The coast of Caraccas which extends for an immense length, is
exceedingly rocky and mountainous, affording views of some of the most
tremendous precipices in the world, that near the capital, called the
_Precipice of the Silla_, being of the height of 8000 feet above the
sea, which washes its base.
The chain of the Andes, traversing the whole territory in the direction
of its shores, elevates itself the most in the western parts; and is
lost in the sea opposite to the great island of Trinidad, which is
itself very mountainous.
The average height of the Cordillera of Caraccas may be estimated at
4500 feet, though it occasionally exceeds 8000; its breadth varies
from ten to twenty leagues, and it forms some extensive and beautiful
valleys. Owing to this elevation of the land, the heat is not so
insupportable as might be imagined from its situation; along the coast
it is very great; but ascending gradually into the higher regions, the
traveller finds it sensibly diminish, and observes with delight, the
vegetable productions of different countries, concentrated in a small
space. The great valley or plain of the Orinoco bounds the Cordillera
to the south, and far from possessing those elevated lands which
characterise the southern portion of the New World, Nature has here
spread the country into immense flats, or savannahs, known by the name
of Los Llanos (the Plains).
In these plains innumerable herds of cattle are fed, attended by the
slaves or servants of the owners, who reside in the towns and villages.
These people, living entirely in the desert, have become little better
than so many wandering savages; they pass the greater part of their
time on horseback, and are said to infest the roads on the borders
of the savannahs with their robberies. The heat in the valley of the
Orinoco is intense, the thermometer rising even to 115°.
The seasons are divided into rainy and dry, the rainy season lasting
from March to November, not however, without ceasing, as there are
many days in that period, in which no rain falls; during the time of
incessant rain, it does not descend in drizzling misty showers, but
comes with such volume and rapidity, that streams, which have been
dried to their very channels, now assume in the short space of a
few hours, the appearance of large rivers; the plains bordering the
Orinoco, and its tributary streams, are inundated by seas of fresh
water extending three or four hundred miles in length.
_Rivers._--There is no country in the world which possesses more
numerous rivers than Caraccas, most of which rise in the Andes and its
dependent branches; every valley is traversed by its river; the ridge
which divides the provinces as it were into two distinct portions,
furnishes abundance of sources on both its declivities. Those which
arise on the northern side of this ridge, run from south to north, and
fall into the bosom of the Spanish main. Of these the _Manzanares_,
_Tuy_, _Guiges_, _Tocuyo_, _Aroa_, _Yaracuy_, _Unara_ and _Neveri_,
are the largest.
The southern flank and main chain of the Andes afford rivers which
traverse the great Llanos in a southern direction, and swell, by their
junction with the Orinoco, the majestic body of that grand river; of
these, the _Mamo_, _Pariagou_, _Pao_, _Chivita_, _Zoa_, _Cachimamo_,
_Arauca_, _Capanaparo_, _Sinaruco_, the _Apura_ and the _Meta_,
are the principal; and the _Parima_, _Siaba_, _Joa Parana_ and the
_Cassiquiari_, fall into this river on its southern bank, the latter
forming a communication with the still more majestic stream of the
Maranon.
The ORINOCO, or ORONOCO, is not only amongst the largest, but the
finest of South American rivers, and is chiefly distinguished by its
very singular and intricate course. Its sources are not well known,
but according to La Cruz, it rises in a small lake called Ipava, in 5°
5' north-latitude, and thence winding upon itself, enters the lake of
Parima to the south-east, and issues by two outlets towards the north
and south; on the western shores of the lake; receiving the Guaviara,
it bends north, then north-east, and embracing the Meta, the Apura, the
Arauca, and the other large streams above-mentioned, with thousands of
smaller ones, falls into the Atlantic ocean, by numerous estuaries,
opposite the island of Trinidad, its chief mouth being considerably
to the south-east of that island. This noble river communicates with
the Maranon, and it is supposed, that a stream called the Siaba flows
from the south-west of the lake Parima into the Negro, and that to the
south-east of the same lake, the Rio Blanco, or Parima, joins the Rio
Negro also, this last communicating with the Maranon by means of the
Joa Parana.
