The King being seated on his throne, the others present were accommodated on benches extending along both sides of the audience chamber; to the right of the King sat M. de Chievres, next to whom was the Admiral Don Diego Columbus; then the Bishop of Darien and finally the licentiate, Aguirre. On the left hand of the throne was seated the Grand Chancellor, next to whom came the Bishop of Badajoz and so on with the others in their order of precedence. Las Casas and the Franciscan stood at the foot of the room, opposite the throne.
After a moment of silence following the seating of the Court, M. de Chievres and the Grand Chancellor rose, advanced together, and mounting the steps of the throne knelt before the King, to whom they spoke in whispers as though receiving some secret instructions. Returning then to their respective places and being again seated, the Chancellor said, "Reverend Bishop, his Majesty commands that if you have anything to say concerning the Indies you shall speak." The Bishop of Darien rose and began with an eloquent exordium in the cla.s.sical style customary in such discourses at that time and which produced the best impression on his hearers. He declared that he had long desired the honour of appearing in the royal presence, and now that G.o.d had satisfied his wish, he recognised that facies Priami digna erat imperio, which was a graceful reference to the Imperial dignity to which the young monarch had recently been elected in Germany. He asked, however, that as the matters he had to present to his Majesty"s attention were of a private nature, all those present who were not members of the Council should be ordered to withdraw. The Chancellor signed to him to be seated and again he and M. de Chievres approached the throne with the same ceremonial and after having received the royal commands, sotto voce, they returned to their places and the Chancellor said, "Reverend Bishop, his Majesty commands that if you have anything to say, you shall speak." The Bishop however repeated his demand that all those not of the Council should withdraw, and a third time the Chancellor and M. de Chievres went through the ceremony of receiving the royal commands. Again the Chancellor, when he resumed his place, said, "Reverend Bishop, his Majesty commands that if you have anything to say, you shall speak, for all here present have been called to be of this Council."
The Bishop"s efforts to exclude Las Casas and the Franciscan being thus defeated, for it was impossible for him to insist further, he began as follows: "Most potent lord, the Catholic King, your grandfather (may he rest in holy glory) commanded the construction of an armada to go and make settlements on the mainland of the Indies and solicited our very Holy Father to create me Bishop of that first settlement; besides the time occupied in coming and going, I have been there five years, and as a numerous company went and we only had provisions enough for the journey, all the rest of our people died of hunger: the remainder of us who survived, in order to escape the fate of the others, have done nothing during all that time but rob and kill and eat. As I perceived that that country was going to perdition and that its first governor was bad and the second worse, I determined to return and report these things to our King and Lord in whom is all the hope of a remedy. As for the Indians, judging by the accounts of those in that country whence I come, and those of others whom I saw on my way, they are a natura slaves." The remainder of this speech has not been preserved, but the opening of it was singular enough, considering that it was delivered by the advocate of the colonists and one of the bitterest opponents of Las Casas. At its conclusion the ceremony of taking the royal orders was repeated and the Chancellor commanded Micer Bartholomew in the King"s name to speak.
The speech which Las Casas then delivered is given, in part, in the third part of his _Historia General_. (38) In it he declared that he had accepted his vocation not to please the King but to serve G.o.d and that he renounced, once for all, any temporal honour or favour his Majesty might ever wish to confer upon him. A remarkably bold sentence followed: "It is positive, speaking with all the respect and reverence due to so great a King and Lord, that I would not move from here to that corner to serve your Majesty, saving my fidelity as a subject, unless I thought and believed I would render service to G.o.d by so doing." The chief point in the Bishop"s discourse which he controverted, was the a.s.sertion that the Indians were by nature slaves. He was supported throughout, and especially on this point, by the Franciscan; and even the Admiral Diego Columbus, who had himself held encomiendas and whose renowned father had indeed initiated the very abuses which were being denounced, bore witness to the truth of his statements and the weight of his arguments. When Las Casas had finished, Quevedo, who expressed his wish to reply, was notified that anything further he had to say must be submitted in writing. This closed the audience and the King withdrew.
