Determined as he was to forestall a repetition in Peru of the exterminating cruelties perpetrated in the islands, he returned to Court in his Dominican habit, where he preached several times with great success. The gift of eloquence he had always possessed, and his eight years of study and meditation had furnished him with new weapons, which he wielded with the same fiery zeal that had characterised the first years of his apostolic championship. During the six months he remained in Spain, he obtained a royal cedula to be delivered to Pizarro and Almagro, positively prohibiting the enslavement of any of the natives of Peru for any reason, or in any manner whatsoever, as they were declared to be the free vassals of the King, and as much entitled to the possession of their liberty and property as were the natives of Castile itself. The obnoxious Bishop of Burgos had long since fallen into disgrace and was dead, so that Las Casas was free to carry on his negotiations with the India Council without encountering at every step the obstacles and delays his old enemy had formerly opposed to his projects.
During his absence in Spain, the first provincial chapter of the Dominicans had been held in Hispaniola, and on his return there he learned that the monastery of San Domingo in Mexico had been designated as the chief house of the province, with Fray Francisco de San Miguel as the first Prior. [pg 183] Las Casas, in company with other friars embarked with the new Prior for Mexico, his own destination being Peru, where he had not only to deliver the royal cedula he had secured, but also to found some convents in those regions. The friars in Mexico did not welcome their new Prior as cordially as they might have done, but Fray Bartholomew, ever ready to exercise his powers of universal peace-maker, smoothed the difficulties, after which he left for Peru early in 1532, accompanied by Fray Bernardino de Minaya and Fray Pedro de Angulo. [44] As their port of embarkation was Realejo in Nicaragua, they passed through Santiago de Guatemala where they lodged in the abandoned convent of San Domingo. As soon as the news of their arrival spread, the whole town came eagerly to see them; the enthusiasm of the inhabitants was somewhat dampened when they learned that Las Casas was one of the three, for he had earned a terrible fame amongst slave-dealing Spaniards and whenever he appeared, was apt to produce royal cedulas of embarrassing purport or, at least, to denounce and report to Spain the violence and cruelties commonly practised on the Indians.
The friars' stay at Santiago was brief, in spite of the urgent entreaties of the priest there, who begged them to remain and to reopen the deserted monastery, as the field for spiritual labours was a broad and uncultivated one. Fray Bartholomew was anxious, however, to reach his destination, knowing from past experiences how much easier it is to forestall an evil than to remedy a rooted abuse. He [pg 184] rightly judged that whatever good was to be accomplished by virtue of the royal cedula he carried, must be achieved before the conquerors of Peru had time to enslave the Indians and to establish a system similar to those that had worked such damage in the Islands and in Mexico. They were obliged to wait twenty-four days at Realejo until a ship which was to carry reinforcements and stores to Pizarro and Almagro was ready to sail; meanwhile the three monks, under the exterior guise of the gentle dove, were obliged to use some of the wisdom of the serpent and to carefully conceal the nature of their mission, for otherwise the ship-owners, whose chief article of commerce was slaves, would never have taken them on board.
Upon their arrival in Peru, Las Casas immediately communicated the purport of the cedula to the Spanish commanders. Both Almagro and Pizarro protested that they would obey the order to the letter, though it went sorely against their interests. They ordered the royal command to be solemnly published with the usual formalities and even added other penalties to those prescribed, for any violation of its provisions.
This part of his mission accomplished, it remained for Fray Bartholomew and his companions to take steps to found religious houses as their superior had ordered, but after consultation with the Bishop of those parts, Fray Vicente de Valverde, it was decided that such foundations would be premature, since the country was only half subdued and a continuous state of warfare still prevailed. Their [pg 185] return to Mexico was therefore agreed upon and, together with a number of Spaniards who were disappointed with their prospects in Peru, the three friars left for Panama whence they sailed for Realejo, where they arrived early in March of 1532.
The Bishop of Nicaragua, who at that time was Don Diego Alvarez Osorio, had been instructed by the Emperor to establish Dominican convents in his diocese, and the arrival of the friars afforded him the first opportunity that had presented itself to obey the royal commands. A convent was therefore established with the customary ceremonies at Leon, the seat of the Bishop, and was dedicated to St. Paul. The friars set themselves to work to learn the language of the natives, which was not difficult for Pedro de Angulo, since he already knew the Mexican tongue, whose similarity rendered intelligible communication with the Indians easy from the outset.
While engaged in the apostolic labour of teaching and converting the natives who were eager to become Christians, Las Casas received a letter from the licentiate Cerrato, who had succeeded the Bishop Don Sebastian de Fuenleal as President of the Audiencia in Hispaniola on the transference of the latter to Mexico, urging him to return forthwith, as his presence was necessary for the service of God and the Emperor. Money for the expenses of the journey accompanied this communication, the nature of which left its recipient no choice but to obey, so leaving the work of conversions that had so favourably begun to the care of the friars who had [pg 186] returned with him from Peru, Fray Bartholomew and Fray Pedro de Angulo set out on their long journey by way of Honduras, where a ship might be found either at the port of Trujillo or that of Caballos.
Upon his arrival at Santo Domingo, where he was cordially received by the President, Cerrato though his presence was never a source of tranquillity to the slave-dealing colonists, Las Casas learned that the principal reason for recalling him, was the President's desire to establish a surer peace with the cacique Enrique; although the latter had made no attack on the Spaniards since the agreement of 1529, he had not disbanded his followers, but remained in an inaccessible mountain fastness, a permanent source of unrest to the Spaniards with whom he showed no intention of entering into closer relations.
No mission could have been more to Fray Bartholomew's liking, for he was ever eager to prove the truth of his perpetual thesis that the Indians were reasonable, peaceable people who, if treated humanely would readily embrace civilisation and Christianity. Making his usual condition that no force should be used, and accompanied only by his faithful companion, Fray Pedro de Angulo, he set out for the mountain regions to search for Enrique. After several days of fatiguing wanderings he came upon the cacique, as well entrenched and with as many precautions against a possible attack or surprise as though he were engaged in active warfare instead of being at peace since four years. For some time, during which the two Dominicans remained as guests in the camp, no news of them [pg 187] reached Santo Domingo, so that the President and the colonists began to feel great uneasiness for their safety. Two months of absolute silence elapsed when, to the stupefaction of the colony, Las Casas appeared at the entrance of the Audiencia in company with the formidable cacique. During fourteen years this Indian chieftain had been the terror of the Islands, invincible and intractable; the triumph of Las Casas was correspondingly great when, by the force of his reasoning, he led him peacefully into the Spanish capital. Great was the ovation that greeted this signal success of the unpopular Dominican; the President fulfilled to the letter all the promises and assurances which Las Casas had given Enrique in the Emperor's name, so that from their most obstinate enemy, this cacique became the most loyal friend of the Spaniards. [45] Perhaps no accomplishment in his long life of great achievements and great disappointments afforded him more unalloyed pleasure than this pacific victory.
The centre of Fray Bartholomew's action was now transferred to Peru, where he was bent upon keeping a watchful eye on the execution of the royal commands for the protection of the Indians, which he had been instrumental in procuring. There, it seemed still possible to bar out slavery in all its forms, so he solicited the Dominican superiors in Hispaniola four friars to accompany him and found religious houses in Peru. Amongst these four was Fray Luis Cancer, whose name was destined [pg 188] to be written in the list of the proto-martyrs of the Catholic Church in America.