Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings Part 8

CHAPTER XIII. - PROFESSION OF LAS CASAS. THE CACIQUE ENRIQUE. JOURNEYS OF LAS CASAS. A PEACEFUL VICTORY

Although held in general detestation in Hispaniola, as a seditious mischief-maker and an enemy of the Spaniards' interests, there were not wanting some sympathisers who, when Las Casas arrived, dejected and bankrupt, at Santo Domingo, received him kindly, and even offered to lend him five thousand ducats with which to begin again.

The clear thinking and high resolution which had carried him through so many trials seemed at this time to fail him; nor indeed is there just cause for wonder, for there is a limit to human powers of endurance, and if ever a man was overtaken by a dark hour, Las Casas was he. In after years, he arraigned his own conduct at this period with undue severity, reflecting that as the Emperor was back in Spain with the Flemings, and his old friend Cardinal Adrian had become Pope, he might have accomplished his life's purpose of ending the sufferings of the Indians, had he only adopted the resolution of going directly to Spain. As it was, he wrote an extensive account to the Emperor of all that had occurred and the causes that had brought on the calamity at c.u.mana.

To the monks of the Dominican order, Las Casas had years since been united by the strong bonds of devotion to a common cause, which was the dominant influence, as it was the sole object, of his life. As they had accompanied and sustained him throughout his long struggle, so it was to them that he naturally turned for sympathy in the extremity of his disappointment, exiled, as he was, amidst the hostile colonists of Hispaniola. These were the saddest days of his tempestuous life, during which doubts began to penetrate his very soul-doubts of his own worthiness to carry on the mission to which he had believed himself called, doubts even as to whether it might not be ordained by the inscrutable wisdom of Divine Providence that the Indians should perish before the advance of the Spaniards. If this were true, then his life had been wasted in a vain conflict with the occult forces that govern the destiny of races.

While waiting for answers to the letters he had written to Spain, he found his only consolation in his intercourse with the Dominican friars, with whom in fact he had been for years closely united in spirit. Fray Domingo de Betanzos exercised a great influence upon him at this time, and to him is due the decision of Las Casas to enter the Dominican Order.

The discussions between the two must have been frequent and prolonged for, weary and disappointed as he was, Las Casas seems not to have yearned for the seclusion of the cloister. To his objection that he must await the King's reply to his letter before taking a decision, Betanzos answered, "Decide now father, for if you were to die meanwhile, who will receive the King's letters and orders?" These words sunk deep into his soul and from thence-forward he pondered seriously upon his vocation. Finally his mind was made up and he decided to imagine himself dead when the King's letter should arrive and so beyond the reach of royal commands. In 1522, he asked for the habit of the Order. (39) The news of his solemn profession, which took place in 1523, was received with great joy by the people outside the convent, though for very different reasons, for they a.s.sisted at his exit from the world and his entrance into the cloister with the same satisfaction with which they would have attended his funeral. While making his novitiate, the letters from the Cardinal (now Pope) Adrian and his Flemish friends at Court arrived. The Flemings urged his immediate return to Spain, promising him every a.s.sistance in their power, but the superiors of the monastery in Hispaniola did not deliver these disquieting epistles to their novice, for fear of shaking his resolution to persevere in his vocation.

The earliest biographer of Las Casas, Antonio de Remesal, says that he was chosen Prior of the monastery, and this statement is supported by a letter from the Auditors of Hispaniola dated June 7, 1533, addressed to Prince Philip who was governing Spain during the absence of the Emperor his father, in which Fray Bartholomew is mentioned as Prior of the Monastery of Santo Domingo in the town of Puerto de Plata. (40) In chapter 146 of his _Historia Apologetica_, he himself speaks of "conferring the habit" on a novice, which he could only do if he were Prior.

The first seven years that Las Casas pa.s.sed in the seclusion of his monastery were not marked by any salient incident. He devoted himself with all the intensity of his nature to the practice of the austere rule of St. Dominic and became, as he himself afterwards described in writing of that period of his life, as though dead to the world, so little part did he have in the course of events outside his cloister's walls. He gave much time to the study of theology, especially to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, the glory of the Dominican Order. These studies served to equip him with stores of canonical and philosophical learning which enabled him, when the time came, to sustain controversies with some of the most learned men in Europe.