In conformity with the King"s order that his answer to Las Casas should be presented in writing the Bishop of Darien prepared two statements, one of which set forth all the various abuses and the destruction caused by the Spaniards in that colony, while the other contained suggestions for remedying those evils; one of these remedies was the prohibition of the customary raids amongst the Indian tribes and the other was that the peaceable Indians should be induced to live in villages where they might be taught, and also pay some tribute to the Crown. The Bishop"s view of the lamentable state of things in the colony, his condemnation of the violent conduct of the Spaniards, and his opinion that it was urgent to introduce a new system for regulating the relations between the colonists and natives seem not to have differed from those of Las Casas himself, and both the corrective measures he proposed met with the latter"s hearty approval. These memorials were first read by the Bishop to the Chancellor and M. Laxao, both of whom were highly satisfied to discover such unexpected conformity with the representations of their friend the clerigo. When asked by them what he thought of Las Casas"s projects, the Bishop replied that he found them excellent and most just.
This singular conversion of the Bishop of Darien from a formidable opponent into a supporter, delighted Las Casas, who, when the Chancellor showed him the two memorials, asked for a pen that he too might sign them, saying: "Did I ever tell your lordship more than the Bishop has here admitted? What greater cruelties, murders, and destruction in that country have I ever reported to your lordship than these?"
What influence worked upon Quevedo does not appear; whether he perceived that the King looked with sympathy on the enthusiastic Las Casas and that the latter was high in favour with the important Flemish group at Court and therefore sure to carry his point, and so decided, as a practised courtier, to pa.s.s over to the winning side, or whether under his choleric exterior there was a chord that responded to the sufferings of the obscure Indians in their miseries, and a sense of justice that was outraged by the rapacious cruelty of his countrymen, we have no means of knowing. Shortly afterwards he fell dangerously ill of a sickness which carried him off in three days. Las Casas was much impressed by his Christian end and by the fact that before he died he had been moved to testify to the true condition of things in the Indies, than which no other act on his part could have been a better preparation for death.
The affairs of Las Casas were now well advanced and all seemed plain sailing ahead; he conferred with Diego Columbus, Admiral of the Indies, concerning the foundation of the forts he had undertaken to build along the coast at intervals of one hundred leagues from one another. These forts were to serve for defence and also as centres of trade to which the Indians would be attracted to bring their gold, pearls, and other things of value to be exchanged for the Spanish merchandise they prized-hawks"-bells, beads of coloured gla.s.s, and like trifles. The Admiral was in agreement with this project, until he consulted his brother Fernando Columbus, who suggested to him that he should ask from the King the administration of justice in the new settlements and their extensions.
Las Casas opposed this project, but the Admiral followed his brother"s counsel and presented his pet.i.tion to the Council, where it was disallowed; the Admiral in consequence took no further interest in the plan and thus Las Casas was deprived of his valuable support.
CHAPTER XI. - ROYAL GRANT TO LAS CASAS. THE PEARL COAST. LAS CASAS IN HISPANIOLA. FORMATION OF A COMPANY.
As the date for the King"s departure from Spain to a.s.sume the imperial dignity drew near the opposition to his leaving grew so strong that the question of stopping him by force, if necessary, was even mooted, and various parts of Spain were in a state of ferment bordering on civil war.
Charles left Barcelona and proceeded through Aragon to Burgos and from thence to Coruna, where he had summoned the Cortes of Castile to a.s.semble.
This city had been chosen, partly because it was a convenient port of embarkation and partly, also, because the tide of opposition and hatred against the Flemish courtiers had reached such a height that they felt it wiser to keep to a seaport, from whence flight would be easier than from an inland town, in case their position became untenable after the King"s departure.
In the midst of such preoccupations, it required all the energy and unflagging perseverance of Las Casas to keep his affairs to the front and save them from being forgotten; as it was, even he had moments of discouragement in which he was tempted to drop the whole matter and retire from the Court. His faithful Flemings, however, did not fail him, and with their aid, he managed to get no less than seven days in the month of May devoted to Indian affairs, before the sovereign sailed from Coruna.
During one of these sittings of the Council, Cardinal Adrian contrived to overcome the opposition which was still active against Las Casas, by a masterly discourse, in which he proved that by all natural and divine laws, the policy so far pursued in the Indies was a mistaken one, and that the Indians must be civilised and converted by humane and peaceful means.
The desired grant was finally made and consisted of two hundred and sixty leagues of coast between Paria and Santa Marta, inclusively, and extending inland in a direct line from its two extremities to the South Sea. The text of this grant, which Charles V. signed in Coruna on May 19, 1520, fills several chapters of the third part of the _Historia General de las Indias_.
