Las Casas: "The Apostle of the Indies"

								

released at once, and recalled Bobadilla.
Nicholas de Ovando was now appointed to rule Hispaniola, and it was
with him that Las Casas went out, as we shall see in the next chapter.

CHAPTER III
A NEW WORLD

When Las Casas arrived in Hispaniola with Ovando, the new governor, they
were greeted by the news that a huge nugget of gold had been found,
weighing thirty-five pounds. It was shaped like a flat dish, and to
celebrate the discovery of such a treasure, a banquet was given and a
roast pig served up on this novel platter. The nugget was sent to Spain,
as a present to King Ferdinand, on the same ship as the infamous
Bobadilla, the deposed governor, but the ship was wrecked in a terrible
storm soon after leaving port, and both the nugget and the governor went
down into the depths of the ocean.
Las Casas and his companion also heard that there had been another
uprising of the Indians and that many had been captured and made slaves.
Queen Isabella had instructed Ovando that the Indians must be free, only
paying tribute, as all Spanish subjects did, and that they should be
recompensed for the work they did in the mines. The good Queen little
knew how far her officers were from treating them as she had commanded.
Las Casas does not seem to have felt any particular pity for the Indians
in the beginning. Like the rest of the adventurers, he had come to seek
his fortune in the New World, where there seemed such wonderful chances
to grow rich. He obtained from the governor an estate of his own, took
Indians as slaves, and sent some of them to work in the mines, though he
did not abuse nor overwork them, as others did. For eight years he not
only held Indians as slaves, but he was with Ovando during a second war
against the natives in one of the provinces of Hispaniola, and saw
terrible deeds of cruelty, yet never appears to have made a single
protest. This seems very strange when we think of what he said and did
against slavery a few years later, and how his whole after life was
spent in the service of these oppressed people. His eyes, however, were
not yet opened, and he looked at things after the fashion of his time.
Ovando was a good governor, Las Casas says, "but not for Indians." He
was a little, fair-haired man, gentle in manner, and most polite, but he
made everybody understand that he intended to be obeyed. When any
gentleman became troublesome, Ovando would invite him to dine with him,
talk so pleasantly and flatteringly to his guest that he would think the
governor must mean to do something very grand for him, and then,
suddenly pointing down the harbor, would ask in which of the ships lying
at anchor the gentleman would like to take passage for Spain. The poor
man, confused and alarmed, yet afraid to protest, would very likely say
that he had no money to pay his fare. Whereupon the very polite little
governor would at once tell him not to let that trouble him, as he,