The river Cassiquiari, long conjectured to be a strong branch of the
Orinoco, but now known to be an arm of the Negro, communicates also
with the Amazons, its streams having been visited by M. de Humboldt,
who encountered great perils in the undertaking, by the force of the
current and other obstacles. The whole country for 300 miles was a
complete desert, in which the ants and mosquitoes were so exceedingly
troublesome as almost to deter the traveller from proceeding. He
entered the Orinoco, by the Cassiquiari in 3° 30' north-latitude, and
mounted the current of the great river as far as Esmeraldas, the last
Spanish settlement in that quarter. The mouths of the Orinoco are very
dangerous to navigators; the largest is six leagues in width, and seven
of them are navigable for large vessels. The isles formed by these
are of very great extent, and are inhabited by the _Guaraounos_ and
_Mariusos_ Indians. On the banks of the Orinoco the magnificence of
the scenery is beyond description. Forests of the greatest extent are
filled with aromatic trees, which diffuse the most delightful odour;
birds of every singular variety of beautiful plumage are everywhere
observed, and hordes of monkeys follow the astonished traveller.
Passing these forests, enormous plains extend their verdant surfaces
further than the eye can reach, and the cataracts of the Orinoco give
their name to the whole Cordillera, and are represented to be the most
tremendous that have ever been observed; but no good description of
these falls has yet been given, though they constitute the only outlets
from the country situated on the east of the Andes to the vast plains
of the Maranon. These cataracts are at Maypura and Atures, two villages
in about 6° north-latitude, near the great bend of the river.
The periodical inundation of the Orinoco begins in April and ceases in
August; in October the flood is low, arriving at its shallowest point
in February; the rise is equal to thirteen fathoms at the distance of
ninety leagues from the ocean. The mouth of the great estuary is in 8°
30' north-latitude, and 59° 50' west longitude.
The caymans, or alligators, are very numerous, and very formidable
throughout its whole length, which may be estimated at about 1250 miles.
_Indians._--On the banks of the Orinoco the Indian tribes are not
numerous, consisting only of from 500 to 2000 warriors each; of these,
the _Caribs_ are the most powerful as well as the most formidable. The
_Otomacs_ follow them, and all are nearly in the same state of nature.
In this part of the Caraccas, the total number of the natives cannot
be accurately ascertained; but in the province of New Andalusia, they
amount to 24,000, and in the two provinces of Barcelona and Cumana to
60,000. In Cumana they live almost wholly under the missionaries in
little towns or amongst the Europeans, each mission containing about
five or six hundred. In the province of Barcelona, the Indian villages
contain from two to even three thousand inhabitants. The _Guaraounoes_,
who inhabit the islands of the Orinoco, are independent of the
Spaniards, and amount to about six thousand.
To the north of the Orinoco, there are few natives in a state of
absolute barbarism; it is only to the south of this river that the
efforts of missionaries have been ineffectual.
The provinces of New Andalusia and Barcelona contain fourteen tribes,
the _Chaymas_, _Guayquerias_, _Pariagotoes_, _Quaquas_, _Araucas_,
_Caribbees_, _Guaraounoes_, _Cumanagotoes_, _Palenkas_, _Piritoos_,
_Tomoozas_, _Topocuares_, _Chacopatas_, and _Guarivas._
The _Guayquerias_, who are civilized Indians residing at Cumana and
Araya, amount to 2000.
The Chaymas, the Caribs of the Savannahs, and the Cumanagotoes, are
the most numerous. A few, and only a few, of the savages of the
islands of the Orinoco, who build their huts on trees, have been
formed into missions on the left bank of the Orinoco. These four last
possess languages which are the most universal in this part of the
world, the Cumanogoto language prevailing in the western part of the
captain-generalship, and the Caribbean and Chayman in the southern and
eastern districts.