All the necessary formalities having been complied with and all obstacles overcome, Las Casas was at last ready to launch his colonial venture.
Friends in Seville advanced him loans of money and others presented him with a quant.i.ty of article of trade, of small enough value in Spain but of great worth in the eyes of the Indians. The fifty men who were to adopt the white habit of the Knight of the Golden Spur had not been selected, but it was thought well to begin the settlement with labourers and perhaps to choose the candidates for the new knighthood from amongst the Spaniards already settled in the Indies. He sailed with his little company from San Lucar de Barrameda on November 11, 1520, and after an uneventful voyage reached the island of Puerto Rico, called by the Indians Boriquen, and first named San Juan by the Spaniards.
While Las Casas had been sustaining his long struggle in Spain in behalf of the Indians, a series of disastrous events had occurred in America, which created serious obstacles in the way of his scheme for colonisation.
In 1518 some Dominican and Franciscan friars had founded two convents on the Pearl Coast, the former at Chiribichi and the latter at Maracapana, some seven leagues distant at the mouth of the c.u.mana River and just opposite the island of Cubagua. These religious communities had established the most peaceful relations with all the Indians in their neighbourhood and the friars came and went with perfect freedom, being welcomed in all the villages. All went quietly until the arrival of one Alonzo de Ojeda, who came from Cubagua, engaged ostensibly in the pearl trade, but likewise in raiding for slaves. Pearl diving was as perilous and fatal an occupation for the Indians as the work in the mines of Hispaniola and Cuba, and such numbers had perished in Cubagua that it was necessary to replenish the vacancies by bringing others from the neighbouring mainland. When Ojeda landed at Chiribichi he repaired to the convent, where he found but one priest and a lay-brother, all the others being absent, preaching to the Spaniards in Cubagua. As he expressed a wish to see the cacique, Maraguey, the priest, thinking no evil, sent to invite the Indian to come to the monastery; on his arrival, Ojeda began to question him as to whether cannibalism was practised by any tribes in the neighbourhood, his answers being taken down on paper by a notary. The cacique declared that there were no cannibals thereabouts and, being displeased by the questions and alarmed by the formalities of ink and paper, he quickly withdrew. Ojeda next went to the convent at Maracapana, where the cacique, called Gil Gonzalez, came to meet him with every demonstration of friendship. Ojeda declared he had come to trade and wished to buy maize, and on the day following his arrival he left with fifteen of his men to go inland in search of the grain. Fifty Indians transported the loads from the interior to the coast, and while these bearers were resting, the Spaniards suddenly drew their weapons, killing some who tried to escape and forcing all the others on board their caravel. The effect of this act of unprovoked treachery in a peaceful settlement, where the Indians had received the newcomers with every hospitality as guests, may be easily imagined, and as was natural, Gil Gonzalez planned vengeance for the outrage. The scene at the convent whither the cacique of Chiribichi had been summoned by his friend the priest, and the impressive formality of the writing with pen and paper furnished by the priest, unfortunately identified the monks in the minds of the Indians with Ojeda and his exploits. The alarm was pa.s.sed all along the coast, and the Indians bided the moment for a favourable attack; nor had they long to wait, for Ojeda, accompanied by ten men, came on sh.o.r.e again on Sat.u.r.day as indifferently as though nothing had happened.
Gil Gonzalez affected to receive them in a friendly manner, but no sooner had they reached the village than the Indians fell upon them, killing Ojeda and several others, while the remainder barely succeeded in reaching the caravel. The Indians even went out in canoes to attack the vessel but were repulsed, and the Spaniards, setting sail, put to sea.
The defenceless friars remained, however, and at Chiribichi the priest, while vesting to say ma.s.s, and the lay-brother were both killed by the people of the cacique Maraguey and the convent was burned. So great was the fury of the Indians that they even killed a horse with which the monks worked in their garden.
The news of this ma.s.sacre reaching Hispaniola from the Spaniards at Cubagua, the royal Audiencia at once despatched a small force under Gonzalo de Ocampo to punish the Indians, and the disheartening news of these turbulent events was the greeting that met Las Casas on his arrival at Puerto Rico. Knowing that Ocampo"s armada would touch there on its way to the Pearl Coast, he determined to await its arrival, where in fact Ocampo appeared within a few days. Las Casas had been a neighbour of his in other days and, though he knew that his treatment of the Indians did not differ from that of the other colonists, he held him in some esteem.
