COLONIES. ARRIVAL IN CHIAPA
Before sailing to take possession of his diocese, Las Casas addressed the
following letter of farewell to Prince Philip (afterwards Philip II.),
then governing in the name of the Emperor, his father:
VERY HIGH AND VERY POTENT LORD: I received two letters simultaneously from
Your Highness: the date of the last was April 1st and accompanying it was
the Royal cedula concerning the passage from Hispaniola to Honduras for
the monks whom Your Highness is sending to those provinces. For all of
which I kiss your Royal hands and for your kindness in granting that the
bulls should be sent so promptly as to reach me in time to serve at my
consecration, which, by divine grace, took place here in San Pablo on
Passion Sunday as I already wrote Your Highness the day after. I trust to
God our Lord that this dignity, to which, by divine Providence, our lord
and sovereign the Emperor has elevated me, despite any unworthiness and
inability to support it, may prove a sufficient instrument for better
fulfilling my old desires to do the will of God, of which God has deigned
to make use in those countries. It is His will that His Holy Faith should
be preached and that the beings he has created and redeemed should know
Him and that His predestined ones should be saved and His Majesty and Your
Highness receive great services. Concerning the two hundred and fifty
ducats which Your Highness granted me, the officials of this house have
not yet obtained them, but I hope they will seek them and supply them in
the end, though it may be with difficulty, because everybody is aware that
His Majesty has no money in this house and that so many demands daily
arise that there is not a man who will lend a maravedi to His Majesty. In
truth, this is very injurious to His Majesty’s service and to the
greatness of his imperial State, because, according as his enemies learn
that this house is rich or is in want of money—so will they either fear
him or presume to cause him annoyances. In order that this house should
always enjoy confidence to guarantee the above mentioned, it seems that
Your Highness ought to command that, just as they keep account of what is
spent in keeping an army and in feeding those who are actually in
attendance, night and day, on the royal and imperial person of His Majesty
and on Your Highness, so also should it be provided that when this house
has a surplus of twenty or thirty thousand ducats, it should be reported
to have one or two hundred thousand. Such sums should never, on account
of any other necessity, be lacking here, for they would be useful for many
things and by the credit they would give, the greatest wants could be met.
I shall report, as Your Highness ordered, the number and names of the
friars now sailing, as soon as we are all united, God willing, at San
Lucar.
Up to now I think we have forty-three. I am in hopes of more going from
this province, from which we have seven or eight. But all those who are
going, do not want to separate from those who come from Castile or to go
to any other part of the Indies except where the latter do: the men from
here are very virtuous and religious people. The number I have said we
have here would have been greater, had not some six or eight of those whom
we brought from Castile stayed behind. I think that some were afraid and
others were detained by reasonable obstacles: the latter, we hope will
follow us when the causes are removed. I beg Your Highness to order the
Provincial, who is now appointed to this province and who was formerly
Prior of San Pablo in Valladolid, a true servant of God, and very zealous
for God’s honour and for the salvation of the Indians, to be induced to
continually send monks to those parts, as I firmly believe he will amply
comply.
This house of San Pablo in Seville being very necessary for the religious
Your Highness will be sending to the Indies, and having great expenses on
account of the poverty and want of this city, where everything costs a
third more than in Valladolid—which is frightful—I humbly beseech Your
Highness always to remember it by gifts and by such alms as it may be
possible to bestow on it: especially out of the funds of the dead. For I
hold it to be as necessary to give alms to the house, and just as
beneficial to the souls of the dead—to whom the fund belongs—as it is to
give for the maintenance of the friars who go to preach the gospel in
those parts where the deceased unrighteously amassed the riches they left
behind them. Your Highness may believe that the protection and good
treatment shown here to the friars, tend to dispel their fears of the
labours which friars in the Indies usually sustain. Without such
encouragement everything would be just the contrary, and some would be
frightened and discouraged, as has heretofore happened. Certainly, up to
the present, great have been the care and comfort that our companions,
servants of God, have received here from the provincial and the prior.