The missions are not always formed of the same tribe, but often consist
of families of different nations, speaking different languages; they
all cultivate the land, their huts are all erected in the same style,
and they have all a common field for the uses of the community, and
are governed by fixed laws; the magistrates are chosen from among
themselves, and each village is superintended in its religious and
civil affairs by a monk.
The _Chaymas_ were reduced to subjection in the seventeenth century,
by Francisco of Pamplona, a monk who had been the captain of a ship;
and the oldest mission bears its date from 1660. Of these there are at
present twenty-five, containing 15,000 souls. They suffered much from
1681 to 1720 from the Caribs, who burnt the settlements.
In stature, the natives of this tribe are short, being not more than
five feet two inches, their body thick, with broad shoulders and
flat chest, their colour a dull brown, and they are of a melancholic
temperament.
They have a great aversion to European clothing, and remain naked
whilst in their houses, but when obliged to go out, they put on a vest
with sleeves, which reaches almost to the knees; the women wear this
habit without the sleeves, and both sexes use a narrow bandage tied
round the loins: they also carefully eradicate the hair from the chin,
and are a neat people, keeping their persons, houses and utensils very
clean.
Their language, as well as those of the Caribs and Cumanagotoes, has
each had a dictionary composed for the use of the missionaries; no word
begins with _l_, and it is destitute of _f_, _b_ and _d_.
The _Pariagotoes_ are mixed with the Chaymas, in the missions; and
exist in the villages on the banks of the Caroni. They speak a language
peculiar to themselves.
The _Guaraounoes_ build their huts on the trunks of the mangrove and
palm trees, to raise them above the waters in the great inundations
of the Orinoco; as we before observed, they are independent, with the
exception of a very few, who have been converted by the monks. Sir
Walter Raleigh describes them under the names of Aroottes, Trititivas
and Warawites. They make their bread of the flour extracted from the
palm tree, which they cut down for this purpose, just previous to the
appearance of the flowers.
Five or six hundred of this race quitted the islands a short time
ago, and formed two villages on the north and south banks of the
great river, twenty-five leagues distant from the sea, where they
live independent of the missionaries. They are of a middle size, and
very strong, and are able to run on the mud of the marshes, where no
other Indians can walk. These people are the pilots of the Orinoco,
possessing a perfect knowledge of its navigation, and are concerned in
the clandestine commerce carried on from Trinidad.
The _Guayquerias_ will be described in speaking of the town of Cumana
which they chiefly inhabit.
A tribe called the _Quaquas_ are mixed with the Chaymas in the
missions, and inhabit an immense tract of country as far as the main
Cordilleras of the Andes.
The _Cumanagotoes_, to the amount of 26,000, live in the west of
Cumana, in the missions of Piritoo. The chief mission of the Piritoos
(so called on account of a thorny palm of which pipes are made) was
founded in 1556, and was named La Conception.
In this country, the _Caribbees_ are spread over a great extent,
existing also in French Guyana, and in Trinidad; and the Guarivas, as
well as many others, are Carib tribes. A few missions are found in the
great plains, in which some of these people are settled. The Caribs
are distinguished in the Caraccas by their great size.
A tribe on the banks of the Orinoco, named the _Otomacs_, raise their
dead at the end of twelve months, and place the bones in a general
burying place; they cover their grain, fish, vegetables, &c., with
earth, to preserve them, and devour their food mingled with the soil
in which it has lain. The substances become quite hard in these pits,
by the incrustations of the soil, and some of them are said to eat
a pound and a half of the earth in a day. The Indians of all these
tribes, who prefer a wandering life to the subjected state of their
brethren in the missions, are frequently attacked in the night by the
monks and their followers, and made prisoners. When the missionaries
give the young people to the converted Indians as slaves, in which
capacity they remain until of an age to marry, in consequence of this,
the mission Indians frequently instigate the priests to attack these
unfortunate people, being eager to possess them. Those who are thus
taken are called Poitos, and in general consist only of children, torn
with unrelenting severity from the arms of their terrified parents. The
motive assigned by the monks for such arbitrary measures, is the hope
of their ultimate conversion.