He showed Ocampo his cedulas with the royal signature, which prohibited any Spaniards from landing, against his will, in the territory granted to him, and he formally required him to desist from his errand of vengeance.
Ocampo answered that, while he did not refuse obedience to the royal commands, he was in this instance acting under the orders of the royal Audiencia and was obliged to carry out the instructions he had received; the responsibility lay with the Audiencia, which would protect him from any consequences following the execution of its mandate.
Seeing that Ocampo was not to be stopped, Las Casas resolved to go himself to Hispaniola, show his powers to the Audiencia, and exact the recall of the fleet. Meanwhile he placed his colonists amongst the various planters of Puerto Rico, who were glad enough to welcome labourers, who were scarce in the island. This decision of Las Casas was a most mistaken one and was the outcome of an error of judgment which did not require the light of after events to make plain. More was certainly to be hoped from his presence on the spot, and from the influence he might exercise over Ocampo, than from anything he could obtain from the Audiencia, whose members were his bitterest enemies. It was, moreover, impossible for any counter-orders he might be able to wrest from the reluctant Audiencia, to reach the Pearl Coast in time to stop the action of Ocampo, and Las Casas does not even appear to have sought to detain the latter in Puerto Rico, pending the arrival of further instructions.
After dividing his colonists, who thus became scattered, and lost touch with him and with one another, Las Casas bought a vessel for five hundred dollars-an enormous sum at the time-in which he sailed for Hispaniola.
His arrival in Santo Domingo was most unwelcome and revived all the ancient odium of the colonists against him, for he was without doubt the best-hated man in America.
He presented his papers to the Governor, and a meeting of some ten officials, who composed what was termed the Consulta and dealt with local questions, was convoked to consider his demands. The first of these was, that the provisions of the royal grant to him should be formally published, according to custom, with sound of trumpet so that all the colonists might clearly understand the prohibition for any one to enter the territory conceded to him, without his permission, and that all Spaniards were commanded to treat the Indians humanely, and to keep faith with them in treaties and contracts under severe penalties at the King"s pleasure. Second he demanded that the Consulta should order all Spaniards to quit the territory of his concession, and should recall Ocampo forthwith, as the murder of the friars there had been provoked by the barbarous conduct of Ojeda.
As his previous experience might have taught him, the Consulta listened with gravity to his demands and permitted the proclamation of his cedulas, but when it came to taking any action to restrain Ocampo, reasons for delay were found and the matter dragged on without anything being accomplished.
It being to the interests of those colonists who were expecting a rich cargo of slaves to be brought back by Ocampo, from his punitive expedition, to hinder the departure of Las Casas and, if possible, to wreck his plans for colonising, divers means were invented to accomplish this object. A rumour was started that his five-hundred-dollar vessel was in a bad condition and unseaworthy; the authorities decided that this point must be investigated, so several persons were named to examine the boat and report on her condition. They did so, and promptly reported that the vessel was not merely unseaworthy, but was in such a state that no repairs would make her so, and that the only course was to dismantle her.
Thus Las Casas beheld his five hundred dollars vanish and himself a fixture in Hispaniola.
Meanwhile Ocampo had reached the Pearl Coast and, feigning to come directly from Spain with merchandise and to be entirely ignorant of the murder of Ojeda and the friars, he succeeded in luring the cacique Gil Gonzalez close to his ship, when a naked sailor dived overboard, grappled with the cacique in his canoe and finally stabbed and killed him. A landing was then made and the country raided with the usual accompaniment of murders, torturings, and capturing of the natives, many of whom were carried on board the vessels and sent back to Hispaniola, to be sold as slaves. Ocampo, with others of his followers who remained behind, founded a town, half a league up the c.u.mana River, which he named New Toledo.
