The India Council, over which the Bishop of Burgos presided, was composed at that time of Hernando de la Vega, Grand Commander of Castile, Don Garcia de Padilla, the licentiate Zapata, Pedro Martyr de Angleria, and Francisco de los Cobos who was then just rising into prominence. Las Casas was excluded, and though he was as busy as ever in laying petitions and memorials before the Council, he had no friends or protectors inside and consequently obtained nothing, save what they were obliged for very shame's sake to concede him. Discouragement was too alien to his sanguine temperament, else he might, with some show of reason, have abandoned all hope of struggling successfully against such odds. The first decisive measure of the Bishop was to recall the Jeronymite fathers from their mission in the Indies, of which he had from the outset been the determined opponent. It has often been justly observed that the vicissitudes of politics make strange bed-fellows, and it was certainly a singular regrouping of the persons in this historical situation, to find the Jeronymites now reduced to seeking out Las Casas to whom to pour out their woes against the mutual enemy, the Bishop of Burgos.
CHAPTER VIII. - MONSIEUR DE LAXAO. COLONISATION PROJECTS. RECRUITING EMIGRANTS.
While matters were at the low ebb described in the preceding chapter, the appearance of a new and unexpected character on the scene brought Las Casas some welcome assistance. Although his chief support had been his good friend, the deceased Chancellor, the other Flemings in the royal household were, on that account first of all, interested in him and the cause he so ardently pleaded. Amongst these unpopular foreigners was Monsieur de la Mure, who, being attracted to Las Casas by what he heard of him, expressed a desire to several of his friends to make the clerigo's acquaintance. This wish was soon gratified, and the young courtier's interest in all that concerned the Indians and the proposed measures for the reform of the colonies was quickly satisfied by Las Casas, who furnished him with a full history of the business he had in hand. The least impressionable of men could not listen to such an advocate unmoved, and M. de la Mure, profoundly affected by what he heard, offered to help his new friend by every means he could command. He was an ally worth having, for, being a nephew of Monsieur de Laxao, [pg 113] sommeiller du corps to the King, he was able to introduce Las Casas to his powerful uncle, who stood in closer relation to the monarch than any other officer of the court, for he slept in the royal bedchamber.
Monsieur de Laxao was as quickly won over to the good cause as his nephew had been, so Las Casas, finding himself once more with powerful supporters, renewed his efforts to press his business to a conclusion. Some wholesome activity was displayed in dispatching various officials to take the residencia, of the several governors of the islands, Rodrigo de Figueroa being sent to Hispaniola, Doctor de la Gama to Puerto Rico and Cuba, and Lope de Sosa to Darien, where he was also to succeed the actual Governor, Pedro Arias de Avila. The Council, acting upon reports which described the natives of Trinidad as cannibals, ordered that war should be made upon them, but Las Casas denied this charge, and contrived that Figueroa should be authorised to first investigate and report on this matter before hostilities began; Figueroa's report was entirely favourable to the natives, amongst whom he found no cannibalism.
As the Dominicans in Hispaniola were ignorant of the progress of events at court and the loss sustained by Las Casas through the death of the Chancellor, they still conceived him to enjoy great influence. The Prior, Pedro de Cordoba, wrote him a detailed description of some recent atrocities perpetrated by the Spaniards in Trinidad where they had gone to fish for pearls; manifesting also [pg 114] dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Jeronymites. He therefore begged Las Casas to obtain from the King a grant for the Franciscan and Dominican monks of one hundred leagues of coast on the mainland about Cumaná, from which laymen should be excluded; should one hundred leagues be thought excessive, then he begged for ten, and failing this he would accept the small islands known as the Alonso group, which lay some fifteen leagues from the coast. His intention was to establish a place of refuge, or sanctuary, to which the persecuted Indians might repair, sure of finding kind treatment, and, through instruction, be converted to Christianity. The Prior declared that unless some one of these concessions was made, he would have to recall all the monks of his Order from those countries, where it was idle for them to attempt to teach Christian doctrines, as long as the Indians saw those who called themselves Christians acting in open violation of them. The contents of this letter vexed and alarmed Las Casas not a little, for he feared that if the Prior were driven to make good his threat of recalling his monks, the Indians would be abandoned, without defence, to the cruelties of the Spaniards and would soon be exterminated. His one hope of support in his own plans lay in the Dominicans, without whose aid his efforts were foredoomed to failure. He spoke to the Bishop and the members of the Council, reading them the letter and addressing earnest appeals to them to stop the iniquities which were devastating the entire coast. He urged, with all the arguments of [pg 115] which he was master, that the one hundred leagues asked for should be conceded. The Bishop of Burgos was unmoved, both by the Prior's harrowing description of the outrages committed on the Indians and by the appeal of Las Casas, and he coolly answered that the King would be badly advised to grant a hundred leagues of land to the friars, without some return therefor; a reply which Las Casas observes was unworthy of a successor of the Apostles. Poor as the Bishop was in episcopal qualities, he was even less gifted with those which make a good minister of colonial affairs, and the results of his thirty-five years of control of Indian affairs were as unprofitable to the Spanish Crown as they were disastrous to the Indians.
Las Casas did not hesitate to express his opinion to the Bishop with his customary uncompromising frankness, but with no result, save probably that of confirming his stubborn and hostile attitude.
Perceiving that no argument which did not promise lucrative returns would avail to secure a grant of territory, the clerigo evolved a plan that promised to secure the ends for which he and the Dominicans were striving and, at the same time, would assure a profitable investment for the Crown.
In spite of the Bishop's continued opposition, Las Casas pushed forward his plan for colonising, and though the Chancellor's death was a great loss to him, he nevertheless found in Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht and other Flemings, every possible assistance. He was named royal chaplain in order to give him additional prestige before the public, and letters [pg 116] were sent throughout the kingdom to the principal civil and ecclesiastical authorities, ordering some and inviting others to aid him by every means in their power to collect the desired emigrants. The officials of India House in Seville were instructed to receive and attend to those intending to emigrate under Las Casas, when they arrived in Seville; they were likewise directed to prepare the necessary ships to transport them to America. It was necessary that Las Casas should be accompanied on his recruiting tour through the country by some trustworthy man to help him in enrolling his emigrants, and, as fate would have it, his choice fell most unfortunately upon one Berrio, an Italian, a circumstance which Las Casas afterwards observed was, in itself, sufficient to explain his treachery. Berrio was to act as herald, publishing in the different cities, with sound of trumpet, the object of Las Casas's visit, the high powers he held from the King, and the favourable conditions he offered. To give his assistant more dignity in the eyes of the people Las Casas procured for him the designation of Captain in the royal service, with a salary of four hundred and five maravedis per day.