_Lakes_--The lakes of Caraccas are chiefly those of Valencia and
Maracaybo. _Maracaybo_ is a body of water of an oval form, lying in a
north and south direction, and communicating with the gulf of Venezuela
by a very narrow channel. In length it is 150 miles, in breadth 90,
and 450 in circumference; its waters being always fresh, excepting
when violent storms force the salt waters of the gulf into it. There
is generally a considerable undulation on its surface, and in some
winds, particularly those from the north, the waves rise to a great
height. The depth of this lake is very profound, and it is navigable
for vessels of the greatest burthen.
The produce of the interior is conveyed by the rivers which feed it, to
the town of Maracaybo, and thence shipped for Europe or the adjoining
colonies; and the various sorts of fish, common to the American rivers,
are to be found in this lake.
The shores in the immediate vicinity of its waters, are unhealthy,
owing to the vapours arising in the night after the great heat of the
day.
When the Spaniards first landed in this country, they observed several
villages built in the lake, which is the mode adopted by the Indians at
present, considering this plan as the healthiest.
The appearance of one of these little towns amid the waters, caused the
Spanish adventurers to name it Little Venice, or Venezuela, which title
was afterwards transferred to the whole province in the neighbourhood.
Four of these villages still remain, and are under the government of a
monk, who has a church, and the spiritual charge of these people.
The principal employment of the Indians of these towns is fishing and
catching the aquatic birds which frequent the lake.
To the north-west of Lake Maracaybo, is a vein, or mine of mineral
pitch, (used by mixing it with grease, to grave vessels,) which is
of such an inflammable nature, that during the hot weather, and
particularly at night, corruscations are seen arising from its surface,
which have the appearance of quickly repeated lightnings. The Indians
and Spaniards, who navigate the vessels and canoes of the lake, called
them St. Antony's Lanthorns, or the Lanthorns of Maracaybo, as they
serve them to steer by during the dark nights, so prevalent in the
torrid zone.
The lake of _Valencia_, which though not so extensive as the last we
have described, is far more beautiful and useful. Its banks are fertile
and healthy, and clothed with the most luxurious vegetation. It is
situated three miles from the city of Valencia, and eighteen from the
sea, from which it is separated by inaccessible mountains; the lake of
Valencia is of an oblong form, stretching north-east and south-west,
and is forty miles in length and twelve in breadth, in a valley
surrounded by very high and steep land, excepting on the west.
This extraordinary lake receives the waters of twenty rivers, and has
no visible outlet. It has been diminishing for twenty years, and its
waters are still receding, leaving behind them a rich and productive
soil, but at the same time an unhealthy air; and the cultivators are in
some parts under the necessity, from the want of water, of drawing off
the neighbouring streams to irrigate their plantations.
The eastern side is laid out in tobacco grounds, which occupy 15,000
people, who are paid by the crown; and the islands in which it abounds
are highly fertile, the largest called Caratapona, being well populated.
The woods near this lake are famous for the diversity and beauty of the
birds, and its waters furnish fish, and the guanas, or edible lizard,
which are considered as a very delicious food; of these, two species
are common to the lake. The water of Lake Valencia is not so good for
drinking as that of Maracaybo, being thick and nauseous.
This lake bears the Indian name of Tacarigua, as does a bay or lake on
the coast, which is situated a league and a half from the mouth of the
river Tuy, of a circular form, and is twenty-one miles in length from
the sea on the north-east to the south-east, it abounds in fish, and is
remarkable for the great number of alligators it contains.