The arrival of the slave cargo at Hispaniola where Las Casas was still engaged in altercations with the authorities, threw him into a terrible rage. He protested vehemently before the Audiencia against the deliberate and open violation of the royal commands, whose contents had been publicly proclaimed, and he threatened to return forthwith to Spain and lay the case before the King, from whom he would obtain the punishment of the authors of the outrage and their condemnation to pay all the expenses of Ocampo"s armada, which had been illegally charged to the Royal treasury.
n.o.body doubted that he was capable of executing his threat, and, since it was known that he enjoyed the protection of the all-powerful Flemings and was something of a favourite with the young King himself, the members of the Consulta and some of the princ.i.p.al men in the colony decided, after many discussions, that it would be well to appease the clerigo"s wrath and come to some arrangement with him for their mutual benefit. It was then proposed to form a company, in which there should be twenty-four shareholders, each of whom should contribute an identical sum and derive an equal profit from the undertaking on the Pearl Coast. Six of the shares should be a.s.signed to the Crown, six to Las Casas and his fifty knights of the Golden Spur, three to Admiral Diego Columbus, one to each of the four auditors of the Audiencia, and the remaining five to the treasurer Pasamonte and the other officials of the Audiencia.
This scheme was submitted to Las Casas, who must by that time have been well-nigh in despair, and, although it very materially changed his original plan, it offered the only possible means for carrying out his intentions, so he agreed to the formation of the company. The agreement upon which the company was based gave to Las Casas Ocampo"s armada with several brigantines and barques and all their contents, and he was to choose amongst the three hundred followers of Ocampo one hundred and twenty, who should const.i.tute the armed force of the new colony, under the latter"s command. This arrangement, so it was pretended, would leave Las Casas free to dedicate all his efforts to the conversion of the Indians.
The last article of the agreement was almost comical. It provided that when Las Casas himself should denounce any Indians as cannibals, the Spaniards should be bound to declare war against them and make slaves of them.
He afterwards wrote concerning the articles of agreement as follows:
"Great was the blindness or ignorance-if indeed it was not malice-of those gentlemen to believe that the clerigo would ever fulfil those horrible and absurd conditions, knowing him to be a good Christian, not covetous, and ready to die to liberate and help in saving those people from the condition in which they were held."
With his armada well equipped, and a plentiful supply of provisions and merchandise for trading purposes on board, Las Casas finally sailed from Hispaniola in July, 1521, directing his course first to the island of Mona, where a quant.i.ty of ca.s.sava bread was to be taken on board, and from thence to Puerto Rico, where he expected to collect his original colonists. On his arrival there, not one however, was found to join the expedition, as they had long since dispersed throughout the island or had joined marauding expeditions to capture Indians. This defection must have caused Las Casas great disappointment, for he had a.s.sembled these men with great care in Spain, choosing only such as he thought from their good character to be adapted for his ideal colony. The change which their new and strange surroundings had operated in these peaceful, simple folk was not unnatural; loosed from all the anchors that held them to habits of industry and probity, they found themselves caught in new currents; cupidity was awakened by the gold-fever that infected all the colonists, the pious projects with which they left Spain under the guidance of their apostolic leader were easily abandoned when the influence of his enthusiasm was withdrawn, and they took to the freebooting ways and easy morals of the colonists with whom they were thrown. Las Casas had neglected to realise that they were not angels.
On arriving at that part of the Pearl Coast called c.u.mana, it was found that Ocampo"s colony of New Toledo was already in the throes of discontent from hunger and disease; his men had begun by pressing the Indians into service, with the result that all the natives abandoned the country, leaving the Spaniards to starve. When it became known that those who chose might return to Hispaniola, every man of them declared he would go, so Las Casas was left with a few of his friends and some who were in his pay. Ocampo showed sincere regret and much sadness at abandoning his old friend, for whom, in spite of their differences, he had a sincere admiration, in such a plight. He took leave of him with many demonstrations of affection, and joining his men sailed away to Hispaniola.
Las Casas was now in his long-desired territory, but the material for starting his colony was sadly reduced.
CHAPTER XII. - THE IDEAL COLONY. FATE OF THE COLONISTS. FAILURE OF THE ENTERPRISE
Some time before the events just recounted, Franciscan friars from Picardy had been sent to the Pearl Coast by the Prior Pedro de Cordoba, under the leadership of Fray Juan Garceto, and this little community heard the news of Las Casas"s coming with profound joy. Upon his arrival, they came to meet him singing Te Deum Laudamus and Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. The convent was modest enough, being rudely constructed of wood and thatch, and the life of the friars in the midst of the vast wilderness about them was one of the most apostolic simplicity. The house stood about a musket-shot back from the c.u.mana River in a beautiful garden which, in such a climate, was not a difficult achievement. Las Casas built a large storehouse on one side of the garden for his trading merchandise and, through the friars and an Indian woman called Maria, who had learned Spanish, he published among the Indians that he had been sent by the new King of the Christians in Spain, and that henceforth there would be no more fighting, but all were to live together in peace and friendship. In order to attract them, he made them presents from his stores; but it was not unnatural that the diffidence of the Indians should yield but slowly to these blandishments after the deceptions of which they had been the victims, and besides, Las Casas could not trust his own dependents, but had to keep a sharp eye continually on them, to prevent them scandalising and offending the natives. Under such discouraging circ.u.mstances, progress was inevitably slow.
