The Bishop's efforts to exclude Las Casas and the Franciscan being thus defeated, for it was impossible for him to insist further, he began as follows: “Most potent lord, the Catholic King, your grandfather (may he rest in holy glory) commanded the construction of an armada to go and make settlements on the mainland of the Indies and solicited our very Holy Father to create me Bishop of that first settlement; besides the time occupied in coming and going, I have been there five years, and as a numerous company went and we only had provisions enough for the journey, all the rest of our people died of hunger: the remainder of us who survived, in order to escape the fate of the others, have done nothing during all that time but rob and kill and eat. As I perceived that that country was going to perdition and that its first governor was bad and the second worse, I determined to return and report these things to our King and Lord in whom is all the hope of a remedy. As for the Indians, judging by the accounts of those in that country whence I come, and those of others whom I saw on my way, they are a natura slaves.” The remainder of this speech has not been preserved, but the opening of it was singular enough, considering that it was delivered by the advocate of the colonists and one of the bitterest opponents of Las Casas. [pg 146] At its conclusion the ceremony of taking the royal orders was repeated and the Chancellor commanded Micer Bartholomew in the King's name to speak.
The speech which Las Casas then delivered is given, in part, in the third part of his Historia General. [38] In it he declared that he had accepted his vocation not to please the King but to serve God and that he renounced, once for all, any temporal honour or favour his Majesty might ever wish to confer upon him. A remarkably bold sentence followed: “It is positive, speaking with all the respect and reverence due to so great a King and Lord, that I would not move from here to that corner to serve your Majesty, saving my fidelity as a subject, unless I thought and believed I would render service to God by so doing.” The chief point in the Bishop's discourse which he controverted, was the assertion that the Indians were by nature slaves. He was supported throughout, and especially on this point, by the Franciscan; and even the Admiral Diego Columbus, who had himself held encomiendas and whose renowned father had indeed initiated the very abuses which were being denounced, bore witness to the truth of his statements and the weight of his arguments. When Las Casas had finished, Quevedo, who expressed his wish to reply, was notified that anything further he had to say must be submitted in writing. This closed the audience and the King withdrew.
In conformity with the King's order that his [pg 147] answer to Las Casas should be presented in writing the Bishop of Darien prepared two statements, one of which set forth all the various abuses and the destruction caused by the Spaniards in that colony, while the other contained suggestions for remedying those evils; one of these remedies was the prohibition of the customary raids amongst the Indian tribes and the other was that the peaceable Indians should be induced to live in villages where they might be taught, and also pay some tribute to the Crown. The Bishop's view of the lamentable state of things in the colony, his condemnation of the violent conduct of the Spaniards, and his opinion that it was urgent to introduce a new system for regulating the relations between the colonists and natives seem not to have differed from those of Las Casas himself, and both the corrective measures he proposed met with the latter's hearty approval. These memorials were first read by the Bishop to the Chancellor and M. Laxao, both of whom were highly satisfied to discover such unexpected conformity with the representations of their friend the clerigo. When asked by them what he thought of Las Casas's projects, the Bishop replied that he found them excellent and most just.
This singular conversion of the Bishop of Darien from a formidable opponent into a supporter, delighted Las Casas, who, when the Chancellor showed him the two memorials, asked for a pen that he too might sign them, saying: “Did I ever tell your lordship more than the Bishop has here admitted? What greater cruelties, murders, and destruction [pg 148] in that country have I ever reported to your lordship than these?”
What influence worked upon Quevedo does not appear; whether he perceived that the King looked with sympathy on the enthusiastic Las Casas and that the latter was high in favour with the important Flemish group at Court and therefore sure to carry his point, and so decided, as a practised courtier, to pass over to the winning side, or whether under his choleric exterior there was a chord that responded to the sufferings of the obscure Indians in their miseries, and a sense of justice that was outraged by the rapacious cruelty of his countrymen, we have no means of knowing. Shortly afterwards he fell dangerously ill of a sickness which carried him off in three days. Las Casas was much impressed by his Christian end and by the fact that before he died he had been moved to testify to the true condition of things in the Indies, than which no other act on his part could have been a better preparation for death.
The affairs of Las Casas were now well advanced and all seemed plain sailing ahead; he conferred with Diego Columbus, Admiral of the Indies, concerning the foundation of the forts he had undertaken to build along the coast at intervals of one hundred leagues from one another. These forts were to serve for defence and also as centres of trade to which the Indians would be attracted to bring their gold, pearls, and other things of value to be exchanged for the Spanish merchandise they prized—hawks'-bells, beads of coloured glass, and like trifles. The Admiral was in agreement with this project, until he consulted his brother Fernando Columbus, who suggested to him that he should ask from the King the administration of justice in the new settlements and their extensions. Las Casas opposed this project, but the Admiral followed his brother's counsel and presented his petition to the Council, where it was disallowed; the Admiral in consequence took no further interest in the plan and thus Las Casas was deprived of his valuable support.
CHAPTER XI. - ROYAL GRANT TO LAS CASAS. THE PEARL COAST. LAS CASAS IN HISPANIOLA. FORMATION OF A COMPANY.
As the date for the King's departure from Spain to assume the imperial dignity drew near the opposition to his leaving grew so strong that the question of stopping him by force, if necessary, was even mooted, and various parts of Spain were in a state of ferment bordering on civil war. Charles left Barcelona and proceeded through Aragon to Burgos and from thence to Coruña, where he had summoned the Córtes of Castile to assemble. This city had been chosen, partly because it was a convenient port of embarkation and partly, also, because the tide of opposition and hatred against the Flemish courtiers had reached such a height that they felt it wiser to keep to a seaport, from whence flight would be easier than from an inland town, in case their position became untenable after the King's departure.