Twenty or twenty-two have been given shelter here. I therefore beg Your
Highness to bear this in mind, should there be an occasion in the future
to grant them any favour or alms. In this city and throughout Andalusia
there is a large number of Indians held unjustly as slaves; and when the
licentiate Gregorio Lopez was here by order of His Majesty, they kept many
Indians imprisoned after the order was given for their release, some being
hidden and others taken into the country and elsewhere. I have even been
told by a man who knows—to clear his conscience—that there was a great
deal of bribery and corruption among wicked people, who used three or four
or ten ducats to outrage God, stealing the liberty of the Indians and thus
leaving many in perpetual slavery: they also hid the truth by threatening
the Indians who showed themselves and by other means, such as withholding
facts from the licentiate Gregorio Lopez which he could not divine, but
which should have been told him. The only remedy for such injustices,
according to the officials of this house who are very good people as far
as I can see and who have consciences, is that Your Highness should order
to be proclaimed throughout Andalusia that all those who have Indians must
bring or send them to this house within a certain time, otherwise they
shall all be considered as free; adding other penalties for noncompliance.
According to the provision made by His Majesty, there should be an
immediate settlement of the pretensions of those who allege a title by
purchase, which allows them to hold an Indian as a slave until it is
ascertained from whom he was first acquired; for they stole them all and
sold them when they arrived here. Any such Indian should not remain in
their possession but should be placed where he could earn enough to clothe
himself and save sufficient to return to his country—because they subject
him to a thousand oppressions and cruelties. I have seen things of that
sort daily since my arrival. San Pablo is crowded with Indians who think
that I can take them or can relieve their captivity and the torments they
suffer. And their masters, discovering this by their absence promptly
beat them and put them in irons, even those whom the licentiate Gregorio
Lopez left neither in slavery nor free. Not to prolong this letter, I do
not relate many other things to Your Highness.
I likewise beg Your Highness to order some relief that is final and not
indefinite, for the men who were thus left neither slaves nor free:
because I do not know what relief it can be considered, to leave them
neither free nor slaves until they die; for meanwhile, they are daily
treated worse and worse by those who call them slaves and dogs, because
they consider that the licentiate Gregorio Lopez approved of their
captivity, etc., tying their hands the more tightly. I have seen what I
state ever since I came here. Your Highness would both laugh at and
abominate the spice dealers of this city, who barter spices for Indians
and for gold (as it is they who mostly own them), and their fierceness in
making war on the Indians, that makes them to seem like dummy lions,
painted. What I wish Your Highness would do to protect all such Indians
as are left neither slaves or freemen and all who are bound in any way,
would be to oblige their owners to exhibit a receipt of the sale: because
it is clear to every one, save to those whose perceptions God has allowed
to be weakened by their malice, audacity, and ambition, that there has
never been a war in all the Indies for which there was any real authority
given by His Majesty or by his royal predecessors. The royal instructions
on this point have never been heeded, as I have seen and on my conscience
affirm, and as all those violaters admit. Consequently, as there was
never just cause, it follows that all the wars were unjust and that no
Indians could have been justly enslaved: all the more so since the
Spaniards attacked them in time of peace and captured millions of them.
This being the real truth, Your Highness should order that all such owners
be obliged to prove the title of him who sold any such Indian, and so on
back till the first one who stole or treacherously captured him is
unearthed. In the meantime the Indians should be taken from them and
placed as above indicated, all of which should be done within a limited
time, so that the legal proceedings would not last eternally; and when
they are finished the said Indian should be declared free.
But what I would take on my conscience and would answer for to God on my
deathbed is, that Your Highness should proclaim throughout this kingdom
that all the Indians here must be free—because in truth they are just as
free as I am. In this Casa de Contractacion, outside its judges and
officials such as the treasurer, accountant, and agents, who seem to me to
be those I have mentioned above, and some few minor officials, I see there
is little zeal or kindness for the Indians, and I observe such
disinclination to accomplish anything in their favour, that however small
may be the pendulum, they work it with as much effort as though it were a
tower they had to move.