In the second chapter of his _Historia Apologetica_ the following sentence occurs: "Three leagues to the west of the extremity of this plain is Puerto de Plata, and on a hill above and near by the town thus named there is a monastery of the Dominican Order, where the composition of this History was begun in the year 1527,-to be finished when and where the will of G.o.d may ordain."(41)

In 1529, he lent his efforts to bringing to an end the long standing rebellion of the cacique Enrique whose forces, in the mountains of Baranco, the Spaniards had fought at intervals during fourteen years in vain. This chief had been educated in the Franciscan convent at Vera Paz and was a man of unusual intelligence and superior courage; he married a beautiful Indian girl of good lineage and, with the Indians under his rule, was a.s.signed in repartimiento to a Spaniard named Valenzuela, who began by robbing him of a valuable mare and ended by taking from him his wife.

The cacique's protests were answered with a beating, and his complaints to the governor of St. Juan de la Maguana, one Pedro Vadillo, were disregarded.

This grievance led to an organised rebellion of the natives under Enrique, who a.s.sembled numerous forces. By constantly moving from place to place, he was able to elude the several Spanish expeditions sent against him.

The course of these alternate hostilities and negotiations to obtain the submission of Enrique, and the dispersal of his people, are described at length in chapters 125 and 126 of the _Historia General_. Even the intervention of Fray Remigio, one of the Franciscans who had come from Picardy to Hispaniola, and who had been one of Enrique's teachers in the convent, failed induce the offended cacique to surrender. News of the continued success of the rebellion reached Spain, and in 1527, Don Sebastian de Fuenleal was sent out as President of the Audiencia and Bishop of Santo Domingo, with special instructions to subdue Enrique. His efforts proved as fruitless as the preceding attempts, and in 1528 the King wrote still more urgently that the campaign must be brought to a successful issue. The Bishop-President, being in sore perplexity to devise means for satisfying the royal commands, showed this embarra.s.sing letter to Fray Bartholomew.

"My lord," said Las Casas, "how many times has your lordship and this Audiencia tried to subdue this man to the King's service by waging war against him."

"Many times," answered the Bishop, "almost every year a force has been organised and so it will go on till he dies or submits." "And how often,"

asks Las Casas, "have you tried to win him by peaceful means?" "I don't know that there was but the one time," answered Fuenleal. Fray Bartolomew then affirmed that he was confident that he could arrange a peace and, the Bishop-president having accepted his offer to act as amba.s.sador to Enrique, he fulfilled his mission as much to the astonishment as to the satisfaction of everybody.

The Spanish historian Quintana rejects the account of these events which is given by Remesal and has ever since been accepted by historians as authentic, declaring it to be fabulous, and limiting the part Las Casas played in the affair of Enrique to a visit he paid him after peace was concluded. Remesal bases his narrative on doc.u.ments which he declares he found in the archives of the Audiencia of Guatemala, and there seems no sufficient motive for doubting the veracity of the evidence. Las Casas, in describing what took place in the early part of the troubles with Enrique (1520), does not say positively that he took part in the first negotiations for peace, but he does clearly give it to be understood that the successful issue of the final efforts was owing to his intervention.

A detailed account of the conclusion of the rebellion would, according to the system adopted in writing his _History_, find its rightful place in the fourth book, which is missing, though there is little room for doubt that it was written and may possibly still be discovered.

Concerning the journey which-according to Remesal-Las Casas made to Spain in 1530, very little is known, and Quintana is as sceptical about this voyage as about the part attributed to him by some biographers in Enrique's subjugation, though there seems as little reason in this instance to doubt the explicit statement of one whose good faith is as far above suspicion as his opportunities for knowing the facts were exceptional.

Torquemada represents Fray Juan Zumarraga, the first Bishop of Mexico, as visiting Spain in 1532, and as having previously written asking that the colonists should be prohibited from enslaving the Indians, and that during that time identical representations had been made to the government by the Bishop of Chiapa, Don Bartolome de Las Casas, (42) which procured letters patent from the Empress-Regent signed in 1530, before the bishop of Mexico arrived. (43) The scepticism of Quintana seems hardly justified.

The occasion of the alleged journey was the recent discovery and conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. The fate of these millions of people, newly subjected to the Castilian crown could not have been a matter of indifference to Las Casas. They stood far higher in the scale of civilisation than the naked islanders, possessing as they did, as great an empire as the Mexicans, with religion, laws, and literature of a high order of development. While the entrance of Las Casas into a monastic order was, in one sense, a retirement from the world, he had chosen a community whose members were as devoted to the defence of the Indians as he himself was, and while he had, when still a secular priest, sustained a stout fight, unaided save by such friends as chance and his own efforts might here and there secure him, he could, after his profession, count upon the moral and active support of one of the most powerful religious organisations of the age. His retirement, therefore, proved to be a period of refreshment, during which he reinforced his powers for continuing his propaganda and, while losing nothing of his original enthusiasm and determination, he returned to the scene of his former activity with renewed courage and a great religious Order at his back.