The lake of _Parina_, or _Paranapitinca_, in Guiana is said to be an
oblong sheet of water, 100 miles in length, and 50 broad, in an island
of which is a rock of glittering mica, celebrated as having been the
seat of El Dorado, a supposititious city, the streets of which were
paved with gold, alluded to by Milton in his Paradise Lost.
"And yet unspoil'd Guiana
Whose great city Geryon's sons
Call El Dorado."
This lake is in 3° 40' north latitude, and 45° 20' west longitude, and
gives birth to a large river, called Rio Blanco, or Parima, which we
have before spoken of.
_PROVINCE OF NEW ANDALUSIA._
This province, which is also known by the names of Cumana and Paria, is
bounded on the north by the Caribbean sea; on the east by the Atlantic
ocean; west by Barcelona, and south by Spanish Guiana, or the river
Orinoco.
The government of Cumana usually includes the adjacent province of New
Barcelona. We shall therefore describe these two under the same head,
mentioning however the distinct boundaries of--
_NEW BARCELONA_,
Which is limited on the north by the Caribbean sea; east by Cumana;
west by Venezuela, or Caraccas Proper, and south by Guiana and the
Orinoco.
The great extent of the territory of Cumana and Barcelona, its being
washed on two of its sides by the ocean, and by the broad expanse
of the Orinoco on the third, render it one of the most important
governments of the captain-generalship.
_History, &c._--The eastern part of New Andalusia is famous as having
been the scene of the first continental discoveries of Columbus. The
mouths of the Orinoco and the adjacent shores of Paria were visited
by him during his third voyage. The first land discovered during
this expedition, was however not the continent, but the island of
Trinidad, which was so named because the admiral had vowed to give the
appellation of the Trinity to the first land he should see, and also
because three mountains were observed at the same moment. This happened
on Tuesday, 31st July, 1498, and having but one cask of water left, he
landed at Punta de la Playa, where he procured the necessary supply.
On the 1st of August, whilst plying between Cape de la Galera (the
first cape they made) and Punta de la Playa, he discovered the main
land twenty-five leagues distant; but imagining it another island,
he named it Isla Santa. The channel between Trinidad and Isla Santa
was named Boca del Sierpe, and the next day he sailed into the lower
channel, and called it Boca del Drago. They were so styled on account
of the furious hissing noise which the current of an immense river
made in rushing towards the ocean. He coasted the supposed island
until Sunday, the 5th of August, when he anchored and went on shore.
Soon afterwards he took some of the natives into his ship, and landing
further to the west, by the direction of these people, discovered that
the supposed island was part of an immense continent, and that the
natives called it Paria.
Being informed that pearls were found in great abundance among some
islands to the west, he steered in that direction, and discovered the
islands of Margarita, or of Pearls, Cubagua, and Los Testigos, or the
Witnesses, &c. On the 16th of August he stood to the north-west, and
anchored on the coast of Hispaniola soon afterwards.
The admiral was followed by Ojeda, in 1499, who traced the coast as
far as Cape de la Vela, entering several ports to procure information.
Christoval Guerra, accompanied by Pedro Nino, who had been with
Columbus on this coast, obtained a licence to explore the continent and
islands for gold and pearls. They procured plenty of the latter in the
bay of pearls, between Margarita and the main, and visited the coasts
of Venezuela and Coro.
Having got 1200 ounces of very fine pearls, these adventurers sailed
back, along the shore to the gulf of Paria, whence they stretched over
for Spain, in which country they arrived on the 6th of February, 1500.
Vicente Yanez Pinzon having discovered the mouth of the great Maranon
in 1500, sailed northwards from it, and explored the estuary of the
Orinoco, and the coast of Paria, from which he sailed for St. Domingo,
having first laden his vessels with Brazil wood.
