Las Casas: "The Apostle of the Indies"

								


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LAS CASAS
"THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIES"
LAS CASAS
"The APOSTLE of the INDIES"
BY
ALICE J. KNIGHT
DEACONESS IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF AMERICA
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY

TO
MY FRIEND AND BISHOP,
THE RIGHT REVEREND
ROBERT LEWIS PADDOCK, D.D.

TABLE OF CONTENTS



                                           PAGE
FOREWORD                                     7
CHAPTER

      I BARTOLOMÉ THE YOUTH                  9



     II A BIT OF HISTORY                    14



    III A NEW WORLD                         18



     IV A NEW LIFE                          28



      V DISAPPOINTMENTS                     36



     VI THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR      42



    VII THE PEARL COAST                     48



   VIII THE CLOISTER                        59



     IX THE LAND OF WAR                     64



      X BISHOP OF CHIAPA                    72



     XI REVOLT IN CHIAPA                    83



    XII AT COURT                            95

FOREWORD

Early American history is full of interest and romance. Great figures
move across the scene. Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Alvarado,
Pizarro,--every schoolboy is familiar with their names and deeds. But
one man there is that stands out conspicuously among these heroes of
discovery and conquest, one not bent on fame and glory, not possessed of
that greed for gold that led to so much ruthless cruelty toward the
natives of the New World,--a man consumed with one burning desire: to
spend himself in the service of others, to protect and save the weak and
helpless. What he himself might suffer in the performance of this work
mattered not at all.
Strange that to so many even the name of this man is unknown! Yet for
more than fifty years no one either in all the New World or in Spain was
more prominently before the eyes of all than was Las Casas, the great
"Apostle of the Indies." Not only as a missionary, but as an historian,
a philanthropist, a man of business, a ruler in the Church, he towers
above even the notable men of that most remarkable time. His noble,
self-denying, heroic life, spent in untiring service to God and man, is
an inspiration and an example much needed in this materialistic,
money-getting, ease-loving age.

                                                       ALICE J. KNIGHT.

    HOOD RIVER, OREGON.

    June, 1917.

LAS CASAS

CHAPTER I
BARTOLOMÉ THE YOUTH

Whenever we hear of a famous man,--whether he be artist, author,
statesman, soldier, scientist, great traveler, or missionary,--we like