Determined as he was to forestall a repet.i.tion 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 va.s.sals of the King, and as much ent.i.tled 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. 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 pa.s.sed 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 embarra.s.sing 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 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 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 G.o.d 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 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 princ.i.p.al 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 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 a.s.surances 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 to be written in the list of the proto-martyrs of the Catholic Church in America.

The President Cerrato, out of grat.i.tude to Las Casas, made all the provision for the return journey and the five friars set out, probably by the same road by which Las Casas had come. In 1534, he was in Nicaragua, where he left three of his companions in the convent of St. Paul at Santiago, while he and Fray Luis Cancer and Fray Pedro de Angulo continued on their way to Peru. Embarking at the port of Realejo on board a small vessel, they were overtaken by a furious storm and such continued bad weather that, after many days of misery and danger, the ship was obliged to put back, and they found themselves again at their port of embarkation.

Their journey to Peru being thus frustrated, the friars returned to their convent at Leon where, in the early days of 1534, a letter reached Las Casas from Don Francisco Marroquin, who had recently been appointed Bishop of Guatemala after the renunciation of Fray Domingo de Betanzos. His diocese was vast but its clergy consisted of himself and one priest, and in his letter he entreated Fray Bartholomew, since his journey to Peru had been abandoned and the diocese of Nicaragua was reasonably provided with priests, to come with his companions to Guatemala, where there was a great field open for apostolic work and no labourers to occupy it. Las Casas at once responded to this invitation and in Santiago de los Caballeros, the trio of Dominicans established their convent, being joined somewhat later by Fray Rodrigo de Ladrada who came thither from Peru.

The first essential was to learn the Guatemalan language in order to preach and catechise the Indians, and this was the more easily accomplished because the Bishop Marroquin was already master of it, and undertook their instruction. It was this same bishop who published in Mexico in 1556, a catechism of Christian Doctrine in the Utlateca tongue, commonly called Quiche, a little book which has become extremely rare and valuable.

CHAPTER XIV. - THE LAND OF WAR. BULL OF PAUL III. LAS CASAS IN SPAIN.

THE NEW LAWS

The next few years pa.s.sed in successful missionary work, without offering any events of particular interest in the life of Las Casas. During this period he composed his work, _De Unico modo vocationis_, in which he argued that Divine Providence had inst.i.tuted only one way of converting souls, viz., convince the intelligence by reasoning and win the heart by gentleness. (46) The ground principle of all his teaching was unalterably the same, and he eloquently insisted upon his doctrine of peace and kind treatment of the Indians, whom he never ceased to declare were reasonable people of unspoiled nature, who were to be converted by gentleness and justice-not by brutality and oppression. His theories provoked the same ridicule and opposition in Guatemala as elsewhere, though there was not the same bitterness of feeling towards him as existed in the Islands.

The heads of the Spanish colony in Guatemala even challenged him to put his theories into practice, saying that if he succeeded in subduing any tribes, they would admit that they had been unjust, and would abandon their opposition and liberate their slaves. This challenge Las Casas at once accepted, and selected for the field of his undertaking the mountains of the province of Tuzulatlan, inhabited by a warlike people, whom the Spaniards had never been able to conquer, partly on account of the difficult nature of the country, and partly on account of the skill and courage of the inhabitants in defending themselves. Besides the bare necessaries for his support, Las Casas only asked that the conditions expressed in the following agreement bearing the Governor's signature should be scrupulously observed. The act was thus worded:

"By these presents I promise and give my word in the name and on behalf of his Majesty and by the royal power which I hold that should you, or anyone of your religious here present, to wit, Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, Fray Rodrigo de Ladrada, and Fray Pedro de Angulo, by your efforts and care, bring any provinces or Indians of them, which may be all or partly within my jurisdiction which I exercise for his Majesty, to peaceably recognise his Majesty as sovereign and to pay a tribute according as their means and property may permit either of gold, if it exists in their country, or of cotton, maize, or any other product which they possess and use for trade amongst themselves, I will, by virtue of his Majesty's authority, recognise all such and their provinces in his Royal name and present them to his Majesty that they may serve him as his va.s.sals; nor will I give them to any one, nor shall they be given in encomienda to any Spaniard either now or at any time. I will command that no Spaniard shall molest them nor enter their country, under grave penalties, for a period of five years, that they may not disturb them or hinder your preaching and their conversion, unless I should myself go personally when it may seem good to you and when you may accompany me; for in this matter I desire to fulfil the will of G.o.d and of his Majesty and to aid you as far as I possibly can to win the natives of this province to the knowledge of G.o.d and the service of his Majesty, etc."