Truly I think Your Highness must order everything to be done gratis and
willingly;—or if not, then pay somebody who will do it. There is very
great need here for somebody to help these poor Indians, being as they
are, in great want and more than miserable, because they do not know how
to ask for justice. They have been so intimidated and thrust down into the
very abyss that they dare not complain. I do not find a single man who
will take pity on them: but on the contrary, every on persecutes,
terrorizes, and despises them. And I am sure God will execute justice and
exact vengeance for all this. It would be well if Your Highness would
order a salary to be paid some man who would act as their lawyer in the
House, commanding all necessary authority to be attached to his office,
and that the officials should help him in it. If it is necessary to
consult His Majesty for this, do not let these poor wretches suffer for
want of protection as they have always done. There is a porter in this
House, a good man who, according to what I have seen and the officials
told me, has repeatedly taken pity on them, and I beseech Your Highness to
grant me and all the Indians the favour of ordering him to be appointed as
protector of all the Indians in this Kingdom and of their affairs in this
House, authorising him to report all the happenings of any importance to
Your Highness and to the Royal Council of the Indies. Let this power be
given to Diego Collantes, porter of the said House; and to ensure his
using it the more faithfully until Your Highness pleases to grant him a
salary, I will pay him twenty ducats yearly, so that he may do his duty in
the said office. The truth is, that although he is a good man, the
position needs a man with much more authority but for the present he would
suffice. Juan de la Quadra, who was secretary to the licentiate Gregorio
Lopez while he was here, spoke to me about these matters. He seems to me
an honest, upright person and one who feels deeply the crimes committed in
this city against the Indians. He is writing to Your Highness on the
subject and I beseech Your Highness to order some remedy provided for the
actual necessities. He informs me that he is writing in the sense of what
I said above.
The licentiate Bartolomé Ortiz did not bring his Indians to be registered
within the period intimated to him and says that he protested against the
sentence before this Royal Council, also with regard to other Indians whom
he held as slaves, despite the fact that they were free. Amongst these
was an Indian woman who was beyond question free, and had been declared
free by Gregorio Lopez, who left orders for her to be sent at the
licentiate’s expense to the island of Cuba from whence he brought her.
Ortiz also appealed from this decision. As I asked that she might now be
given the letter and order of Your Highness permitting her to return with
this fleet, Ortiz presented a statement showing that his case was at
present in appeal before this Royal Council.
I beseech Your Highness not to permit these appeals and delays in cases
which are favourable to the liberty of the Indians and of everybody in the
world, because there will be no end to them nor will a single Indian ever
obtain his liberty. I beg that Your Highness will order this Indian woman
and the others to be liberated and allowed to return to their country.
It is indeed a great weight on my conscience to leave the Indians in this
country, because, as they only mix with servants and other unmanageable
and vicious persons and see the taverns full of loose people, without
order or restraint, and other public places full of bad examples, it must
happen that they, being human, will follow the example of their
companions. In their own country, on the contrary, they live much better
than here, even if there are not so many Christians. I beseech Your
Highness to issue such orders that not one man of them may remain here.
It would also be well if Your Highness ordered an explanation of the
proclamation that you commanded to be published throughout all the Indies,
prohibiting the officials of India House from receiving Indians into this
kingdom: also instructions as to what they must do to forbid this traffic,
under penalty of death, to ship captains and sailors, so that no one would
dare to bring an Indian, nor allow one to be brought here. Let them know
that they are forewarned in such cases.