Not only were the Spaniards under his own control in little harmony with the spirit of his intentions and as refractory as they dared be to his orders, but the pearl fishers on the island of Cubagua, who were a typical lot of G.o.dless ruffians, frequently came to the mainland, with the valid excuse that the absence of sweet water on their island obliged them to fetch their supply from the c.u.mana River. These expeditions for water were usually accompanied by some disturbances with the Indians, some of whom were frequently captured and carried off to work in the pearl fisheries.
To put a stop to these incursions into his territory, Las Casas contracted with a mason, for eight dollars in gold per month, to build him a fort at the mouth of the river; but the people at Cubagua, hearing of this project which would interrupt and control their movements, contrived to so influence the mason that he threw up his contract and abandoned the work, thus leaving the country defenceless. The Cubaguans seduced and ruined the Indians, chiefly by offering them liquors and spirits, which have always proved the white man"s most attractive and destructive products to the savage and have ever gone in the vanguard of civilisation. The Indians gave everything they possessed for alcohol even selling their fellows as slaves, in exchange for wines; these they drank to inordinate excess, and in the fury of their debauch quarrels broke out amongst them which ended in murders and a state of the most riotous disorder, against which Las Casas and the monks struggled in vain. The strongest representations and protests were made to the alcalde of Cubagua, whither Las Casas went in person, but, far from producing the desired result, his efforts to protect his own territory only served to excite increased resentment on the part of his lawless neighbours, and neither his own life nor that of the Franciscans was any longer safe from the threatened reprisals of their hostile countrymen. The situation was one of the greatest gravity and even peril; instead of showing promise of improvement, it grew daily worse; for, though the men at Cubagua were somewhat restrained from venturing upon open acts of hostility directed against him since they had seen what powers the royal cedulas gave him, their ingenuity in devising vexations, inventing contrarieties, and creating obstacles which effectually nullified all his efforts, was extraordinarily fertile. Fray Juan Garceto was of the opinion that Las Casas should return to Hispaniola to complain to the Audiencia and demand that some effective restraint be exercised upon the Spaniards at Cubagua or, failing of success there, that he should even go to the King himself to obtain redress and the punishment of the offenders. This advice did not accord with Las Casas"s own view, for he had reason to know how difficult it was to obtain anything from the Audiencia and how easy it was to evade even the most explicit provisions of royal cedulas, when it suited the interest of those concerned to do so. His absence at such a critical moment would also remove the one effective restraint on the lawlessness of the Cubaguans and doubtless result in the total destruction of his stores, which were valued at fifty thousand castellanos. Two vessels were lying off the coast, loading salt for Hispaniola, and during the days previous to their sailing both Las Casas and Fray Juan gave themselves up to earnest prayer and each offered his daily ma.s.s to obtain some divine guidance as to the right course to pursue, since they were in absolute disagreement. Las Casas prepared a full statement of the situation, and a pet.i.tion asking the Audiencia to furnish the necessary remedy without delay, which he intended to despatch by one of the ship"s captains in case he did not go himself when the sailing day came. The last day finally arrived, and Fray Juan, after saying his ma.s.s, sought Las Casas and said, "It is your duty, sir, to go and on no account to stop here." "G.o.d knows," replied Las Casas, "how much this goes against my judgment and my wishes but, since it seems right to your Reverence, I am willing to do it; if it is an error, I would rather err by the judgment of another than be right by my own, for I hope in G.o.d." The wisdom of submitting his judgment as an act of religious humility in a matter concerning his own spiritual welfare would have been laudable, but Las Casas was far more qualified to judge on a question of policy affecting the welfare of his enterprise than was Fray Juan Garceto, and the responsibility for repeating the blunder he had made in Puerto Rico of abandoning his colony while he went off to protest to the Audiencia, must rest where it belongs-on his own shoulders-and not where he sought to put it-on those of the humble Franciscan. If somebody had to go-and it seems that the necessity was urgent-then Fray Juan had better have taken the letters and gone himself before the Audiencia, leaving Las Casas to withstand his enemies and keep his colony together as best he could, until the Audiencia despatched some authority to effectively restrain the Cubaguans. His resolution taken, in accordance with the friar"s inspiration, Las Casas appointed Francisco de Soto, a native of Olmedo, as captain during his absence and gave him full instructions for his guidance. It was especially impressed upon the captain that on no account should he permit the two vessels which the colony possessed to leave the harbour; he was to be on the alert and in case of open hostilities he was to load the merchandise on board if possible, but if not, then to save all his people and take refuge at Cubagua. Much preoccupied as to the fate of those he left behind and uncertain as to the wisdom of his course, Las Casas set out for Hispaniola, leaving all he possessed in the convent, save one box of his clothing and another containing some books.
