During the eight years that Las Casas had spent in the convent, many important events had taken place in the New World. Cortez had conquered Mexico, Alvarado had conquered Guatemala, Pedrarias had overrun and laid waste Nicaragua, and Pizarro had commenced his conquest of Peru.
About 1528 Las Casas went once more to Spain, to obtain a decree from the King which should prevent the Indians of Peru from being enslaved. While there he preached several times at court, with the old fiery zeal and eloquence. He obtained the royal order and returned with it to Hispaniola. A new prior was about to be sent to the monastery of San Domingo, in Mexico, and with him went Las Casas, intending to go on to Peru, with some brothers of the order, not only to make known the royal commands with regard to the Indians but to found convents in that country. However, this turned out to be impracticable, and after a short stay the party returned to Nicaragua.
King Charles had desired the Bishop of Nicaragua to establish monasteries in his diocese. The arrival of Las Casas and his two companions presenting the opportunity of carrying out the King's wish, the bishop begged them to stay with him, and they consented, and began at once to learn the language of the country.
But Las Casas got into difficulties with the governor by stirring up a formidable opposition to him and preventing him from undertaking an expedition into the interior, which he desired to make. The clerico had good reason for this course, for the most outrageous cruelties had been practiced against the Indians in that province, and he tells us that it had been known to happen that when a body of four thousand Indians had gone with such an expedition to carry burdens, but six returned alive, and that often when an Indian was sick or overcome with weariness and want of food, and could not go on, in order to get the chain free (for they went chained together), his head was cut off and his body thrown aside, without the necessity of stopping the train.
About this time the Bishop of Nicaragua died, and the Bishop of Guatemala urged Las Casas to come into his diocese, as he had only one priest to help him. The feud with the governor having become more violent than ever, it seemed wise to accept this invitation. Therefore, abandoning the convent he had established, Las Casas with all his brethren went into Guatemala, making their home for a time at Santiago, in a convent that had stood vacant for six years.
CHAPTER IX
THE LAND OF WAR
The first thing these four missionaries,—Las Casas, Luis Cancer, Pedro de Angula, and Rodrigo de Larada,—had to do was to learn the language of the country, which was called the Quichi. It was no easy task, for none of them were young,—Las Casas, their prior, being now sixty-one years of age. The Bishop of Guatemala, a great scholar, was their teacher, and day after day this little company of monks might have been seen, sitting with the Bishop, like boys at school, learning conjugations and declensions.