Thinking there was nothing doubtful in the cedulas Your Highness sent for
the departure of these religious I did not care to exhibit the cedula
until the very end, in case we took besides the forty, an excess of
stores, etc. Now that I have shown it to the officials, they maintain
that, as it does not expressly state that those above the number of forty
should be provided for out of the funds of the dead, but from the money in
the charge of the treasurers, they do not intend to provide for more than
the forty, lest they should have to pay out of their own pockets. I
beseech Your Highness graciously to order this settled at once, so that we
shall not be forced to leave behind the religious we hope to embark, in
addition to the forty. And let this be done soon, for we are only waiting
for good weather. The heavy rains which have fallen daily have prevented
the launching of two or three of the vessels. To-day the river from its
source has abated. Our Lord prosper and grant a long and happy life to
Your Highness. Amen. Seville 20th April 1544. Your humble servant who
kisses Your Royal hands.
To-night the following occurred—an Indian came to me complaining that
notwithstanding his certificate of freedom, given him by Gregorio Lopez,
his owner kept him in slavery and treated him worse than a slave, sending
him out with a donkey to carry and sell water. He showed me his
certificate of freedom, in the presence of ten or twelve monks. I told
him to go to-day to the Casa de Contractacion so that its officials might
correct the abuse, and I sent a servant with him to show him the
building—because if his master found out, he would keep him until he
called in the officials. Finally his owner discovered him and took the
letter and tore it up. He said “bring chains and put them on this dog.”
The Indian escaped through a window and they cried after him, “Thief,
thief,” so that somebody down below came and beat him, and stabbed him in
the jaw. He managed to reach a place where some of my servants were, and
they are trying to cure him: but he is dying. One of my servants went to
the assistant to tell him what had happened, but the latter answered that
he was not astonished that people killed the Indians, because they stole
and did much harm. I beg Your Highness to note how destitute they are of
any pity. With judges so cruelly unjust and tyrannical, Your Highness may
imagine what sort of things happen over there [in the colonies] with the
Spaniards against the Indians, when they dare do these things in Seville
where, the other day a judge ordered an Indian to be stabbed to death.
FRAY BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS, BISHOP OF CHIAPA.
The voyage began badly, for the _San Salvador_ was poorly ballasted and
only arrived at Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, after considerable
difficulty and danger, on the 19th of July, and was detained there for ten
days until the ship was made seaworthy. Some of the friars who were
unfamiliar with sea-voyages conceived such mistrust of the _San Salvador_
that they refused to again go aboard her, so it was necessary to
distribute these nineteen timid souls amongst the other ships. The 30th of
July saw the fleet again at sea, and the voyage to Hispaniola continued
without any untoward incident, until the 9th of September, when they
arrived in the harbour of Santo Domingo, where the same vessel on which
Las Casas and the twenty-seven friars were, ran on a rock and came near
being wrecked in sight of land: hardly was this disaster surmounted when
she collided with another of the ships to the imminent peril of both,
though, fortunately, with no great injury to either.
The Dominicans in Santo Domingo conducted the Bishop and his friars in
solemn procession to the convent, where Te Deum Laudamus was sung.
In striking contrast to this affectionate reception was that which awaited
him from the colonists. The New Laws were regarded as the ruin of the
colonies and Las Casas was universally considered the inspirer, if not
actually the framer of these laws, hence the indignation and hatred of the
Spaniards against him and all Dominicans was at fever heat: meetings were
held, in which it was resolved to boycott the friars and refuse them all
alms or assistance. Seeing the odium he had unwittingly wrought upon his
hosts, the Bishop was inclined to leave their convent and go to the
Franciscans, but this was rightly considered as likely to spread the
antagonism which had so far manifested itself against the Dominicans only.
Even before things had reached this point, Las Casas had already written
Prince Philip on the 15th of September, denouncing the cruelties which
still went on unchecked and mentioning by name a number of officials who
were unworthy to occupy the positions they held, because of the grave
abuses they committed and tolerated.
On September 10th a letter which shows the state of public feeling towards
the New Laws and the new Bishop was addressed to the Emperor by the
principal colonists of Nicaragua.