It is ill.u.s.trative of the capricious and light-hearted spirit of disobedience to all authority, save what force imposed, which characterised Spanish officials in America, that the first thing De Soto did, before the ship bearing Las Casas was barely out of sight, was to send away his two vessels, one in one direction and the other in the opposite, to fish for pearls and, if possible, to capture Indians. The natives were in a state of unrest owing to the continual vexations of the people of Cubagua and also of Las Casas"s men who, as soon as he was gone, became almost as bad as the others. The beautiful speeches in which peace and justice and friendship were promised for the future, under the powerful protection of the new King of Spain, had resulted in nothing, and the last illusion of the Indians vanished with the disappearance of the ship that bore their protector towards Hispaniola. A general ma.s.sacre of the colony was concerted to take place about fifteen days after Las Casas left. The Franciscans got wind of it three days before the date fixed and though the Indian woman Maria, when asked, denied the plot in words, she conveyed to the friars by gestures that she had lied because the presence of other Indians intimidated her from telling the truth. A Spanish trading ship arrived in these days, but in spite of the colonists" prayers to be taken on board the captain refused, so the hapless men were left to their fate. At the last moment an effort was made to organise some defence and twelve or fourteen pieces of artillery were mounted around the storehouse, but when they came to examine the powder, it was found-oh, Spanish improvidence!-to be so damp that it was useless. At sunrise they thought to dry it, but they were too late, for with fierce war-whoops, the Indians were upon them; three of their number were killed and the store-house, in which the others had barricaded themselves, was set on fire. Fortunately there was a small door that gave access to the garden, through which they escaped from the burning building. De Soto, who had been out to reconnoitre the town was wounded with a poisoned arrow, but managed to reach the garden where the others were. The friars had constructed a ca.n.a.l through their garden leading to the river and on this they had a large Indian canoe capable of holding fifty persons. This canoe was now their sole hope of safety and everybody managed to get into it, save one unfortunate lay-brother who had taken refuge among some reeds along the bank and was only discovered after the canoe had pushed off.
Seeing his companions borne swiftly away on the saving current, he rose from his hiding-place with despairing gestures of appeal, but though every effort was made to reach him it was in vain, and he, poor man, seeing that his situation was hopeless, signalled to them with pathetic heroism to leave him and save themselves while they could. He was killed a few moments later when the Indians, not knowing of the egress into the garden and believing that all the Spaniards were inside the burning building, came round to the other side of the Storehouse. When they caught sight of the fugitives in the canoe, they quickly launched a swift pirogue and set out in pursuit of the canoe. The Spaniards had already doubled the point called Hraga and were a league down the river, but they were exhausted with hard rowing and the light pirogue of their pursuers gained so rapidly upon them that their only hope was to take refuge in the thick underbrush along the sh.o.r.e, where the Indians, being naked, could not penetrate on account of the thorns. The canoe and the pirogue touched land almost at the same time and not far from one another. Fray Juan afterwards recounted to Las Casas how he was overtaken by an Indian and, seeing the club raised to strike him, he threw himself on his knees, closed his eyes, and prepared for death; the blow did not fall, and on opening his eyes he found himself alone, with no Indian in sight. Finding it impossible to reach the Spaniards in their refuge in the th.o.r.n.y thicket, the Indians withdrew and the Christians, covered with blood from their many wounds, managed, though in a truly pitiable plight, to reach some boats which were loading salt not far off. It was then noticed for the first time that their captain, Francisco de Soto, was missing and, as some one remembered having seen him concealed under a great rock in the thicket, a boat was sent to look for him. After three days" search he was found, dying of thirst, and on being brought on board and given water, he finished himself by drinking to excess. Thus the author of all the mischief paid the penalty of his imprudence and disobedience with his life.