Provided with this official guarantee, the friars began to carefully study the best means for approaching the Indians of Tuzulatlan and after much reflection, they hit upon a plan as simple as it was ingenious. They composed couplets in the Quiche tongue, in which were recited the creation of the world and the story of Eden; man's fallen state and need of redemption; the birth and miracles of Our Lord and finally His death upon the Cross. These verses were very much after the style of the text of the miracle-plays which were so popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, and as they contained the entire epitome of the Christian religion, the Indians, by merely listening to the chanting of them, would catch the rhythm by ear, and the sense of the doctrines might be trusted to penetrate their understanding, once their attention had been secured.

Selecting four Christianised Indians who plied their trade as itinerant merchants between the country of Zacapula and the Quiche tribes, whom they thought qualified to play the part, the friars carefully taught them the verses. The Indian's memory is as tenacious as his faculty for learning by rote is quick, and as the rhymes were graceful and the subject matter both dramatic and mysterious, the four traders quickly learned to chant them in chorus, accompanied by several Indian musical instruments. Some time was necessarily consumed in these preparations and it was August of 1537 before the friars were ready to send forth their apostolic troubadours.

The news of their conditions and agreement with the governor reached Mexico, where the Bishop Marroquin had gone for his consecration, and met with approval both from the Dominican superiors there and the Governor of the Audiencia.

In addition to the usual stock of merchandise which the traders carried, Las Casas supplied them with a number of such Spanish trifles as most pleased the Indians and instructed them to go first to the house of the princ.i.p.al cacique (47) of the Quiche, who was a warlike chief of great authority, and to do nothing without first consulting him and receiving his approval. To ensure them a good welcome, some special presents adapted to his probable fancy were to be offered him.

The traders obeyed their instructions to the letter, and after offering their gifts, which delighted the cacique, they opened their wares to the public. Their Castilian merchandise added immensely to the attraction of their market and drew a larger number, between buyers and curious people, than usual. When the day's business was over, they called for some musical instruments-the templanaste-and taking out their own castanets and timbrels, they began to chant the couplets.

Such music had never before been heard in the Quiche land, but if the form attracted their attention, the words of the verses made a still deeper impression on the listeners, and most of all on the cacique himself. The next day, when the fair was over, he asked the traders to sing again the wonderful story and, as the news of the previous day's performance had spread amongst the people, a still larger crowd had a.s.sembled to listen.

When the singing had finished, the cacique asked the traders for explanations concerning the sense of their song but they, acting on Las Casas's instructions, replied that they only knew what they sang and to learn more he would have to send for certain friars who would be very glad to come and tell him everything concerning the mysteries of the verses.

This gave the traders an opportunity to describe the friars who, they said, wore white robes covered with black mantles and had their hair cut in the form of a crown around the head; they told of the extreme frugality of their lives, their severe penances, and that their only occupation was to instruct people, for they despised gold and were indifferent to personal possessions. The cacique marvelled not a little to hear of this new variety of Spaniard, so contrary in habits and manners to the others, of whom his knowledge had led him to form the poorest opinion. He conceived an earnest wish to see these strangers and arranged with the traders that his brother, a young man of twenty-two, should return with them to Santiago and see for himself if what they said was true. He charged his brother to observe carefully and secretly the ways of the friars and to learn all he could about them and meanwhile, in return for the gifts of Las Casas, he sent him a number of the most valuable things his country produced.

The anxiety of the friars during all this time as to the result of their first effort must have been keen, and hence the satisfaction with which they welcomed the return of the traders and their distinguished companion amounted to jubilation; still more was the significance of the present, though its actual value or usefulness to the recipients was probably small, but most important of all was the invitation from the cacique to visit his country.

While the young chieftain was busy observing the life of the convent and satisfying himself that the descriptions given by the traders were accurate, the friars had chosen Fray Luis Cancer(48) as their first envoy to his brother. Provided with more gifts for the cacique, he set out, the only Christian amidst the Indians who followed in the train of the Quiche chief, to penetrate into the unknown country, whose turbulent reputation had earned it the sombre name amongst the Spaniards of Tierra de Guerra-land of war,-for it was never at peace.