent gave occasion to the law proceedings before referred to. 330 Goes to Peru, under Protest. B. XV. because a large part of it was in a state of war; Ch. 5. and that even the subdued Indians, seeing themselves freed from the yoke of armed men, would rise in revolt. Moreover, they added, with a shrewd insight into the future, that the Lieutenant-Governor whom Alvarado was leaving would be continually obliged to be sending men and horses to assist his master; and, consequently, that the armed force of the country would, day by day, be growing weaker. To these sound arguments Alvarado replied that the government of Guatemala was a small matter for him, and that he wished to go and seek another greater one. With regard to the question of danger, he said that he intended to take with him the principal Indians, and so leave the province secure for the Spaniards. The King's Officers persevered in their remonstrances, and wrote both to the King, and to the Audiencia of Mexico. The Audiencia agreed with the King's Officers of Guatemala, and wrote to Alvarado Alvarado, forbidding the enterprize. He was not, however, to be daunted by their endeavours goes to Peru. parte de ella estaba de Guerra; aliende de que los Indios pacíficos, viéndose sin el jugo de los Soldados, se levantarian, por ser belicosos, í mudables; í que demás de esto, el Teniente, que Pedro de Alvarado dexaba, siempre le havia de ir acudiendo con Gente, í Caballos, con que la fuerça de la Tierra cada dia mas se iria enflaqueciendo."-HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. 4, *** Escrivian tambien, repro- The Dominicans learn the Quiché Language. 331 to restrain him, and he persevered in taking his B. XV. departure for Peru. Ch. 5. The result of this expedition will be narrated in its proper place,-the history of Peru. It was disastrous, although Alvarado himself did not suffer much, as he received an ample sum for the forces which he made over to Pizarro. Alvarado Returns to returned to Guatemala at the end of the 1535, not long before Las Casas with his Dominican monks established themselves in the monastery at Santiago de Guatemala. Guatemala. year 1535. and his Quiché The Dominican brethren who accompanied Las Casas, and all of whom afterwards became celebrated men, were Luis Cancer, Pedro de Angulo, and Rodrigo de Ladrada. These grave and reve- Las Casas rend monks might any time in the year 1537 brethren have been found sitting in a little class round study the the Bishop of Guatemala, an elegant scholar, but language. whose scholarship was now solely employed to express Christian doctrines in the Utlatecan language, commonly called Quiché. As the chronicler says, "It was a delight to see the Bishop, as a master of declensions and conjugations in the Indian tongue, teaching the good fathers of St. Dominic." This prelate afterwards published a work in Utlatecan, in the prologue of which he justly says, "It may, perchance, appear to some people a contemptible thing that prelates should be thus engaged in trifling things solely fitted for the teaching of children; but, if the matter be well looked into, it is a baser thing not to abase one's self to these apparent trifles, for such teaching is the 'marrow' 332 Important Result of their Study. B. XV. of our Holy Faith."* The Bishop was quite Ch. 5. right. It will soon be seen what an important end this study of the language led to; and, I doubt not-indeed, it might almost be provedthat there are territories, neighbouring to Guatemala, which would have been desert and barren. as the sands of the sea but for the knowledge of the Utlatecan language acquired by these good fathers, an acquisition, too, it must be recollected, not easy or welcome to men of their aget and their habits. *"Por ventura parecerá á alguno cosa digna de menosprecio que los Prelados (los quales por la altura de su dignidad suelen estar ocupados en negocios graves, y de importancia) se ocupen en cosas baxas, y que solamente son coaptadas para la informacion de los niños, aunque, si bien se mira, mas suez y baxa cosa es, no abaxarse á las cosas semejantes, ó por mejor dezir, levantarse, pues que es el tal enseñamiento la medula de nuestra Santa Fé Católica, y de nuestra sagrada Religion."REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. 3, cap. 7. † No contemporary, and indeed no subsequent writer, ever speaks of Las Casas as old. He was forty-eight years of age, however, when he entered the Dominican monastery in Hispaniola. He was now in the prime of life for a man of his wonderful powers; that is, he was sixty-two. Fourteen years afterwards, in 1550, when he was seventy-six years old, his greatest public disputation took place, with the celebrated Doctor Sepulveda. In the year 1556, when he was eighty-two years old, we are informed that he was vigorous in his self-appointed work of Protector of the Indians ("En el de 1556, exercitó grandemente el señor don fray Bartolomé de las Casas, su oficio de padre y protector de los Indios."-REMESAL, lib. 10, cap. 24); and he attained the great age of ninety-two, having just completed successfully an arduous business for the colony of Guatemala, which he had come from Valladolid to Madrid to transact. CHAPTER VI. LAS CASAS AND HIS MONKS OFFER TO CONQUER 66 THE LAND OF WAR"-THEY MAKE THEIR PREPARATIONS FOR THE ENTERPRIZE. IT T is not often that in any part of the world B. XV. mere literature has been more fertile in dis- Ch. 6. tinct historical results than in this province of Guatemala, and indeed throughout the Indies generally. It happened that a little before the year 1535, Las Casas had composed a treatise, which, though it was never printed, made a great noise at the time. It was entitled De unico vocationis modo. It was written in Latin, but was translated into Spanish, and so became current, not only amongst the monks and learned men, but also amongst the common soldiers and colonists. It consisted of two propositions. The The first was, that men were to be brought to Chris- treatise tianity by persuasion; and the second, which vocationis seems but a consequence of the first, that without special injury received on the part of the Christians, it was not lawful for them to carry on war against infidels, merely as infidels. The treatise, though requiring in parts to be passed quickly over, would, if we may judge by other works of the same author, be interesting even now, and having close reference to the daily affairs of life in the De unico modo. |