While the colonists were undergoing these sufferings, Las Casas found himself on board a vessel whose pilots, ignorant of the chart, carried him eighty leagues beyond the harbour of Hispaniola and wasted two months in beating against the currents to pa.s.s the little island La Beata. Seeing the hopeless incompetency of these men, he had himself put ash.o.r.e at the harbour of Jaquimo some twenty leagues lower down, from whence he could go on to Jaguana and so across the island to the city of Santo Domingo. The news of the disaster at c.u.mana had long since reached Hispaniola and Las Casas heard of it in the following manner, while journeying on foot across the island with several companions. One day, while he was taking his afternoon siesta under a tree, a party of travellers joined his companions, who enquired what news there was in Santo Domingo or from Spain. The newcomers answered that the only recent news was that of the murder of the clerigo Las Casas and all his colony at c.u.mana by the Indians. "We are witnesses to prove that that is impossible" replied the others, and the discussion which ensued awakened the clerigo who thus received the disheartening tidings, which he was inclined to believe, of the total destruction of his hopes. He afterwards attributed this catastrophe to his own weakness in allowing himself to be drawn into a partnership with G.o.dless men, whose sole object was to enrich themselves, by which he had offended G.o.d and merited punishment. He would have done better to keep to his original plan of forming a religious company of Knights of the Golden Spur, who, aided by the friars, would have embarked with him on the conversion of the natives without mingling any expectation of profitable trade with their project. The struggle for immediate and inordinate gain, in which the Spanish colonists were engaged, with its slave raids, extermination of the Indians by selling them alcoholic liquors and forcing them into the dangerous labours of mining and pearl diving, was incompatible with such a colony as Las Casas designed to found, and the agreement into which he entered with the Audiencia of Hispaniola was bound to wreck his projects.
Had the ability of Las Casas to direct his undertaking and to govern men been equal to his genius in the sphere of morals and intellect, and to the eloquence of his advocacy, the realisation of his ideal of justice and charity might have been a.s.sured. Certainly he contended against overwhelming odds in Spain, the Bishop of Burgos, who controlled American affairs, was implacably hostile; in America the colonial authorities and the entire population barring the friars and a possible handful of his friends, were vigilantly opposed to him; deceived and betrayed by his Squire Berrio, he was disobeyed by De Soto and abandoned by his colonists, while all hope of establishing friendly relations with the Indians in the territory conceded to him was annihilated by the Spaniards at Cubagua, whose aggressions kept the whole country in a state of alarm. These untoward conditions, which no foresight on his part could have avoided, were alone sufficient to explain the failure of his enterprise. His plans seem, however, to have involved a contradiction of a fundamental law of human progress which decrees the destruction of rudimentary forms of civilisation when brought into contact with a higher one. Neither humane civil legislation nor the higher principles of Christian charity have thus far served to save the weaker races of mankind from absorption or extermination. The fiercer and stronger tribes of American Indians receded before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of their territories, leaving a trail of blood behind them, while the weaker nations of the islands and Southern Americas went down before the Spaniards, with hardly more than a plaintive cry for mercy.
The price of civilisation is a high one, and as the peoples of Europe paid it, so were the aboriginal populations of America not exempted from the blood-tax. The obscure workings of the mysterious laws of race-survival were forced on and hastened by the cruelties against which Las Casas protested in vain, but the triumphal march of human progress has followed on. Cannibalism, idolatry, slavery, and other barbarisms have disappeared from the American continents; the Christian religion has replaced degrading superst.i.tions, agriculture and commerce flourish, while literature and the arts adorn life in the several republics, whose meanest citizen enjoys a security of life and property unknown to the proudest of their ancestors under the rule of Montezuma or the Incas. Belief in the principles of equity and charity forbids us to doubt that these and even n.o.bler results might have been achieved by the methods advocated by Las Casas, but history records no racial expansion along other roads than that opened by the sword.