Imatges de pàgina
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CHAPTER VI.

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LAS CASAS AND HIS MONKS OFFER TO CONQUER THE LAND

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OF WAR. -THEY MAKE THEIR PREPARATIONS FOR THE ENTERPRISE.

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is not often that in any part of the world mere literature has been more fertile in distinct 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 among the monks and learned men, but also among the common soldiers and colonists. It consisted of two propositions. The first was, that men were to be brought to Christianity by persuasion; and the second, which 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 Indies, must, at the time it was written, have been read with eager and angry attention by the Spanish colonists possessing Indian slaves, whom they had won by their bows and their spears. To gain these slaves they had toiled and

Treatment of Las Casas by the Colonists. 309

bled. During long and harassing marches they had been alternately frozen, parched, and starved; sufferings only to be compensated for, and poorly compensated, by the large droves of captives which they had brought in triumph back with them. We may imagine the indignant manner in which these fierce veterans read what parts they could or would read of this wise and gentle treatise, De unico vocationis modo, written by the great Protector of the Indians, who had now, indeed, emerged to some purpose from his quiet cell in the Dominican monastery."

*

But the conquerors were not only indignant at the doctrines propounded in this treatise of Las Casas; they laughed at his theories-that mocking laugh of the so-called practical men-a kind of laugh well known to all those who have attempted to do any new and good thing. "Try it," they said; "try, with words only and sacred exhortations, to bring the Indians to the true faith;" and Las Casas, who never said the thing he did not mean to abide by, took them at their word, and said he would try it.

Now there was a neighboring province called Tuzulutlan, which, among the Spanish inhabitants of Guatemala, had the ill name of the Tierra de Guerra, "The Land of War.' This district was a terror to them, and the people in it were a "phantom of terror'

* The following is an eloquent description of the evils of war, which occurs in this treatise, and is quoted by REMESAL: "Mæret domus metu, luctu, et quærimoniis; lamentis complentur omnia. Fugiunt artes opificum. Pauperibus, aut ad jejunandum aut ad impias confugiendum est artes. Divites aut ereptas deplorant facultates, aut timent relictis, utroque modo miserrimi. Virgines, aut nullæ aut tristes, et funestæ nuptiæ. Desolatæ matronæ domi sterilescunt. Silent leges, ridetur humanitas, nullum habet locum æquitas. Religio ludibrio est, sacri et profani nullum omnino discrimen."-REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. iii., cap. 9.

310

"The Land of War."

to the Spaniards. Thrice they had attempted to penetrate this land; thrice they had returned defeated, with their hands up to their heads (las manos en la cabeça). Such is the statement of REMESAL. The land, therefore, was much more difficult to penetrate than if no Spaniard had ever been there, being an ir

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ritated country, not merely an untried one. With all our knowledge hitherto acquired of Las Casas, we can not but feel timid and apprehensive as to the result of this bold undertaking of his. We are not left in doubt as to the magnitude of the enterprise. The story is no monkish narrative to magnify the merits of the writer's order. There was a formal compact entered

Agreement between Las Casas and the Governor. 311

into by the temporary Governor of Guatemala with Las Casas as Vicar of the Convent of San Domingo, in which it is admitted that the Indians in question were fierce men in revolt, whom no Spaniard dared to go near.* Their country, too, was a most difficult one to conquer, where the ways were obstructed by mountains, intersected by rivers, and lost amid dense forests.†

The substance of the agreement is, that if Las Casas, or any of his monks, can bring these Indians into conditions of peace, so that they should recognize the Spanish monarch for their lord paramount, and pay him any moderate tribute, he, the governor, would place all those provinces under his majesty in chief (en cabeça de su Magestad), and would not give them to any private Spaniard in encomienda. Moreover, no Span

* "Ningun Español ose yr por donde ellos estan."-REMEsal, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. iii., cap. 9.

† GIL Gonzalez DAVILA, Teatro Ecclesiástico, tom. i., p. 169.

As this is one of the most curious historical documents that can be met with, equally creditable to the governing powers at Guatemala and to the Dominicans, and as REMESAL's History is a rare book, I subjoin the following extract: "Porende digo y os prometo y doy mi palabra en nombre y de parte de su Magestad, por los poderes Reales que tengo, que assegurando vos, ó qualquiera de vos los Religiosos que al presente estays, que soys el Padre fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, y fray Rodrigo de la Drada, y fr. Pedro de 'Angulo, y trayendo con vuestra industria y cuydado qualesquier Provincias, é Indios dellas, todas, ô su parte que entren dentro de los límites desta mi governacion que por su Magestad tengo, á que esten de paz, é que reconazcan por señor á su Magestad, y le sirvan con los tributos moderados que segun la facultad de sus personas, é pobre hazienda que tienen, puedan buenamente dar, en oro, si en la misma tierra lo oviere, ó en algodon, ó maiz, ó en otra qualquiera cosa que tuvieren, ó ellos entre si grangearen, y acostumbraren a contratar. Que yo desde aquí por los poderes que de su Magestad tengo y en su Real nombre, los pongo todos los que asseguraredes, y todas las Provincias dellos en cabeça de su Magestad, para que le sirvan como sus vasallos, y que no los daré á persona ninguna, ni á ningun Español serán encomendados agora, ni en ningun tiempo."-REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guat., lib. iii., cap. 9.

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Alvarado in Disgrace.

iard, under heavy penalties, except the governor himself in person, should be allowed for five years to enter into that territory. This agreement bears date the 2d of May, 1537, and was signed by Alonzo Maldonado, the temporary governor of Guatemala.

Las Casas would hardly have been able to persuade the ruthless soldier, Pedro de Alvarado, to sign any such contract as the foregoing. It was, therefore, a singular felicity for the enterprise in hand that Alvarado was at that time absent from the province, and powerless in it. The cause of his absence is narrated as follows:

Charles V. was exceedingly indignant when he heard of Alvarado's entrance into Peru. That commander had engaged to fit out an expedition to the Spice Islands. His absence on this account would have been excusable, and even commendable, in the eyes of the Spanish court; but Alvarado's expedition to Peru was a mere intrusion, which the Emperor resolved to punish. He accordingly sent to the government of Panamá (of which Peru was at first considered a dependency), ordering that means should be taken for breaking up Alvarado's armament, and that he himself should, in a discreet manner, be made prisoner. The adelantado's movements were far too rapid for this order to have any effect. He had already returned to Guatemala, which was under the jurisdiction of the authorities of Mexico; and, in the year 1536, was awaiting the arrival of Alonzo de Maldonado, one of the auditors of Mexico, who was to take his residencia, and was, it is said, authorized to send him as a prisoner to Spain. It is probable that in such an important proceeding the Audiencia was acting in concert with, and receiving orders from, the Council of the Indies at home.

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