WITH DIEGO COLUMBUS
The troubles of Las Casas, however, were not yet over, nor did the
opposition to his projects relax; on the contrary, the arrival at
Barcelona in 1519 of Fray Juan Quevedo, the first Bishop of Darien,
brought a new combatant into the field against him. On his way from
Darien to Spain, Quevedo had stopped in Cuba, where he had heard the
complaints of the enraged colonists, who declared that unless his mad
campaign against his fellow-countrymen was stopped Las Casas would ruin
the island, impoverish them all, and destroy every source of revenue. It
was thought that Diego Velasquez paid Quevedo to controvert the
representations of Las Casas and to plead the cause of the colonists at
Court. As he was a man of considerable weight and an excellent preacher,
Velasquez hoped he might win the King to his way of thinking. Arriving at
Court, thus prepared to advocate the interests of Velasquez and the
colonists, Quevedo was no mean antagonist. The first meeting between him
and Las Casas took place in the royal ante-chamber where, on being told
who the newly arrived prelate was, the clerigo approached saying, “My
lord, since I am interested in the Indies it is my duty to kiss your
hand.” The Bishop asked who the strange priest was and, on being told,
exclaimed with some arrogance, “Oh, Señor Casas! and what sermon have you
got to preach to us?” Had he known Las Casas better he would have adopted
other tactics, for the clerigo was not the kind of man to attack. He
answered: “Certainly, my lord, since some time I have wished to hear your
lordship preach, but I assure your lordship that I have a pair of sermons
ready, which if you wish to hear and consider them, may be worth more than
all the money you have brought from the Indies.”
This exchange of thinly veiled hostilities was cut short by the appearance
of the Bishop of Badajoz, who came out from audience with the King, and
took Quevedo off with him to dinner. To forestall any unfavourable
influence which Quevedo might seek to exercise on the Bishop of Badajoz,
who was friendly to Las Casas, the latter made a point of going after
dinner to the Bishop’s house, where he found an illustrious company
comprising, amongst others, the Admiral, Don Diego Columbus, playing
chequers. Somebody remarked that wheat was grown in Hispaniola, to which
Quevedo replied that it was impossible. Las Casas, who happened to have in
his pocket-book some specimen grains which he had gathered in the garden
of the monastery of St. Dominic, mildly observed, “It is certain, my lord,
for I have seen it of excellent quality in that island, and I may even
say, look at it yourself, for I have some with me.” The Bishop lost his
temper and answered with great asperity: “What do you know? This is like
the affairs you manage! What do you know about the matters you handle?”
“Are my affairs evil or unjust, my lord,” asked Las Casas. The Bishop
even more testily exclaimed, “What do you know, or what knowledge and
learning have you that you venture to handle these affairs?” Though
mindful not to annoy the Bishop of Badajoz, Las Casas let himself go
somewhat, and with something of Quevedo’s asperity replied that his
knowledge and learning might be even less than the Bishop conceded, but he
(the Bishop), instead of defending his flock against the tyranny of the
Spaniards, lived on their very flesh and blood, and that if he did not
restore to the last penny what he had squeezed out of them, he had no more
chance of salvation than had Judas. The host interfered to allay the
rising choler of his guests, and Las Casas shortly after withdrew. The
incident, however, had its consequences, for the Bishop of Badajoz related
the occurrence to the King, who, thinking that a polemical tournament
between Las Casas and Quevedo in the royal presence might be something
worth hearing, ordered that both should appear before him three days
later, to debate the subject. A Franciscan friar, newly arrived from the
Indies, where he had witnessed the state of things, happened along just
then and sought out Las Casas to express his full sympathy with the
latter’s efforts on behalf of the natives. The Franciscan began a series
of sermons at a church near the palace, to which a number of the Flemings
listened, afterwards reporting their impressions to the King. His Majesty
therefore commanded that the monk should also be present on the occasion
of the discussion between Las Casas and Quevedo. The appearance of the
Franciscan, was not to Quevedo’s liking, and he somewhat tartly remarked
to him that the Court was no place for monks, who had much better be in
their cells. As the Bishop himself was of the same Order, the monk aptly
retorted that he was of the like opinion and that “all of us monks would
be better off in our cells.” Quevedo seems to have rarely come out ahead
in the verbal skirmishes his choleric temper prompted him to provoke.
The account given by Las Casas of the debate before the King gives us a
good picture of the stately ceremonial observed at the Court of Charles V.
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 Chièvres, 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
Chièvres 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 classical 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 God 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 Chièvres
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 Chièvres 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 God 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 God by so doing.” The chief point in
the Bishop’s discourse which he controverted, was the assertion 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 pass 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 glass, 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 petition 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.