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LAS CASAS
"THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIES"
[Illustration: BARTHOLOME DE LAS CASAS _Frontispiece_]
LAS CASAS
"_The_ APOSTLE _of the_ INDIES"
BY
ALICE J. KNIGHT
DEACONESS IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF AMERICA
[Illustration]
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
TO
MY FRIEND AND BISHOP,
THE RIGHT REVEREND
ROBERT LEWIS PADDOCK, D.D.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD 7
CHAPTER
I BARTOLOME THE YOUTH 9
II A BIT OF HISTORY 14
III A NEW WORLD 18
IV A NEW LIFE 28
V DISAPPOINTMENTS 36
VI THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR 42
VII THE PEARL COAST 48
VIII THE CLOISTER 59
IX THE LAND OF WAR 64
X BISHOP OF CHIAPA 72
XI REVOLT IN CHIAPA 83
XII AT COURT 95
FOREWORD
Early American history is full of interest and romance. Great figures
move across the scene. Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Alvarado,
Pizarro,--every schoolboy is familiar with their names and deeds. But
one man there is that stands out conspicuously among these heroes of
discovery and conquest, one not bent on fame and glory, not possessed of
that greed for gold that led to so much ruthless cruelty toward the
natives of the New World,--a man consumed with one burning desire: to
spend himself in the service of others, to protect and save the weak and
helpless. What he himself might suffer in the performance of this work
mattered not at all.
Strange that to so many even the name of this man is unknown! Yet for
more than fifty years no one either in all the New World or in Spain was
more prominently before the eyes of all than was Las Casas, the great
"Apostle of the Indies." Not only as a missionary, but as an historian,
a philanthropist, a man of business, a ruler in the Church, he towers
above even the notable men of that most remarkable time. His noble,
self-denying, heroic life, spent in untiring service to God and man, is
an inspiration and an example much needed in this materialistic,
money-getting, ease-loving age.
ALICE J. KNIGHT.
HOOD RIVER, OREGON.
_June, 1917._
LAS CASAS
CHAPTER I
BARTOLOME THE YOUTH
Whenever we hear of a famous man,--whether he be artist, author,
statesman, soldier, scientist, great traveler, or missionary,--we like
to know what sort of a boy he was. We are curious about his home, his
school, his parents, his friends, and all the various influences that
helped to make him the man he was. Such knowledge gives us a better
understanding of his after life, and a fuller sympathy with his aims and
achievements.
Although I have headed this chapter "Bartolome the Youth," we know
comparatively little of Las Casas until he was about twenty-eight years
old. In later life we find him impetuous, loving, tireless in energy,
with a fiery temper that blazed out in quick wrath against all injustice
and cruelty toward the weak and helpless, possessing a brilliant mind
and great talents, never giving up striving against the wrong, and never
knowing when he was beaten. These qualities he must have possessed in
some measure as a boy, but, unfortunately, no historian has opened up
for us those early pages.
Bartolome was born in the city of Seville, Spain, in the year 1474. We
are not told the day of the month. Of his mother we know nothing, but
his father was Pedro de Casaus. He was of French descent, but the family
had lived in Spain for over two hundred years, and because of valuable
aid given to one of the Spanish kings in the wars against the Moors,
they had been ennobled, and after a time the name lost its French
spelling and took the Spanish form, Las Casas.
Bartolome certainly lived in very interesting times. When he was between
eighteen and nineteen years of age Columbus came to Seville on his
return from his first voyage, which resulted in the discovery of the
West India Islands. He brought with him many strange and wonderful
things,--birds of brilliant color, such as had never been seen before,
gold and pearls, and, most wonderful of all, six Indians. We can imagine
the crowds of people who must have followed that little procession as it
passed through the streets of the city, pushing and crowding one another
to get a sight of the great Admiral and the men who had sailed with him
over unknown waters, and especially of the painted red men, who were, I
am sure, quite as curious on their part, and probably badly frightened
besides.
It is difficult for us to understand now how much courage it took in
those times to put to sea in frail little caravels, which were all the
adventurer had, and go sailing over the waste of waters, not knowing
what was ahead of him, or if he would ever find land on the other side.
The rude maps of that day still showed a great Sea of Darkness. Dragons
and all sorts of frightful sea-monsters were pictured in the unexplored
parts of the ocean, and the popular idea was that if the daring mariner
should sail too far over the slope of the round globe, he might be drawn
by force of gravitation into a fiery gulf and never come back to his
friends again. So the men that thus ventured were heroes in the eyes of
the people. Never had such a voyage been heard of as the great Admiral
had made, and all, from the King and Queen to the little street boys,
were eager to hear about it.
Although he does not mention it, it is probable that Las Casas often saw
Columbus in his father's house. Pedro de Casas, Bartolome's father, and
his uncle, Francisco de Penalosa, both went out with the Admiral on his
second voyage. Columbus had then been made Viceroy of the Indies, and
Bartolome's father was on his staff, while his uncle commanded the
soldiers. One of the Indians that Columbus brought home from the first
expedition he gave to Pedro de Casas, but the good Queen would not allow
these Indians to be kept as slaves, and insisted that they should be
sent back at once. All six had been baptized at Barcelona, with the King
and Queen,--Ferdinand and Isabella,--as godfather and godmother; and
when, soon after this, one of them died, people said he was the first
Indian to go to Heaven.
Bartolome's uncle remained in the Indies for three years, and returning,
shortly afterward died in battle with the Moors. His father did not come
home until 1500.
While his father and uncle were away, Bartolome was studying at the
famous university of Salamanca, where he took his degree as doctor of
laws just previous to his father's return.
Very naturally, now that his education was finished, the young man's
thoughts turned to the Indies. He seems to have gone out, as did the
other colonists, with the idea of making money. Wealth and power
appeared very desirable things to possess. How little he dreamed of the
future that was before him! He knew not that the time was coming when he
should give up all that he had,--money, time, strength, and
talents,--for the sake of the great, deathless principles of liberty,
justice, and mercy. All unknowing, he was to enter a fight that would
last his life long and cost him all that he held dear while struggling
to protect the gentle, helpless natives of the New World from the
cruelty and oppression of the Spaniards, until he should come to be
called Las Casas "The Protector of the Indians." He had marked out one
path for himself; God was to point out to him quite a different one. It
is good to know that he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."