The report of the arrival of Guerra, with such a valuable cargo, soon
spread over the whole kingdom of Spain; and expeditions were fitted out
in every part for the American continent. Charles the Fifth gave these
adventurers permission to enslave the Indians who should resist them;
in consequence of this, avarice and rapacity soon made a dreadful havoc
among these unfortunate people; a complaint of these proceedings at
last reached the royal audience of St. Domingo, which court immediately
took measures to punish the offenders. They appointed Juan Ampues, to
the government of the country, who landed on the coast of Curiana, in
1527, with an armed force.
The mildness of his measures gained him the affections of the Indians,
and the cacique of the Curiana nation took the oath of allegiance to
Spain, on the 26th of July, 1527.--This governor laid the foundation of
the city of Coro.
At this time the company of the Welsers, a German establishment of
Augsburgh, having advanced great sums to Charles the Fifth, that
Emperor granted them, at their earnest request, the sovereignty of the
province of Venezuela from Cape Vela, to Maracapna, and with unlimited
boundaries to the south. Their power did not last long, and Juan Perez
de Tolosa was appointed governor, with the rank of captain-general. New
laws were made, and the Indians were declared free from involuntary
servitude; as soon as a nation or tribe was subjected, a town was
built, and a hundred Europeans were sent to colonize it. The laws of
the repartimientos and encomiendos were established, and every thing
went on properly at first, but the settlers abusing their authority
over the natives, these laws were repealed, and Spanish America was
declared a kingdom united to the Spanish crown. The council of the
Indies was formed at Madrid, the legislative functions were declared to
be vested solely in the king, aided by this council, and the executive
was to belong only to officers appointed by the court; accordingly, on
the 4th of September, 1519, this act was decreed and promulgated, since
which Caraccas has been governed by a captain-general, and subordinate
officers.
In treating of Cumana we must not omit mentioning the history of
the visit paid to this coast by Las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa in
Guatimala. BARTOLEMEO DE LAS CASAS who was born at Seville in 1474,
and when only nineteen years of age, accompanied his father and
Columbus to the west Indies, returning to Spain after an absence
of five years, took the habit of a monk, and again embarked with
Columbus to Hispaniola; on the settling of Cuba, he was appointed
rector of Zaguarama, where he strenuously objected against reducing
the Indians to servitude, at the same time relinquishing his own share
in the partition of these people among the whites. Meeting with great
opposition, on account of his determined resistance to the oppression
of the aborigines, he set out for Spain in 1516, for the purpose of
laying the grievances, under which the newly-discovered nations
laboured, before the King. Ferdinand promised that new laws should be
made, but death prevented his resolves from being put into execution;
Las Casas then applied to Cardinal Ximenes the regent, and that
minister sent out three commissioners to enquire into the circumstances
of the case. These three persons were monks of St. Jerome, and were
accompanied by a lawyer of great abilities, and Las Casas, who was
granted the title of "Protector of the Indians."
On their arrival at St. Domingo, these commissioners finding it
impossible to do away with the enslavement of the Indians at once, they
adopted some salutary measures to better their condition. Las Casas
remonstrated with them, but found his efforts useless, and as he had
made all the planters his enemies, he saw himself under the necessity
of retreating to the protection of the convent from the effects of
their malignity. He again set out for Spain, with a determination not
to abandon the cause in which he had embarked. Ximenes being on his
death-bed, and the Emperor Charles the Fifth having appointed his
Flemish ministers to the chief offices of state, Las Casas was obliged
to endeavour to interest them in his favour; in this he succeeded, and
they recalled the monks of St. Jerome, and appointed a judge to examine
the complaints of the Indians with ample powers to redress them.