The signers avow their surprise that their twenty-five or thirty years of
services to the Crown should be rewarded by seeing their children
disinherited, and declare that if the New Laws are put in force, despite
their cries to high heaven for justice, it will only remain for many of
them to die. Las Casas is denounced as an envious, vainglorious, and
turbulent monk, who has been expelled from every colony in the Indies and
whom even no monastery can tolerate. He is charged with bringing ruin on
large numbers of people, solely because revengeful motives prompt him to
injure certain individuals. It is also pointed out that he knows nothing
about affairs in New Spain and the mainland, having spent all his life in
Cuba and the islands.
However much Las Casas may have deplored the feeling his presence provoked
and especially the rancour he had stirred up against his brethren, whose
only offence lay in giving him hospitality, he did not allow his regrets
on this score to arrest or modify the steps he intended to take to enforce
obedience to the New Laws. Shortly after his arrival, he presented copies
of the laws and of the other royal ordinances which he carried, to the
Audiencia, asking that, in accordance with their provisions, all Indians
then held in slavery should be liberated. Although the President,
Cerrato, supported him, the other members of the Audiencia were one and
all opposed. According to the current phrase, they agreed to _obey_ the
law, but declared they could not _comply_ with it. They all held slaves
themselves and the only result of the action of Las Casas was, that they
sent their representatives to Spain to procure some reform in the more
obnoxious articles of the code.
The presence of Las Casas in Hispaniola infused new courage into the
Dominicans, who had been discouraged in recent years by the difficulty and
hopelessness of contending against public opinion on the subject of the
Indians and had consequently ceased to preach and agitate in their favour:
some members of the community had even been affected by the prevalent
opinion that the Indians were really a race of a different order, servile
by nature, and destined by Providence to a life of subjection to their
superiors. Learned arguments were found to sustain this opinion. The
well-known chapters of Aristotle’s _Politics_ were quoted, the Scriptures
were drawn upon, and, as not infrequently happens, many good men adopted
the easier line of not contending with the views of the rich and powerful.
There now ensued a sort of revival of the old enthusiasm in the defence of
the natives; sermons were preached which stirred up great wrath and
provoked protest from the authorities. It was easy to adopt reprisals on
the friars, and the colonists did not hesitate to do so, refusing alms and
supplies to the convents. Threats of violence, even of shooting Fray
Tomas Casillas, whose sermons had been particularly offensive, were not
wanting, though fortunately they were not executed. The friars were
reduced to the last extremity and, but for the charity of some few
sympathisers and the generous aid of the Franciscan monks who fed them,
they would have found themselves in want of the absolute necessaries of
life in the midst of a hostile populace. At this juncture a notable
conversion was effected by their preaching; a widow named Solano, who was
reputed the richest person in the colony, came one day to the convent and
declared that she was convinced of the truth of all the preachers had
expounded concerning the iniquity of slavery and that she had in
consequence resolved, not only to liberate her two hundred and more
slaves, but to make restitution of her tainted wealth in as far as she
could, by transferring her plantations to the Order, as her awakened
conscience forbade her enjoyment of it. This event stirred the entire
colony profoundly, and as the action of the friars was so clearly contrary
to their own temporal interests as to place the sincerity of their
convictions and the purity of their motive beyond question, a certain
revulsion in public sentiment began to manifest itself. It is not recorded
that anybody else followed the widow’s example, but such a change was
operated in the disposition of the better class of people that when the
time for Las Casas and his friars to leave arrived, regret for their
departure was expressed on all sides. On December 14th they embarked on
what proved to be a long and tempestuous voyage, attended by many and
great dangers; owing to the ignorance of the pilot, the Bishop himself had
to take the wheel. Christmas was celebrated at sea, and it was not until
the fifth of January that they finally landed at the port of Lazaro on the
coast of Campeche. The first episcopal function performed by the Bishop
in his new diocese was the pontifical celebration of the vigil and mass of
the Epiphany, during which he delivered an earnest discourse on the one
theme that furnished material for all his sermons and writings—the
injustice and sin of slavery and the obligation resting on all Christian
Spaniards to liberate their slaves in conformity with the laws of the
Emperor, and to provide for their humane treatment and conversion,
according to the law of God.