Las Casas: "The Apostle of the Indies"

								

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, Bartolomé'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
Bartolomé'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.
Bartolomé'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, Bartolomé 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."

CHAPTER II
A BIT OF HISTORY

When Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage, he left on the
island of Hispaniola, now called Haiti, a little colony of about forty
men.
On his second voyage he sailed first to this same place, arriving in
November, late at night. A salute was fired to let the settlers know
that their friends had returned, but no answer came, and it was feared
that something was wrong. Sure enough, when the voyagers went ashore in
the morning they found eleven dead bodies and no living men. The fort
had been destroyed and the tools and provisions were gone.
This was a sad welcome; all the sadder because it need not have happened
but for the evil doings of the colonists. After the departure of