But Las Casas here tarnished the glory he would otherwise have enjoyed
unsullied. To carry his favourite scheme the more certainly into
execution, he proposed that a certain number of negroes should be
purchased from the Portuguese in Africa, to replace the Indians who
were to be liberated. His plans, unfortunately for the poor Africans,
were adopted, and ever since that period these degraded people have
suffered the most galling servitude, which it is now the delight of
an Englishman to know, that his nation have stepped forward to put a
lasting stop to; and the reign of the Prince Regent, would, independent
of the brilliant events which have rendered it immortal, have been
remembered, to the remotest ages by this magnanimous act alone. The
emperor Charles granted a patent to one of his Flemish courtiers,
containing the exclusive right of sending 4000 negroes to the West
Indies; this patent was sold to Genoese merchants for 25,000 ducats,
and these people have the odium of being the first who brought this
abominable traffic to a regular form. Las Casas proposed also to send
mechanics and labourers to Hispaniola with the negroes, who should be
allowed an advance to go thither; but the bishop of Burgos, who was the
great enemy of Columbus and his followers, defeated this project, as
well as every other that Las Casas offered.
Fearful that he should not succeed in relieving the Indians in the new
settlements, he requested from the Emperor the grant of a district,
then unoccupied, from the gulf of Paria to Cape de la Vela, thus
including Cumana, Barcelona, Venezuela, Coro, and Maracaybo. In his
memorial, he proposed settling this country with a colony of priests,
husbandmen, and labourers; he engaged in two years, to instruct the
natives in the arts of social life; to civilize 10,000 of them, and
that at the end of that time, the king should derive a revenue of
15,000 ducats, which was to increase to 50,000 in ten years. After much
difficulty, in consequence of the opposition of the meddling bishop,
this extent of coast was granted to him, with liberty to extend it
indefinitely into the interior. He sailed from Spain with 200 followers
in 1521. Many of these left him at Puerto Rico, others died, and he
landed on the coast of Cumana, with a few only who still adhered to
him; here he found the country in a state of great agitation from a
recent invasion of the Spanish islanders, who had attacked the natives,
for the purposes of procuring slaves and gold. He was obliged to go
over to Hispaniola to procure a reinforcement, and during his absence,
the Indians attacked the colony he had planted, destroyed many of the
people, and forced the remnant to take refuge in the little isle of
Cubagua.
This isle they soon abandoned, and not a Spaniard was then left in any
part of the continent from Paria to Darien. Las Casas, mortified beyond
every thing, by the failure of his splendid schemes, shut himself up
in the Dominican convent at Hispaniola. Here he devoted himself to the
performance of religious duties, still keeping in mind the great object
of his ambition. The sufferings of the Indians increasing daily, and
a chapter of his order at Chiapa in New Spain, having made him their
messenger to Europe, on some important affairs, he once more revisited
Madrid in 1542, and took a favourable opportunity of pleading the cause
of the injured Indians before Charles V. He also composed a treatise,
which he called "A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indians;"
in which was painted, in the most pathetic and forcible manner, the
enormities which had taken place in every country of the New World
which the Spaniards had visited.
This work created the most lively sensations throughout Europe, and
such a general abhorrence of the cruel measures of the adventurers,
that the Spanish court thought fit to adopt some measures to silence
the universal clamour. New regulations were adopted, some of which
tended to ameliorate the condition of the unfortunate Americans; and
Las Casas was elevated to the dignity of bishop of Chiapa, in order to
afford every relief in the power of the church to bestow.
He returned to America in 1544, and continued in this see until 1551,
exerting himself in every possible manner to attain the object of his
wishes; in which he succeeded greatly, but his health failing in 1551,
he resigned his bishopric, and once more revisited his native country;
in the same year, and for five years subsequent to his return, he lived
in Madrid, still exerting all his influence to consolidate the measures
which had been taken for the prosperity of the people to whom he was so
much attached; at last nature became worn out, and this indefatigable,
and benevolent man, closed his career in 1556, in the 92d year of his
age.
Besides the work alluded to above, he wrote several others, among
which, is a "General History of the Indies," of which Antonio de
Herrera is said to have availed himself in the compilation of his
celebrated history of the New World.